King Felipe inaugurates the World Mobile Congress in Spanish Barcelona

OVER 80,000 people are expected to attend the World Mobile Congress (WMC) in Barcelona over the next four days, after it was officially opened by King Felipe on Monday.

The event, which will remain in the Catalan capital until at least 2030, is the great international showcase for new technologies.

Although mobile phone devices are present, the WMC has evolved to present a wide range of smart connectivity devices at the Gran Vía venue within the Fira de Barcelona.

MWC is still reeling from the Covid pandemic, with the anticipated 80,000 visitors still down from 2019’s total of 109,000, largely due to fewer travelers from Asia.

Firms such as Huawei, Nokia and Samsung will show off their latest innovations, along with smartphone makers such as Oppo and Xiaomi and network operators such as Orange, Verizon and China Mobile.

“We are at the gates of a new change of era driven by the intersection of Telco, IT, Artificial Intelligence and Web3,” said José María Álvarez-Pallete, head of Telefónica and current president of industry body GSMA, which organizes the WMC.

He promised that the telecommunications industry would be at the forefront of the ‘innovation tsunami’, adding: “Without telcos there is no digital future.”

However, there are issues to contend with, as smartphone sales last year fell 11.3% compared to 2021, according to consultancy IDC.

Research firm Gartner predicts that sales of smartphones, tablets and computers will fall again by 4% this year.

Network operators are also scrambling to make 5G profitable, years after they spent billions in government auctions for the right to use the bandwidth.