MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual

trade show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and cu ...

organised by

GSMA The GSM Association (commonly referred to as 'the GSMA' or ''Global System for Mobile Communications'', originally ''Groupe Spécial Mobile'') is an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More ...

, dedicated primarily to the

mobile communications Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

industry. The event is held in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, Spain at the

Fira de Barcelona Fira de Barcelona is Barcelona’s trade fair institution. Every year, it organises numerous trade shows and congresses. Information of interest It hosts over 150 trade shows, congresses and corporate events per year with 30,000 exhibitors, both ...

Gran Via, usually in February or early-March. It is attended primarily by device manufacturers, network equipment providers, representatives of

wireless carrier A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sell ...

s, and the press, among others. Its annual attendance is generally around 100,000 people, while

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

manufacturers often use the conference to unveil upcoming devices. GSMA has extended the MWC brand to two other trade shows in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China (MWC Shanghai) and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, United States (MWC Las Vegas, formerly MWC Los Angeles), but the brand remains most synonymous with the Barcelona event.

History

3GSM World Congress 2003 (Cannes, France)

The name of the event has evolved over the years. The event's origin traces back to a business conference on "Pan Europe Digital Cellular Radio" (the original working name of the GSM mobile system) held in Brussels in 1987. The name "GSM World Congress" was first used in 1990 when the event was held in Rome. For the next few years, the event moved to a new city each time, passing through

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, Berlin, Lisbon, Athens, and Madrid, before setting in 1996 in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

. The event was held in Cannes for ten consecutive years, with the name evolving to 3GSM World Congress from 2003. In 2006, the event moved to Barcelona, held at the Fira de Barcelona Montjuïc. In 2008 the GSM Association, which had been formed in 1996 and had taken an increasing interest in the event, completed the purchase of the show with the name changing to Mobile World Congress for the first time. The GSMA endorsed the International Mobile Gaming Awards in 2008, which were held at the event from then until 2012. In 2011, GSMA announced a long-term deal to continue hosting the event in Barcelona through 2023. Starting in 2013, Mobile World Congress has been held at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via. In February 2020, a large number of vendors announced plans to withdraw from the then-upcoming show, tentatively scheduled for 24–27 February, due to concerns over the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

(which are magnified by the strong Chinese presence in the telecom industry). This included major vendors and operators such as

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

, LG,

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...

, Vivo, and

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

. On 11 February 2020, it was reported that GSMA was considering cancelling the event entirely; health measures were already to be instituted, including a requirement for Chinese attendees to undergo a two-week quarantine prior to the event, as well as body temperature checks of attendees. Chinese vendor

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

, as well as

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

, announced plans to remain with a reduced presence, with Huawei primarily sending its European executives only. On 12 February 2020, GSMA CEO John Hoffman announced that MWC 2020 had been cancelled, stating that the event had become "impossible" to host under these conditions. In April 2020, it was announced that Barcelona will continue hosting the event until 2024 as a consequence of cancellation of MWC 2020. On 23 September 2020, due to continuous threat that COVID-19 will affect the 2021 event, the GSMA announced that is postponing the Mobile World Congress Barcelona to the last week of June. As of 17 March 2021, GSMA states the 2021 edition will still proceed with a controlled maximum attendees of 50,000. So far, at least 10 large exhibitors have announced their withdrawal including

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

. BT was the first Tier 1 telco to announce their withdrawal. In 2022, from 28 February to 3 March, The Mobile World Congress is scheduled. The mobile technology convention is currently anticipating over 1,800 attendees and exhibitors from 183 countries. All participants must have a PCR test or vaccination certificate to take part in congress.

International editions

In 2015, GSMA's Mobile Asia Expo was renamed Mobile World Congress

. In 2016, CTIA announced a partnership with GSMA to replace its annual Super Mobility trade show for the U.S. wireless industry with Mobile World Congress Americas, beginning 2017. The event was first held in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

for 2018.

Gallery

File:mobile world congress 09.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009, held in Fira de Barcelona Montjuïc File:Samsung's Virtual Reality MWC 2016 Press Conference (26666393696).jpg,

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts ...

during Mobile World Congress 2016 File:ShaneSmith2017.jpg, Shane Smith of

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); V ...

during Mobile World Congress 2017 File:MWC 2019 (46487932494).jpg, Exhibition floor of MWC Barcelona 2019 File:MWC 2019 (40254120163).jpg, Demonstration of a female humanoid during MWC Barcelona 2019 File:Sánchez asiste a la inauguración del Mobile World Congress 06.jpg, Opening of MWC Barcelona 2019 File:MWC21 - 18.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2021 File:MWC21 - 25.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2021 File:MWC21 - 33.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2021 File:MWC21 - 42.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2021 File:MWC21 - 56.jpg, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2021

References

External links

* {{Official website, mwcbarcelona.com 1987 establishments in Spain Recurring events established in 1987 Telecommunication conferences Telecommunications organizations Tourist attractions in Barcelona Trade fairs in Spain Wireless