After a hiatus in the first year of the pandemic, and a reduced version last year, the MWC (Mobile World Congress) returns to Barcelona between February 28 and March 3.
It is one of the largest and most important technology events in the world, focused on the telecommunications sector.
The event will require the use of masks and other safety measures at a time when Covid cases in Catalonia (the Spanish region where Barcelona is located) are at a low, after a jump caused by the ômicron variant. According to the Reuters news agency, around 50,000 in-person participants are expected.
The event has been taking place since 1987 and, in its last edition before the pandemic (2019), brought together 109,000 people, according to the organization. After the withdrawal of large companies such as Amazon, Sony and LG, it was canceled in 2020.
In 2021, the GSMA, the entity that brings together the telecoms and organizes the MWC, chose to make smaller versions of the event in a hybrid model, online and in person. In Barcelona, ​​around 20 thousand people participated, says the organizer.
According to the GSMA, the expectation for this year is that 85% of the exhibition spaces will be occupied and that people from 150 countries will attend.
The scale can be compared to CES, a technology fair aimed at consumer products, held in December in Las Vegas (USA). The event received 40 thousand people.
Neither the local authorities nor the organization of the fair, however, released figures that allow analyzing the impact of the face-to-face event on the spread of Covid. According to Reuters, 70 people from South Korea who attended CES tested positive afterwards.
Sought by the report to explain what it expected from the health impacts of the event, the GSMA did not respond.
As a safety measure, participants must present a certificate of vaccination or recovery from Covid, or tests carried out up to 72 hours before access to the event. In addition, everyone must wear a PFF2 mask on site.
Participants will be entitled to insurance that will cover any expenses related to an infection, such as hotel payments for isolation and medical expenses.
DISCUSSIONS
In this edition, the main topic under discussion during the MWC will be the metaverse.
The word came into fashion in tec discussions last year and is on the lips of all the big companies in the sector, largely driven by Facebook (which is now called “Meta” in allusion to the metaverse).
It is a new way of consuming digital content and interacting with the internet. Instead of looking at a screen, things are also seen by virtual reality and augmented reality – creating a kind of virtual universe.
Some of these ideas already exist, but the industry has all bets on the growth of this type of technology.
As it could not be different at a telephony event, 5G will be one of the main themes. Discussions about its successor, 6G, begin to surface.
The fifth generation of mobile network connections is also closely related to the metaverse theme: due to its higher speeds and greater number of devices connected simultaneously, the necessary infrastructure will pass to make the visions of technology companies come true.
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