5G, metaverse, future of networks… and the Ukrainian crisis. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also shaken up the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world telecom meeting that has been taking place since Monday in the Catalan capital. The 60,000 participants had been waiting for this “reunion” for a long time, following a 2021 edition which had attracted five times fewer people than usual and its outright cancellation in 2020 due to Covid-19. Nobody in the sector had bet on a war at the gates of Europe which today places telecom operators on high alert.
The GSMA, the organizing association representing telecom operators and the entire mobile ecosystem, was forced to take a stand immediately. The organization “strongly condemned” the invasion. The “telco” lobby even acknowledged that in this context, the Mobile World Congress “seemed unimportant”.