Barcelona, mobile world capital until 2023

Barcelona will hold its title as the host of the Mobile WORLD Congress until the year 2023,as signed with the GSMA, the association that represents the world´s main network providers, and that organizes this fair every year. The agreement has been celebrated with enthusiasm in the city.

GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) announced its decision to extend the contract that will hold Barcelona as the world´s mobile capital for another five years, announcement that was made on the 14th of July. The organization for mobile network operators and related companies, which works for the standardization and implementation of the GSM telephony system, grants a generous overtime for the Catalonian capital so that it can continue to act as host of this event, a title which would have expired in 2018.

 GSMA extends the contract to maintain Barcelona as a host for five more years

“We are pleased to announce that Barcelona will continue to be the Mobile World Capital, and the host for the Mobile World Congress, for the next eight years”, pointed out GSMA´s executive officer John Hoffman, who released the news about the agreement reached with their “partners in Barcelona”. “We are excited to continue expanding the success that we have reached during the last years”, state Hoffman.

Mobile World Congress celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, in a new edition that attracted over 94.000 visitors from over 200 different countries to the city, and that yielded a benefit of over 436 million euro for Barcelona.

A few hours after the announcement, the partners at Barcelona held a press conference at the city hall. The Mayor, Ada Colau, made the official statement thanking the preceding government and all of the people that were involved in the previous editions, stating that the extension of the contract was “great news indeed”, and celebrating the unanimous decision taken at GSMA´s headquarters in Shanghai. Colau strongly pointed out that, in her role as the city´s Mayor, she and her team would do “all in our power to ensure that the benefits yielded by MWC´s celebration reach all of the citizens”.

Josep Lluís Bonet, president of Barcelona´s Fira (the city´s largest venue), displayed its satisfaction in behalf of the Fira´s team and workforce. “We now have eight years to improve the organization of this event”, he said.