This year's edition Mobile World Congress will be the first after Barcelona was officially declared the Mobile World Capital, and the organising city of this annual event until at least 2018. The MWC will start on February 27th with the motto “Redefining mobile”. More than 1,400 companies will be present and organisers expect to break last year’s records. There will also be three times more Catalan companies.
CaixaBank and Visa Europe will begin installing the system enabling “contactless payments” to be made throughout Barcelona. The system consists of paying for goods valued at less than €20 by passing a special credit card in front of a sensor, with no need of actually introducing the card anywhere or typing any code. The system will become fully operational to coincide with the Mobile World Congress, which starts on February 27th. Barcelona will be the first city in Europe where the contactless payment method can be used, ahead of London, which aims to have it ready for the Olympics this summer.
The Spanish telecommunications multinational commits to offering a 100 Mbps broadband wireless Internet connection throughout Barcelona city in 2012, which will multiply the current capacity by 14. 4G broadband is already offered in specific spots, such as trade fair venues, conference centres or at Barcelona Airport. However, its potential use throughout the city was one of the conditions for hosting the Mobile World Congress, which chose Barcelona as its organising city until 2018.
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The Catalan capital secures this global event despite competition from Paris, Milan and Munich. The economic impact for the entire period of 2013-2018 is estimated at a staggering 3459 million.
This year’s edition of the world’s leading congress on cell phone technology, which was celebrated in Barcelona for the 6th consecutive year, had 20% more visitors than in 2010. More than 60,000 people attended the congress.
International media focus on the world’s leading congress on mobile phone technology.
From this Monday to the coming Thursday, the Catalan capital is hosting the annual world’s most important cell phone technology event, the Mobile World Congress. About 55,000 people and 1,300 companies will attend the conference, which will generate more than 200 million euros of profit for the local economy. Barcelona needs to do its utmost best this year, as the host city from 2013 onwards is still not decided.
The Mobile World Congress will be held in the Catalan capital for the seventh time. It will take place between 14th and 17th of February and will bring have an economic impact of 200 million euros on the city. Visitors are predicted to occupy 30,000 hotel rooms, 25% higher than last year. However, Barcelona could lose the Mobile World Congress’ organisation contract as the current one ends and other cities put forward their candidature.