New Delhi: Spanish authorities have given the green signal to conduct this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) as per plans in Barcelona from 28 June to 01 July. The decision was made after the authorities reviewed the health and safety plans put forward by the organizers for the upcoming event. 

Touted to be the biggest annual gathering in the telecom industry, MWC will be the first one of the first big technology conferences staged in Europe since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 edition of MWC was canceled due to the Covid scare, and this year, organizers have left no stones unturned by ensuring all safety measures to conduct the event. 

During the pre-pandemic times, MWC typically attracted around one lakh attendees every year where telecom companies showed off their latest products and executives met to carry out various deals. This year, the event will be conducted both physically and virtually, but in-person attendance will not be as high when compared to previous years. 

GSMA, the industry association that hosts the congress, revealed that 70 per cent of the roughly 600 speakers at the conference will be physically present at the event. However, several companies like Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, and Cisco have pulled out from attending the event in person citing pandemic scare, some of them have expressed their interest in attending the event virtually. 

"When we speak to the exhibitors, some are very hesitant, while some are saying we are not coming as we have a travel policy, and some are saying that we normally send 250 people, we are just going to send five. But, those five are the right people, it is the CEO, or the CTO, or the CFO," said GSMA director general Mats Granryd, Reuters reports.