Joan Faust and Supantha Mokherjee

BARCELONA/STOCKHOLM /Reuters – No Russian booth will be present at the largest telecoms industry annual meeting. Additionally, a few Russian businesses will not be allowed to attend the event due to the sanctions imposed upon Russia in response the invasion of Ukraine.

John Hoffman (chief executive at GSMA), stated that although Moscow’s action was condemned by the Mobile World Congress organizers, they do not plan to cancel or delay the meeting in Barcelona between February 28th and March 3.

According to Hoffman, “As the present situation is we do not see the need nor requirement for that.” Hoffman acknowledged that the situation is constantly changing and will keep an eye on it.

Although he said that “a handful” of Russian companies would be expelled, and some executives, he did not identify them as the list was evolving.

“We follow the international sanctions, and some companies are on the list. Those will be prohibited from participating,” he stated. GSMA also said it would adhere to all other U.S. sanctions.

The conference organizers anticipate between 40,000 to 60,000 attendees, which makes it the largest in-person event since the outbreak of the pandemic. However, this number is still lower than 2019’s.

Hoffman stated that the number would likely be close to 60,000, and attendance would be high for top executives.

Constanti serrallonga, Fira de Barcelona’s general manager, said that there was a great build up to the event.

“We expect to see an edition almost as good or better than a pandemic.”

Tourism website Hosteltur reports that the Ukraine invasion did not cause any major hotel cancellations in Barcelona. However, there were some eastern European representatives.

Barcelona’s Nobu Hotel could open again after being closed for 2 years due to pandemic.

Laurence Dubey, manager of Mobile World Congress said that “we expect the Mobile World Congress will meet our expectations…we are setting the tone for Barcelona’s return”.