The suspension of the Mobile World Congress in 2020 was the first warning of the seriousness of the pandemic that was upon us. At that time, few people still believed that the Wuhan coronavirus, as it was known at the time, could cause the almost total shutdown of the world and a death toll that, according to Johns Hopkins University, now stands at 3.9 million people, with 180 million cases of infection recorded. If there have been no more deaths, it is thanks to advances in medicine, which have managed to reduce the sinister list, but in any case it has been enough to provoke a shock that had not been seen for decades

"It's a very dark day, very disappointing. But we know the sun will shine". Almost a year and a half ago, John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA, lived one of the most complicated moments of his professional career. Visibly moved, he announced the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress due to the growing threat of the pandemic. With a much more animated look on his face, he returns to Barcelona to inaugurate a half-hearted edition of the event on Monday.

John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA, the organiser of the Mobile World Congress, confirmed on Thursday that this year's Mobile World Congress will be held in Barcelona from 28 June to 1 July.

Facebook will not participate in this year's Mobile World Congress either. Mark Zuckerberg's company has confirmed that it will not attend the Barcelona congress, scheduled from June 28 to July 1, because its risk prevention and health protection policy advises against attending face-to-face fairs until after June due to the pandemic. Even so, Facebook plans to explore the option of participating virtually in the fair, ACN has reported. The confirmation that Facebook will not be in Barcelona physically comes after Ericsson, Sony and Nokia also confirmed they would not.

The Swedish multinational telecommunications company Ericsson will not participate in the 2021 edition of the Mobile World Congress, which is to be held in Barcelona between June 28 and July 1 of this year, as advanced by specialised medium LightReading and confirmed to ARA the company.