Mobile congress opens in Spain with tight virus rules

Attendees make their way through an exhibition hall on the opening day of the MWC Barcelona at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, June 28, 2021. MWC Barcelona, which in 2019 attracted 109,000 attendees from 198 countries, was one of the first major European conference casualties due to the pandemic when it was axed in February last year. — Bloomberg

BARCELONA: A scaled-back version of the world’s biggest mobile telecommunications fair got underway Monday in Spain under tight virus controls, with top firms avoiding an in-person presence after the pandemic derailed last year’s edition.

Spain’s King Felipe V and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were on hand for the opening of the four-day Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, one of the first big technology conferences staged in Europe since the start of the pandemic.