The Cellular Entire world Congress (MWC), the telecoms industry’s most significant annual gathering, will be held in Barcelona until eventually 2024, extending its present deal by one particular year, the GSMA association that hosts the congress explained on Wednesday.

“By extending through 2024, we are demonstrating our dedication to our ecosystem as effectively as the host town get-togethers,” GSMA’s CEO John Hoffman claimed in a statement. “We are pleased to report that we have experienced huge guidance and early dedication with lots of exhibitors for foreseeable future editions.”

The MWC, which attracts extra than 100,000 people today to Barcelona, grew to become one of the first company casualties of the coronavirus pandemic when this year’s event was cancelled in February despite assurances from community and national wellbeing officers that it would have been risk-free to keep it.

The one particular-12 months extension is similar to the 2020 gathering’s cancellation and is unrelated to probable negotiations on a new deal for the MWC to be held in the Spanish city further than 2024, a Catalan regional authorities source explained to Reuters.

Immediately after the cancellation, the Catalan regional government’s leading financial formal, Pere Aragones, identified as for a more powerful alliance among the GSMA and the region, introducing that a way to do it would be for the organisers to prolong the MWC presence in Barcelona over and above 2023, when the deal ended.