In the US, the tech events that typically get the most attention are CES, Samsung Unpacked, Google I/O and pretty much any time Apple puts on a show. But there's also a major gathering in Barcelona each year that doesn't draw as many eyes on this side of the Atlantic, despite attracting more than 100,000 people over four days. It's Mobile World Congress, and it kicks off this week.
MWC is all about the telecommunications industry, which might sound dry if you don't work for a telecom company. But now that most people carry smartphones every day, we're all affected in some way by what happens at the event.
CNET has a full team of writers and editors in Barcelona looking for the products and technologies we'll be talking about for the next year and longer. Keep up with what they find by staying tuned to our MWC 2026 live blog.
Why should you care about MWC?
There's a good chance you're reading this on a smartphone, using technologies that debuted at MWC. Features shown in Barcelona over the last two decades are like the cerulean colors of the fashion world, introduced with fanfare and then widely disseminated into phones like the one in your hand. (This year marks 20 years of MWC in Barcelona, but the show existed in other forms back in the early 1990s.)
CNET's Tara Brown and Abrar Al-Heeti pose in front of an MWC sign in Barcelona in 2025. They're both back for MWC 2026. Tara Brown/CNET
As smartphones have become nearly ubiquitous in modern life, MWC has become the showcase and early public testing ground for the technologies running them. For example, major phone carriers have spent billions of dollars upgrading their networks to support 5G, and it started with early concept demos in 2015 that showed off faster, more responsive wireless communication. It wasn't until 2019 and 2020 that consumer phones with 5G arrived on the market.
This year, we expect to hear more about 6G (because this industry always needs more Gs), which has been in the works since at least 2019. In addition to faster data speeds, 6G is expected to plug us into an "always-sensing network."
Notable products introduced at MWC
Any big event is a showcase for companies to announce new products, and MWC has seen its fair share.
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