The 21st annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) has just kicked off in Barcelona. The event has a special theme this year looking at the next four years of mobile tech.

More than 90 000 people are expected to visit MWC 2016 this year. The congress runs from February 22nd to the 25th. There will be dozens upon dozens of talks and panels covering all things mobile. Amongst the topics are the future of the SIM card, keynotes about mobile commerce, mobile innovations, mobile multimedia and much more.

Big names like Mark Zuckerberg will also take part in MWC. At the end of Day 1, Zuckerberg will close the talks with a keynote. Tomorrow even more topics will ensue covering mobile payments, mobile development, Big Data, security and much more. Digital skills and training also have their well deserved spot at the event. There will be hackathons, developer talks and more. Training companies are also present to show off their latest courses and projects.

This year everything should come together at MWC. The mobile segment is entering a new phase. Smartphones makers are trying to reinvent the devices. Telecoms are preparing for the next billion new users. Online service companies are racing to get their offers ready. Almost three-quarters of the world’s population will be connected to a mobile network by 2020, according to the latest study from GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the GSMA.

The new study indicates that an additional one billion people will become mobile subscribers over the next five years, bringing the total to 5.6 billion – equivalent to 72 per cent of the expected global population by this point. The need for mobile operators to unlock new growth opportunities in areas such as 5G, M2M and the Internet of Things grows bigger by the day.

CourseDot is also at MWC. You can follow our Facebook page for a photo tour of the huge venue. Also stay tuned for more updates!