The lowest price for entry to the venue hosting the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona is 499 euros. Maja Weber, Director of Corporate Communications at T-Mobile, states that the full price, which covers participation in all professional gatherings and is paid by most participants, is around two thousand euros. Fortunately, entry is free for journalists who are accredited on time. For people in the telecommunications world, these prices are clearly not a problem. On the first day of the Congress in Barcelona, about fifteen thousand attendees appeared.
Is the more important role in the telecommunications world held by mobile device manufacturers or operators? My colleague Bojan Mušćet, who came to Barcelona in the same team organized by T-Mobile as I did, wisely answers that in this world, the most important are the users. They probably are. After all, it is the users on whom both operators and manufacturers earn. However, to avoid reducing mobile phones to mere telephony, they must be constantly innovated. From a technical standpoint, manufacturers have given their all. Operators have not fallen short either.
Thus, the GSM Association, in collaboration with MasterCard, has introduced a pilot program that will allow around 200 million international migrant workers to send money to their families via mobile phones. Many of these migrants do not even have a bank account, but this program will enable them to securely transfer money to their families. Led by a special group of 19 mobile operators, who operate in over 100 countries and represent more than 600 million users, the GSM Association believes that this program will double their user base and that by 2012, over one billion dollars will be transferred through it.
