“In announcing the offers, the GSMA maintained that it stands by the decision to cancel this year’s MWC Barcelona, asserting that it was ‘the only option at the time, as has been made clear by subsequent events.'”

Having cancelled this year’s Mobile World Congress Barcelona over coronavirus concerns, the GSMA is already looking to next year’s event and beyond, and seeking to build goodwill among partners and clients with generous refund offers.

The cross-industry alliance has announced that all attendee tickets for this year’s cancelled event will be fully refunded. For clients, though, the deal gets better: those who spent up to £5,000 can either get a full refund, or they can opt for a credit of 125 percent spread over the next three years. That means they can get a 65 percent credit in 2021, a 35 percent credit in 2022, and a 25 percent credit in 2023.

Clients who spent more than £5,000 for this year’s cancelled event are being offered the same three-year credit deal, though if they choose the more immediate refund option, they can only recoup 50 percent of their fees, capped at £150,000.

The GSMA is also using the same rates from 2019 for 2021, as “a further gesture of goodwill” toward clients, according to a statement from the organization.

In announcing the offers, the GSMA maintained that it stands by the decision to cancel this year’s MWC Barcelona, asserting that it was “the only option at the time, as has been made clear by subsequent events.” But the organization was frank in framing its goodwill gestures as a means “to ensure a long-term relationship with the whole MWC ecosystem for the years to come”. It’s a recognition that the current pandemic will eventually come to an end, and the mobile tech industry’s long-term growth trend is more than likely to remain intact.