Just to put Mobile World Congress 2018 into perspective, here are 8 quick facts about the state of the communications and media industry today, and this year’s conference:

• Subscribers: 5.1 billion unique mobile subscribers globally – out of a world population of 7.6 billion
   
• Connections: 8.4 billion mobile connections worldwide
   
• Mobile internet subscribers: 4 billion people accessed the internet via mobile in 2017, expected to reach 4.7 billion in 2020.
   
• GDP contribution: The mobile ecosystem generated 4.4% of global GDP ($3.3 trillion) in 2016, a figure that will grow to $4.2 trillion in 2020
   
• Annual mobile revenues: $648 billion in developed markets, $403 billion in developing markets
   
• More than one million meetings will take place at MWC this week
   
• MWC participants will walk on average of 10 kilometers a day around the exhibition
   
• Over 1.5 million cups of coffee and water will be drunk over the four-day conference