Tuesday between Mobile World Congress 2026three industry experts meet for a panel discussion smart glasses and augmented reality technology. But the fourth member of the team, who was based in Dubai, did not make it to the conference. Two days earlier, the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, and flights were grounded throughout the Middle East.
Even thousands of kilometers away in Barcelona, on the western edge of the Mediterranean Sea, the MWC was affected by the conflict. While the events and meetings at the largest mobile technology conference in the world continued as planned, although under the spotlight of the country’s major events, there was a notable absence.
Some booths stood empty, and some meetings scheduled for absentees were not held. Exhibitors walked the halls and saw the reduced presence of Middle Eastern companies.
While the controversy has only just begun as MWC unfolds, it has already affected attendees and changed the experience. While far from the war in the Middle East, the impact of the war was equally felt during the gathering.
Xpanceo’s booth in Hall 6 at MWC 2026. Samples that were supposed to be flown in from Dubai never arrived.
The financial, emotional and psychological costs of war on technology
The fourth panelist on Tuesday’s panel was supposed to be Roman Axelrod, founder of Xpanceo, who may have discussed the smart contact lenses the company intends to showcase in prototype form at MWC. But neither Axelrod nor the samples ever left Dubai, where the company is based. Attendees walking around Xpanceo’s booth were greeted by staff who had flown in from elsewhere and apologized for simply making video demonstrations of the technology samples that were supposed to be on display.
I had already planned to interview Valentyn S. Volkov, founder and CTO of Xpanceo, who also didn’t make it to MWC. While the company is deliberately based in Dubai as a reliable and predictable place for business (and a central location, with many business locations within a 7-hour flight), the country is entering the airspace of the current conflict. As a result, businesses lose money, especially money spent on MWC opportunities.
“We have already lost, I would say, a significant amount of resources – physical, mental, scientific resources – simply because we could not get everyone to Barcelona. We could not get our prototypes to Barcelona as planned,” Volkov told me.
Fortunately, Volkov was in a good mood when I chatted with him via Zoom via laptop at Xpanceo’s place. He was safe, noting that local authorities in Dubai were providing “material security.”
Our conversation quickly turned to the smart contact lenses the company is working on, with plans to release working prototypes by the end of the year. As Volkov explained their potential capabilities, it sounded like the next evolution of smart glasses, like the Google Specs I saw at Google I/O last year, which provides head-up display information that is transmitted to a nearby phone, and even potential health data such as sugar level readings taken from the contact of the lens with the tears of the eye.
“Those beauties should have been seen for the first time [at MWC]and we put a lot of effort and resources into that. It’s really bad luck,” said Volkov.
Thanks to modern network technology, Volkov and I were able to have this virtual conversation — and luckily, the war didn’t affect him or the infrastructure where he was. But anyone can tell you the value of having more than one personal touch on small screens. What was lost in the cables because Volkov was not there to demonstrate the features and concepts of Xpanceo products through body language and gestures?
It’s not hard to imagine scaling that up to all the business deals and networking opportunities lost to those whose flights have been canceled and whose lives have been shut down by conflict in the Middle East. Some of those meetings may be switched to digital chats like mine, but MWC is a show about making new connections in person, seeing new devices and being informed about the latest technology trends across the mobile and telecommunications industries.
But I met some attendees who faced a different fate, who had flown out early from countries that are now in restricted airspace. They made it to MWC, but it’s too early to tell when they might fly home.
Some attendees and exhibitors still use the GSMA Doha Pavilion, a social meeting place for Middle Eastern technology companies, to work and meet.
Stopped at MWC, return unknown
I sat down with Said Saidi, the show’s promoter, and we talked between his calls to home. I couldn’t imagine the hardships he was facing with his family back in Dubai and I didn’t have a clear idea of when he would be able to join them again.
A resident of the United Arab Emirates for 19 years, Saidi is comforted by being able to talk to his family on the phone every few hours, saying he is safe. Apart from the noise made by the defense system and the drones from Iran, his reports from home said that everyone is living peacefully and there is no shortage of goods, and so far they are not under much pressure.
Saidi explained that this is against the false information being spread on social media that people are stuck in the UAE without a place to live. As he said, and reports have echoed, the government and hotels have provided free accommodation to travelers in need.
Sidii caught an early flight to Barcelona last Friday, but most other Middle Eastern traders usually fly on Sunday, he said. At the time, commercial flights from the region were largely suspended following the initial strikes by the US and Israel on Saturday morning. He said the impact of this suspension of air travel across the region is great. After going around the exhibition grounds twice, even when going to the first floor at the end of the convention center, attendance from the Middle East is “close to zero,” said Saidi.
When he arrived at MWC, many of the meetings Saidi was supposed to have with peers from other companies in the Middle East had to be canceled or held online. It’s a loss all around.
“In general, the main purpose of this exhibition is to show that we exist, we exist, and we meet new people and new businesses,” said Saidi. While executives may usually walk away from their meetings, at MWC, they can be met by anyone on the show floor. “This exhibition is always a good opportunity to meet people and do that handshake first and then build on it,” said Saidi.
In the first phase of MWC 2026, seven companies planned to attend MWC 2026 from the Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies, but only two had representatives who received flights to the exhibition.
Waiting for limbo to lift, but the impact is still there
In three days running around the MWC show floor, I tried to measure the extent of this absence. Nothing was more clear than in the first place, 4YFN, which was full of company representatives from all corners of the Earth — except for the strand representing the Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies. Only two booths were released out of what should have been seven, some startup representatives could not fly to the show.
Representatives who were there politely declined to comment on the story and were unsure when they would be able to fly back.
Saidi said. Although he insisted that his company was taking care of him, and that he felt completely at ease as long as his family was still safe in Dubai, he did not know when he would be able to return home.
“I don’t expect anything,” said Saidi. “For now, we can’t predict anything.”
From inside Dubai, during our interview, Xpanceo’s Volkov was very optimistic, very hopeful that the situation will stabilize during the week. But if it’s a long-term issue, he said his company will prepare for that, too. And the work continues remotely for now.
The battle is likely to have an impact on the mobile industry beyond MWC. Analysts revised their previously bleak forecast for expected phone sales in 2026 to a more pessimistic outlook, expecting a 13% annual decline. In particular, they blame the shortage of RAM, which is plaguing the tech industry as AI data centers increase memory.
But when I spoke with Jeronimo Francisco of the International Data Corporation, he noted that the regional tensions of the war with Iran contributed to that decline, at least in terms of disrupting supply chains, increasing the cost of oil and forcing companies to find ways to fix wartime problems.
“If there was no memory problem, instead of the market going down by 13% it would go down by 5 in the worst case, something like that,” said Francisco.
It was a sad time for the mobile phone industry. Even as the RAM shortage created by the AI industry is set to increase phone prices by 2026, MWC was full of company slogans including AI agents and other productive AI applications. Satellite companies have ushered in an era of increased connectivity beyond the scope of traditional cellular networks. Attending the show is an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the exciting trends that await phone owners in the coming months.
But even if MWC feels like it’s in a bombshell of surprising news and fervent predictions, sometimes the bubble is popped by global events that seriously disrupt lives. At CNET, we’ve rounded up many of the most interesting things we’ve found at the biggest phone show of the year — but even diving into the deep phone depths, it’s important to remember the human impact of the conflicts that travel thousands of miles to a conference center in a beach town in Catalonia.
