Carlos Cuffí, new director of 5GBarcelona at Mobile World Capital Barcelona and head of the National 5G Observatory

• 5GBarcelona aspires to transform the city into a European digital 5G hub

March 27, 2018

The current director of Digital Transformation for Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Carlos Cuffí, has taken over the management of the 5GBarcelona project from the Foundation. The initiative, promoted by the Regional Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Hall, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the i2CAT Foundation, the CTTC (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya), Atos and the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), will convert Barcelona into a European 5G open lab.

5GBarcelona already has several projects in the pipelines. In the healthcare sector, at the latest GSMA Mobile World Congress, MWCapital along with the Hospital Clínic and AIS Channel announced the development of a project that will allow real time remote-access surgery to be performed thanks to 5G technology. In industry, it disclosed its collaboration with ACCIONA and ORANGE in the development of industrial pilot projects applied to the construction sector, using 5G solutions in remotely operated machinery and robots for logistics applications at industrial plants.

Cuffí is also to become the head of the National 5G Observatory promoted by red.es and the Secretary of State for the Information Society and the Digital Agenda, beginning with the goal of promoting activities to encourage and develop projects in the 5G field and analysing the impact of case studies in different sectors. The Observatory, which is to have shared headquarters at the Foundation’s facilities in Barcelona and Madrid, will create studies and reports on this subject, promoting public-private collaboration and acting as a link with the research sector. Furthermore, training and education in 5G technologies will also be promoted at the centre through conferences and workshops.

Carlos Cuffí holds a degree in Telecommunications engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and an MBA from ESADE Business School. He has spent part of his career in areas of business consulting specialising in business finance, planning and strategy in companies such as everis, Accenture and Deloitte.