A man tries Oppo's augmented reality glasses during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Granryd was upbeat on the mobile industry's growth prospects. "The world will be more connected, the world will be safer, the world will be taking more care of the planet. We believe that by using mobile technologies we can reduce CO2 and carbon emissions by 11 gigatonnes by 2030."

China is a mass market, and its actors are very innovative, Mats Granryd, director general of GSMA, the organization that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, said in a recent exclusive interview.

Granryd talked to Xinhua during the 2022 Mobile World Congress (MWC) here, an event that is expected to attract between 40,000 and 60,000 visitors under the theme "Connectivity Unleashed." MWC 2022 runs until March 3.

Granryd highlighted the role China has played in rolling out 5G services, which "will be the enabling capacity for us to reach out to more businesses and enterprises," recalling the keynote speeches delivered at the congress by high-level managers of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, which all focused on their respective companies' plans to leverage 5G.

Granryd said the COVID-19 pandemic has "shown the importance of connectivity," which helped to "keep the world going" through two difficult years. The pandemic has shown how important it is for people to be able to remain in contact with each other, even though many nations have imposed strict lockdowns.

A person tries remote reality racing with Orange's 5G technology during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

"We're very proud of the fact that we have kept this world going in a way with all the team meetings and all working from home or everyone being online," he said.

Asked about the effects the pandemic could have on the global telecommunications sector, he said that although it "maybe a bit too early" to tell, a post-pandemic world would see "more flexible working arrangements" and it would be "more acceptable to work from home."

The tools that enable people to work from home "will be better," he predicted. However, he noted that despite the advances, "3.4 billion people are still not using mobile internet, and we as an industry and as a society need to address that."

Granryd was upbeat on the mobile industry's growth prospects. "The world will be more connected, the world will be safer, the world will be taking more care of the planet. We believe that by using mobile technologies we can reduce CO2 and carbon emissions by 11 gigatonnes by 2030."

A woman tries the "Metaverse" via VR technology during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2022.  (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

"The enabling effect of what we as mobile operators can contribute to society is huge. We will be more connected; we will be smarter. We're going to use more of artificial intelligence (AI), it's going help us make better decisions and we will be more efficient in the way we do things," he said.