Mobile World Congress: The Huawei issue hangs over mobile industry show

The mobile industry’s biggest show is shaping up to be a proxy for a U.S.-China battle over the future of Huawei Technologies Co., putting telecom executives in an awkward position.

Huawei and the U.S. government are bolstering their presence at MWC Barcelona, formerly called Mobile World Congress, setting the scene for a showdown next week as both sides try to win over politicians and company leaders. Telecom executives will come together at a Sunday meeting of global industry group GSMA to discuss ways out of the stalemate that’s expected to disrupt deal-making in Barcelona and could delay 5G in Europe.

“Mobile World Congress has always been about commercial deals and things like 5G use cases, and now executives are dragged into this political food fight,’’ said Paul Triolo, a technology analyst at Eurasia Group. “It’s putting a damper on the conference — things won’t move forward as quickly until it’s clear how Europe will handle the Huawei issue.”