A group of delegates to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will be offered the opportunity to pay with their phones. CaixaBank, Gemalto, Telefónica and Visa Europe have announced they will be offering 3,500 delegates at the conference a smartphone complete with a mobile wallet pre-loaded with €15 ($20). The delegates will be able to use the phones at the MWC's NRC Experience pavilion as well as pay for purchases throughout Barcelona.

The Mobile World Congress is the annual conference held in Bracelona by the GSMA, the wireless industry's international organization. The conference runs between Feb. 25 -28.

The mobile wallet app was developed by Telefónica Digital, the wireless carrier's interactive division. It will contain a virtual card issued by CaixaBank's prepaid subsidiary MoneytoPay and enabled to work through Visa's contactless technology. The phone is an Xperia smartphone from Sony Mobile Communications.  

The app will let make payments at contactless payment terminals around the conference veue but also at more than 16,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals rolled out by CaixaBank around Barcelona as well as 1,000 taxis, GSMA said.

"The GSMA is excited to launch the NFC Experience for Mobile World Congress 2013, as it provides attendees with the opportunity to experience first-hand the potential that NFC technology holds both throughout the Mobile World Congress venue and in Barcelona," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA. "We hope that all attendees will take the opportunity to experience the many benefits of NFC, from venue access to retail transactions to transport and much more."

For more on this topic, read about mobile/digital wallets.