Telecoms lobby GSMA is to hold a board meeting tomorrow to discuss the possible cancelation of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, after several big-name withdrawals because of the COVID-19 outbreak, an industry source said on Tuesday.
MWC, scheduled to take place from Feb. 24 to 27, is the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, with companies spending millions on stands and hospitality to fill their order books.
The world event was put in jeopardy after the coronavirus outbreak prompted US technology and telecom heavyweights, such as Cisco Systems Inc, Sprint Corp and Facebook Inc, to pull out.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Facebook employees won’t be attending this year’s Mobile World Congress due to the evolving public health risks related to coronavirus,” Facebook said in a statement.
A number of companies — including AT&T Inc, Ericsson AB, Amazon.com Inc, Sony Corp, NTT Docomo Inc, LG Electronics Co, Intel Corp, Nvidia Corp and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) — had already dropped out of the four-day international conference that draws more than 100,000 visitors.
Adding to the concerns over the impact of the epidemic, the WHO on Tuesday warned of a global threat potentially worse than terrorism.
A cancelation of the event would be a big blow for Catalonia’s capital city.
The congress usually gives a US$500 million lift to the local economy as delegates throng to the trade fairgrounds, wine and dine contacts, and crisscross Barcelona by taxi.
In the event of a full cancelation of the conference, the financial liability for the organizers might depend on whether the Spanish government changes its health advice on COVID-19.
Spanish Minister of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare Salvador Illa on Tuesday told reporters that there is no public health reason for the event not to go ahead.
Illa added that additional health measures related to the MWC could be announced yesterday. GSMA did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Additional reporting by AP
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