GSMA Cancels the Mobile World Conference 2020 (MCW)

The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest telecom fair in Europe, is canceled because dozens of companies have announced that they will not travel to Barcelona due to the coronavirus. 

Despite precautions and a call for calm from the Spanish Ministry of Health, organizer GSMA has decided to cancel the event. The MWC attracts around 100,000 people annually. Smartphone makers, telecom manufacturers and providers, in particular, can usually be found at the trade fair. In addition, the exhibition is also about applications of new technology, such as 5G internet, virtual reality and self-driving cars.

Among others, Sony and LG, who normally use the stock market to show new smartphones to the present press and analysts, have canceled. In addition, European telecom manufacturers Ericsson and Nokia and their American competitor Cisco have withdrawn. After Huawei, the three companies are the world's largest suppliers of telecom equipment. CEO John Hoffman of organizer GSMA writes in a statement that the virus outbreak has made it "impossible" for the event to continue.

On Sunday, GSMA announced that the MWC would continue. Nevertheless, people from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the corona virus broke out, would not be welcome. Participants from other parts of China were told on Sunday that they had to prove that they had not been to China in the fourteen days before. Because the exhibition floor would open on February 24, Chinese visitors should have left the country by February 10 at the latest.