MWC 2020 is cancelled out of concern over coronavirus

• February 12, 2020

MWC 2020 has officially been cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.

The announcement comes as no surprise after a raft of companies withdrew from the event over the past couple of weeks, leaving some sizable gaps in the show’s exhibitor list.

The viral outbreak has made Mobile World Congress “impossible” to hold, the CEO of the GSMA – the organization behind the show – told Bloomberg:

JUST IN: The 2020 Mobile World Congress has been canceled by GSMA because of #coronavirus fears.In an emailed statement, John Hoffman, the CEO of GSMA, said the outbreak has made it “impossible” to hold the event #MWC2020 pic.twitter.com/PS1BqTCzU8February 12, 2020

LG was the first company to officially withdraw from MWC back on February 4, and a raft of firms followed as they looked to protect staff, customers, attendees and media from the potential spread of the Novel Coronavirus.

While more than 30 companies withdrew from the show prior to the GSMA’s ruling, there were still plenty of exhibitors who hadn’t pulled out. 

Some – such as Huawei and Xiaomi – even went as far as to re-confirm their attendance at the show, while others (such as TCL and ZTE) cancelled their press conferences but said they’d still have booths at MWC 2020. 

As telecoms and US carriers like AT&T also publicly announced they wouldn’t be coming, the industry started wondering if the event would be held at all, even as the GSMA maintained as recently as last week that the show would go on.

The decision to cancel the show isn’t surprising, as the GSMA has little choice but to pull the plug on the show or let it run as a ghost town with few of the banner attendees that typically announce flagship products. 

Before the GSMA’s official cancellation of MWC 2020 on February 12, the following companies were among those who had already withdrawn from the show.

• Amazon
• Amdocs
• AT&T
• BT
• Cisco
• Deutsche Telekom
• Ericsson
• Facebook
• HMD Global
• Intel
• LG
• McAfee
• MediaTek
• Nokia
• NTT Docomo
• Nvidia
• Orange
• Rakuten
• Royole
• Sony
• Sprint
• Vivo
• Vodafone
• Western Digital

Via The Verge

Developing…

Before the GSMA’s official cancellation of MWC 2020 on February 12, the following companies were among those who had already withdrawn from the show.

• Amazon
• Amdocs
• AT&T
• BT
• Cisco
• Deutsche Telekom
• Ericsson
• Facebook
• HMD Global
• Intel
• LG
• McAfee
• MediaTek
• Nokia
• NTT Docomo
• Nvidia
• Orange
• Rakuten
• Royole
• Sony
• Sprint
• Vivo
• Vodafone
• Western Digital

Source

MWC 2020 has officially been cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus. The announcement comes as no surprise after a raft of companies withdrew from the event over the past couple of weeks, leaving some sizable gaps in the show’s exhibitor list. The viral outbreak has made Mobile World Congress…