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Largest mobile exhibition canceled after 44 companies refused to participate

The MWC Barcelona 2020 mobile technology exhibition has been canceled due to the risk of the spread of coronavirus, informs Reuters, citing the organizer of the exhibition – GSMA. Since February 4, leading telecommunication and IT companies refused to participate in the MWC, noting the epidemiological risks. By February 11, the list of companies that changed their plans reached 44 (according to estimates TechCrunch), including – Facebook, Nokia, Ericsson and Amazon.

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GSMA CEO John Hoffman said concern about the spread of the virus “makes it impossible to host an event.” On the eve of the decision, GSMA representatives in negotiations with the authorities of the province of Catalonia insisted that they declare a state of emergency, sources in the GSMA told Wired. This would allow GSMA to offset the costs of setting up the MWC through an insurance company.

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MWC Barcelona – the key in a series of exhibitions MWC (formerly – Mobile World Congress). In 2020, the exhibition in Barcelona was supposed to be held from February 24 to February 27, the expected attendance was estimated at 100,000 people. The cancellation of the exhibition has no precedent in the 33-year history of Mobile World Congress, Bloomberg noted a few hours before the publication of the final decision. Wired noted that despite the risks of coronavirus, representatives from Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and Motorola were supposed to arrive at the exhibition.

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COVID-2019 disease, caused by a new type of coronavirus, affected more than 43,000 people by February 11, according to the World Health Organization. The number of deaths caused by COVID-2019 exceeded 1000. Earlier in Russia, two cases of infection with coronavirus were detected, by February 12, both patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

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