The coronavirus (whose new official name is Covid-19) overcame the Mobile World Congress (MWC). This important trade fair for the mobile phone industry, scheduled to take place in Barcelon from February 24 to 27, has finally been canceled. The 2020 edition was then expected to welcome around 110,000 visitors and 2,800 companies from more than 180 countries.
It has been several days since the withdrawals multiplied on the side of the exhibitors. LG was the first company to withdraw from the MWC, followed in particular by Amazon, Facebook, AT&T, Sprint, Intel, Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Nokia (one of the three biggest stands at the show) and Sony. Defections which foreshadowed an official cancellation of the high mass of mobile telephony, despite the will of the organizers to maintain the event. Under pressure, they finally gave up to avoid any health crisis linked to the virus which, beyond the human victims, has a serious economic impact: the supply of computer equipment is in particular under pressure.
“Given the safe and healthy environment of Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA canceled MWC Barcelona 2020 because global concerns about the coronavirus epidemic, travel issues and other circumstances make the organization of the event is impossible, “explains the GSMA, the association which organizes the show and which brings together 750 operators and 40 companies active in mobile telephony.
Initially, the organizers had proposed new hygiene measures, such as the prohibition of any visitor who visited the province of Hubei (epicenter of the epidemic) or who went to China two weeks before the opening of the MWC. As for the calls for calm from the Spanish Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, who considered that “there were no public health reasons” justifying the cancellation of the event, they would not have succeeded in calming the spirits .
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