Major European Telecom Groups Withdraw From MWC Barcelona
12 Febrero 2020 - 10:09AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Adria Calatayud, Kim Richters and Mauro Orru
BARCELONA--European telecommunications groups Deutsche Telekom
AG, Vodafone Group PLC and BT Group PLC have become the latest
companies to pull out of this year's Mobile World Congress, due to
be held in Barcelona later this month, due to concerns on the
coronavirus outbreak.
Nokia Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV earlier on Wednesday said
they wouldn't attend the event, joining a list of companies that
have canceled their participation which includes U.S. internet
giants Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., Japan's Sony Corp. and
Ericsson AB of Sweden among others.
"Deutsche Telekom has decided not to participate in the MWC this
year. This wasn't an easy decision for us. But the health of our
employees and of everyone who is our guest at MWC comes first," the
German company said Wednesday on Twitter.
Chief Executive Tim Hoettges added that because of the
continuing spread of the coronavirus "large crowds of people pose a
particular risk." He would "consider it irresponsible to take this
risk," he said.
Vodafone said it has also withdrawn from the trade show after
careful consideration, citing recent warnings from the World Health
Organization.
"While the potential risk is hard to quantify accurately at this
stage, we have taken this decision because we place the utmost
importance in the safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers
and partners," Vodafone said on Twitter.
A BT spokesperson said the U.K. company believed the most
responsible decision was to withdraw its participation from the
event to safeguard employees and customers.
France's Orange told Dow Jones Newswires it hasn't taken any
final decision on its MWC participation. Spain's Telefonica SA
didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of Sunday, GSMA--the industry association that organizes the
event--intended to go ahead with the MWC with additional health and
safety measures and reports in the local press indicated GSMA had
decided to stick to its plans after an emergency meeting held
Wednesday. GSMA didn't respond to a request for comment
Wednesday.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com; Kim
Richters at kim.richters@wsj.com and Mauro Orru at
mauro.orru@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2020 10:54 ET (15:54 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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