World's biggest mobile phone conference cancelled due to coronavirus fears

The organisers of world's biggest mobile phone conference have decided to cancel this year's world's top mobile fair due to the rapid spread of coronavirus. The decision comes after GSMA, recently held meeting to decide the fate of the event which was to commence from February 24th to 27. "The GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event," a statement said. It said the decision was made with "due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country," adding that host city parties understood the cancellation.

Hours before the meeting took place, Vodafone, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Britain's BT and Rakuten of Japan had pulled out, following in the footsteps of Intel, Facebook, Cisco and China's Vivo. The cancellaton of the event is said to cost the organisers with a cancellation bill of 100 million euros. The annual Barcelona - based congress normally draws more than 100,000 people including between 5,000 and 6,000 participants from China. The decision to cancel the event comes as a major blow to Barcelona. The trade show was forecast to bring in almost 500 million euros.