• USA Amazon also falls from the Mobile World Congress
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  • Measures: A mobile without handshakes to avoid contagion

Government, Generalitat de Catalunya and Barcelona City Council, the three Spanish public administrations that support the Mobile World Congress (MWC), try to curb the cancellations that the coronavirus is causing in this meeting, the main worldwide in the field of telecommunications

LG, Ericsson, Nvidia, Amazon and, since Monday, Sony, NTT Docomo, Odigimi, TCL Communication, Gigaset ... have already been unsubscribed ... According to sources consulted by THE WORLD, all these companies would already exceed 9,000 passes a total of 110,000 attendees planned in the forum. However, the absence of the professionals of a company does not entail the cancellation of all the holders of those passes, guests who could attend outside the company that has opened the doors for them.

The succession of casualties took special speed yesterday, a chain that the Spanish institutions tried to stop dry. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, Arancha González Laya, yesterday made a "call for calm" between companies, and recalled that the organizers, public and private, have taken the necessary measures to preserve the health of the attendees. Chinese assistance to Mobile, around 5% of the total, is estimated at more than 6,500 professionals.

The Town Hall of Ada Colau was added to this block to maintain the meeting: Jaume Collboni, deputy mayor of Barcelona, ​​said in the Being that "the suspension is not contemplated at all." Quim Torra, president of the Generalitat, said for his part that he has contacted the CEO of the GSMA , John Hoffman, to express his support for that organizing association. In addition, the Minister of Digital Policies and Public Administration of the Generalitat, Jordi Puigneró, stressed that the fear virus should be inoculated .

GSMA has prohibited the entry to the Fira of any professional from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the pandemic has broken out, and has also established a minimum period of 14 days without stepping on China to access the Mobile. Participants will also have to self-certify that they have not been in contact with someone who is infected with the coronavirus and will pass different health checks, such as measuring body temperature .

Chinese companies are reluctant to leave Mobile, although there are already exceptions like Odigimi's. The Government of that country insists that the coronavirus is not an exclusively Chinese problem, but a global one. Thus, the protagonists of the sector from the Asian giant maintain their assistance, as Xiaomi stressed on Monday , which "continues with its participation in the Mobile World Congress 2020" with monitoring of "all recommended measures."

Chinese manufacturers, especially Huawei, shape this international forum, which serves as a meeting point between Asian, European and American companies. California Apple prefers to concentrate its events in its own headquarters in Cupertino, so Chinese companies monopolize the most media presentations, with permission from South Korean Samsung. "We still have more than 2,800 exhibitors," they recalled from GSMA on Sunday, in a statement to reaffirm their commitment to the fair between February 24 and 27.

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  • Mobile World Congress
  • Sony
  • Quim Torra
  • Xiaomi
  • Arancha González Laya
  • Ada Colau
  • Barcelona
  • China

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