PARIS — Telecoms lobby GSMA will hold a board meeting on Friday to discuss the possible cancellation of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona after several big-name withdrawals because of the coronavirus outbreak, an industry source said on Tuesday. MWC, scheduled to take place on Feb. 24-27, is the telecoms industry's biggest annual gathering, with companies spending millions on stands and hospitality to fill their order books. The world event was put in jeopardy after the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,000 people so far, mostly in mainland China, prompted U.S. technology and telecoms heavyweights such as Cisco Systems Inc, Sprint Corp and Facebook Inc to pull out. A number of companies ranging from Japan's NTT Docomo and Sony Corp to U.S. chipmakers Intel Corp and Nvidia had already dropped out of the four-day international telecoms conference that draws in more than 100,000 visitors.

Source: International New York Times February 11, 2020 18:22 UTC