Intel, Vivo and NTT withdraw from Mobile World Congress

Intel, Vivo and NTT Docomo have joined the growing list of companies who have completely or partially withdrawn from this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Previously, Amazon, Ericsson, LG, Nvidia, Sony, TCL and ZTE said they will not attend (or will significantly scale down their presence) due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. 

Vivo, the latest to withdraw, said on Tuesday it has “decided to withdraw from our debut at MWC 2020 and other related events later this month in Barcelona, Spain.”

“The health and safety of our employees and the public are our top priority,” a Vivo spokesperson said via email. 

The company originally planned to announce its Apex 2020 concept phone at the MWC; now, it’ll be introduced “soon.”

Intel cited the “safety and wellbeing” of employees as its reasoning for completely withdrawing from the event, and NTT released a similar statement. 

Besides these major exhibitors, a number of smaller companies, including Accedian and Amdocs, have also confirmed to Mashable their withdrawal from this year’s MWC. 

The MWC 2020 takes place in Barcelona from February 24-27. It’s a major mobile technology and telecommunications event with a typical attendance of more than 100,000. But this year, the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far taken 1,016 lives and infected more than 43,000 people globally, has prompted numerous exhibitors and participants to withdraw from the event. 

MWC’s organizer, the GSMA, has introduced stringent measures to reduce the danger, including temperature screening, banning access to travelers from China’s Hubei province, and requiring all travelers who have been in China to demonstrate proof they have been outside of China for at least 14 days. At the time of writing, the event is officially still on.