Telecoms lobby GSMA is to hold a board meeting tomorrow to discuss the possible cancelation of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, after several big-name withdrawals because of the COVID-19 outbreak, an industry source said on Tuesday.
MWC, scheduled to take place from Feb. 24 to 27, is the telecom 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 prompted US technology and telecom heavyweights, such as Cisco Systems Inc, Sprint Corp and Facebook Inc, to pull out.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Facebook employees won’t be attending this year’s Mobile World Congress due to the evolving public health risks related to coronavirus,” Facebook said in a statement.
A number of companies — including AT&T Inc, Ericsson AB, Amazon.com Inc, Sony Corp, NTT Docomo Inc, LG Electronics Co, Intel Corp, Nvidia Corp and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) — had already dropped out of the four-day international conference that draws more than 100,000 visitors.
Adding to the concerns over the impact of the epidemic, the WHO on Tuesday warned of a global threat potentially worse than terrorism.
A cancelation of the event would be a big blow for Catalonia’s capital city.
The congress usually gives a US$500 million lift to the local economy as delegates throng to the trade fairgrounds, wine and dine contacts, and crisscross Barcelona by taxi.
In the event of a full cancelation of the conference, the financial liability for the organizers might depend on whether the Spanish government changes its health advice on COVID-19.
Spanish Minister of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare Salvador Illa on Tuesday told reporters that there is no public health reason for the event not to go ahead.
Illa added that additional health measures related to the MWC could be announced yesterday. GSMA did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Additional reporting by AP
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
RSS