The announcement follows an emergency meeting that took place earlier today. The gathering was originally scheduled to take place Friday, but the huge number of withdrawals over the coronavirus outbreak forced the GSMA to rethink its strategy.Event organizers cite concern for public health as the main reason for the cancelation, although it appears clear that the lack of participants has hugely impacted the decision. For those of you that aren’t aware, the likes of Sony, LG, Amazon, and Facebook have all canceled in recent days.

Massive telecom giants, which are arguably the backbone of MWC, have also pulled out. These include AT&T, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT Docomo, Nokia, and Ericsson.

The GSMA will now focus on MWC Shanghai and MWC Los Angeles, which are scheduled to take place later this year. The event will not return to Barcelona until February 2021, with the GSMA deciding to completely cancel rather than postpone this year’s gathering.