Last checked at 
* GSMA board debates whether to scratch top telecoms event
* Spanish health officials see no reason to cancel
We are monitoring fast-paced coronavirus situation - GSMA
* European operators, key backers of event pull out
(Updates with Spanish health officials, WHO, insurance expert)
By Isla Binnie, Mathieu Rosemain and Douglas Busvine
MADRID/PARIS/BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Organisers of the
Mobile World Congress (MWC) agonized on Wednesday over whether
to cancel or press ahead with a smaller version of the event
after major European telecom companies pulled out over the
coronavirus outbreak.
The GSMA telecoms association that hosts the Barcelona
get-together faced a dilemma after local health authorities said
they saw no reason to cancel the Feb. 24-27 event, the biggest
on the industry's annual calendar.
Several sources said the GSMA's board, consisting of 25
industry bosses, was holding a 'virtual' meeting to consider its
options. Two sources familiar with the matter said no final
decision had been reached on what to do.
Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, BT and
Nokia said earlier they would not be attending. A
source said Orange was set to join them, although the
French company said it had not taken any final decision.
The MWC draws more than 100,000 visitors to Barcelona and
gives a lift of half a billion dollars to the local economy, the
GSMA estimates. With big-name withdrawals from Europe coming on
top of those from the United States, Japan and South Korea, the
event risks being a shadow of its normal self.
The Chinese contingent at MWC has numbered 5,000-6,000 in
recent years, making the event particularly vulnerable given the
outbreak of the virus that has killed more than 1,100 people on
the Chinese mainland.
In its latest statement, the GSMA said it was monitoring the
"fast-changing situation" around the coronavirus while working
with the Spanish and global health authorities to ensure the
wellbeing of attendees.
PREACHING CALM
Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau said on Wednesday she wanted to
send a "message of calm", insisting the city was ready to host
the event. Health Minister Salvador Illa said the government's
goal was protecting people's health, but that it would take
additional measures if necessary.
The World Health Organisation, the UN agency leading the
coronavirus crisis response, also urged calm.
"There is no evidence at present to suggest that there is
community spread outside China, so WHO is not currently
requesting that large gatherings are cancelled," WHO spokesman
Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters in Geneva.
That failed, however, to alleviate concerns among major
exhibitors that the precautions would be insufficient to halt
the virus that has spread beyond China's borders to two dozen
countries.
"To bring people together and connect them: That is what
Telekom stands for. This is also what the Mobile World Congress,
the 'class reunion' of our industry, stands for," Deutsche
Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges posted on LinkedIn.
He added, however, that large gatherings of people with many
international guests posed a particular risk: "To take this risk
would be irresponsible."
ON THE HOOK
The fate of this year's MWC may hinge on the terms under
which any events insurance taken out by the GSMA would pay out.
This would be unlikely to kick in unless restrictions are
imposed on public gatherings in the country on health grounds,
insurance experts say.
"Where there is no ban and businesses make their own
commercial decision, I cannot see the market paying out," said
Edel Ryan, who is on the Special Risks team at broker Marsh JLT
Specialty.
Major Chinese exhibitors, led by Huawei, have stuck
to plans to attend, ordering at-risk staff to isolate themselves
in advance and drafting in replacements from elsewhere to run
event stands and host clients.
The GSMA had banned attendees from China's Hubei province,
where the coronavirus outbreak began, and required others to
prove that they had been outside the country for at least two
weeks prior to the event.
Coronavirus has proved to be contagious even when people who
have caught it are asymptomatic, meaning that people attending
might not even realise that they could infect others they meet
at MWC.
Tracking the meetings and movements across the Fira trade
grounds and the city of Barcelona of anyone who later tests
positive would be a difficult task.
(Writing by Douglas Busvine; Additional reporting by Supantha
Mukherjee, Joan Faus, Can Sezer, Tarmo Virki, Stephanie Nebehay,
Carolyn Cohn and Noor Zainab Hussein; editing by Keith Weir and
Elaine Hardcastle)
