“After careful consideration and discussion, T-Mobile has made the difficult decision to significantly limit our in-person participation at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show,” the carrier announced Tuesday.
T-Mobile said it will continue to serve as a CES sponsor and title sponsor of the DRL Championship Race but “the vast majority of our team will not be traveling to Las Vegas.” In addition, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert will no longer deliver a keynote in-person or virtually; he had been scheduled to deliver a Jan. 5 keynote focused on 5G wireless services.
“I’m sorry we’ll miss seeing everyone at CES this year, but we are prioritizing the safety of our team and other attendees,” Sievert tweeted on Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, Amazon said it will “no longer have an on-site presence at CES,” citing “the quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the omicron variant.” Meta scrapped plans to exhibit at CES 2022, and Twitter and Pinterest said they will not send personnel to the show. In addition, iHeartRadio canceled its CES concert featuring Swedish House Mafia, which was scheduled to take place Jan. 6 at Area15.
CTA expects attendance to be down 50% or more from previous levels. CES 2020, the last time the convention was held in Las Vegas, drew 170,000 attendees. The trade group says it has taken every precaution to keep attendees safe.
“We are actively tracking the emerging news and science around the new omicron variant. We will continue to monitor and adjust our plans and health protocols as necessary,” CTA says in a message on the CES site.