The Mississippi legislature cleared $150 million for rural broadband, responding to COVID-19, with the Senate voting 52-0 Monday to concur with House amendments to SB-3046. The House voted 109-0 Sunday for the bill supported by Mississippi Public Service Commissioner and NARUC President Brandon Presley (see 2006260059). “In the past three days, the state flag has been changed and $150,000,000 in broadband funding has been approved,” the Democratic commissioner tweeted. “Not a bad few days for Mississippi’s future.” Gov. Tate Reeves (R) still must sign the bill; he didn’t comment Tuesday.
New Jersey legislators supported extending an emergency telehealth law and executive order until 90 days after the end of the COVID-19 crisis. The Assembly voted 73-0 Monday to send S-2467 to Gov. Phil Murphy (D), whose office declined comment Tuesday. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed an executive order Monday trimming a previous telehealth EO because the legislature had codified some parts of it.
Global shipments of smartphone battery cells were $1.5 billion in Q1, up 5% from the same 2019 quarter, reported Strategy Analytics Tuesday. TDK-owned Amperex held the top revenue share at 36.5%, with LG Chem at 28.4% and Samsung SDI at 17.5%. SA expects demand for smartphone battery cells to diminish this year with the slowdown in smartphone shipments amid the pandemic.
Sheltering-at-home spurred a record number of consumers to experiment with over-the-top video, reported Parks Associates Monday. The churn rate for OTT services grew to 41% in Q1 from 35% in Q1 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than two in five U.S. broadband households trialed an OTT service, and 8% of U.S. broadband households surveyed subscribed to at least one new OTT service. Stay-at-home orders helped newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV+ beef up their subscriber rosters in Q1, with 49% of new OTT subscribers joining Disney and 27% picking up Apple TV+, Parks said. A key question is whether subscribers will keep these service, said analyst Steve Nason. “A significant challenge, especially for services relying on original programming, is delivering new content since production on many series has halted.”
Automakers' enhanced connected car “functionalities” can help stem COVID-19's spread, reported Gartner Monday: Automated door locks and engine start/stop actions using a smartphone app “can reduce surface contact inside the vehicle.”
Q1 smartphone panel revenue grew 3% globally, topping $9 billion, reported Strategy Analytics Monday. Samsung Display's revenue share was 51.8% in smartphone panels, followed by BOE (14.3%) and Tianma (8.2%), SA said. "We expect the display panel market to continue to observe a slowdown in smartphone panel demand due to disruptions in supply chains of customers along with a strong decline in demand for end-market products owing to COVID-19 pandemic.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is harming Sony “production, development, sale and distribution” of products and services in all segments, said the company’s annual report posted Monday at the SEC, saying Sony expects “this negative impact” to continue well into the future, but it doesn’t risk delaying the holiday launch of the PlayStation 5. Sony-owned factories in China and Thailand making digital cameras and smartphones “are currently operating as usual,” it said. Sony’s retail sales are down “significantly due to the closure of retail stores globally,” said the report. Work-from-home orders and the ban on international flights due to the coronavirus “presented some challenges” in bringing the PS5 to market in time for the holiday, said the report. Sony encountered delays in the PS5 “testing process and the qualification of production lines,” it said. Development is “progressing” well, and “no major problems have arisen in the game software development pipeline,” it said.
Despite concerns networks might buckle under the strain of a sustained spike in internet traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic, Comcast’s network averaged “above-advertised speeds," blogged Chief Network Officer Jan Hofmeyr Monday. As part of a $12 billion investment, Comcast has doubled capacity every 2.5 years, said the executive. In March and April, Comcast added more than 35 terabits per second peak capacity to regional network facilities and 1,700 100-gigabit links to the core network vs. 500 in the year-ago period. It invested in pushing fiber to customers’ homes, Hofmeyr said.
Microsoft is closing its physical stores and will provide sales, training and support remotely, it said Friday. The company will “reimagine” spaces that serve customers, including Microsoft Experience Centers in New York; London; Redmond, Washington; and Sydney. Store closings will result in a pretax charge of $450 million, to be recorded in Q2. “Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings," said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. The company has been serving customers remotely over the past few months during the pandemic, he said. New online services include 1:1 video chat support, online tutorial videos and virtual workshops.
Global IT spending on cloud-based infrastructure grew 2.2% in Q1, while investments in “non-cloud environments plunged 16.3%, reported IDC Thursday. “The broadening impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was the major factor driving infrastructure spending,” it said. “Widespread lockdowns across the world and staged reopening of economies triggered increased demand for cloud-based consumer and business services.” IDC forecasts the Q1 pace “will continue through rest of the year as cloud adoption continues to get an additional boost."