The CTIA push for licensed use of the 6 GHz band continues. Doug Hyslop, vice president-technology and spectrum planning, blogged Thursday that 6 GHz proponents offer contradictory data to justify the need for sharing the entire band. “Cable, Google and Facebook are demanding all 1200 megahertz in the 6 GHz band for free,” he said: “That is twice the international consensus, and is more than four C-Band auctions worth of spectrum. It’s a lot.” With the FCC expected in April to tackle order on the 6 GHz band, a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council teleconference Thursday heard about cable and other hopes for the spectrum (see 2003120065).

Federated Wireless extended its spectrum controller platform for use in the 6 GHz band, which the FCC is expected to open for sharing with unlicensed users (see 2003050058). Federated provides similar service for the citizens broadband radio service band. The platform is “in trials … and is expected to be available for commercial use by the end of 2020,” the company said Wednesday.

Contrary to popular belief that Netflix will be a “beneficiary” of COVID-19 because audiences will spend more time at home watching, Needham thinks the outbreak is “bad news” for the streaming service, said a Tuesday research note. Netflix charges a fixed monthly fee, “and does not benefit economically from additional viewing hours,” it said. The fixed price is $9-$16 monthly in the U.S. Netflix needs to cut its monthly fees to $5-$7 a month to compete with new streaming competitors at that price point, the analyst said. Subsidizing that with a new “ad-driven tier” means “more viewing hours for any reason would allow NFLX shareholders to participate in revenue upside,” the firm said. Needham worries overseas subscription and revenue growth “are increasingly at risk as COVID-19 spreads,” because Netflix is “a luxury at a time when paychecks from employment may have stopped.”

Amazon removed more than 530,000 “offers” from its online store for “coronavirus-based price gouging,” Vice President-Public Policy Brian Huseman wrote Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. It also “suspended” more than 2,500 third-party “seller accounts” in the U.S. “for violating our price gouging policies,” said Huseman Friday. “We have issued proactive reminders of our fair pricing policy to all of our selling partners. We are actively working with state attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.” Amazon won’t “tolerate attempts by bad actors to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis,” said Huseman. “It is unconscionable.” Markey wrote Amazon Wednesday insisting that it thwart third-party price gouging on hand sanitizer and facial masks during the coronavirus crisis (see 2003040053).

Evolving technologies, not dedicated short-range communications, will make the roadways safer, the Free State Foundation told the FCC in docket 19-138, posted Friday. Various state groups urged the regulator to leave DSRC intact. Commissioners agreed 5-0 in December to examine revised rules for the swath, reallocating 45 MHz for Wi-Fi, with 20 MHz reserved for cellular-vehicle to everything and 10 for DSRC (see 1912180019). “The success of a network-oriented safety application like DSRC hinges upon the ubiquitous integration of that technology into all vehicles on the road,” FSF said. “That requires automobile manufacturers to build the standard into every new car -- and even then, years must pass before incompatible models exit the roadways. In the case of DSRC, unfortunately, that simply is not what we have witnessed.” The Institute of Transportation Engineers is disappointed in the FCC plan. “The proposal to reallocate more than half of the 5.9 GHz safety spectrum for unlicensed uses comes at a time when more than 36,000 people are dying on our nation’s highways each year, and more than 1.8 million were injured,” the group said. The South Dakota Department of Transportation defended DSRC: “Opportunities to radically improve the nation’s mobility, safety and economic vitality are rare, but such an opportunity is before us in preserving the 5.9 GHz spectrum for transportation.” The Center for Auto Safety said reallocating the spectrum would “inevitably further delay and imperil deployment of life-saving ... technologies.”

YouTube TV isn't paying market rates or accepting market terms and conditions that other YES Network distributors have agreed to "for its own selfish reasons," YES tweeted Thursday, announcing the vMVPD dropped it. It said Sinclair -- its partial owner (see 1908290063) -- made a deal for some but not all of its regional sports networks. YouTube tweeted that in its Sinclair deal, it won't carry Fox regional sports networks "in select areas." Sinclair said its YouTube TV deal will have 19 of the 21 Fox RSNs on the streaming service, with Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West going dark.

Amazon needs to thwart price-gouging on hand sanitizer and facial masks on its platform during the coronavirus crisis, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote the e-commerce giant Wednesday. He wants to know how Amazon determines price-gouging, how many warnings it gives third-party sellers before removing them and what “additional resources” it’s devoting to the problem. Amazon has a “particular responsibility” to fight unfair pricing in “current circumstances” because consumers are finding empty shelves and “may wish to avoid venturing into crowded stores and shopping malls,” he said. There's "no place for price gouging on Amazon," emailed a spokesperson. "We are disappointed that bad actors are attempting to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis and, in line with our long-standing policy, have recently blocked or removed tens of thousands of offers. We continue to actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policies."

Advertising-supported VOD service Tubi has a deal with in-room entertainment platform company Enseo, it said Tuesday. Hotel guests in over 20 hotel and resort brands get access to the free service’s movies and TV shows from 250 content partners, it said.

ICANN in-person events are cancelled through March because of the coronavirus (see 2003020050), the organization said Monday. Employees won’t travel to industry events through March unless “deemed essential,” which will affect “participation in several conferences,” it said. The nonprofit cited the World Health Organization’s characterization of the coronavirus as a “public health emergency of international concern.” It will reassess April events after March 12.

Chinese tech company Baidu “open-sourced” its facial-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies to help contain the coronavirus by deploying “fever-screening systems” in rail stations, hospitals and municipal buildings across China, said CEO Robin Li on a Q4 call Thursday. “Our systems remotely measure the temperatures of up to 200 people per minute,” including those wearing protective face masks and hats, he said. The technology also can “identify those who are not wearing masks or wearing them improperly,” he said. The “near-term impact” on the Baidu business has been negative, “as many of our top industries, such as travel, real estate, auto, health care and franchising, suffer from reduced off-line activities,” said Li. But the positive “side effect” is that people are “staying home more, and they have the opportunity to get to know Baidu's products and services better,” he said. “Search queries on coronavirus exceeded 1 billion during the Chinese New Year, as users came to Baidu for fact checking and finding more reliable information.” Baidu expects Q1 revenue down between 5% and 13% from a year earlier, said Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu. The coronavirus situation in China is “evolving, and business visibility is very limited,” he said. The Q1 forecast is based on a “current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty,” he said. The Chinese New Year holiday was originally scheduled to end Jan. 30, but many shops, restaurants and malls “remain closed down, as we speak,” he said. “Consequently, the rebound for online marketing after Chinese New Year has been slow this year.” Business conditions in the past two weeks “have started to pick up as people return to work,” said Yu. Baidu employees “are gradually returning to the office,” he said. “We assume businesses across China will do the same.”