Forty-seven percent of U.S. adults used telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, said HealthInsurance.com Monday. That's up from 9% pre-pandemic. Rasmussen canvassed 1,000 consumers online Dec. 4-8 for the healthcare shopping site.
History shows companies that invest to “tech-enable” their operations during a recession “tend to become more resilient to future shocks,” so delaying digital transformation projects during the pandemic would be a critical “mistake,” reported GlobalData Thursday. It cited Intel’s decision to continue investing in R&D during the 2008 recession, concluding that the strategy “put it several years ahead of competitors.” But enterprises have taken a “conservative approach” toward IT spending in 2020, though remote work should have prompted organizations to speed digital transformations, it said. “Targeted, tactical digital transformation will be vital for companies to survive in the new world,” said GlobalData.
That the one PC in the average home was used “episodically” pre-pandemic “caught some people flatfooted” when COVID-19 hit, said Matt Baker, Dell Technologies senior vice president-strategy and planning, at a virtual Raymond James investor conference. “People are turning to the PC because it’s a flexible platform on which they can perform a myriad of tasks, from working through a spreadsheet to watching a Netflix movie.” Adoption of multiple PCs in the average home is a tech trend that’s bound to stick “for quite some time to come,” Baker said Tuesday. “One PC per household is no longer sufficient.” Consumer behavior toward tech changed during the crisis, and the change is “likely to be deeper and longer-lasting” than many realize, he said. Companies that haven’t invested in their digital transformation “have suffered disproportionately” through the pandemic, said Baker. “Leaders” in digital transformation “have really weathered the storm a lot better,” he said. “That’s going to motivate people to invest even more than they may have in the past.” Dell sees that “as a catalyst for growth going forward and a tailwind coming out of what has been a headwind for many industries from the impact of the pandemic,” he said.
Facebook’s Oversight Board should allow a post containing a purported quote from a Nazi Germany official to stand, Stand Together commented in the company’s review of the case (see 2012010036). In case 2020-005-FB-UA, Facebook removed a post of content that was previously shared two years prior, containing an alleged quote from Joseph Goebbels. The company cited violation of its dangerous individuals and organizations policy. Stand Together said suppressing the speech wouldn’t “prevent and disrupt real-world harm” or achieve other Oversight Board goals: The policy “is unnecessarily broad in a way that provides Facebook discretion to ban wide arrays of legitimate expression.” It questioned whether the company would remove content related to the Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Julius Caesar regimes, all three of which were allegedly responsible for mass killings: “Should quotes by them or by senior officials in their regimes be banned?” The Oversight Board didn’t comment. Further public comments are expected to be published up to 90 days from the board’s decision in each of the six cases up for review.
The Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee plans a hearing on private agreements and technology for curbing online piracy at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 15 in 106 Dirksen.
Haggling over details of a compromise COVID-19 aid bill that includes $10 billion for broadband (see 2012010039) delayed the measure’s filing Monday. NARUC President Paul Kjellander urged lawmakers to ensure aid legislation fully funds Lifeline and to reject bids to eliminate the eligible telecom carrier designation procedure in some recent broadband connectivity legislation. Restore the monthly Lifeline voice subsidy to $7.25, Kjellander said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and their minority party counterparts. The FCC just cut the monthly subsidy to $5.25. The National Lifeline Association and Assist Wireless seek an emergency court stay (see 2011250064). “The impact of this decline in support is potentially severe,” Kjellander said. “When the agency sought comment on reinstating full financial support for voice-only service in rural areas only, the record showed widespread support for restoring full subsidies for voice services.” Several “well-meaning measures to subsidize broadband service or provide incentives for additional broadband infrastructure roll-out unfortunately significantly reduce oversight of each company’s use of federal subsidies as well as oversight of the actual service provided to consumers” by eliminating the ETC designation requirement, Kjellander said. “NARUC’s state commission members usually conduct those designations. But they also do a lot more. Much of carrier fraud and abuse in several FCC subsidy programs has been uncovered by NARUC’s state commission members.” NARUC opposed measures that don’t include the ETC requirement, including the Rural Connectivity Advancement Program Act (S-4015), Expanding Opportunities for Broadband Deployment Act (HR-7160) and Rural Broadband Acceleration Act (HR-7447/S-4201).
Warner Pictures will release its full 2021 film slate on its HBO Max service in a one-month streaming exclusive at the same time it releases the titles theatrically worldwide, said the studio Thursday. The hybrid model is a “strategic response” to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the U.S. After the one-month HBO Max access period, each film will leave the platform and continue in theaters and international territories under customary distribution windows. All films will be available in 4K Ultra HD and HDR on HBO Max. “The “one-year plan” will allow the studio to support its theater partners with “a steady pipeline of world-class films, while also giving moviegoers who may not have access to theaters or aren’t quite ready to go back to the movies” the chance to see its 2021 films, a “win-win,” said Ann Sarnoff, CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks.
The Senate Commerce Committee scheduled a hearingWednesday on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and future agreements, with FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips set to testify. The hybrid virtual/in-person hearing is 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. International Trade Administration Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services James Sullivan, BSA|The Software Alliance CEO Victoria Espinel and Georgia Tech law professor Peter Swire will also testify.
Environmentally friendly 5G, “mainstream” virtual reality and ubiquitous Wi-Fi 6E are among trends ABI Research predicted won't happen in 2021. That global 5G subscriptions are forecast to grow 48.4% to 347 million “will strain the environment as a growing number of consumers will be switching over to 5G devices,” said ABI Tuesday: “The transition will potentially create large amounts of electronic waste.” Stakeholders “have not aligned” to enable mainstream VR adoption, it said. Growth will be strong in 2021, “but the user base will not reach levels once thought probable,” where VR competes for time with TVs and smartphones, it said. COVID-19 further accelerated demand for high-efficiency Wi-Fi networks, said the researcher. But residential broadband adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, an extended Wi-Fi 6 network with 6 GHz spectrum “will be minimal in 2021" because broadband service providers only recently started upgrading infrastructure for Wi-Fi 6, it said.
A 45% spike in Thanksgiving Day broadband consumption tracked with holiday suspension of Zoom conferencing limits, emailed OpenVault Monday. Zoom lifted the 40-minute limit on free Zoom accounts for all meetings for an 18-hour period “so your family gatherings don’t get cut short.” Average broadband consumption per subscriber was 15.59 GB on Thanksgiving vs. 10.77 GB in 2019. The usage was 9.7% above that on the previous Thursday, it said.