New York City Public Design Commission members critiqued aesthetics of the Department of Information Technology’s (DoITT) 5G deployment plan. The committee voted 6-0, with one abstaining, to largely approve the plan, at Monday's livestreamed virtual meeting. The authority rejected installing facilities on certain types of poles, among other conditions. President Signe Nielsen, abstaining over objections about the matter’s handling, said she had concerns about how small cells looked on three or four pole types. Some “look ridiculous,” agreed Commissioner Laurie Hawkinson. Commissioner Ethel Sheffer favored customizing designs, especially since some have historic significance and are part of the “fabric of the neighborhood's design.” Commissioner Manuel Miranda asked if installations could be clearly labeled. DoITT directed industry to collaboratively design a uniform, minimally obtrusive attachment, said Brett Sikoff, the agency's liaison to the commission. In cities where deployments were unregulated, "a lot of this equipment is unshrouded and ... haphazardly put on poles," he said. Different designs for different poles could be more obtrusive and confuse residents, he said. The city’s involvement means more equitable deployment, Sikoff stressed. Commenters raised health concerns about RF emissions, comparing emissions to “second-hand smoke” and facilities to cluster bombs. Some commissioners voiced uncertainty about health risks, noting science is outside their purview. The FCC governs RF safety, Sikoff said. “We can only enforce the rules.” Some commissioners said they heard complaints about not enough outreach. Sikoff said it was sufficient and DoITT addressed concerns.
The U.S. needs to pour more resources into research and innovation of emerging technologies to boost commercialization and outpace Chinese technology development, said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. She advocated for a methodical decoupling and reshoring manufacturing of critical technologies. “We have to realize that you can't just decouple from China and say, 'All right, we're severing.’ It is more like an unraveling,” Blackburn told the Hoover Institution Wednesday. “Whether it is critical supply chains for semiconductor chips or telecommunications equipment … we have become too dependent on China for manufacturing, and we need to return that capability and capacity to the United States.” The U.S. isn't investing enough in R&D, she said, and needs to form better partnerships between universities and corporations. Blackburn said “technology is going to be the nexus for so many areas of growth,” and the military needs to better innovate to compete with China’s civil-military fusion surrounding military applications for artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. “Our commercial sectors and our military sectors need to be innovating,” Blackburn said. “Our military complex needs to be utilizing the new concepts that are being pushed forward in the commercial area.” Blackburn said the U.S. can take steps beyond the Commerce Department's recently amending export administration regulations to let U.S. companies more easily participate in bodies in which Huawei is a member. She pointed to S-2528 to require the administration report on the “purpose, scope and means” of expanded Chinese influence on standards bodies. Friday, the White House, China's embassy in Washington and the Semiconductor Industry Association didn't comment.
U.S. export controls on Chinese technology will increasingly affect post-secondary schools, the Hinrich Foundation reported. It said higher education, which struggles with insufficient government export control guidance, should prepare for increased controls on software and networks. “New measures will fundamentally change how universities enter into collaborative research partnerships, hire faculty and admit foreign students,” the foundation said Wednesday. Recommendations included “risk-management measures” to address the U.S.-China technology race. U.S. post-secondary institutions want clarity and education from their government on following existing intellectual property, export control, licensing and related technology rules and laws, said Association of American Colleges and Universities President Lynn Pasquerella in an interview Thursday. She said schools don't want more regulations, since they follow best practices and the export control regime affecting IP has been around for many years. Her stakeholders need to collaborate with counterparts from elsewhere, including China, so U.S. curbs on such activities are harmful, the association head said: "The impact of the current policies on higher education will have a negative effect in terms of research, in terms of equity and diversity. And I would hope this would be different with a different administration." Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance under the Trump administration, though partly rolled back, would still prevent some collaboration online with international students, Pasquerella noted. She estimated some 1.1 million post-secondary students in the U.S. are from other countries, or 5.5% of the entire student population, generating $47 billion in tuition revenue. China's embassy in Washington and the White House didn't comment Thursday.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began an interagency review of a Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security pre-rule to pinpoint potential controls for foundational technologies. OIRA received the rule Monday. The rule faced months of delays (see 2007230044).
A Customs and Border Protection "administrative ruling" clarifies "duty-free exemption status of low-value shipments sent to U.S. fulfillment centers and domestic warehouses,” said the agency Monday. “The ruling is intended to enhance accountability in the e-commerce environment while strengthening CBP’s ability to identify counterfeit goods, consumer safety violations, and other threats.” The “exponential growth” of e-commerce gave “illicit sellers” the “extraordinary opportunity to evade duties and sell unsafe and unregulated products,” said CBP. It won't “sit idly by and allow these bad actors to evade duties, report false values, and harm American businesses and consumers.”
The pandemic spurred “historic” growth in demand for most consumer tech products since March, Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry adviser, technology and mobile, told the Display Week virtual conference (see 2008030053) in a prerecorded segment streamed Monday. “We’re seeing broad-based growth in the consumer electronics business,” with most categories “doing fabulously,” he said. Demand is growing “in ways that we’ve never seen,” said Baker. “This is a broad and deep growth opportunity across all of the consumer electronics market.” Amid stay-at-home mandates, “tech is no longer a discretionary spend,” he said. “It really is a necessity. More than many, many general merchandise categories, tech demand leverages its strengths in entertainment, in work from home, in education from home.” The momentum is “likely to provide us with some staying power for technology sales, regardless of what the overall economy looks like over the next few quarters.” The “success of online” now is the “biggest story” in consumer tech, said Baker. “We’re here to tell you that in-store has likely passed its peak.” Price and product are now “much more important than place,” he said. NPD estimates consumer tech retail sales grew 24% in Q2, racking up $5 billion in “incremental” revenue, said Baker. “Four of the five busiest non-holiday weeks NPD has ever tracked” came in Q2, he said. The industry did slightly more than $1.75 billion in sales the third week of March when much of the U.S. went into quarantine, he said. “We thought that was an enormous week that would never be repeated. That was one of the smallest weeks we’ve seen in the last four months.”
New EU restrictions against China for its actions in Hong Kong include export controls on “sensitive” equipment and technologies for end-use in Hong Kong. The EU said it will more strictly scrutinize and limit exports of “specific” equipment and technologies for use in Hong Kong. Restrictions will specifically apply to items suspected to be used for “internal repression, the interception of internal communications or cybersurveillance.” China called the restrictions a violation of international norms. “Since the EU claims to have interests and concerns in Hong Kong … it should work in this direction with practical actions, rather than unilaterally introducing some so-called countermeasures to affect Hong Kong's prosperity and stability,” a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript of a news conference. The country's embassy in Washington didn't comment Thursday.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry applauds CTA’s decision canceling CES 2021 as a physical show and moving it all-virtual (see 2007280034), she told CEO Gary Shapiro in a North Virginia Technology Council video chat Wednesday. CTA co-produces NVTC’s webinars and Shapiro sits on its board. “Kudos to you for making such a sizable decision,” Barry told Shapiro when he asked how she reacted to the news. “It was clear the decision prioritized safety above all else.” Barry, a Minnesota native, said some of her “perspectives" on mentoring changed after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis police custody not far from corporate headquarters. “CEOs now more than ever need to be in constant learning mode,” she said. “Your whole career, you look for mentors who are more accomplished than you and can help you get to that next level. My perspective now is I need to surround myself with people who are completely different.” Work from home happened “almost overnight, literally,” said Barry. Telework “started with people being interested in products,” she said. “It’s turning into productivity,” she said. “It’s less about I need a computer, and it’s more about I need a comfortable home office space.” Telework forced Barry to reinstall a landline, she said. “My cell reception is awful, and I have so many calls that I needed something stable.” As work from home grew progressively longer, “you’re not just buying an iPad, you’re trying to figure out how do I create a productive space.” And “work flexibility is going to stick, said Barry. The days are over of “everyone needing to be in the office all the time to get their work done,” she said. Remote learning is “another space where we were forced into change,” said Barry. There are “pockets of places” where school districts “have done an amazing job” transitioning, she said. “But across the U.S., I think you can see a pretty big gap in distant learning capabilities.”
Satellite broadband startup AST wants to amend its pending U.S. market access petition (see 2004140001), adding authority for uplinks in the 2305-2320 MHz band and downlinks in the 2350-2360 MHz, it said in an FCC International Bureau filing Monday.
Facebook moved the release of its Q2 financials to Thursday after market close, from Wednesday, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before the House Antitrust Subcommittee, said the company Monday. Facebook also scheduled an earnings call for 6 p.m. EDT Thursday. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple and Google also will testify at Wednesday’s noon hearing on the market “dominance” of online platforms. The hearing itself was rescheduled from Monday (see 2007270021).