Wireless ISP Association representatives asked an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to address rules for over-the-air reception devices (OTARD), as proposed in an NPRM last year (see 1906050014). WISPA cited “the importance of updating the OTARD rule to apply to all fixed wireless transmitters and receivers, regardless of whether the equipment is used for reception, transmission, or both, so long as the equipment meets the existing size restrictions for customer-end equipment,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-71.

Demand for 25 Gbps Ethernet controllers and adapters drove the market to record shipments in Q3, reported the Dell'Oro Group Monday. Nvidia gained share on a “one-time sale” to Huawei before the mid-September sourcing ban from U.S. vendors, it said. More than 3.3 million 25 Gbps Ethernet controllers and adapters ports were shipped, surpassing the previous record set in Q2, it said. Shipments of 50 Gbps Ethernet controller and adapter ports declined from Q2, as some tier 1 cloud service providers entered a “digestion cycle” and reduced their server deployments, it said.

NCTA and other Wi-Fi advocates told aides to the three Republican FCC commissioners an “updated and expanded” technical analysis by CableLabs shows the agency can safely make further changes to its 6 GHz rules. “We discussed the importance of authorizing low power indoor unlicensed operations in the band at 8 dBm/MHz power spectral density to ensure that new 6 GHz Wi-Fi devices can efficiently utilize the significant new bandwidth to deliver next-generation multi-gigabit Wi-Fi with the whole-home coverage and throughput Wi-Fi consumers experience and expect today,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295: “We appreciate the Commission’s need to take a conservative approach in unleashing expansive new Wi-Fi bandwidth, given the important incumbents operating in the band, and have completed additional, more comprehensive technical work to respond to its concerns and conclusively show that the Commission can create substantially more value and significantly reduce consumer costs for Wi-Fi without compromising critical incumbent protections.” Representatives of CableLabs, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Enterprises and Midcontinent Communications participated in the calls. The same parties spoke with the aides about the importance of an FCC vote reallocating part of the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi, said a filing in docket 19-138. The spectrum is “key to delivering gigabit Wi-Fi and much-needed unlicensed capacity to American consumers in the very near term,” they said.

The largest cable ISPs added 1.4 million broadband subscribers in Q2 of this year, the most additions since Q1 2007 and up from the 530,000 added the same quarter a year ago, said Leichtman Research Group Thursday. The largest cable ISPs ended the quarter with 70.6 million subs, it said. Landline telecoms ended the quarter with 32.7 million subs, down 155,000 in the quarter, similar to what they lost in Q2 2019, it said. Charter Communications' 850,000 net adds were more than for any provider in any previous quarter, it said.

An HDMI device called cecTalker can connect, control and link devices with HDMI terminals to allow AV equipment to perform new operations, said manufacturer Socionext, whose HDMI controller IC is at the heart of the module. CecTalker uses Consumer Electronics Control to allow users to integrate HDMI-compliant devices from different manufacturers “and without the standard linkage functionalities,” said Socionext. It supports development platforms including PCs, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Spresense and will be certified to the HDMI standard, capable of being used in stand-alone mode or built into other products with added features and applications. Applications include connecting audio and video equipment with smart appliances, building home IoT systems, and use with video streaming services, medical imaging and industrial applications, the company said. The devices are sampling now with volume production and shipping slated for January.

Global hyperscale data center bookings will be up sharply in 2020, said Wells Fargo’s Eric Luebchow in a Wednesday note to investors. Hyperscalers, including Microsoft, AWS, Facebook and Google, “are taking down meaningful capacity in the U.S. and Europe and shifting more toward third-party leasing given the demand spikes on their platforms,” he said, noting Northern Virginia leased more capacity this year than in all of 2019. “While several private operators have won significant new hyperscale deployments, we think the broad increase in activity will benefit the operators that have these hyperscalers as existing customers,” Luebchow said: “Pricing in competitive U.S. markets remains at or near historic lows, but appears to have stabilized.”

President Donald Trump threatened to “strongly regulate” or shut down social media platforms, citing political bias against conservatives a day after Twitter included fact-check warnings for a series of his tweets. “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” he wrote Wednesday. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.” Social media companies don’t have anti-conservative bias and are rightly collaborating with civil society and government to combat online misinformation, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said: “While there may be occasional missteps, the private sector has shown a tremendous commitment to addressing this problem in a fair and transparent manner.” Twitter didn’t comment. Computer and Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers raised free speech concerns, asking, “Are we a nation that tolerates its President threatening private enterprise for daring to contradict him?” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., tweeted that Trump’s “fear-mongering & conspiracy theory peddling is irresponsible, inexcusable, & authoritarian.” The First Amendment "significantly constrains any action the president could take to regulate social media platforms,” said American Civil Liberties Union Senior Legislative Counsel Kate Ruane. “The First Amendment also clearly prohibits the president from taking any action to stop Twitter from pointing out his blatant lies about voting by mail.”

U.S. peak broadband growth downstream and upstream "has essentially plateaued," NCTA said Wednesday, citing data from cable ISPs. It said some state or regional peak demand trends might vary, but there's a consistent national pattern. Our reporting has shown the same. Others have also seen plateauing in data usage trends (see 2004060038).

Altice unveiled a mesh residential Wi-Fi system, which it said Wednesday allows simultaneous connectivity of more devices to the strongest signal. It said SmartWiFi simplifies network connections with one network name, obviating the need for selecting between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz points, with mesh network technology to eliminate dead zones and better band and access point steering. It said SmartWiFi is rolling out to new and existing Altice One customers in its Optimum footprint in the New York City region and will be available soon in Suddenlink regions.

Dialog is in production on the DA14531 SmartBond Tiny Bluetooth 5.1 SoC, it said Monday. The DA14531 is designed to lower the cost of adding Bluetooth Low Energy functionality in connected health and retail asset tracking and for cameras, printers, routers, toys, keyboards and smart banking cards, it said. The SoC is based on the 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 Plus processor. “With the ability to turn any device, even disposable ones, into a connected application, the TINY SoC and module are opening new markets and driving the adoption of BLE beyond what was previously thought possible,” said Sean McGrath, Dialog senior vice president-connectivity and audio business group.