AudioEye, which supplies SaaS tools for rendering websites more accessible to the disabled, is offering its AudioEye Pro software package free to new clients for a 90-day trial during the COVID-19 crisis, said Executive Chairman Carr Bettis on a Q4 call Monday evening. The pandemic has the potential to “accentuate the need for digital accessibility,” because online shopping and entertainment are becoming "dominant" as more Americans are confined indoors, he said. “We remain focused on providing the most comprehensive set of accessible digital solutions for the largest number of users, regardless of impairment or disability.” The company also certifies websites for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, he said. The stock closed 12.5% higher Tuesday at $4.15.
Wireless voice minutes were up 39% Monday, compared with an average Monday, Wi-Fi calling minutes rose 78% and home voice calling minutes gained 45%, AT&T said Tuesday amid COVID-19. The carrier deployed as many as 18 portable cellsites to bolster FirstNet coverage.
Smartphone production could fall 30% during 2020's first half from coronavirus disruptions, said ABI Research Tuesday. “Ripples from China will be felt globally,” said David McQueen, calling mass disruption to production lines and stalling of supply chains due to labor shortages and inactive logistics “disastrous.” With China the world’s manufacturing center for most smartphones -- and a top market -- the sector has been hardest hit by delayed shipments and a “weakened development of next-generation products,” he said. A move to lower price tiers was expected to boost 5G smartphone adoption this year, but the pandemic will push out development and shipments of affordable models, McQueen said. Though the outbreak is expected to come under control by the end of Q2, it will take time for consumer confidence to return, said the analyst.
Don’t exclude the events and meetings sector from any COVID-19 economic stimulus package for the hospitality industry, urged the Software & Information Industry Association and Professional Convention Management Association. They wrote Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and congressional leadership Friday, and released the documents Monday, asking them to “take an expansive view of the types of businesses” involved in the hospitality sector. Meetings and events “directly and indirectly employ millions of Americans,” they said. “The entire industry has been forced to sharply curtail, even eliminate entirely, their activities, thus jeopardizing their ability to stay in business.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests people are heeding government guidance and staying home, T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray blogged Tuesday. In New York City, the carrier is seeing an 86% increase in subscribers connecting to cellsites only in their primary location. The San Francisco Bay Area has a 77% increase “and we’re seeing similar patterns across the country,” Ray said. People are texting more and playing videogames, he said: Videogame traffic is up 45%. “While overall data traffic is higher, the overall contribution to total network loading has been relatively minor," the CTO wrote. That mobile data and Wi-Fi traffic are soaring during the pandemic shows why AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile were “keen to borrow fallow spectrum” from Dish Network, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors. “AT&T is in the process of increasing its capacity by 60% with its own new spectrum; if Verizon and T-Mobile are seeing a 40% increase in mobile traffic, with no new spectrum of their own to bring to bear, we would assume their networks would be showing strain,” the analyst said: Dish’s spectrum may prove important “beyond the next 60 days” and loans may be converted to leases. In-home data usage this month through March 17 was up 18% from the same period a year earlier, said Comscore Tuesday. Mobile phones, smart speakers, connected TVs and streaming boxes had the biggest increases, it said: "If the current quarantines continue across the country, we expect this upward data usage trend to continue.” The deployment of borrowed spectrum is having a noticeable effect, based on new data from Opensignal, Lightshed’s Walter Piecyk told investors. T-Mobile “doubled the amount of 600 MHz spectrum deployed for LTE in the top 100 markets, on average to 20 MHz from 10 MHz” and “quadrupled deployments to 40 MHz," the analyst wrote, "in markets like New York, Boston, and Salt Lake City.”
Akamai is working with the Xbox and PlayStation platforms to avert COVID-19 online gridlock, CEO Tom Leighton blogged Tuesday. "Where demand is creating bottlenecks for customers, we will be reducing gaming software downloads at peak times, completing downloads at the normal fast speeds late at night," he wrote. The move "will help ensure healthcare workers and first responders ... have continual access to the vital digital services."
Wedbush lowered its target share price for Roku to $86 from $115 Monday, saying the company's road to profitability is “unclear.” But the streaming platform provider is potentially a “big winner during social distancing and quarantines,” wrote Michael Pachter to investors, saying all subscription VOD and advertising VOD are “well-positioned” at a time when governments are urging social distancing or mandated quarantines. Roku is in a strong position due to revenue share agreements with most SVOD and transactional VOD partners, Pachter said. It and other platforms that host Oscar-nominated films for purchase or rental can benefit from the current climate, with people more likely to watch many of the nominated films for a fee than they would be under normal circumstances, said the analyst. Roku likely is benefiting from its subscription services by signing up users to HBO, Showtime and other premium SVOD suppliers, he said. A downside of the COVID-19 period for streamers and studios is that productions of current film and serial content have halted. Shares closed up 17.5% at $89.46.
Dish Network plans to host its annual meeting May 1 at its Englewood, Colorado, headquarters but may do it virtually, “depending on concerns” about COVID-19, said a proxy filing Friday. Dish would “publicly announce a determination” before May 1 to hold the meeting virtually and instructions for accessing it online “as soon as practicable,” it told the SEC.
Citing COVID-19-related social distancing and the likely recession, Cowen analysts told investors Monday they expect lower Comcast earnings due largely to its theme parks business, which likely will be closed through the first half of the year. The researchers said broadcast TV and cable network advertising likely will take a hit over the next year, and not rebound. Cowen said Comcast's signing of the FCC ISP pledge to not cut off service during the pandemic and to waive late fees (see 2003130066) could have "modest impacts" on its collections and revenue-per-customer growth. The company didn't comment.
IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are offering supercomputing resources in an effort with the White House to stop the spread of COVID-19, the Office of Science and Technology Policy announced Sunday. The COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium aims to develop predictive models and virus remedies. Department of Energy national labs, the National Science Foundation and NASA are partnering with academics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the effort.