Brazil, Argentina and India are among the cheapest markets for subscribing to video, music and game streaming services when standard of living is factored in, while Switzerland, Denmark and Germany are among the priciest, VPNPro blogged Thursday. Its survey found the U.S. is "in general a fairly cheap country for online services."
Europeans won’t be able to benefit from all that Wi-Fi has to offer without more spectrum, said Bruno Martin, Facebook director-wireless augmented and virtual reality, Thursday at a European spectrum management conference. “We do need to harmonize our usage of the 6 GHz” worldwide, Martin said. Just allocating 500 MHz “will enable the first wave of products using the spectrum, but the world needs to go 1,200 megahertz,” he said. “It’s going to enable applications that we can just dream of now.”
Analytics company Verint partnered with Viziblezone on COVID-19 contact tracing software for smartphones to help return employees to physical work spaces, said the Israeli startup Thursday. “While many global brands have already stated their intention to keep employees working from home, this solution has particular benefit for companies who require their workforce to be physically present.”
The U.S. shouldn't address U.S. and Chinese trade tensions through decoupling, experts told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Instead, they recommended investing more heavily in technology research while pursuing more involvement at international standards bodies. “We need to accept that this is going to go on for the long term,” said David Finkelstein, director of the China and Indo-Pacific security affairs division at CNA, a nonprofit research group. “It's just not enough to [only] confront. We have to be positioned to compete.” The panel is preparing a report on U.S.-China competition to present to Congress in November. Kristine Lee, U.S.-China relations expert at the Center for a New American Security, said “there are a number of important elections coming up” for international bodies. The Commerce Department recently issued a rule to allow U.S. companies to more easily participate in standards setting bodies in which Huawei is a member (see 2006170031). Others advocated Wednesday for more technology investment, especially as China continues to pursue advancements in 5G and artificial intelligence. “Let's put some money into experimental, high-quality AI network-driven infrastructure,” said Barry Naughton, chair of Chinese international affairs at the University of California-San Diego. The White House didn't comment Thursday,
The FTC approved a proposed rule this week 4-1 to boost authority to impose penalties for “Made in USA” labeling violations and apply those rules to online advertising and marketing materials. The proposal would prohibit any Made in USA claims on products unless their "final assembly or processing" occurs in the U.S. It would stipulate all "significant processing that goes into the product" must happen domestically and that all its components must be produced in the U.S. The regulations would supersede state Made in USA laws, unless those rules are more stringent than the proposed federal standard. The FTC has never issued Made in USA regulations, instead directly enforcing provisions of the FTC Act that prohibit false labeling claims. Commissioner Noah Phillips' dissent said the move exceeds the agency's authority. Commissioner Rohit Chopra said he "would have preferred a broader prohibition on Made in USA fraud," but "the proposed rule strikes a reasonable compromise." Commissioner Christine Wilson said the "NPRM seeking comment does not prejudge the outcome of the process, which must observe the boundaries of our statutory authority."
Of the nearly 53,000 exclusion requests U.S. importers filed for relief from the Trump administration's Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, 75.4% were denied, and 12.3% are pending, said a Congressional Research Service report Friday. Since most exemptions don't correlate with a single Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, it's not possible to know how much trade the exclusions represent, said CRS. As the administration makes "more active use of Section 301 authorities to pressure other countries to eliminate their trade barriers, Congress could consider amending Section 301," the report said. "It could establish a formal product exclusion process or set specific guidelines for when and how to grant exclusions." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn't comment Monday.
Deutsche Telekom will launch an IoT unit, the “world's first open platform” for the IoT combining “connectivity, devices, cloud services and solutions for data analysis,” DT said Monday.
Contract manufacturer Jabil expects up to $170 million in COVID-19 costs for FY 2020 ending Aug. 31, said Mark Mondello on a Q3 call Friday. It’s targeting $50 million in annual savings through worldwide workforce reductions, he said. At the peak, Jabil was burning $60 million a month in COVID-19 costs, mostly for factory safety protocols and personal protective equipment for employees, said Mondello. Expenses recently have “trended down a bit,” he said. “We’re becoming more optimized." “Fair conversations” with customers about passing along the pandemic costs “are going on all the time,” said Mondello. “Our customers understand we have a business to run. We also want to be very, very thoughtful to our customers because they’re going through tough times as well.” Jabil endured significant supply chain disruptions as the pandemic hit beginning in February that haven’t fully normalized, said Mondello. If the supply chain activity pre-COVID were graded a 10, “we hit our biggest divot” in March and April when the grading plunged “to a five or a six,” he said. “I’d say today we’re back to an eight or nine. I think it stays there until we get to the back side of COVID, whenever that is.” It forecasts roughly a 5% revenue decline for the year, said Mondello. “To have this feeling like COVID’s behind us, the stock market’s doing great, the world’s getting back on its feet -- I don’t think that’s the case.” The CEO conceded he personally “underestimated how broad-based this digital learning, digital schools and videoconferencing” would become during the pandemic: “I don’t think that’s going to be so temporary.”
Dedicating the lower 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band to Wi-Fi would be the “best course” for the spectrum, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told a Broadband India Forum webinar Friday, per prepared remarks. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicts summer action (see 2004300032). In response to the pandemic, the FCC approved special temporary authority for more than 150 broadband providers to use the band, Pai said: They report “it has enabled faster speeds, increased coverage, and expanded network bandwidth. Collectively, they show the promise of the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use.” Pai highlighted the 6 GHz Further NPRM, which looks at use of very-low-power devices (see 2004230059): “We don’t really know what this would lead to. And that’s kind of the point with unlicensed innovation.”
With ocean cruises shifting away from visiting many port cities and staying largely in international waters due to pandemic issues, that shouldn't affect growing demand for satellite-provided nautical connectivity, Northern Sky Research analyst Brad Grady blogged Thursday. He said river cruise capacity demand is growing more quickly than that of ocean liners. That should benefit satcom operators with well-dispersed capacity footprints, he said.