The FCC extended temporary waivers through Nov. 30 for telecom relay service providers, citing the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2005140056), said an order from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Wednesday. The waivers apply to the speed-of-answer requirement, at-home video relay service (VRS) call-handling rules, VRS subcontracting restrictions, and provisions of the emergency call handling rule, the order said.

North Carolina would spend $50 million on emergency broadband grants using federal COVID-19 funding, under a proposed budget revealed Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper (D). Kentucky will spend $8 million in federal coronavirus aid to reduce monthly internet costs for low-income parents of K-12 students, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman (D) said Tuesday. Kentucky will ask ISPs to respond by Sept. 15 to a request for proposals to provide high-speed internet for up to $10 monthly for the next two to three school years, with federal Lifeline to cover some longer-term costs. Lack of internet access “disproportionately affects communities of color and Kentuckians who live in poverty,” Coleman said. In Mississippi, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann (R) and Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley (D) tweeted support Wednesday for their state’s $75 million COVID-19 broadband bill (see 2008250003) that awaits the governor's signature by Monday. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) didn’t comment Wednesday.

Short-form video tech firm Zigazoo introduced a remote-learning app through the App Store and Google Play called Classrooms that teachers helped design, said the startup Wednesday. The app enables teachers to assign classes one of Zigazoo's hundreds of projects, or build their own, “then host classroom interaction with and between students by sharing short-form videos in their closed communities,” it said. "Parents are telling me their kids are miserable on long Zoom calls and teachers are telling me that there is no humane way to do their old classroom model on a conference call,” said CEO Zak Ringelstein. Zigazoo is positioning Classrooms as “tailor-made for the remote learning world, giving teachers and students from all backgrounds the projects and environment they need to thrive," he said.

Mississippi would spend $75 million on two COVID-19 broadband funds under a bill passed by the legislature Monday. The House voted 114-2 and the Senate voted 48-0 for SB-3054 to transfer $65 million for an electric cooperative broadband grant program and $10 million for grants to other kinds of broadband providers. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) didn’t comment Thursday. The Massachusetts Broadband Institute said Tuesday it extended until year-end a free wireless hot spot program as part of its coronavirus response (see 2004220035). The program was to end Sept. 1.

COVID-19's work-from-home “transition” is creating challenges for the cybersecurity industry “around hardware,” and “we expect this trend to continue,” said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on a fiscal Q4 investor call Monday. “When customers are not in their office, it's very hard for hardware to be delivered,” he said. “Hardware is going to continue to be a tough business in the next 12 months.” Palo Alto has been shifting customers to “software-delivered security,” he said, “and we plan to continue to do so.” It expects most future growth to come from software and services, he said. Prisma Access, Palo Alto’s cloud-based security infrastructure platform has been through “an amazing journey” this year, he said. That platform is “a powerful security tool as our customers go through a network transformation and create robust solutions for work from home for the long term,” he said. In Q4 ended July 31, “we saw very strong conversion of Prisma Access trials that were launched in response to COVID and work from home,” he said.

The FCC should extend to June 30 its gift rule waiver to the Rural Health Care and E-rate programs, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and State E-rate Coordinators Alliance (SECA) in a Friday conference call with the Wireline Bureau, according to a Tuesday filing in docket 13-184. The groups first requested that Aug. 4 (see 2008050052). The “waiver has enabled schools, libraries, and health care providers to accept gifts that have facilitated the availability of additional broadband connectivity to meet the needs of their constituents,” SHLB and SECA said. Not extending it “would be disruptive to the anchor institutions that have benefited from these donations -- forcing them either to stop receiving the equipment or service or to divert funding away from other crucial educational needs ... in the midst of the crisis.” SHLB plans to support SECA’s request to allow E-rate applicants to get supplemental FY 2020 funding for unanticipated expenses buying more bandwidth to meet on-campus internet needs due to COVID-19, they said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has nearly two-thirds of Americans trading in public transit for personal vehicles and more than a third believing commuter life has “changed forever” because they plan to telework permanently, a Cars.com survey found. The website canvassed nearly 3,100 respondents Aug. 13-14.

CTIA told the FCC the next round of testing of 911 vertical location technologies in the industry test bed will be delayed due to the impact of COVID-19. “The response to the COVID-19 pandemic is restricting building access and affecting the ability to safely and effectively test Z-axis technologies,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 07-114: “The Test Bed intends to resume Stage Zb when testing can be safely accomplished and property managers agree to provide access to buildings in the test cities.”

Delaware, Tennessee and Vermont unveiled broadband funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delaware will spend $20 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act support for broadband infrastructure, an internet speeds survey and equipment purchases for families that can’t afford it, Gov. John Carney (D) said Monday. Fifteen wireless towers will be completed four months ahead of schedule, Carney’s office added. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced $61 million in emergency broadband grants from federal pandemic support Friday. Vermont made nearly $4 million in broadband grants to ISPs including Comcast, VTel and ECFiber, the state's Department of Public Service said Monday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai believes Congress “needs to step up to the plate and make more funding available for connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic -- including at least $430 million in funding for the highly successful but underfunded COVID-19 Telehealth Program,” a spokesperson emailed. Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall (see 2008210001). Congress provided some related funding in March via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, including $200 million for the FCC’s telehealth program (see 2003250046).