SMPTE canceled its Nov. 9-12 technical conference and exhibition in Los Angeles as an in-person event and will hold it virtually Nov.10-12, said the organization Monday. SMPTE will position the event as “an interactive and immersive remote experience with a rich array of learning and networking opportunities,” it said, without a single mention of the pandemic. The virtual event will be devoid of the “traditional barriers” of a physical show, including travel, hotel costs and scheduling conflicts, it said. The conference’s theme, Game On, reflects its emphasis on the “convergence” of esports and media technology and the “unique requirements of the thriving esports industry,” it said.

Comcast said Friday it's extending free access to its 1.5 million Wi-Fi hotspots "to anyone who needs them," through 2020. “We saw a huge jump in usage after we opened up our public hotspots,” said Dana Strong, president-Xfinity Consumer Services. "Hundreds of thousands" of non-Xfinity customers have used them during the pandemic, Strong said. It's extending its offer for some of 60 days through year-end of free home internet access (see 2006180032).

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.”

Work- and learning-at-home trends emerging from the pandemic are straining broadband networks not equipped for the extra traffic and ISPs’ ability to support consumers’ swelling Wi-Fi management, cybersecurity and technical support needs, vendors said on panels Wednesday. ISPs contend they're weathering the novel coronavirus and have adapted as necessary. Some 90% of call center employees are now working at home, and the cable industry greatly accelerated self-installations by customers, NCTA CEO Michael Powell told C-SPAN's The Communicators. It has meant about "five to seven years worth of work accelerated into three months," he said. Reflecting on COVID-19 generally, Powell said on the interview now online and to have been televised this weekend that "it's a reminder that nature is extraordinarily bigger than we are" and it's "amoral." Customer care company Sweepr uses remote diagnostics, network knowledge and machine learning to solve technical problems, said CEO Alan Coleman on a Maravedis webinar. The increasing complexity of devices, protocols and services are making it more difficult for customers to navigate issues, resulting in more calls to support centers and “material costs to the bottom line” for ISPs, he said. Voice assistants could help, said Coleman, who believes Alexa and Google Assistant could become more prevalent in customer support than call centers. ISPs have evolved into "begrudgingly perhaps, the responsible party for Wi-Fi even though they don’t run the home network,” said Tyler Craig, vice president-business development at managed Wi-Fi and IoT security platform company Minim. He cited an opportunity for an ISP to become the operator of that environment: “Otherwise they risk getting cut out of the process entirely” and may have to rely on tools from other providers. An April Irdeto study said 97% of consumers in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany are concerned about cybersecurity, and 68-80% said they would be willing to pay for a security solution, said Ronald Peters, product manager-trusted home, on a Parks Associates webinar. Irdeto sees the average number of connected home devices reaching 100 in 2025, meaning more cybersecurity concerns, he noted.

Maintaining European network capacity during the pandemic was largely voluntary, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) told us. Following a European Commission initiative, some larger content providers, such as Facebook, Netflix and YouTube, acted to ensure network capacity without further intervention by national regulatory authorities (NRAs), it said. Weekly traffic monitoring reports from NRAs will become monthly beginning in July because the situation is stable, BEREC Chair Dan Sjoblom said at a Tuesday briefing. The content providers' actions were "more or less" voluntary, BEREC said. "Punctual interventions were done by the operators, such as increasing the capacity of the networks, updating the network configuration and traffic (re)balancing." Sjoblom said traffic increased but operators managed well. Internet backbone, networks and internet exchange point supported the increased traffic, emailed EuroISPA Vice-President Innocenzo Genna: The increase was normally spread throughout the entire day, without specific peaks. Users may have experienced some congestion in the access part of their fixed connections because so many were using connectivity during the quarantine for different purposes, such as learning, working and entertainment, he said. "This problem reminds us [of] the importance for a proper Internet connection and the need to accelerate roll-out of very high capacity networks, as foreseen by the new European [Electronic Communications] Code." A YouGov survey showed a "significant increase in broadband usage in households during the lockdown" as the workforce logged on from home and friends and family kept in touch, said U.K. Internet Services Providers' Association Policy Head Till Sommer: The network "proved to be resilient."

Apple is closing nearly a dozen stores temporarily in response to rising cases of COVID-19. The closures involve 11 stores in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, Bloomberg reported Friday. Apple has been reopening stores gradually since last month after shutting them temporarily due to the pandemic (see 2005180043). It didn’t respond to our questions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,138 new COVID cases in the U.S. Friday with 733 new deaths.

Comcast extended its offer of free internet service through year-end, providing 60 days of free service to students and families in need during the pandemic, it said Thursday. It's for new, eligible Internet Essentials customers who don't have a past-due balance, it said. Comcast put the program in place March 12 with a planned end date of June 30. That's when the FCC's "Keep Americans Connected" pandemic pledge ends (see 2006180002).

Update FCC E-rate to support kids' home connectivity, said 90% of school leaders surveyed by the Consortium for School Networking. CoSN asked about back-to-school plans in the age of COVID-19. And 54% of school districts surveyed plan to access funds for distance learning from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program. In addition, 86% want E-rate to cover cybersecurity. Budget cuts to school system IT departments are expected in 42% of those surveyed. CoSN surveyed 227 respondents during its national conference last month.

Forty percent of U.S. broadband households were sheltering in place in May, even without mandates, said a Parks Associates survey fielded May 14-28. Increased demand on home networks resulting from sheltering in place raised the importance of data and privacy protections, said Parks Thursday. “Online attacks to the home network can now disrupt work and education along with entertainment and shopping activities,” said analyst Brad Russell. Nearly 80% of those surveyed said they're concerned about the possibility of a data security or privacy breach, he said.

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.