Oregon will temporarily increase state Lifeline discounts by nearly $9 monthly using $3.5 million in federal coronavirus relief allocated by the Oregon Joint Emergency Board, said the Oregon Public Utility Commission Thursday. The discount for about 8,000 low-income households will increase to $21.25 from $12.75 for six months starting July 1, the PUC said. “These additional funds will increase the discount for families, making telephone and broadband service more affordable during these unprecedented times,” said PUC Chair Megan Decker.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance and Funds for Learning unveiled a Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act Thursday. The proposal mirrors SHLB’s April request for $5.25 billion in E-rate funding as part of COVID-19 legislation (see 2004280068). The House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HR-6800) includes $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). More than 1,900 entities signed a Thursday letter to Capitol Hill leaders supporting including the Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act in future pandemic legislation, including New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. The legislation “reflects the new reality that the traditional classroom model has had to shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the entities said. They said the proposal would “strengthen” the Emergency Educational Connections Act. HR-6563/S-3690 allocates less for E-rate.

Next Century Cities urged Capitol Hill leaders Thursday to “acknowledge that digital infrastructure is essential and invest in the requisite broadband expansion, adoption programs, and network sustainability strategies that give Americans access to widespread digital opportunities.” The group cited “profound disruptions” from COVID-19, “reveal[ing] the societal cost of when millions of Americans cannot afford or do not have access to broadband.” It wrote Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the ranking minority party leaders. The House passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act last month. HR-6800 includes an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059).

Two years to the day since FCC's Communications Act Title II rollback took effect, predictions of hugely anti-consumer results "have proven as false today as foolish back then," Chairman Ajit Pai said at a Federalist Society event Thursday. His address largely recapped steps the agency took to deal with the pandemic. He said such deregulatory steps as the net neutrality rollback resulted in big fiber infrastructure investments that made U.S. broadband networks able to handle increased traffic during the pandemic.

Subscription-based businesses are more “resilient” to COVID-19's economic downturn than companies that had to endure supply chain disruptions, reported Zuora. It compared the subscriber acquisition metrics of 700 businesses before and after the pandemic struck in March and found 53.3% had limited impact, while 22.5% had subscriber growth accelerate. Relatively few had subscription growth slowing (12.8%) or contracting (11.4%), said Zuora. Over-the-top video streaming companies had the most growth, up sevenfold in March compared with the growth rate over the previous 12 months, it said. “As people shelter-at-home, streaming services for entertainment have seen a spike in subscription growth.” Consumer IoT is experiencing a slowdown, said the report. Growth there in March was a third of that in the previous year, it said. Consumers under lockdown mandates were “not rushing to buy” IoT devices and services, and companies in the sector “are seeing a decline in subscription sign-ups,” it said.

Five Below e-commerce sales were four times higher in fiscal Q1 ended May 2 than the year-ago quarter, as total sales fell 45%, said CEO Joel Anderson on a quarterly call. It began reopening stores April 21 and now has about 90% of its 920 locations back in business in 36 states, he said Tuesday. The retailer sells kids-targeted headphones and tech accessories, most under $5. It began closing stores days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11. All stores closed for most of the second half of Q1. The stock closed 9.4% higher Wednesday at $113.67.

The FCC approved $20.2 million for 67 applicants to its COVID-19 telehealth program, it said Wednesday. In total, the agency has approved $104.98 million to 305 healthcare providers in 42 states and Washington, D.C., more than half the congressionally allotted budget of $200 million (see 2004010042). "We will continue processing applications as quickly as we can in order to promote worthy telehealth projects across the country,” Chairman Ajit Pai said.

The Library of Congress canceled all public events until Sept. 1, the LOC announced Wednesday, citing COVID-19. Buildings and facilities remain closed.

COVID-19 forced cancellation of NAB Show New York, set for Oct. 21-22 at the Javits Convention Center, said the association Tuesday. It will be replaced with an all-digital event in the fall similar to NAB Show Express, it said. “This decision follows extensive surveying of our show community and consultation with state and local official." The trade group is still planning in-person events for the 2021 NAB Show and NAB Show New York, it said. The Javits show is the third in-person event NAB was forced to scrap this year due to the pandemic. It canceled the Las Vegas NAB Show March 11 (see 2003110036) and the NAB Radio Show in Nashville last week (see 2006030060). Complications for the Javits show emerged in April after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced he asked President Donald Trump to keep the facility deployed as an COVID-19 Army field hospital through the fall flu season (see 2004280001).

The FCC used Microsoft Teams for its first video meeting of commissioners, Chairman Ajit Pai told reporters after the gathering, answering our query. "The meeting was a success." The Office of Media Relations coordinated before Tuesday's meeting with all the offices of commissioners, bureaus and other offices participating in the event, Pai said. "Our goal is to make sure that we can be as transparent as possible even though we are in this new environment." We asked what it would take technically to bring back FCC staff news conferences after monthly meetings. Pai deferred to OMR for details. "I had the idea and I pushed it," Commissioner Mike O'Rielly told reporters in his own virtual news briefing, about the FCC video gathering. "It felt like a real meeting" he said of the virtual commissioners' meeting. Democratic commissioners and agency staff haven't held virtual news briefings after meetings while the agency's headquarters have been mostly closed during COVID-19. For a recent report on that, see here. (The article is in front of our pay wall, as is some other coronavirus coverage.) There's been one request, from Communications Daily, for staffers such as those at bureaus to participate in news conferences during this period of remote work, an FCC spokesperson emailed. "We have not yet determined the best approach, or if there will be buffering and bandwidth issues, to having such a large number of people conduct a press conference remotely." During teleworking amid the pandemic, the representative said OMR has had no media requests "specific to bureaus and meeting items" approved at the monthly commissioners' meetings. He said OMR remains "happy to take emailed questions from reporters for the bureaus after the meeting and relay back answers." FCC IT staff "sped up implementation of our video conference vendor, which was initially planned to coincide with the move to the new building, to accommodate the agency teleworking," completing that work in the past month, the rep said. "In the last couple of weeks, the video platform added functionality to show more than four participants at one time, enabling the full Commission to be viewed together." COVID-19 delayed the headquarters move.