Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the punitive sanctions levied against Moscow will drive a “steep decline” in information and communications tech spending in both countries, followed by “slow recovery” in both, reported IDC Monday in a “first take” analysis on how the crisis likely will weigh on the global tech sector. It predicts the worldwide impact on ICT spending “will be somewhat limited” for now, it said. Russia and Ukraine combined generate only 5.5% of all ICT spending in Europe and 1% worldwide, said IDT. But the “likely impact” from the crisis on trade, supply chains, capital flows and energy prices “will affect the global economy on a broader scale with negative consequences for both the regional and worldwide ICT market,” it said.
The State E-Rate Coordinators' Alliance and 26 organizations asked the FCC for 30 more days for comments, 30 days for replies, on an NPRM seeking comment on a proposal to adopt a central online bidding portal for E-rate's competitive bidding process, said a petition Monday in docket 21-455 (see 2201270025). The groups asked that comments be due by April 27, replies by May 27. The NPRM's proposal "could radically change and potentially conflict with existing state or local procurement regulations," the motion said, noting the comment period overlaps with the current E-rate filing window. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, American Library Association, National Consumer Law Center and California K-12 High Speed Network were among the groups signing the petition.
The FCC committed an additional $63.6 million in Emergency Connectivity Fund support, totaling nearly $4.69 billion so far, said a news release Monday (see 2202230039). Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she's "proud of the progress this program is making to close the homework gap." The new funding will support schools and libraries in central Maine, Puerto Rico, Alaska, California and South Carolina.
The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and Broadband Data Task Force published data specifications for the initial broadband availability data collection beginning June 30, said a public notice Friday in docket 19-195. The specifications are for fixed and mobile availability, supporting data, and subscribership data submitted through the broadband data collection system.
The FCC posted a report Friday on telecommunications relay services on videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex, approved Feb. 24 by its Disability Advisory Committee (see 2202240064). “The Commission should either directly convene or encourage the convening of TRS providers and video conferencing platform vendors, with the input of accessibility advocates and academic experts, to facilitate the development of an application programming interface (API) or other standardized technical mechanism to allow TRS providers to directly interconnect to video conferencing platforms,” the report recommends: “Work with all stakeholders to ensure that TRS users can use standard user interfaces on all video conferencing platforms to join their preferred TRS provider to a video conference, in realtime.”
The Delaware Supreme Court vacated a state Chancery Court injunction blocking Cox Communications from partnering with a mobile virtual network operator other than T-Mobile before it signs an MVNO agreement with T-Mobile. The Chancery Court ruled in August that Cox had violated an agreement that it would exclusively provide mobile service in partnership with T-Mobile, by planning to launch a mobile service last fall via a Verizon MVNO. In an en banc decision Thursday penned by Justice Gary Traynor, the appellate court said it agreed with Cox that the agreement with T-Mobile predecessor Sprint required the two companies to negotiate in good faith, but the language is clear they aren't required to come to terms. It said the Chancery Court's interpretation would give Cox only a T-Mobile option for an MVNO, and "reasonable actors in the position of Cox and Sprint would not have intended this result at the time of contracting." The court remanded the case to the Chancery Court for a determination whether Cox and T-Mobile have met their good-faith negotiation obligations. Justices Karen Valihura and Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, concurring in part and dissenting in part, said the agreement language was ambiguous and said a better course of action would be to reverse the trial court’s conclusion that the language was clear and remand the case so the lower court could make fact findings on what the extrinsic evidence shows about the parties' intention with that language. Cox didn't comment.
FCC commissioners will meet March 16 to consider a draft notice of inquiry on how to combat digital discrimination (see 2203010051).
The Universal Service Administrative Co. projected USF Q2 revenue will be $8.75 billion Wednesday. That's about $484 million less than Q1 and "the lowest quarterly revenue in the history of USF," emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg, noting the contribution factor will be 23.8%.
The FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force will meet virtually March 21 at 10 a.m. EDT, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. The group will discuss "programs and policies relevant to the task force's duties."
The FCC Telecommunications Workforce Interagency Group will launch with a kickoff webcast March 8 at 11 a.m. EST, the FCC said Tuesday. The group “was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to address the workforce needs of the telecommunications industry, including the safety of that workforce,” the FCC said. Emphasis is on 5G deployment. A report is due to Congress in January. The webcast features speakers from the FCC, NTIA and the Labor and Education departments.