Chip demand is “extremely strong across the board,” said Qualcomm Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala. “We are continuing to see demand outpacing supply.” It put second-sourcing plans in place “very early in the process,” he said. “We have three second-sourcing parts, especially in the mid-high tiers that are shipping at scale now, and that shows up in our financial performance.” The worldwide chip crunch is easing, but “we would ship more if we could,” said CEO Cristiano Amon. Qualcomm is standing by its previous forecasts that the industry will ship more than 750 million 5G handsets in 2022, which would be about 40% growth from 2021, said Palkhiwala on a call Wednesday for fiscal Q1 ended Dec. 26. The stock closed down 4.8% Thursday at $179.10.
The nonprofit Crisis Text Line severed its data-sharing arrangement with customer service software firm Loris AI, CTL said. The data had been "handled securely, anonymized and scrubbed of personally identifiable information," and Loris last accessed data in early 2020, it said Monday. Reporting last week disclosed the data sharing.
Seeking to promote a state dig-once policy, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) sent a letter Tuesday to telecom companies about upcoming highway and bridge projects. “These types of projects provide an opportunity to coordinate with ITD to accommodate future expansion of broadband infrastructure during the project development and construction phases,” wrote Chief Engineer Blake Rindlisbacher.
CTIA, Edison Electric Institute, NCTA and USTelecom representatives met virtually last week with FCC staff about progress being made by an industry Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum. “Highlighting the development of the Cross-Sector contact list and recent coordination between communications providers and electric companies, some participants noted an improvement in coordination ahead of rolling blackouts -- aiding communications providers’ ability to plan for the impact on network services,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 11-60. “There is more work to be done,” the groups said. They met separately with staff from the Public Safety Bureau and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
Ohio offered Intel $1.29 billion in “direct cash incentives” to invest $20 billion in building two semiconductor fabs on a 1,000-acre campus in Licking County (see 2201210085), Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik told a virtual media briefing Friday. The project is expected to add $2.8 billion to Ohio’s annual “gross state product” when it’s fully operational in 2025, said Mihalik. State tax authorities “will obviously have say over the job creation tax credit,” said Mihalik. "In terms of the direct cash incentives, we’ll be working with our partners in the legislature to bring those to fruition.” The Ohio Tax Credit Authority (TCA) approves all applications for the JCTC program and customarily meets monthly on the last Monday of each month, said a Department of Development spokesperson. "When an JCTC application is submitted to the TCA for review and approval, it will appear on a meeting agenda" that's posted publicly on the Thursday before the meeting, he said.
It's "an opportune time" for the FCC to "articulate that prerecorded scam calls and automated texts do not fall within any exemption from the consent requirement" under the Traced Act, said groups in a letter Thursday in docket 02-278. Imposter scam calls "have increased significantly" during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said. The National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Electronic Privacy Information Center, National Consumers League, Public Citizen and Public Knowledge were among signers.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities unanimously supported two items involving a 2021 state law establishing a broadband study commission. At a webcast meeting Wednesday, the board voted 5-0 to issue a request for quotation to get bids for consulting services for the study group, which will be funded by the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund. It voted 5-0 for a separate item ordering a broadband needs assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic showed parts of New Jersey lack access, which is “unacceptable,” said Board President Joseph Fiordaliso. “This is something that is vital to the education of our children and vital for those who are still not back in the office.”
The Oregon Public Utility Commission voted 3-0 Tuesday to adopt a staff recommendation to make permanent its temporary increase of the Oregon Telephone Assistance Program (OTAP) subsidy (see 2112020035). The commission in July temporarily increased OTAP support by $3 a month to $10 for Sept. 1-Jan. 31 to offset a reduction in federal support for voice-only services.
The FCC committed an additional $240 million in Emergency Connectivity Fund support, bringing the total to more than $4.4 billion so far, said a news release Tuesday. The new funding will support 693 schools, 55 libraries and eight consortiums to buy 683,000 connected devices and 182,000 broadband connections.
An FCC order requiring some small carriers to implement Stir/Shaken in the IP portions of their networks by June 30 (see 2112100070) is effective Feb. 24, says an item in Tuesday's Federal Register.