Retail consumer tech sales this year will fall 2.2% from 2019, the first decline since 2009, said CTA’s biannual forecast Monday. Tech industry sales revenue is projected to be $406.8 billion in 2020 “as consumers struggle with economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the association. The segment’s largest category -- smartphones -- will take a 6% hit this year, dropping to 153 million shipments worth $72 billion, said CTA. More than 14 million 5G smartphones are seen shipping in 2020, generating $11 billion in revenue. Software and streaming service categories are on track to reach a record of $86 billion, 14% growth, benefiting from stay-at-home orders, said CTA. Consumer spending on video streaming services is expected to hit $27 billion, up 23%. Audio is tracking toward $8 billion, up 21%.

Even consumers more inclined than others to return to stores during COVID-19 are buying online more than ever, Sucharita Kodali, Forrester Research vice president-principal analyst, told the National Retail Federation Monday. Forrester estimates about 40% of U.S. consumers are in that category, compared with 53% who prefer to continue sheltering at home and are fearful the economy is reopening too quickly. Of those who say they want to go back to stores, 30% "are choosing to purchase online,” said Kodali. “Almost half of them are purchasing their groceries online. This is an important observation because among people who may want to go back to stores, you’re still seeing them consuming online.” That’s the factor that’s “certainly driving e-commerce forward, but continues to be a challenge for physical stores,” the analyst said. Forrester found 37% of consumers “don’t want to pay anything” even for a same-day transaction. Another 22% said they are willing to pay $3-$6 for same-day delivery. With the e-commerce supply chain stretched to the limit during the pandemic, Forrester estimates 22% of consumers experienced late deliveries during the crisis, said Kodali. “That has also led to greater dissatisfaction with players like Amazon.” Of the Amazon Prime members Forrester canvassed, 24% said they were “frustrated” with the service, she said. Dissatisfaction was 10 points higher among Generation Z respondents, she said. Amazon didn’t comment Monday. Consumer resentment toward Amazon during the crisis “has provided oxygen” for other e-commerce giants like Walmart and Target, said Kodali. Though Amazon’s Q1 e-commerce sales were 25% higher than in the 2019 quarter, Walmart’s were up by 77% and Target’s 141%, she said.

Some in the tech sector backed fighting Nokia’s July 2 International Trade Commission complaint on banning imports of Lenovo laptops, tablets and desktop PCs for allegedly violating five patents. That would block access to affordable Lenovo Chromebook computers, said Google Friday (login required): As most schools worldwide “have begun adopting online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for mobile computing devices from many countries’ K-12 education sectors has been rising with Chromebooks currently seeing the highest shipments.” The Computer & Communications Industry Association commented against Nokia’s assertion that excluding Lenovo PCs won’t harm the public health and safety. “That does not reflect modern society,” said CCIA. “Computers are no longer optional entertainment devices.” They're the “main or even exclusive portholes through which nearly every American interfaces with nearly every aspect of modern life,” especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. Four of Nokia’s “asserted” inventions on video compression are H.264 “standard-essential patents” (SEPs), wrote Lenovo in docket 337-3466. The fifth describes user interfaces for better information searches through communications devices. Nokia committed to license SEPs to anyone on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, said the PC maker. The FTC warns such SEP-based exclusions “may adversely affect competitive conditions and harm consumers,” said Lenovo, citing a March 2011 FTC report on the “evolving” intellectual property marketplace and the need to align patent "remedies" with competition. The report recommended the ITC “consider these adverse effects in evaluating the public interest impact of proposed remedial orders,” said Lenovo. Nokia didn't comment Monday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged NARUC and state regulators to help lower inmate calling services rates for calls within states, in a letter Monday (see 2007200050). The federal commission is to vote Aug. 6 on whether to cap interstate and international ICS rates (see 2007160072). "Given the alarming evidence of egregiously high intrastate inmate calling rates and the FCC’s lack of jurisdiction here, I am calling on states to exercise their authority and, at long last, address this pressing problem," Pai wrote. He seeks "action on intrastate inmate calling services rates to enable more affordable communications for the incarcerated and their families. Prompt and meaningful state action on intrastate rates will provide much-needed relief to inmates and their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond." Pai noted NARUC opposed FCC action on intrastate rates. “Action to curb the sky-high rates that the families of the incarcerated pay for phone calls to their loved ones is long, long overdue,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel emailed. Other FCC commissioners didn't comment. An FCC spokesperson declined further comment. NARUC, which is holding a conference this week (see 2007200054), didn't comment. The Florida Public Service Commission doesn't have authority to set telecom industry rates, a spokesperson emailed. The Oregon PUC doesn't have any dockets scheduled on ICS rates, its spokesperson emailed. Other states' commissioners didn't comment. CenturyLink and an attorney representing Pay Tel Communications declined to comment, and other lawyers for ICS providers didn't comment. Consumer advocates suggested last week legislation might be necessary on high intrastate ICS rates (see 2007150066). Some tweeted Monday that Pai didn't do enough in the past to safeguard the agency's authority over intrastate ICS rates (see 1701310061).

Advanced communications allowed by 900 MHz spectrum cleared by the FCC for broadband 5-0 in May (see 2005130057) will be only one part of the answer for electric utilities as they move toward smarter grids, speakers said during a panel Monday at NARUC. The FCC approved 6 MHz in the band for broadband, reserving 4 MHz for narrowband.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson challenged state utility commissioners to increase diversity and be more inclusive, in a Monday keynote at NARUC’s virtual summer meeting. NARUC President Brandon Presley pledged “intentional actions” to end systemic racism, backing up the association’s June 4 statement amid a national reckoning. Another major crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, drove broadband discussions Monday.

DOJ approval of a deal that would allow Liberty Media to increase its share in iHeartMedia last week “threatens news stations, music outlets, and media workers across the country,” said Open Markets Institute's Center for Journalism and Liberty. The government nod allows Liberty to increase stake in iHeartMedia, currently at 5%, by up to 50%, confirmed an iHeart spokesperson Friday. “Liberty Media already controls too much of the media market, and this merger means it can expand its empire and further concentrate power over local media markets nationwide,” said Center for Journalism and Liberty Director Jody Brannon. Brannon said the U.S. should institute a merger moratorium during the pandemic crisis. Liberty and DOJ didn’t comment.

Stay the April 6 GHz order, which remains a threat to public safety communications, APCO said in a Friday filing in FCC docket 18-295. Radio local area network proponents recently invited stakeholders to participate in talks on establishing a multistakeholder group to oversee interference problems, apparently with encouragement from the FCC, APCO said: The group is “unlikely to resolve the important issues of how to detect and mitigate interference from standard-power and low-power devices.” Wi-Fi proponents are “exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to argue for increasing unlicensed spectrum, rather than recognizing that the pandemic is straining public safety agencies and will have long-term impacts (such as exacerbating budgetary constraints) that will make interference to 6 GHz systems harder to address and more detrimental to their life-saving missions,” the group said. In May, APCO sought reconsideration (see 2005280047).

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will watch the House Antitrust Subcommittee July 27 hearing with tech CEOs for answers on “what they’re doing to make sure that they don’t have anticompetitive platform privilege.” Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are to testify (see 2007070043). Khanna isn't a Judiciary Committee member. The chiefs should answer how their companies aren’t using their “platforms to suppress competition” within the tech sector, he said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators that was to be televised over the weekend. There needs to be “a nuanced conversation” on Capitol Hill about tech competition that goes beyond saying “‘let’s break up a company’” like Apple or Google, instead asking “what can we do to make sure that other companies can compete, that” tech giants “aren’t charging too much for the use of their own platforms, that they aren’t hurting competition,” Khanna said. He believes there needs to be a more “nuanced antitrust framework” within the federal government, and an update should look at factors beyond “consumer welfare,” including a company’s impact on jobs and communities. Major transactions need “be looked at with great scrutiny,” including what companies are doing on giving competitors access to their platforms, Khanna said. He believes there should be “extra scrutiny” on major tech companies’ activities during the pandemic, and those firms “should limit themselves to more or less organic growth and should not be trying to expand their footprint.” Policymakers and tech companies should have a “very thoughtful view of speech,” including whether content is “suppressing the vote” in the upcoming presidential election, is “leading to violence” or is “making it harder for others to have equality” on a platform, Khanna said.

COVID-19's supply chain disruptions and sharply lower demand sent Volvo’s Q2 revenue plunging 38%, including a 46% decline in vehicle sales, said CEO Martin Lundstedt on a Friday investor call. Volvo also incurred a 15% revenue decline in services, he said. “We are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lundstedt. “Even if we see positive signs in utilization of installed fleet and the demand of equipment and services, we also must be clear that numerous uncertainties remain,” he said. “The risks for further and repetitive lockdowns are still relatively high.”