The coronavirus pandemic could have contradictory effects on European telecom providers, officials said in recent interviews. Demand may rise as people increasingly work from home. or fall from customers who lose their jobs or get COVID-19. European telcos said their supply chain hasn't been affected. U.K. ISPs said they can handle increased usage. Authorities said EU privacy rules must still be followed.

Sprint temporarily closed 71% of its retail locations and cut back store hours in those remaining open, in response to the spread of COVID-19, it said Tuesday. New store hours are Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

FCC plans to vote in April to allow Wi-Fi to share the 6 GHz band (see 2003050058) are in doubt because of complications from the coronavirus, Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel said during a New America teleconference Tuesday. Most FCC staffers have been telecommuting since last week.

The FCC should act quickly to help school districts give students the devices and connectivity they need to learn online while schools are closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks, educational technology stakeholders said in recent interviews. An estimated 6 million to 12 million K-12 schoolchildren don't have residential broadband. Some school districts are postponing online classes until all their students can be connected.

The White House Office of Science and Technology facilitated the Monday release of more than 29,000 machine-readable articles and other literature on COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in a bid for artificial intelligence experts to develop text and data-mining techniques to help the scientific community answer “high-priority” questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House, meanwhile, postponed a planned April 1 5G summit because of the outbreak (see 2003160064). The National institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Microsoft, Allen Institute for AI, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology contributed to the literature released Monday, OSTP said. “Decisive action from America’s science and technology enterprise is critical to prevent, detect, treat, and develop solutions to COVID-19,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios on a conference call with reporters. “The White House will continue to be a strong partner in this all hands-on-deck approach. We thank each institution for voluntarily lending its expertise and innovation to this collaborative effort, and call on the United States research community to put artificial intelligence technologies to work in answering key scientific questions about” COVID-19. “We need to come together as companies, governments, and scientists and work to bring our best technologies to bear across biomedicine, epidemiology, AI, and other sciences,” said Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz. “The COVID-19 literature resource and challenge will stimulate efforts that can accelerate the path to solutions.”

Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz of Hawaii and 11 other Senate Democrats urged the FCC Monday to temporarily allow schools to use E-rate program funding to provide Wi-Fi hot spots or other connectivity devices to students who lack at-home internet access amid widespread closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of House Commerce Committee Democrats similarly said last week top ISPs should address remote learning connectivity amid school closures (see 2003130066). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai got pledges last week from top ISPs to keep everyone online for the next 60 days amid the outbreak. “The FCC can use its emergency powers to temporarily waive relevant E-rate program rules and allow its beneficiaries to utilize universal service funding to provide home wireless service to existing school devices and hotspots for students who lack internet access at home,” the Democratic senators said in a letter to Pai. “This swift, immediate action would help ensure that all students can remotely continue their education during the current public health emergency.” Others signing the letter include Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senate Education Committee ranking member Patty Murray of Washington. The FCC didn't comment.

The Communications Workers of America and consumer groups sent major broadband providers a letter Monday urging them to lift all data caps and waive cap fees for all customers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The companies should also “remove barriers to immediate access to service plans, including any waiting period to enroll” and “share with the FCC data collected on the number of customers served, by what packages, and where expanded services were provided during the emergency.” The letters went to Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, Frontier Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, CWA said: Groups endorsing the push include Common Cause, Consumer Reports, Free Press, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, MediaJustice, the National Consumer Law Center, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, The Utility Reform Network and United Church of Christ Office of Communication.

The COVID-19 pandemic is clouding the outlook for the wireless industry in coming months, with the government asking people to stay home and carriers temporarily closing many retail outlets, analysts said. Meanwhile, the FCC gave T-Mobile special temporary authority Sunday to use additional spectrum in the 600 MHz band for 60 days to help it meet increased customer demand for broadband during the pandemic.

A White House-convened 5G summit is among events to be postponed or canceled because of COVID-19. The FCC also announced policies intended to allow agency licensees to function during the pandemic. Unlike the FCC, staff at some agencies are still having to report to the office.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau are allowing stations in the current repack phase affected by delays related to the novel coronavirus to wait until the next phase, said a public notice Tuesday. The repack just began phase 9, scheduled to end May 1. Stations that can’t meet that deadline will be granted a waiver of that deadline and a reassignment to phase 10, May 2-July 3, the PN said.