Amazon is adding 100,000 new full- and part-time positions across the U.S. in fulfillment centers and its delivery network to meet the surge in demand from people relying on its deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said Monday. The additional workers will boost its ability to deliver critical supplies “directly to the doorstep” of people relying on its service “during this stressful time." The e-tailer is contacting potential employees whose jobs have been affected in fields of hospitality, restaurants and travel, saying “we want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.” Amazon is temporarily boosting pay for existing employees, who are “playing an essential role” in the crisis, adding $2 per hour in wages in the U.S. to its current $15, through April. The company acted to promote social distancing in the workplace and is doing enhanced and frequent cleaning.
The FCC Wireless Bureau Tuesday approved special temporary authority for U.S. Cellular to use additional spectrum to meet increased customer demand during the coronavirus pandemic. The grant “will allow the company to operate for 60 days in spectrum licensed to Advantage Spectrum in the AWS-3 Band in order to provide additional capacity to U.S. Cellular customers in parts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin,” the FCC said.
Broadcasters having satellite phones on hand and pressing more stations to sign up for the FCC's disaster information reporting system are among items the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council is considering for dealing with emergencies. CSRIC adopted two working group reports Tuesday, one on broadcaster best practices and one on 911 interoperability in the transition from legacy to IP-based networks. The approved reports weren't posted Tuesday.
The rapid escalation in the number of confirmed U.S. cases of COVID-19 Tuesday continued turning life topsy-turvy for millions in various sectors, including telecom and consumer electronics. New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance urging Americans to avoid crowds larger than 10 people was making telework the new normal and sending more events and functions to the virtual domain.
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.