As fears about the spreading coronavirus increase, stakeholders are upping requests (see 2003060036) for additional government actions on telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday Michigan plans to give Medicaid patients easier access to telehealth services during the pandemic. That will expand "opportunities for safe, quality care through telemedicine," she said.
Dozens of ISPs of all sizes agreed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's suggestion the industry not take adverse action against customers for the next two months amid the coronavirus pandemic, he announced Friday morning. Those companies won't terminate service to any residential or small-business customers because of inability to pay due to such disruptions; will waive any related late fees; and will open their Wi-Fi hot spots to anyone. Pai is also seeking that the providers make other changes, including related to bandwidth caps.
FCC staffers are being encouraged to work from home starting Friday and have been told to remove perishables from agency refrigerators and take their plants home, Chief of Staff Matthew Berry emailed staff Thursday in a memo obtained by Communications Daily. The agency also released a public notice Thursday banning all visitors from its facilities unless they receive special permission from the Office of Managing Director. It declined to detail what that permission may entail.
Due to the coronavirus, the FCC closed its building to visitors, Chairman Ajit Pai announced Thursday afternoon. He also noted in a series of tweets that the agency is encouraging its employees to work remotely, as we had just reported. See here. The commission cited the need for social distancing, which some experts say can help limit the spread of COVID-19.
NAB will not "move forward" with the April 18-22 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center "in the interest of addressing the health and safety concerns of our stakeholders," said CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday afternoon. The decision to cancel came (see 2003110042) after the NAB executive committee voted unanimously by phone earlier Wednesday to scrub the event.
Coronavirus concerns are forcing the cancellation of more industry summits and prompting the FCC to ban nonessential travel and participation in large gatherings (see 2003040061). America's Communications Association Thursday also announced the cancellation of its March summit.
The next two to eight weeks will be “telling” for whether the coronavirus brings down additional trade shows as it did the MWC 2020 event in Barcelona (see 2002120056), Jack Buttine, president, John Buttine Insurance, told an International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) webinar Friday. CTA belongs to IAEE, as does NAB. Buttine’s firm sells event-cancellation insurance, and advises trade-show organizers to add communicable-disease coverage to their policies. “The question arises often what show organizers should tell their exhibitors if they see loss coming,” said Buttine. “The big peril facing a show is rumors. Will this show cancel or not?” He thinks “getting out in front of the rumors” through website messaging is critically important, he said. The NAB Show is "proceeding as planned" April 18-22 in Las Vegas, blogged organizers Friday. The show "is committed to ensuring our response during this challenging time is responsibly based in facts, not driven by fear," they said. "We continue to closely review all guidance from global, federal and local health authorities to implement what is needed for the good of our show community and the good of our industry." The FCC is revising its pandemic plan, in case the virus becomes one (see 2002280046).
The FCC has a plan for dealing with a pandemic if necessary, said Chairman Ajit Pai and others answering our queries during news conferences Friday. So far, the main coronavirus effect on the regulator has been cancelation of an annual wireless conference, members told us. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks worries about impacts on 911 systems and about getting more people connected to residential broadband.