| | TOP STORIES YOU MISSED | Featured Stories | | | | | CORONAVIRUS COULD UPEND BROADBAND MONETIZATION MODELS Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, US broadband providers are under increased scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) while consumers are spending additional time at home. In an effort to protect consumers from high overages or connectivity issues that may result from increased internet use, Democratic members of both the FCC and the US Senate have asked internet service providers (ISPs) to temporarily suspend broadband caps and overage fees for affected communities.
Consequently, broadband providers are lifting caps on data usage and increasing peak data speeds in response to the coronavirus outbreak: AT&T temporarily lifted broadband usage caps, per Motherboard. Mediacom has offered customers in all service tiers 50GB of additional data through the end of March, according to Motherboard. Comcast increased peak data speeds for low-income customers and is providing free broadband trials. However, once the dust from the pandemic settles and life begins to return to normal, it will be next to impossible for providers to reimpose usage caps and data overage fees. |
| | | FCC COMPLETES LARGEST SPECTRUM AUCTION IN US HISTORY FCC revealed the winners of Auction 103, the country’s third mmWave spectrum auction and largest in US history with 3,400 MHz up for bid. Verizon, bidding under Straight Path Spectrum, emerged as the biggest spender, dishing out $1.6 billion on 4,940 licenses out of 14,142 licenses won in 411 areas. AT&T, under Fibertower Spectrum Holdings, followed closely behind Verizon with nearly $1.2 billion spent on 3,267 licenses in 411 areas. Other notable bidders include Dish Network, which under Window Wireless spent $202.5 million on 2,651 licenses in 416 areas; and T-Mobile, which spent $872.8 million on 2,384 spectrum licenses that cover 399 areas. Sprint, on the other hand, spent just about $114 million on 127 licenses in 38 areas. Having a sufficient amount of spectrum in the mmWave band for 5G networks is especially important for early rollouts in the US. |
| | | VUIZ INTRODUCES NEW HEALTH MONITORING TECH AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC Smart glass and AR technology supplier Vuzix has equipped its enterprise-oriented smart glasses with real-time thermal imaging technology — an addition that could prove vital in combating the spread of the coronavirus. The company announced it has teamed up with AR enterprise solution provider Librestream to bring the integrated thermal imaging solution to the Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses. Liberstream’s industrial wearable camera, called Onsight Cube, provides a real-time thermal video feed to the smart glasses’ display, which enables frontline workers, such as medical screeners and first responders, to view heat maps that can be used to monitor body temperatures from a distance. |
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