Smartphone data consumption spiked during the first month of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, rising 75% in March from the same month on 2019, reported NPD Tuesday. Mobile hot spot usage rose 25%. As network capacity becomes “increasingly stretched,” more consumers use mobile hot spots for “additional connectivity,” it said. “Add into the mix that carriers have opened up more hotspot allowances, and we expect the numbers of people adopting hotspot usage on their devices to increase even more.” Video was 70% of traffic: Smartphone users with a screen size 5.5 inches or larger consume 53% more data on average than those with smaller screens.

The American Bankers Association and other financial groups asked the FCC to act on their petition seeking clarity that banks, credit unions and customer-facing financial service providers can use automatic telephone dialing systems, prerecorded messages and artificial voice for calls involving the COVID-19 pandemic without violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “Financial institutions’ calls and text messages to offer payment deferrals and other loan modifications and to warn consumers of potential fraud on the consumer’s account protect and support consumers’ financial health and safety,” the groups said in reply comments posted Friday in docket 02-278. “These calls and texts clearly fall within the Emergency Purposes Exception.” Many credit unions "closed lobbies, keeping only drive-through facilities open, and reduced hours in an effort to protect the health and safety of their employees and members,” said the CrossState Credit Union Association, which supports the petition: “As a result of these changes, credit union members need to be notified when such changes have occurred.”

The Starz streaming business is “thriving” in the stay-at-home “environment,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer on a fiscal Q4 call Thursday. Lionsgate bought Starz for $4.4 billion nearly four years ago (see 1606300069). Starz finished the year ended March 31 with 6.8 million paid over-the-top U.S. subscribers, “well in excess of our projections," said Feltheimer. "It has continued its strong growth since then.” It had forecast reaching about 6 million OTT subs domestically by fiscal year-end, said Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch: “We were well past that number through the first two months of the quarter, and then it accelerated as we got into March.”

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, led filing of a companion version of the Healthcare Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act (HR-6474) Friday. The measure would allocate $2 billion more funding to the FCC’s existing $605 million Healthcare Connect Fund program (see 2004090041). HR-6474’s text was included in the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800), which also contains substantial broadband funding (see 2005130059). “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the demand for telehealth,” Murkowski said. “Unfortunately, as a result, [the Rural Health Care program] has already outpaced the funding it was allocated prior to the outbreak and telehealth providers are facing significant connectivity challenges in their effort to provide care.” Six senators are co-sponsors: John Boozman, R-Ark.; Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; Angus King, I-Maine; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. Incompas, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and USTelecom lauded the bill’s filing.

An agency official and hospital executive urged applying soon for the FCC COVID-19 telehealth program. Speaking on an FCBA webinar Thursday, American Hospital Association Director-Health Information Technology Policy Samantha Burch wanted to see another round of congressional funding, saying additional demand could demonstrate need. Congress allocated $200 million (see 2004010042). Through Wednesday, the FCC had approved releasing just over $50 million. "Time is of the essence for this program," said Chas Eberle, senior counsel for the FCC Wireline Bureau's Telecommunications Access Policy Division. The program is to end when the entire $200 million fund is extinguished, which Eberle expected to occur before the emergency ends. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" when preparing a program application, he told FCBA. Bureau staff will work with applicants and seek clarification as needed, Eberle said. "Hospitals are grateful for this iterative process," Burch said. Keep in mind the program isn't a grant program but a reimbursement program, Eberle said. Awardees need to track and submit paperwork to get funding, he said. AHA wants the FCC to include for-profit hospitals (see 2004270044). "COVID doesn't discriminate based on the tax status," she said.

The FCC and the Institute of Museum and Library Services are promoting $50 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act broadband funding for libraries and tribal organizations, they announced Thursday.

The National Association of Attorneys General led a letter Thursday with 39 state AGs urging Congress to “ensure that all Americans have home internet connectivity necessary to participate in telemedicine, teleschooling, and telework” as part of future COVID-19 aid legislation. The House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act includes emergency broadband funding (see 2005130059). House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., criticized HR-6800 (see 2005210049). “Unless Congress acts quickly, disparities in access to home internet connectivity will exacerbate existing gaps in educational and health outcomes,” the AGs wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other leaders. ISPs’ commitments via the FCC-led Keep Americans Connected pledge (see 2005210033) “are laudable, but they are not sustainable. Ultimately, we need a national solution to enable universal access to broadband internet.” The AGs seek increased USF funding and “flexible” money for state, territorial and local governments to expand broadband access.

Videogame console sales were hot during the pandemic, smartphones less so, and it's hard to predict the COVID-19 future, Best Buy executives said Thursday. Revenue for fiscal Q1 ended May 2 fell 6.3% to $8.6 billion from the year-ago period but gaming comparable sales jumped 9.5%. A falloff in mobile phone sales offset increases in computing sales, said Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas. Services revenue fell 16.1%. Strong game console results were a “bit of a surprise” because management expected the spike to hit in fall with new platform resets, said Chief Operating Officer Mike Mohan. He pegged the Q1 demand to stay-at-home trends. The company furloughed workers and shut stores (see 2004290032). There’s “still a high level of uncertainty” at micro and macro levels, said CEO Corie Barry. It's “scenario-planning” about variables including unemployment; varying and changing state restrictions on how consumers engage with local businesses; and customer and employee safety via social distancing and masks. The measures will continue into the foreseeable future, she said. During the six weeks when the retailer moved to curbside-only sales, domestic online sales surged 300% year on year, she said, with half using curbside pickup. The pandemic strengthened Best Buy’s resolve that technology should be playing a bigger role in consumer healthcare, said Mohan. Now, consumers are thinking more about what they could or should be doing at home health-wise, he said. It’s a small business for the company, though it has had increased demand for thermometers and other “smart” health gear. Barry sees the home office buildout trend continuing. Shares closed down 4.37% at $77.98.

BIA Advisory Services reduced its Q2 forecast for local TV advertising by about $1 billion because of COVID-19, said a news release Thursday. The new revenue estimate is $18.5 billion -- $17 billion for over-the-air and $1.5 billion for digital -- down from the $19.4 billion BIA forecast earlier in 2020. “Overall, the numbers still reflect the election year and a slight increase over 2019,” the researcher said. TV stations will have ad decreases from many businesses, but some of those losses will be offset by jumps in political commercials in battleground states, said Chief Economist Mark Fratrik. Local political ad spending will be $7.1 billion through Q4. OTA will get 45.8% of political ad spending. Continued growth in over the top and digital “will help to soften the impact of the pandemic on advertising revenue,” Fratrik said. Retransmissions will generate $10.4 billion of station revenue in 2020, BIA said: “On a market-by-market basis, retransmission fees will continue to rise.”

NARUC will go virtual for its July 20-22 conference rather than meet in Boston, the state utility regulators’ association said Wednesday. NATOA said the same day that its board voted unanimously to virtualize its Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 conference rather than have it in Denver. See our news bulletin: 2005200060. NARUC decided based on surveys earlier this month of industry stakeholders and commission chairs (see 2005050052), said Michelle Malloy, senior director-meetings and member service, in an interview. Respondents raised concerns about safety, budget and travel bans at their organizations with no declared end dates, plus the planned location Boston hasn’t set an end date for its shutdown, she said. NARUC is reviewing bylaws to ensure committee business meetings and resolution votes may be conducted by video or audio and is working with the vendor of its existing meeting app to virtualize the conference, she said. The conference will go 12:30-5 p.m. EDT each day to accommodate West Coasters, she said. Expect a mix of live and prerecorded content, with sessions available for viewing afterward on demand, she said. Meeting virtually is an opportunity to bring in more commission staff, who may not have had budget to travel to physical meetings, she said. COVID-19 will be the big but not only topic, Malloy said. NARUC signed the contract for the Boston location in 2016, but “the venue was very accommodating” to cancellation, she said. “We have opened a dialog about a future meeting there.” The association hasn’t decided the fate of the Nov. 8-11 meeting in Seattle but may continue to incorporate some digital in future meetings, said Malloy. The regional Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC) conference also will be virtual June 22-24. NATOA decided not to meet in person after weighing "the costs to the organization, the well-being of our attendees, the economic hardship of our member communities and our responsibilities as individuals and as an organization to the public health and safety," President Brian Roberts and Executive Director Tonya Rideout emailed members Wednesday. The virtual event won't be "just fancy webinars," they said. "There will be keynotes, panel sessions, roundtables and networking in online lounges and virtual gathering spots."