Broadcasters and MVPDs won’t need to follow broad equal employment opportunity recruitment rules when rehiring employees released due the COVID-19 pandemic, said an FCC Media Bureau order Monday. “The Bureau finds good cause to waive this requirement to allow affected broadcast licensees and MVPDs to return operations to full strength once circumstances permit the re-hiring of released employees.” The requirement is waived only for rehiring full-time employees within nine months of their release who were laid off due to the pandemic. “Facilitating the expeditious re-hiring of full-time employees laid off as a result of the pandemic to job vacancies created by the pandemic” is in the public interest, the order said. The waiver isn’t necessarily a big shift, blogged Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast attorney Scott Flick: The FCC has “long recognized a narrow exception to its broad recruitment requirement where a hire occurs under ‘exigent circumstances’,” and that would likely apply to such rehires. The waiver will help stations avoid needing to prove in future EEO reviews that exigent circumstances existed, he said.

Omdia slashed semiconductor forecasts, predicting a 2.5% rise in revenue to $439.9 billion vs. previous projections of 5.5% growth. The market for wireless equipment market is seen falling 4.7%; wireless chip sales also are seen dropping. As of March, Omdia expects smartphone shipments to reach 1.2 billion units. Ramifications of the coronavirus “have come into sharper focus,” said analyst Myson Robles-Bruce. The pandemic disrupted supply chains and demand across component categories, he said, with Japan in recession and the U.S. and Europe expected to enter one this quarter. The release was emailed Thursday.

COVID-19 allowed no preparation for “spikes in demand,” said Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky on a Thursday Q1 call. The stock closed down Friday 7.6% at $2,286.04. Customer demand remains high but “at a cost” -- for essential items with lower average selling prices, he said. It’s “up in the air” when Amazon will resume one-day delivery service for Prime members, Olsavsky said, saying it could be Q2, Q3, “or beyond.” The challenge is in speeding up warehouse operations. Q1 revenue increased 26% to $75.5 billion. Amazon shoppers focused on health and personal care, groceries and home office supplies, Olsavsky said. Wireless products were among the discretionary categories with lower demand. The platform spent more than $600 million in COVID-19-related costs in Q1 and expects to top $4 billion in Q2. Costs included outfitting and cleaning facilities for social distancing, onboarding 175,000 new employees, buying personal protective equipment for employees, paying hourly workers higher wages, and investing “hundreds of millions" of dollars to develop COVID-19 testing capabilities, said the executive. It built in another $400 million for increased reserves for “doubtful accounts.” The company’s investment in COVID-19 testing in Q2 will be about $300 million -- “if we’re successful,” the CFO said.

Rural ISPs that recently offered free fiber broadband connections to families with schoolchildren hope to eventually make money from them, an NTCA webinar was told Friday. Golden Belt Telephone and Golden West Telecommunications worked with school districts to provide broadband to unserved households when schools closed due to COVID-19. Golden Belt General Manager Beau Rebel said he hasn't calculated the cost of the recent installations: "Some things are bigger than the bottom line." Golden West General Manager Denny Law said he will examine customer retention efforts later, "once we get to our new normal" because "free is not a long-term option." The company will see whether USF support will play a role. Providers and consumers would benefit from changes to Lifeline, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said. She said she wants to use the current crisis as a "national imperative" to address remote learning and the homework gap. She said FCC has authority to do under an existing E-rate law, but it needs a boost in funding. Many NTCA members signed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Keep Americans Connected pledge (see 2004300044), but as the number of unemployed grows, "they're seeing their uncollectables growing," said association CEO Shirley Bloomfield. "That's not sustainable."

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) is expected to lift state COVID-19 restrictions in three phases, and MGM Resorts expects Las Vegas casino reopenings in “the third bucket,” said acting CEO Bill Hornbuckle on a Q1 call Thursday. “We just don’t know” when Sisolak will give that green light, he said. The governor's office didn’t comment Friday. CES 2021 is scheduled for Jan. 6-9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. NAB canceled its show last month. MGM, which operates 11 casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, likely will reopen the 2,000-room New York-New York property first “because it’s one of our simpler places to run,” said Hornbuckle. The Bellagio would follow because “we want to be in the high-end business,” he said. “We’ll go slow, we will be responsive and responsible.” The stock closed 10.8% lower Friday at $15.01.

Apple's retail business had a record quarter, despite closed stores, said CEO Tim Cook on a fiscal Q2 call Thursday. He credited “phenomenal growth” in online sales. Revenue for the quarter ended March 28 grew 1% to $58.3 billion, “despite the extreme circumstances from the impact of COVID-19,” Cook said. Product revenue was $45 billion, and services revenue grew 17% year on year to a high of $13.3 billion, said Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri. IPhone sales were $28.9 billion vs. $31 billion, said the company. Sales of wearables, home products and accessories grew to $6.3 billion from $5.1 billion. Asked whether strong sales of the new $399 iPhone SE (see 2004150049) could indicate a trend to lower priced iPhones amid economic uncertainty, Cook said he hasn’t seen that. “It appears that those customers are primarily coming from wanting a smaller form factor,” or switching from Android devices, he said.

Minnesota state senators amended a COVID-19 broadband bill to clarify (see 2004220035) $10 million tagged for unserved areas in FY 2021 may be spent only after the commissioner of management and budget is sure the federal government will reimburse it as part of coronavirus relief. The Senate Finance Committee sent the amended SF-4494 to the Senate floor Thursday.

COVID-19 is badly suppressing smartphone demand globally, but Qualcomm is standing by its pre-pandemic 2020 forecast on worldwide 5G smartphone adoption, said CEO Steve Mollenkopf on a fiscal Q2 call Wednesday. It’s projecting that smartphone vendors will ship 175 million-225 million 5G handsets globally this calendar year. A “few regions” are experiencing “minor delays” in 5G network deployments due to the pandemic, said Mollenkopf. 5G momentum “is progressing as planned,” and poised for “rapid adoption,” he said. Most 5G smartphone launch plans “across all regions remain on track,” said Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala. He cautioned supply-chain disruptions might bring “some minor changes to the launch timing and sell-through of certain devices.” OEMs “are being very aggressive” on 5G smartphone pricing, said Palkhiwala. As China came out of lockdown in March and experienced a rebound in smartphone demand, Qualcomm estimates 30% of the devices “sold into the channel were 5G,” he said “That's really much stronger than even we had expected.” Qualcomm estimates the global smartphone market declined 21% in Q2, mainly due to the China lockdown, said Mollenkopf. The quarter ended March 29. For Q3 ending late June, Qualcomm forecasts smartphone demand will be down about 30%, he said.

Monday's online event on historically black colleges and universities and connectivity amid COVID-19, hosted by FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at 1 p.m. EDT (see 2004280047), will feature remarks from North Carolina Democratic Reps. Alma Adams and G.K. Butterfield and from HBCU presidents, said a release Thursday.

Contactless transactions grew twice as fast as noncontactless ones in grocery and drug stores as the COVID-19 pandemic spread between February and March, said a Mastercard study released Wednesday of 17,000 consumers in 19 countries. Some 79% of consumers used contactless payments in the period, citing safety and cleanliness as drivers. Worldwide, 46% of respondents said they have replaced their most-used payment card for a contactless one, 52% among those under 35. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they will continue to use contactless post-pandemic.