T-Mobile representatives sought changes to rules for the FCC affordable connectivity program, in conversations with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and others at the commission. T-Mobile “expressed support” for FCC “efforts to implement ACP, which promises to bring the transformative benefits of broadband service to millions of households on a sustained basis,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-450. “To maximize consumer choice and innovation, the Commission should allow different brands or lines of businesses within the same legal entity -- not just different legal entities within the same corporate family -- to file separate election notices,” T-Mobile said. “Allow states to opt out of the National Lifeline Accountability Database for the purposes of ACP.” T-Mobile urged the FCC to allow enrollees in the emergency broadband benefit program to continue receiving benefits of up to $50 a month “until EBB funds are expended or March 1” and to “address the issue of what notification is required when an EBB provider decides not to participate in ACP.”

CES 2022 encouraged attendees to get COVID-19 booster shots. Event organizer CTA “strongly encourages” all participants “to test for COVID-19 before they leave home and within 24 hours before entering a show venue,” it also said Friday. With 19 days before the Las Vegas show's opening, and COVID-19 cases spiking throughout the U.S., CTA elevated protocols to include distribution of a free Abbott Labs BinaxNow rapid antigen self-test kit to anyone who picks up a badge. Abbott CEO Robert Ford is to keynote Jan. 6 at 9 a.m. in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom. CTA will pay the cost of an onsite polymerase chain reaction test for international visitors who need to show their airlines such proof.

CTA encourages CES 2022 attendees to download the COVID Trace contact-tracing app developed by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said an association spokesperson. But the app remains obscure, and we couldn’t find mention of it anywhere on the CES 2022 website on Thursday. CTA is requiring CES 2022 participants be fully vaccinated but isn't mandating booster shots (see 2112140047).

With about three weeks before CES 2022 opens in Las Vegas, there’s no change in CTA's policy of not requiring a COVID-19 booster shot “at this time” to attend the show, emailed a spokesperson Tuesday. CTA considers participants fully vaccinated if they got their second dose of a multi-dose vaccine like the Pfizer or Moderna or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson at least 14 days beforehand. “We are actively tracking the emerging news and science around the new Omicron variant,” say CES 2022 health protocols. “While it is too early to determine the impact of this latest variant, we will continue to monitor and adjust our plans and health protocols as necessary.”

An FCC Wireline Bureau order granting State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance's request for an expedited waiver of the Emergency Connectivity Fund's invoice filing deadline takes effect Tuesday, says that day's Federal Register (see 2112020045).

The FCC Wireline Bureau waived more emergency broadband benefit program rules as the commission transitions to the affordable connectivity program, in an order Wednesday in docket 21-450 (see 2111260015). The bureau waived the requirement that ISP offerings and standard rates be offered "in the same manner and terms" as offerings available Dec. 1, 2020, until final ACP rules are enacted, and the requirement that providers submit to Universal Service Administrative Co. that they were a broadband provider then, in each state where it planned to participate. The bureau released additional guidelines for the EBB-to-ACP move, including that the national Lifeline accountability database will close at 6 p.m. EST Dec. 30 "for administrative purposes" ahead of ACP's Dec. 31 launch.

Uploading a COVID-19 proof-of-vaccination card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Clear smartphone app and its embedded Health Pass is the most expedient way for CES 2022 attendees who are fully inoculated to pick up their badges on arrival in Las Vegas, say CTA’s health and safety protocols. Those who don’t have the Clear app or another form of digital vaccine proof will be diverted to one of five customer service centers at various CES 2022 venues to show their physical CDC cards. “Individuals are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after their second dose of multi-dose vaccines and 14 days after the single-dose vaccines,” say the protocols. “CES will strictly enforce this schedule.” The protocols mean that anyone visiting a badge pickup location on the show’s opening morning Jan. 5 will have needed to get a final vaccine dose at least three days before Christmas. We queried Clear to ask how the app can differentiate between authentic and counterfeit CDC cards. Clear’s “digital vaccine solutions link a verified identity to COVID-19 insights to help deter potential fraud,” emailed spokesperson Ken Lisaius. “The CDC card upload uses image recognition technology and computer learning to determine if the card being uploaded meets the visual specifications of a government-issued CDC card,” said Lisaius, a former deputy press secretary in the George W. Bush White House. He left unanswered whether the Clear app will deny a badge to anyone not fully vaccinated at least 14 days out. CES is using Clear’s Health Pass “for free, safe and frictionless entry to the event,” said Lisaius. Only people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 "will be able to participate in-person in Las Vegas," say the CES 2022 protocols. The only exceptions are for convention staff and freight company employees who work the show venues during off-peak and overnight hours, they say. “We have requested that all convention staff during show days and hours show proof of vaccination.”

Give providers participating in the affordable connectivity program "substantial flexibility" until at least April 1 for any requirements the FCC adopts in its final order on the program, Verizon told staff to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said a letter posted Tuesday in docket 21-450 (see 2111230058). It recommended the commission not adopt an opt-in requirement for households enrolled in the emergency broadband benefit program. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act prohibits participating providers from "[requiring] the eligible household to submit to a credit check in order to apply the affordable connectivity benefit to an internet service offering,” to which Verizon noted "does not prohibit providers from simply performing a credit check or from using the results of a credit check for other purposes."

The COVID-19 pandemic set “a new watermark” in the number of PCs per household, Matt Baker, Dell Technologies senior vice president-corporate strategy, told the Raymond James technology investor conference Monday. What was one or two PCs per household before COVID-19 is “now one or two per person,” he said. “The pandemic has reinforced the PC as the prime productivity platform.” The world was saying “the PC was dead when they saw phones and tablets, but we all know that it's no fun working on a phone or a tablet,” he said. If there's any “silver lining” to the pandemic, it’s that the health crisis “placed our business on the critical path for everybody's lives,” he said.

President Joe Biden called himself an “optimist,” when asked Wednesday at a White House briefing if he worries that COVID-19's new omicron variant will exacerbate the supply chain crisis. “What we have seen so far” about omicron “does not guarantee” a negative “outcome,” he said. His administration will know in the next several weeks “how dangerous it is, and what damage it does,” he said. “The jury is still out" about omicron causing further setbacks to the supply chain, said Biden. "I think it’s a little early to make that judgment. But am I concerned? Of course I am until we get the final answers.”