Davemichels

In telecom policy circles, there's an army of "experts" who twist themselves into pretzels trying to pretend U.S. telecom is a healthy, normal, vibrant market. Blinded by partisan loyalties, sector financial links, or ideologies embedded decades ago, they're incapable of even acknowledging that Americans pay too much money for spotty, substandard service with historically terrible customer support. They're even less likely to acknowledge the corruption, regulatory capture, and lack of competition that made this dysfunction possible. If it is acknowledged, it's downplayed to a comical degree.

As in the Ma Bell days, at the heart of U.S. broadband dysfunction sits phone companies. Providers, that have long refused to upgrade their aging DSL networks despite millions in taxpayer subsidies, lobby for state laws that ensure nobody else can deliver broadband in these neglected footprints either. These are companies that have a bizarre disdain for their paying customers, delivering the bare minimum (slow DSL) at the highest rates they can possibly charge without a full-scale consumer revolt. It's not surprising, then, that many telco DSL customers are fleeing to cable, assuming they even have a second broadband option.

This dynamic often results in some almost comedic dysfunction.

Like in West Virginia, where incumbent telco Frontier has repeatedly been busted in a series of scandals involving substandard service and the misuse of taxpayer money. The graft and corruption in the state is so severe, state leaders have buried reports detailing the depth of the problem, and, until recently, a Frontier executive did double duty as a state representative without anybody in the state thinking that was a conflict of interest.

But it's not just West Virginia. Frontier has since been under investigations from New York to Minnesota for failing to upgrade or even repair its aging network, at points putting human lives at risk. The company has also been repeatedly under fire for blatantly ripping its users off. For example, it has been charging its customers a rental fee for modems they already own. Very rarely do you see state leaders stand up to the company. And you'll certainly never see any kind of substantive pushback by the current, industry-captured FCC.

Customers who can leave (usually to the other end of the duopoly, Comcast), have been fleeing whenever possible, resulting in a looming bankruptcy by the company. In a report to investors this week we're only now starting to finally see something close to truth from the company as it tries to own up to its incompetence. Frontier had apparently tried to redact much of the report detailing the scope of network neglect, but appears to have bungled that as well:

"For example, one redacted sentence says that "Frontier WV's copper network has at least 952,163 connection points that are susceptible to moisture, corrosion, loose connections, etc. that may cause interruptions of service to customers."...The failed redaction of the number of connection points was coupled with failed redactions about the age of the network. The consultant firm's report said that 46.8 percent of Frontier's West Virginia network is between 36 and 47 years old. Both the percentage and the numbers of years were unsuccessfully "redacted" by Frontier.

The report makes it clear that the company probably shouldn't have engaged in mindless M&As, acquiring unwanted aging phone networks from AT&T and Verizon in "growth for growth's sake." Many of those deals were completely bungled and saddled the company with unneeded debt. Most should have been blocked by regulators and lawmakers who were too busy kissing the company's ass. Frontier also should have invested money back into the network to build a stronger company and retain subscribers, instead of engaging in repeated stock buybacks.

There are two reasons the company didn't do better on these fronts. One is sniveling, feckless, U.S. regulators and cash-compromised state and federal lawmakers, who rubber stamp every merger thrown on their desks, and refuse to hold politically powerful monopolies accountable. The other? A lack of competition across most of Frontier's territories:

"So why would a company like Frontier not immediately hit the upgrade button and start a massive copper retirement-fiber upgrade plan to keep the company in the black? In short, Frontier has survived chronic underinvestment because of a lack of broadband competition. Nearly two million Frontier customers have only one choice for internet access: Frontier. For another 11.3 million, there is only one other choice – a cable company that many detest. Frontier has enjoyed its broadband monopoly/duopoly for at least two decades. So long as its customers have fewer options, Frontier is under less pressure to invest in upgrades."

There were ample opportunities for state and federal leaders to step in and correct these problems, while embracing pro-competition policies that minimized the need for government involvement. Instead we let a regional monopoly dictate state and federal policy, and now act surprised when the end result is a smoldering dumpster fire. Granted as Frontier stumbles toward bankruptcy most of its debt will be wiped clean, nobody in the U.S. will learn anything from the process, and a universe of "very serious telecom policy thinkers" will continue to turn a blind eye to the entire mess as history repeats itself.

Microsoft Teams can be your conferencing platform with PSTN audio conferencing and your Phone system with either Calling Plans from Microsoft or a third-party PSTN carrier with Direct Routing.

Microsoft provides a PSTN & SMS usage report that serves as your call records report and also a breakdown of any PSTN charges.

The report covers Calling Plans and Microsoft PSTN Audio Conferencing in one tab and Direct Routing calls in another tab. The fields in each report are different. This blog focuses on the Calling Plan and PSTN Audio Conferencing report.

To understand what you will be charged per minute for, and what is included/zero cost, check out the blogs on PSTN audio conferencing and calling plans from Microsoft.

Reporting Period

The report can be generated for 7 days, 28 days or a custom date range. The reports usually reflect a 24 to 48-hour latency from time of activity.

There is no documented time for how long the data is held, but it appears to be 1 year, even though you can select longer with the date picker.

Fields in the Report

The full exported report contains the following fields. All dates are UTC and in ISO 8601 format.

• UsageId – A Unique call identifier GUID
• Call ID is the call ID for a call. It’s an identifier for the call you can use when calling Microsoft Support. Not Guaranteed  to be unique
• Conference ID is the number PSTN audio conference ID of the audio conference (only applies to conf_in and conf_out)
• User Location – Country of the user for the call/conference bridge. Format: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
• AAD ObjectId – Azure Object ID of the user. In the case of a conference the conference owner
• UPN – User Principal Name (sign in name) in Azure Active Directory. This is usually the same as the user’s SIP Address and can be same as the user’s e-mail address
• User Display name is the display name of the user. You can click the display name to go to the user’s settings page in the Microsoft Teams admin centre.
• Caller ID –  Number that received the call for inbound calls or the number dialed for outbound calls. E.164 format
• Call type is whether the call was a PSTN outbound or inbound call and the type of call such as a call placed by a user or an audio conference. The calls types you may see include:
  • Calling Plan
    • user_in – the user received an inbound PSTN call.
    • user_out – the user placed an outbound PSTN call
    • user_out_conf – the user added two or more PSTN participants to the call such as a three-way conference call
    • user_out_transfer – the user transferred the call to a PSTN number
    • user_out_forwarding – the user forwarded the call to a PSTN number
  • PSTN Audio Conferencing
    • conf_in – an inbound call to the Audio Conferencing bridge. For records of this call type, the user specified in the User ID column corresponds to the organizer of the meeting.
    • conf_out – an outbound call from the Audio Conferencing bridge usually to add a PSTN number to the conference. For records of this call type, the user specified in the User ID column corresponds to the organizer of the meeting.
  • Cloud Call Queues and Auto Attendants
    • ucap_in – Unified Communication Applications (UCAP). An inbound PSTN call to the UC application such as auto attendant or call queue
    • ucap_out – an outbound PSTN call from the UC application such as auto attendant or call queue
• Number type is the user’s phone number type, such as a service or toll-free number.
• Domestic/International tells you whether the call was domestic (within a country or region) or international (outside a country or region) based on the user’s location.
• Destination Dialed – Country dialled
• Destination Number – The phone number dialled
• Start time – start time of call (UTC)
• End Time – end time of call (UTC)
• Duration Seconds – how long the call was connected in seconds
• Connection Fee – any connection free
• Charge – any charge (communication credits)
• Currency – is the type of currency used to calculate the cost of the call.
• Capability is the license used for the call. The license types you may see include:
  • MCOPSTNPP – Communications Credits
  • MCOPSTN1 – Domestic Calling Plan (3000 min US / 1200 min EU plans)
  • MCOPSTN2 – International Calling Plan
  • MCOPSTN5 – Domestic Calling Plan (120 min calling plan)
  • MCOPSTN6 – Domestic Calling Plan (240 min calling plan)
  • MCOMEETADD – Audio Conferencing
  • MCOMEETACPEA – Pay Per Minute Audio Conferencing
  • MCOEV – Phone system (will apply for things like call queues and auto attendants)

Exporting the Report

You can export the report via clicking the Excel icon on the top right. There is no API or PowerShell access to this information. Teams Admin Center and Excel export are the only options.

Official Documentation here: Microsoft Teams PSTN usage report

• US Navy Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the commander of the United States' largest forward­-deployed fleet, visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt to speak to its crew, CNN reported.
• "There was lots of anxiety about the virus," Merz reportedly said. "As you can imagine the morale covers the spectrum, considering what they have been through."
• Merz, who saw the videos of Capt. Brett Crozier's rousing send-off, said his immediate reaction was "our job just got harder for us."
• Merz said he believed Crozier's "motives were pure" when he emailed his letter and that "he was looking out for his crew."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

US Navy Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the commander of the United States' largest forward­-deployed fleet, visited the aircraft carrier reeling from a coronavirus outbreak and admitted the morale for some of its crew was negatively impacted by recent events.

"There was lots of anxiety about the virus," Merz told CNN. "As you can imagine the morale covers the spectrum, considering what they have been through."

The nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is currently stationed in Guam, has been beset with a range of recent problems — including the firing of its commander, Capt. Brett Crozier.

On April 2, Crozier was relieved of command by the then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly after he emailed a four-page letter to over 20 people, warning about the coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship. The letter was eventually leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published its contents.

It was not immediately clear how the letter was leaked, but Navy leaders said they recently completed an investigation into the matter.

Modly scrutinized Crozier's decision to email the letter to the group and accused him of circumventing the service's chain of command. In a leaked 15-minute speech directly to the crew aboard the ship, Modly went on to suggest that Crozier was either insubordinate or "too naïve or too stupid."

Modly apologized for his remarks and resigned on Tuesday.

Crozier, who was hailed as a benevolent commander by many aboard the ship and Democratic lawmakers, has since been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. As Crozier left his ship, dozens of crew members, in close proximity with each other, saw him off by cheering him on.

Vice Adm. Merz, who saw the videos of the send-off, said his immediate reaction was "our job just got harder for us" because of the lack of social distancing. 

Merz told CNN the ship's crew was "struggling in the wake of losing their [commanding officer] and their perception of the lack of activity regarding fighting the virus."

Merz cited an apparent disconnect between information about the coronavirus and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

"I think we could have told them earlier what we knew," Merz said. "The degree of accuracy against the virus at any level is a little sketchy, but I think we could have at least bought [sic] them in earlier and started having this dialogue up front."

"I certainly don't think it was malice by the ship or the leadership" Merz added. "I think it was just a matter of getting their arm around what they could and could not tell them."

Merz, like Modly and other Pentagon leaders, said he believed Crozier's "motives were pure" when he emailed his letter and that "he was looking out for his crew."

More than 2,300 of the carrier's roughly 4,800 crew members have been evacuated, and many of them are under quarantine in hotels in Guam. Over 445 crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday.

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Verizon quietly introduced a new email marketing feature yesterday that it calls “View Time Optimization,” which the company says automatically times advertisements to the moment you’re looking at your email inbox so that the ad arrives at the very top as a new message.

The service is part of Verizon’s suite of email and web advertising properties, which includes AOL and Yahoo, and well-known programmer David Heinemeier Hansson (the inventor of the Ruby on Rails web application framework) called out Verizon on Twitter on Friday for what he calls an “Orwellian” ad placement tool.

(It should be noted Hansson is helping develop a privacy-focused email client called Hey through his company Basecamp, of which he is the co-founder and chief...

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An interview with author Geoffrey Cain

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UK health officials are partnering with Facebook to put Portal video calling displays in hospitals, care homes, and other facilities. Facebook will donate up to 2,050 Portals starting with a pilot program in Surrey and expanding to Manchester, Newcastle, London, and other areas. They’re meant to let residents communicate with loved ones they can’t see during the pandemic, while also to letting on-site employees coordinate with people who are working remotely and support telehealth efforts.

The tech-focused NHSX agency announced the news yesterday. In a statement, Facebook health technology head Freddy Abnousi said the company built Portal to “give people an easy way to connect and be more present with their loved ones,” and “with the...

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Google has officially removed the Hangouts brand from its enterprise G Suite offering with the rebranding of Hangouts Chat as Google Chat, the company confirmed to The Verge on Thursday. The rebranding follows a similar name change, confirmed yesterday, from the companion videoconferencing app Hangouts Meet to Google Meet.

This latest modification was first hinted at by an updated G Suite support document listing the Google Chat name alongside Google Meet. Of course, this version of Chat is not to be confused with the other version of Chat, the name Google inexplicably gave its relatively new RCS-based Android messaging protocol.

As for the Hangouts brand, it will continue to live on as the name of the consumer chat app that Google...

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• Microsoft has asked all of its US employees to work from home "until further notice," but some employees appear to be breaking the rules. 
• The company has been tracking when workers use employee badges to enter offices, according to an internal email reviewed by Business Insider.
• Many people are complying with Microsoft's rules, the email said, but some employees whose work does not require them to be in the office are going there anyway "for reasons other than picking up items from your desk."
• Microsoft reminded employees to keep working from home if their job allows it and detailed how it was supporting those who have to work on-site, such as data-center workers.
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

Microsoft employees in nonessential roles continue to go into company offices despite orders not to, according to an internal email reviewed by Business Insider.

To help workers stay safe and avoid spreading the coronavirus, Microsoft has asked all of its US employees to work from home "until further notice," unless they are in a job that requires them to be on-site. In an email on April 6, Kurt DelBene, a Microsoft executive, reminded staffers to follow the rules. 

The company has been able to analyze whether full-time employees and vendors are respecting its remote-work policy by tracking who scans into buildings with their employee badges. 

"While it's terrific to see how many people are complying, we continue to see people in non-essentials roles badge-in onsite for reasons other than picking up items from your desk," DelBene wrote. "Please continue to respect the work from home guidance to safeguard your health as well as the health of employees in essential roles that must enter the workplace."

Microsoft declined to provide more information.

In his email, DelBene also shared some of the ways the company was supporting data-center workers and other employees who have to work on-site. Microsoft is supplying protective equipment like masks and enacting measures such as "shift modifications, social distancing protocols, personal and site sanitation procedures," the email said. 

Since the coronavirus crisis began, Microsoft has also offered 12 weeks of paid leave for parents as school remain closed, streamed companywide town halls from executives' homes, and even delivered food and medications to employee's homes.

The company also confirmed to Business Insider earlier this week that it was freezing hiring for some roles, citing uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis. It declined to specify which roles are affected.

Are you a Microsoft employee? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.

SEE ALSO: Here are 10 companies Amazon could buy up to fortify its massive cloud business if a recession drives prices down, according to experts — including Oracle, Twilio, and Zoom

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NOW WATCH: A podiatrist explains heel spurs, the medical condition Trump said earned him a medical deferment from Vietnam

Even though I’ve worked from home for more than three years, it can still get lonely at times. My apartment is usually very quiet and almost all of my conversations with my colleagues happen silently over Slack, save for the clatter of my mechanical keyboard. I worked in an office for the first part of my career, and at times, I get nostalgic for the white noise of an office — the idle chatter, the whirring of a too-cold air conditioning system, and other people clattering away at their keyboards.

If the pandemic has left you surprisingly nostalgic for your office, imisstheoffice.eu, made by Kids Creative Agency, might be the closest thing to actually being back there. When you load up the site, hit the play button in the bottom-left...

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Google announced today that it’s extending free access to some advanced features in its teleconferencing service Google Meet until September 30th. Google had previously announced on March 3rd that it would offer free access to those features until July 1st.

Google is letting all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers host meetings via Meet with up to 250 participants, live-stream to up to 100,000 people within a single domain, and save meeting recordings to Google Drive. These features are typically only available to people on the “enterprise” tier of G Suite, which costs $25 per user per month.

“Whether working with consumers or businesses, you shouldn’t have to trade reliability, security and privacy for universal access and...

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• United Airlines just posted a series of aviation-themed backgrounds for Zoom, the video chat app.
• As frequent flyers continue to shelter in place and avoid travel, United said the backgrounds offer a bit of lighthearted fun as the coronavirus crisis continues, and its severity continues to grow.
• Scroll down to see and download the backgrounds.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This is a terrible time for aviation — the industry itself, those who work in it, and those who fly.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced planes and their passengers to remain grounded as social distancing guidelines, travel restrictions, and border closures mean that travel demand is almost nil, aside from a few essential workers relocating to manage the crisis.

As many workers around the world enter their second month working from home, those who are used to traveling for work — or for fun — are likely getting cabin fever.

That's the inspiration behind a new set of backgrounds United Airlines just released for the video conference app Zoom.

The next time you're on a call from your kitchen table, living room, or home office, pop one of these backgrounds up and have fun looking forward to the next time you can fly. This crisis may be devastating across industries and lives, which makes moments of levity even more important.

Scroll down to see and download United's aviation-themed Zoom backgrounds.

SEE ALSO: United's flagship Polaris airport lounge in Newark is 27,000 square feet of complimentary restaurants, bars, private nap rooms, and showers — here's what it's like

One option is the United Polaris lounge in Houston, the airline's luxe international business class lounge.

Click here to download.

Read our feature on United's Polaris lounges.

For the AvGeeks missing the friendly skies, why not go with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner cockpit?

Click here to download.

Plane-spotters can go with a Boeing 737-800 taxiing toward the runway.

Click here to download.

Nothing beats a window seat, especially at sunset. Channel that relaxing vibe with this backdrop.

Click here to download.

You could also go with a United Polaris business class seat. Move to the right side of your screen and ... well, it's not exactly the same as being on a plane, but it's still a fun background.

Click here to download.

Read our review of Polaris here.

Finally, there's a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in flight.

Click here to download.

Microsoft MVP, Tom Arbuthnot of Modality Systems, recently released a blog post about a new upcoming version of Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams for Home is the consumer version of the Microsoft 365 solution, designed to deliver everything you need for convenient personal conversations.

The new consumer version of Microsoft Teams promises to take the convenience of Teams for collaboration and communication out of the office. According to Microsoft, with this new tool, businesses will be able to stay connected in all aspects of their lives.

As noted by Tom, there are two SKUs available for the new Microsoft version, including a “Personal” package for $6.99 per month, and a “Family” option for $9.99 per month. The family service includes support for up to 6 people. These new offers will replace Office 365 Personal and Home, and existing subscribers will get the upgrade automatically.

Serving the Consumer Market

Microsoft’s new solutions for consumers are brimming with new features and experiences to explore. However, the most interesting introduction is the Microsoft Teams application for consumers. This mobile messaging hub will allow consumers to send gifs, access their cloud storage, assign tasks to people, start video chats, and more.

Although there aren’t a lot of details available on the new Microsoft Teams consumer experience, a few of the things we know that you will be able to do include:

• Chatting: Via instant messaging, gifs, video conversations, and more. You can even edit calendars and assign to-do list tasks to members of your family
• Activity management: Teams will offer a centralised environment where shared tasks, activities, calendars, photos, and events are all located in the same place
• Share: You can give your kids help with homework from a distance, work on a budget together in Excel, and save multiple documents to the cloud from any device. You can even share location information
• Secure: You’ll be able to access an identity and password management tool for security and privacy purposes

When Will the Features Be Available?

If you’re looking forward to organising your family life with the help of Microsoft and Microsoft Teams, then you don’t have long to wait. Microsoft has already announced that the new features will be appearing on the Teams Mobile app in the months to come.

This new consumer-focused application will deliver an incredible opportunity for consumers to discover all the benefits of an aligned Teams experience. You’ll be able to plan for upcoming road trips with itineraries, packing lists, and even location tracking. Alternatively, you can use the Teams experience for handling the complex parts of family life, like booking appointments, tracking schedules, and delegating crucial tasks.

Microsoft has also announced that you can use the Teams app to switch between a personal and enterprise account whenever you choose.

We’re excited to see where this new consumer version of Microsoft Teams will take today’s families and organised individuals. Stay tuned for more updates as they emerge.

• San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo announced that the city would spend $17 million on prefabricated tiny homes for the homeless.
• San Jose has about 6,000 residents without reliable shelter and only 850 shelter beds for them.
• Experts warned that the coronavirus could hit homeless populations especially hard, as they may be unable to practice social distancing and self-isolate. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

San Jose city leaders voted to spend $17 million tiny homes for the homeless, Maggie Angst at Mercury News reported. 

Over half a million people are homeless on any night in the US, and San Jose alone has a homeless population of about 6,000. Right now, the city has 850 beds available in its shelters, enough for fewer than 15% of residents. Since the coronavirus outbreak, San Jose has compensated by leasing motel rooms, setting up temporary trailers, and converting two downtown convention centers into additional shelters. 

San Jose has committed to spending $17 million on the prefab tiny homes despite a projected budget shortfall of $110 million over the next two years. To make up the difference, the city plans to tap into Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP), a state grant to address homelessness. San Jose originally planned to use the money for a homeless navigation center to help people transition to permanent housing, but the plan fell through as the city couldn't find a place for it. 

Medical experts and homeless advocates have stated unsheltered residents are particularly at risk as social distancing is difficult in shelters, and people who have exposed or diagnosed with COVID-19 lack the ability to isolate themselves. A new study estimates that 3,400 homeless people across the country will die from COVID-19, and more than 21,000 will be hospitalized.

Here's what the tiny home plan looks like. 

SEE ALSO: This $199,000 tiny home can be installed in a San Jose, California backyard in one day — see inside

The city plans to build 500 new tiny homes within a few weeks rather than months or years, thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom relaxing environmental regulations.

"We can't know for sure what's going to happen in the weeks ahead — particularly if there is a second wave of infections — so the need for housing that would be necessary for people who are COVID positive — or exposed or the highly vulnerable who need to self-isolate or quarantine — will be critical" Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

The city council estimates that $17 million will allow it to construct 500 homes, at about $25,000 each.

San Jose opened its first tiny home community in February, with only 40 homes.

This initiative is aimed at housing people as quickly as possible, and it's a much larger undertaking.

As people without shelter are moved from homeless encampments to temporary housing, the city is also considering repurposing units from past emergencies.

So far, the city has located four sites that could serve as locations for the homes.

The homes are specifically intended for people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or exposed and have no place to self-quarantine.

Liccardo said that he hopes the units could last up to ten or 15 years.

California has taken some other public health measures, like deploying mobile hand-washing stations across the state.

California has been under a statewide stay at home order since March 19.

As of Thursday, Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, has had 1,380 confirmed cases and 46 deaths.

Source: Mercury News

The Surface Neo, Microsoft’s dual-screen PC that runs a new operating system called Windows 10X, will miss its planned release date of holiday 2020, according to reports from ZDNet and CNBC. The company is said to have shifted its focus to get Windows 10X to run well on single-screen devices like laptops and 2-in-1s.

The Surface Duo, the dual-screen Android phone that Microsoft announced alongside the Neo last year, is apparently unaffected so far. Third-party dual-screen or foldable PCs, however, like a planned model of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold, reportedly won’t be able to launch this year with Windows 10X, which is likely to mark a major setback for the form factor.

Microsoft has to date only spoken about Windows 10X in the context of...

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A global group of scientists and lawyers announced their efforts to make their intellectual property free for use by others working on coronavirus pandemic relief efforts—and urged others to do the same—as part of the "Open Covid Pledge."

Mozilla, Creative Commons, and Intel are among the founding members of this effort; Intel contributed to the pledge by opening up its portfolio of over 72,000 patents, according to a press release.

Participants are asked to publicly take the pledge by announcing it on their own websites and issuing a press release.

"Immediate action is required to halt the COVID-19 Pandemic and treat those it has affected," the pledge states. "It is a practical and moral imperative that every tool we have at our disposal be applied to develop and deploy technologies on a massive scale without impediment. We therefore pledge to make our intellectual property available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the impact of the disease."

From there, people and companies are asked to adopt a license detailing the terms and conditions their intellectual property will be available; while pledgers are permitted to write their own license based on their needs, the organizers wrote "Open COVID License 1.0" as a template for immediate use, which grants usage rights to anyone working toward "minimizing the impact of the disease, including without limitation the diagnosis, prevention, containment, and treatment of the COVID-19 Pandemic." The license is effective until one year after the World Health Organization declares the pandemic to be over.

Other participating organizations and institutions include Berkeley and UCSF's Innovative Genomics Institute, Fabricatorz Foundation, and United Patents.

“Scientists and researchers need the freedom to make Covid-19 innovations and inventions without the threat of being sued by intellectual property owners," Intel’s General Counsel, Steve Rodgers, said in a press release. "On behalf of Intel employees around the world, and especially our inventors who have worked so hard to create Intel’s intellectual property, we encourage intellectual property holders around the world to join us in this pledge.”

“These unprecedented times call for creativity and generous sharing of knowledge,” Jennifer Doudna, Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute of UC Berkeley and UCSF, which took the pledge, said. “Enabling individuals and organizations across the world to work on solutions together, without impediments, is the quickest way to end this pandemic.”

Update 4/8, 10:55 p.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Stanford, Harvard and MIT took the Open Covid Pledge. This article is now updated.

• Video conferencing app Zoom has exploded in popularity over the past month as people have been looking for ways to stay in touch virtually while social distancing.
• But a number of security issues have come to light in recent weeks, including a new form of harassment known as "Zoom-bombing."
• This recently caused the NYC Department of Education to shift away from Zoom as a tool for distance learning. The government of Taiwan also banned Zoom in official settings.
• Zoom faces a number of competitors in the market, but some analysts think Microsoft is in a strong position to win over customers that may be turning away from Zoom.
• Microsoft's Teams chat software, which also supports video calls, has a strong advantage thanks to its deep ties to the company's Office 365 software.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Video-conferencing app Zoom has surged in popularity over the last month as about 90% of Americans are under orders to stay home — meaning people are increasingly turning to virtual tools to hold work meetings, attend classes, and socialize.

But with that newfound popularity has come a deluge of concerns surrounding the quality of Zoom's privacy and security measures. Hackers have infiltrated private meetings and classrooms in "Zoom-bombing" attacks; data was apparently sent to Facebook and routed through China; and reports surfaced that the app potentially exposed user email addresses to strangers and didn't encrypt messages end-to-end.

The company was dealt another blow this past week when the New York City Department of Education banned Zoom usage for remote learning and instead instructed teachers to use alternatives like Microsoft's Teams software. Zoom shares were down as much as 9% on Monday after surging to an all-time high in March.

These moments are crucial for the ascendant company, and as pressures have mounted, the company's slow response may be leaving the door wide open for other services like Teams to swoop in and pick up Zoom's pieces.

Zoom has many competitors: Microsoft Teams, Google's Meet and Hangouts, and Cisco Webex are among the biggest, but RingCentral, a smaller cloud-based messaging firm, also launched its own video conferencing alternative just last week.

Still, some analysts think Microsoft is in a strong position to serve as an alternative to Zoom should other companies and organizations take steps similar to the New York City Department of Education's.

"They've got a good solution with Microsoft Teams," Alex Zukin, a senior research analyst covering enterprise software for RBC Capital Markets, said to Business Insider. "So I think that's the one vendor that's going to have the largest amount of benefit."

But Zukin said he doesn't believe the recent security concerns will steer consumers and clients away from Zoom. Similarly, he doesn't see the recent incidents as having a meaningful impact on Zoom's business. The company has also worked to increase security and allay concerns, working with Facebook's former security chief and a team of other consultants.

If companies and organizations were to leave Zoom, however, the existing giants are likely to benefit. Microsoft Teams, in particular, has deep integration with Microsoft's widely used Office 365 software, which might play to its advantage for remote learning and work communications.

"Microsoft's perception is secure, broad, and you're already using them in other places," Zukin said. "So why not add [Teams]?"

That lines up with recent thoughts from a group of Credit Suisse analysts led by Brad Zelnick, which wrote in a note on Monday that Microsoft Teams could be Zoom's biggest threat in the long-term. 

Other than Teams' easy connection to Microsoft's existing productivity software, Microsoft's size plays to its advantage since it has the resources to reach customers at scale, according to Mark Bowker, a senior analyst for research firm Enterprise Strategy Group.

When Zoom CEO Eric Yuan addressed the various security concerns that have emerged on his platform in recent weeks, he noted that Zoom was originally built to serve enterprise customers and businesses with IT departments. Zoom wasn't expecting it would suddenly be used to host weddings or an entire school district's classes, and it wasn't prepared to handle the massive uptick in consumers and new use cases that have surfaced, he said.

Tech's old guard might be better suited to weather this storm, according to Bowker. 

"Microsoft and Google also have the backbone of infrastructure, credibility, and business scale to meet the current needs of the world," Bowker said via email. 

Zoom has become the teleconferencing app of choice during the coronavirus pandemic, in which nonessential businesses have closed in cities across the United States, forcing many to work from home. In March, Zoom hosted 200 million daily participants, shattering the record it held as of December 2019 of 10 million daily participants. The company has also been working with 90,000 schools across 20 countries as classrooms remain closed in areas impacted by the pandemic. 

But that popularity hasn't come without controversy and scrutiny. Over the past month, Zoom has been faced with a wave of security and privacy concerns.

Among the most notable is a recent practice known as Zoom-bombing, where intruders infiltrate a virtual Zoom conference and spam it with offensive content. The Boston bureau of the Federal Bureau of Investigations said it received reports of two such incidents occurring in virtual Massachusetts school classrooms hosted over Zoom.

Other security issues have also emerged; the company has been hit with a class-action lawsuit over accusations it shared some analytics data with Facebook without properly alerting users. Zoom also said on April 3 that some callers outside of China were mistakenly routed through systems in the country. Taiwan's government then banned officials from using Zoom.

Zoom has since laid out the efforts it's taking to improve security and privacy throughout its platform, which include enacting a feature freeze so that it can wholly focus on security, conducting a security review with third-party experts, and committing to publishing a transparency report including information about data requests. 

Zoom's growth has undoubtedly exploded during the pandemic, but it had been gaining traction before then as well. In September 2019, market research firm Gartner designated Zoom as a market leader in the meeting solutions industry alongside Microsoft and Cisco. Such a move signaled that Gartner viewed Zoom, which is less than a decade old, as on par with the established forces in the industry.

To put that into context, Gartner categorized other rivals like Adobe and Google as challengers rather than leaders, which suggests these companies may offer popular services today but don't have as firm of a grasp on where the market is going as Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom might.

In addition to well-known incumbents like Microsoft, Cisco, and Google, there are a number of smaller players that may be better-positioned for external collaboration or tighter security, according to Raul Castanon, a senior analyst specializing in workforce collaboration for S&P Global Market Intelligence. These include services such as CafeX Communications and LoopUp.

And while Cisco may have an advantage over Microsoft from a technical perspective — it has a longer history in the teleconferencing space — Castanon agrees that Microsoft's integration with other services gives it an important edge.

"If you're already using, like most people do, their productivity and Office suite, it gives you different advantages because  there are synergies between all of these products," Castanon said. "So I think they're in a really good position."

SEE ALSO: Zoom CEO says the company 'moved too fast' and made 'missteps' as privacy concerns about the popular video conferencing app have snowballed in recent weeks

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• Tesla plans to temporarily reduce employees' salaries and furlough nonessential workers.
• The company made the announcement in an email sent to employees by the company's head of North American human resources on Tuesday, CNBC reported.
• According to the email, Tesla plans to begin implementing certain cost-cutting measures starting April 13 and plans to resume normal production at its US facilities on May 4.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla announced to employees on Tuesday morning that it planned to temporarily reduce salaries and furlough nonessential workers while curbing its production of new cars amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In an email sent to employees by the company's head of North American human resources and in-house counsel, Valerie Workman, which was published by CNBC, Tesla told employees that some jobs would be affected as it continued to keep "only minimum critical operations running."

"While we are continuing to keep only minimum critical operations running, we expect to resume normal production at our US facilities on May 4, barring any significant changes," the email said. "Until that time, it is important we take action to ensure we remain on track to achieve our long-term plans."

According to the email, the company plans to begin implementing certain cost-cutting measures starting April 13. These measures include temporarily reducing pay for salaried employees and placing employees who cannot work from home and have not been designated "critical work onsite" on furlough.

"For US employees, these reductions are 30% for Vice Presidents and above, 20% for Directors and above, and 10% for everyone else," the email said regarding pay cuts, which are expected to remain in place until the end of the second quarter.

"For non-U.S. employees, there will also be comparable reductions, of which the specifics will be communicated by the local leadership team in accordance with local laws and works-councils," the email continued.

Employees placed on furlough will maintain their healthcare benefits and will be eligible for unemployment benefits through their state agencies.

The email added that during this period, salary and hourly rate adjustments, as well as equity grants, would be put on hold. Tesla offered employees the opportunity to take a voluntary leave of absence.

"We continue to monitor the situation closely, and our top priority is to ensure the safety of our employees," the email added. "As usual, for those who are onsite, if you are sick or are uncomfortable coming to work, please contact your manager and stay at home."

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Tesla temporarily closed its Fremont, California, factory on March 23 after a shelter-in-place order was put out in the San Francisco Bay Area to try to curb the coronavirus' spread. Tesla also suspended most of its operations at its solar-panel factory in Buffalo, New York.

A Tesla Gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, remains open, even though a worker there tested positive for COVID-19 in late March.

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• Google's bundle of productivity tools for businesses and schools, G Suite, now has 6 million paying customers, up from the 5 million it had in February 2019.
• The new numbers come as much of the world is working from home and schools turn to online learning, to try and mitigate the spread of coronavirus. 
• Google's Hangouts Meet video meeting tool, part of G Suite, now has 25 times more daily usage than it did in January, according to CNBC.
• However, Google faces intense competition from Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx, especially as an increase in remote work creates more demand for these tools.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google's bundle of productivity tools for businesses and schools, G Suite, now has 6 million paying customers, according to a report from CNBC, which Google confirmed to Business Insider. That represents an increase from the 5 million customers G Suite had in February 2019.

A customer, in this usage, generally means a company or other organization that's using the premium version of G Suite, rather than the free version of tools like Gmail and Google Docs available for consumers. 

Additionally, Google's Hangouts Meet videoconferencing tool, which is part of G Suite alongside enterprise versions of Gmail and Google Docs, has 25 times more daily usage now than it did in January, though it didn't go into specific figures. Hangouts Meet complements Hangouts, the standard chat app that's also available to consumers.

These new numbers come as much of the world is working from home and schools turn to online learning, to try and mitigate the spread of coronavirus. 

Due to the increased need for video conferencing tools amid the coronavirus crisis, Google is made the premium paid features in its Hangouts Meet video-conferencing features free until September 30, extended from the previous end date of July 1.

It's competitors like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have made similar offers to help those in need of communication tools. The increase in remote work has also ramped up usage for those competitors. Zoom said it had 200 million daily active users at the end of March, counting free and paid users. Meanwhile, Microsoft Teams disclosed that it had 44 million daily active users in mid-March. 

On the whole, G Suite faces intense competition from Microsoft's Office 365 suite of cloud based productivity tools, which dominates the market. Google hired former Microsoft executive Javier Soltero to run G Suite last October, as it sought to ramp up its enterprise business. 

As Zoom faces numerous questions about the privacy and security of its product, Google is pitching Hangouts Meet as a secure alternative. When New York City schools decided to stop using Zoom for online learning, Google made Hangouts Meet and Google Classroom available for 1.3 million students, according to CNBC. 

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@businessinsider.com or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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• Toast, a $5 billion Boston-based startup that makes software for restaurants, cut 50% of its workforce through layoffs and furloughs on Tuesday, a blog post from CEO Chris Comparato announced.
• "We froze hiring, pulled back offers, and halted merit increases. As a leadership team, we will reduce our pay across the board," the post said. "But with limited visibility into how quickly the industry may recover, and facing slower than anticipated growth, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of reducing our headcount." 
• The startup had just come off a year of 109% revenue growth, and raised $400 million in a Series F funding round in February — but its balance sheets still weren't padded enough to withstand the blow dealt by the coronavirus outbreak. 
• The layoffs illustrate the ripple effects of the coronavirus outbreak, as restaurant sales plunged by 80% in most cities last month, in turn forcing the restaurant software startup to scramble. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Toast, a $5 billion Boston-based startup that makes software for restaurants, just cut nearly 1,000 employees from its work force through a combination of layoffs and furloughs on Tuesday. 

"This morning at Toast we shared the agonizing decision to reduce the size of our company by roughly 50 percent through layoffs and furloughs as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis," a blog post from CEO Chris Comparato announced. The company had well over 2,000 employees earlier, per Pitchbook. 

Although Toast's main source of customers was a restaurant industry hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, the news still caught some investors off guard. Toast had just raised $400 million in a Series F funding round in February from a series of investors including Bessemer Venture Partners and TPG, so investors assumed its balance sheets were padded enough. 

Investors like Mitchell Green of Lead Edge Capital had even cited Toast's February funding round as a stroke of luck for the company. "Nobody knows how deep this will be, nobody knows how long this will be...If Toast had not raised that round in February, it'd be in big trouble," Green told Business Insider last week. 

(An email from Green to Business Insider on Tuesday said that the outbreak had gotten to the point that most companies would soon be forced to lay off workers). 

Some employees laid off from the company on Tuesday had only been there for a matter of months, according to their posts on LinkedIn — the unfortunate result of a hiring spree taken after Toast grew revenue by 109% in 2019, in anticipation of even more growth in 2020.

But as the coronavirus outbreak hit the country and caused restaurant sales to plunge by over 70% in most cities last month, it forced the restaurant software startup to scramble. 

Over the past month, Toast began by rolling out a series of measures to help support its target customers hit by the coronavirus outbreak — blog posts with financial advice and resources for affected restaurant workers, a month's credit of software fees for Toast customers and an initiative to support all local restaurants by ordering takeout or buying gift cards.  

Toast also begun pulling back on its own costs, by freezing hiring, pulling back on new offers, and halting merit-based raises, Comparato's blog post said. 

But ultimately, continued uncertainty over how long the coronavirus outbreak would last and how long restaurants would be shut, forced it to cut jobs. 

"But with limited visibility into how quickly the industry may recover, and facing slower than anticipated growth, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of reducing our headcount," Comparato said. 

The company said it was offering a severance package, benefits coverage and mental health support, and an extended window for employees to buy vested stock options. It also said it was developing programs to help laid-off employees search for new roles, but did not share further details on what that would look like. 

SEE ALSO: A team of coding experts built an AI-powered platform during a marathon 60-hour session to help this nonprofit supply medical equipment to fight coronavirus

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NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos reportedly just spent $165 million on a Beverly Hills estate — here are all the ways the world's richest man makes and spends his money

• Microsoft is "temporarily pausing recruitment" for some roles amid uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, the company confirmed Tuesday.
• It's still hiring for "certain strategic areas," a spokesperson said, but declined to disclose which teams or roles that might refer to.
• Employees who spoke to Business Insider said the company is still hiring within its Azure cloud business and "prioritizing consumer-facing and critical roles." 
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

Microsoft is freezing hiring for some roles, citing uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis, the company confirmed on Tuesday, except in unspecified "strategic areas."

"We continue to seek industry-leading talent in a range of disciplines as we continue to invest in certain strategic areas," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "However, in light of the uncertainties presented by COVID-19, we are temporarily pausing recruitment for other roles."

Microsoft declined to provide more information about for which positions it's still hiring, and which roles are seeing a pause in hiring.

According to employees who spoke with Business Insider, Microsoft is still hiring for roles within its massive cloud computing business, and the company was holding virtual hiring events for software engineers as recently as last week. Some groups, one employee said, are "prioritizing consumer-facing and critical roles." 

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn also enacted a companywide pause on new hires, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider.

The coronavirus will likely cause hiring freezes and layoffs across many industries, according to experts.

Microsoft has more than 150,000 employees. Microsoft has handled the coronavirus crisis internally by mandating that most of its US employees to work from home "until further notice," streaming company-wide town halls from executives' homes, expanding benefits like paid leave for parents, and even delivering food and medications to employee homes.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is seeing a huge surge of new customers because of the crisis. The company, for example, clocked a 775 percent spike in usage of its Teams chat app in an area of Italy that implemented a lockdown. 

With all those new users have come issues with capacity. In response, Microsoft said it will place a "few temporary restrictions" for Azure customers, such as limits on free offers and "certain resources" for new subscriptions. 

Are you a Microsoft employee? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.

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Chrome OS hasn’t always been the best fit for tablets, despite the uptick in 2-in-1 Chrome OS devices out there that can work in tablet-style configurations. But Google’s latest update to its Chromebook operating system is looking to change that with new tablet mode gestures for Chromebooks — ones that look almost identical to those Apple uses on its iPads with iPadOS.

There’s a new gesture to go back to the home screen by swiping up from the bottom of the display, while a smaller swipe will pull up your dock. Swipe up and hold, and you’ll get an app-switcher-style view of your open windows and apps. Swipe back from the left side of the screen to go back to what you were previously doing. The gestures are also extremely similar to the...

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• WhatsApp is limiting how many people you can forward "frequently forwarded" messages onto.
• It defines "frequently forwarded" as messages that have already been forwarded five times.
• This is an attempt to stop misinformation from going viral on WhatsApp, which as a private messaging service is much harder to moderate than platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Encrypted messaging service WhatsApp is restricting how often messages can be forwarded in a bid to stop misinformation from ballooning on its platform.

WhatsApp announced on Tuesday that "frequently forwarded" messages, which it defines as messages that have already been forwarded on five times, will be limited so users can only forward them to one chat at a time. The aim is to stop rumors from spreading exponentially on the messaging service.

With the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, WhatsApp's parent company Facebook has been faced with an onslaught of misinformation about the virus proliferating on its platforms. For Facebook and Instagram the company has implemented tighter rules on banning or removing posts that contain misinformation.

WhatsApp has historically been harder for the company to regulate as the messages sent over it are encrypted, meaning Facebook has no access to them and is unable to stop them spreading between recipients.

"We've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation," WhatsApp said in its announcement blog post.

The spread of unfounded rumors and misinformation on WhatsApp has become so prevalent that internet-savvy users are satirizing the trend.

In the UK, a spoof voice note claiming the British Ministry of Defence was cooking a lasagna the size of a football stadium to feed people stuck inside went viral after initially being shared inside a small group chat.

This isn't the first time WhatsApp has clamped down on message-forwarding in an effort to curb the spread of misinformation. It limited the number of times users can forward messages from 20 to five in January last year. This followed particular scrutiny of how WhatsApp was used to disseminate disinformation in the Brazilian presidential election in 2018, and of links between forwarded messages and mob violence in India.

In 2019, the company introduced labels on frequently-forwarded messages (denoted by a double-arrow) to alert recipients that the messages they're getting may have been mass-forwarded.

SEE ALSO: Google's misinformation chief talks fact-checking the pandemic: 'I've never seen anything like this'

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OnMail is a new email service from Edison (the company behind Edison Mail, one of the better email apps around). It’s described as “first permission-based email service” that’s designed to solve modern email problems, like endless spam and annoying emails from brands, and it’s Edison’s most ambitious attempt at fixing email yet.

Edison’s been working to achieve similar results with its apps for years, but there’s a limit to what it can really do when it’s serving as an intermediary for other email services. Hence, OnMail: a new email provider that’s meant to compete with juggernauts like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, and the rest.

The biggest feature is OnMail’s “Permission Control” system, which is built around the...

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• Corporations are taking various approaches to helping out during the coronavirus pandemic, from offering up private planes to transport in-demand goods to increasing production of scarce medical equipment. 
• Cisco is no different. The tech firm has donated $225 million to global relief efforts, and it has given IT equipment from its offices around the globe to hospitals and federal governments. 
• The company is also using its trove of 3D printers to supply healthcare workers with face shields. Cisco hopes to begin 3D-printing 500 masks a day in the US by the end of this week. 
• Follow all of Business Insider's latest updates on the coronavirus here. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Companies across the corporate landscape are setting up to help during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Organizations are using their own platforms to help source sought-after products, pivoting to entirely new production lines, using private planes to transport in-demand medical equipment, and dramatically increasing manufacturing capabilities. 

Cisco is no different. 

Its video-conferencing platform Webex is now one of several digital tools that are becoming synonymous with the outbreak — as businesses, schools, families, and others use the platforms to communicate amid strict social distancing guidelines. 

The company also donated $225 million to global relief efforts including direct funding as well as free access to Webex and other products for healthcare facilities and governments. 

But the 35-year-old technology firm is also helping out in more unconventional ways. 

After Cisco mandated its roughly 75,000 employees shift to remote work, it suddenly found itself with tons of vacant equipment in offices across the globe. Then requests started to come in from employees that the unused video-conferencing units be given to hospitals and other organizations. 

The "teams really quickly started gathering all these units that were sitting around the office … sanitized them, packed them, and then worked with our colleagues in the sales organization to figure out which customers really had a desperate need for them and very quickly started shipping them out," Chief Operating Officer Irving Tan told Business Insider. 

To ensure the equipment was going to the hospitals in the most dire need of it, Tan coordinated with Cisco's government affairs and sales departments. 

They quickly compiled a list of the healthcare providers facing the largest shortages of protective equipment and the company has been slowly working through it. 

Within four days, Cisco shipped its first batch of 100 units. To date in the US, it has sent 235 units to New York City, New Orleans, Washington, Florida, and the USNS Comfort — the Navy ship docked outside of NYC. The company also provided the Japanese and Australian governments with equipment. 

Among other uses, the video-conferencing units allows more medical professionals to diagnose virtually — an important benefit as face masks and other protective equipment gets more scarce. 

It also lets hospitals treat patients in more rural settings where healthcare isn't as readily available, Tan said, and it helps government officials coordinate mitigation efforts across regions.   

The rise of 3D printing 

The coronavirus is casting a new focus on burgeoning tech that, while in use before the pandemic, was not as widely relied upon previously. 

One of those is 3D printing. Health providers are increasingly relying on the machines to produce medical tools that are getting more scarce — like the nasal swabs used to test for the virus. 

When Cisco employees found out the UK's National Health Service was facing a drastic shortage of face shields, for example, the company repurposed its 3D printers to begin producing the protective equipment. It was quickly producing 400 masks per day and decided to make the effort a global one. Cisco "very quickly replicated this within the US," said Tan. 

Now, the company is making 80 shields a day with a goal to increase that to 500 this week. It has procured more 3D printers to help meet that goal and employees are working around the clock on the effort. 

Cisco's efforts, along with those from other leading corporations, highlight how big business is increasingly looked at to help as trust in other foundational institutions — like the federal government and the press — falls. 

SEE ALSO: Dozens of countries are testing an NSO platform to track citizens infected with coronavirus. Here's a sneak peak at how it works.

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• When technology giant SAP shifted to a work-from-home policy, it needed to accommodate its massive workforce of 100,000 employees based in more than 180 countries.
• SAP co-CEO Jennifer Morgan said she quickly realized a need that tended to be overlooked: the welfare of employees who were living alone.
• "You hear so many people talking about how all of a sudden everybody's at home, they've got families at home, they've got kids who are learning at home, but not many people are talking about a lot of the individuals who are at home alone," she told Business Insider.
• The company has asked managers to be sensitive to the needs of employees in different situations, including those living alone and others with family members who are health care workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. 
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The sudden pivot to a work-from-home policy has been tough for businesses of all sizes as the world reels from the coronavirus crisis. 

SAP, a tech behemoth with 100,000 employees based in more than 180 countries, is seeing those challenges on a massive scale. Like other tech giants, the German software maker quickly deployed tools and resources to help employees adapt to a new situation, including equipment and network access. But the company also zeroed in on the personal needs of SAP employees. SAP co-CEO Jennifer Morgan said that employee surveys and discussions quickly revealed one need that  the giant company had initially overlooked: the welfare of employees living alone.

"You hear so many people talking about how all of a sudden everybody's at home, they've got families at home, they've got kids who are learning at home, but not many people are talking about a lot of the individuals who are at home alone," she told Business Insider. "That was one thing that struck me."

Many of the issues which came out in internal surveys and discussions were related to technical issues and the concerns of employees who suddenly had to balance home and work responsibilities. 

"We got a lot of what you would expect, things like, 'Hey, I need help with connectivity. I'm having a hard time juggling my caretaking duties,'" Morgan said.

But she soon realized that the company's focus tended to be on employees who had families, which includes her. Morgan, who was named co-CEO with Chrisitan Klein in October 2019, is now sheltered in place in a Philadelphia suburb with her husband and two sons. Klein, who lives in Mühlhausen, German, near SAP's headquarters in Walldorf, also has a family.

"Because I have a family as many people around me do, I didn't realize that, with 100,000 people, there's a lot of people who are alone," she said. 

And many of them made their voices heard in internal surveys and discussions, she said. SAP employees living solo pushed for ways for teams and individuals to engage.

"These people really spoke up and basically said, 'Hey, can we push for more connection? Can we push for more conversations versus emails or text,'" Morgan said. "That actually opened my eyes."

One SAP employee who lives alone is Christina Hamilton, an operations head based in San Francisco where the tech giant first asked employees to work from home before expanding the policy to cover other locations. She knew many of her colleagues with families had challenging transitions as they balanced the needs of their loved ones, but she also found living and working alone to be "isolating." 

Thankfully, her SAP managers have been supportive, she said.

"[They] know I'm alone and make a point to frequently check in with me," she told Business Insider. "I've been focusing on my own mental and physical health in order to avoid getting distracted or lonely. With no definitive end in sight, a real concern is keeping myself and my team engaged, happy, productive, and positive."

Morgan said SAP is encouraging all its managers to be sensitive to the needs of employees in different situations, whether they're living alone or wrestling with other complex issues. For example, some SAP employees have spouses who have lost their jobs, while others have spouses or partners who are healthcare workers involved in fight against COVID-19.

"There are many people whose spouses are on the front line of this battle," she said. "That's their biggest concern, not whether they have connectivity. They're worried about a family member who is out there fighting this."

Got a tip about SAP or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 

SEE ALSO: 29 tech startup founders and CEOs share their fears and strategies for navigating the coronavirus crash: 'We are now wartime CEOs'

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• The TCL 10 Pro is a new Android smartphone launching in Q2 2020 for $450, significantly less than flagship phones from Apple and Samsung.
• Despite this lower price, the TCL 10 Pro offers high-end features like a curved AMOLED screen, four main cameras, and an in-screen fingerprint sensor.
• Some of those features, like the in-screen fingerprint sensor and four-camera setup, aren't even found on Apple's iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.
• The launch comes as smartphone prices have increased in recent years, with major smartphone makers like Apple, Samsung, and LG selling phones that cost around $1,000.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Cheaper smartphones have become increasingly popular over the past year, as some of the mobile industry's biggest players like Google, Apple, and Samsung launched cheaper versions of their high-end smartphones in 2019. Now, electronics maker TCL is taking that idea a step further with its new line of TCL 10 smartphones, all of which will cost less than $500 when they launch.

TCL is launching three new smartphones: the flagship TCL 10 Pro, the less expensive TCL 10L, and the 5G-enabled TCL 10 5G. The TCL 10 Pro will cost $450 while the TCL 10L is priced at $250, and both phones are launching in the second quarter of 2020 in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

The 5G version is coming later this year in select regions. While TCL hasn't said how much it will cost in US dollars, it has said it will cost less than $500 and that the European version will cost 399 euros. That's particularly significant since 5G smartphones are typically noticeably more expensive than their non-5G counterparts. 

The TCL 10 Pro, despite its cheap price, looks like it's fit to compete with high-end mobile devices like the $1,000 iPhone 11 Pro and $900 Samsung Galaxy S10. It has a curved, borderless AMOLED screen made by TCL with no "notch" cutout, a quadruple rear camera setup, facial recognition, and an in-display fingerprint reader. Some of those features, like a fingerprint scanner that's built into the screen and the addition of a fourth camera, aren't even found on Apple's most expensive variant of the iPhone. Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G has four cameras and an in-display fingerprint reader as well, but costs $1,300. TCL's 10 Pro also comes with a headphone jack — a rare find on today's mobile devices. 

Here's a closer look at the TCL 10 Pro.

SEE ALSO: Evidence is mounting that people are fed up with the sky-high cost of smartphones, and it's sparking a massive change in the industry

The TCL 10 Pro has four main cameras: a 64-megapixel main camera, a 123-degree super-wide-angle camera, a macro camera, and a low-light video camera. That last one is significant because many smartphones don't come with a dedicated lens for low-light content. Instead, they use a combination of software and hardware to take clearer photos in low-light situations.

The 10 Pro also has a 24-megapixel front-facing camera.

TCL's 10 Pro comes in green and gray, as shown below.

The TCL 10 Pro's screen measures 6.47 inches, which means it falls in between the 6.2-inch Galaxy S20 and 6.7-inch Galaxy S20 Plus. You'll also notice there's a small cutout for the front-facing camera, also similar to the Galaxy S20.

The TCL 10 Pro's display is made of an AMOLED panel, which means it should provide rich colors and contrast, with a resolution of 1080 x 2340. There's also a fingerprint sensor embedded in the screen.

The less-expensive $250 TCL 10L also offers a large screen and a quad-camera, but with a few important differences.

The TCL 10L features a quad-camera with a 48-megapixel camera, an 8-megapixel super-wide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 2-megapixel depth lens. That's a departure from the megapixel count on the TCL 10 Pro's camera setup, which comprises 64-megapixel, 16-megapixel, 5-megapixel, and 2-megapixel sensors.

The more affordable phone also has a larger 6.53-inch screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2340, but unlike the Pro model, it has an LCD screen rather than an AMOLED display. 

It also runs on a less-powerful processor than the Pro, has a slightly smaller battery, and has a fingerprint sensor mounted on the back of the phone rather than in its screen.

And the 5G edition has a screen similar to the TCL 10L, but with the 10 Pro's higher-resolution main camera.

The TCL 10 5G has a 6.53-inch LCD screen with a 1080 x 2340 resolution just like the TCL 10L, but with the TCL 10 Pro's 64-megapixel main camera. It also has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor like the 10L, and the same battery size as the Pro. The 5G-enabled model does have a more powerful processor than both the 10 Pro and 10L, however.

The launch comes as smartphones have become increasingly expensive in recent years.

The TCL 10 Pro is another sign that the smartphone industry is shifting as tech giants have had a harder time convincing consumers to upgrade their devices as prices have increased. Less than 10% of people in the United States are spending more than $1,000 on a new smartphone, according to research from NPD Group published last month.

It also suggests that the companies that do specialize in making less-expensive alternatives to the iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S line, like OnePlus and Motorola, are likely to have even more competition throughout 2020 and beyond.