Just when some wireless carriers were trying to move away from phone giveways, T-Mobile upped the ante on Thursday with a deal offering new customers as much as $1,000 if they switch. From a report: The second-largest U.S. wireless carrier said that st…
Elon Musk Says Starlink Will Provide Faster Internet Speeds On Airlines
Elon Musk touted SpaceX’s plan to use Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi, saying in a tweet on Thursday that the service could add “low latency ~half gigabit connectivity in the air!” CNBC reports: Starlink is the company’s plan to build an interconnected in…
Telkom Says Netflix No Longer Available on South Africa Provider
Telkom SA said Netflix will no longer be available on the South African phone and internet company’s set-top box from October. From a report: A deal between the parties has come to an end and will not be renewed, Content Executive Wanda Mkhize said in …
Company That Routes Billions of Text Messages Quietly Discloses It Was Hacked
A company that is a critical part of the global telecommunications infrastructure used by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and several others around the world such as Vodafone and China Mobile, quietly disclosed that hackers were inside its systems for year…
South Korea Broadband Firm Sues Netflix After Traffic Surge from ‘Squid Game’
South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work because of a surge of viewers to the U.S. firm’s content, an SK spokesperson said on Friday. From a report: The mo…
Alphabet Gives Some Loon Patents To SoftBank, Open Sources Flight Data and Makes Patent Non-assertion Pledge
TechCrunch reports: Alphabet’s Loon was a stratospheric moonshot that saw the company fly high-altitude balloons to provide cellular network coverage to target areas. The project broke a lot of new ground, including developing technology that enabled b…
Phone Companies Must Now Block Carriers That Didn’t Meet FCC Robocall Deadline
In a new milestone for the US government’s anti-robocall efforts, phone companies are now prohibited from accepting calls from providers that did not comply with a Federal Communications Commission deadline that passed this week. From a report: “Beginn…
SpaceX Satellite Signals Used Like GPS To Pinpoint Location On Earth
schwit1 shares a report from GPS Daily: Engineering researchers have developed a method to use signals broadcast by Starlink internet service satellites to accurately locate a position here on Earth, much like GPS does. It is the first time the Starlin…
FCC Showers Schools Across the US With $1.2 Billion From Emergency Connectivity Fund
The FCC has sent out the first checks from its Emergency Connectivity Fund, an effort to help close the “homework gap” at schools by covering the cost of computers and internet services. From a report: Thousands of school districts, in every state plus…
How AT&T’s Tethered Drones Can Become Temporary Cellular Towers
Long-time Slashdot reader Nkwe shares an article about AT&T’s “Flying COW” drones — their Cell (tower) On Wings drone technology that’s helped restore cellphone service after Hurricane Ida and other natural disasters.
“The device is a cell …