1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2016

September 2016

Comcast, Charter and cable’s uncertain wireless future

[Commentary] With continually expanding Wi-Fi footprints and enough backhaul to choke a horse, Comcast and Charter could finally succeed where past cable efforts to break into wireless failed. And there’s good reason to be excited about that opportunity. As Shaw CTO Zoran Stakic put it, since his company was able to acquire Wind Mobile in Canada, he’s been in disbelief at how powerful a combination it is once a company can offer broadband, Wi-Fi and LTE. “I think we’ll be able to deliver solutions for our customers that we didn’t think were possible a few years ago,” said Stakic. And Nair offered a glowing review of the full mobile virtual network operator deals that Liberty Global has been able to do, which have given the multiple-system operators the flexibility to control its own SIM and switch wholesalers should the need arise because of price changes.

But perhaps the most hopeful sign for cable operators looking toward wireless is that, as wireless network architecture is shifting away from the macro tower paradigm and toward smaller, denser infrastructure schemes, telecommunication company and cable nodes are getting closer and closer to one another in the network. Options abound for cable companies seeking that wireless service piece that will help augment their video and broadband strategies as well as help them gain foothold in emerging markets like the Internet of Things. Now it’s up to the likes of Comcast and Charter to choose the right path to make sure another wireless flop doesn’t lie in cable’s future.

Georgia lawmakers conduct survey to identify rural market broadband gaps

Georgia’s lawmakers are working together to find a way to enhance broadband service in the state’s rural areas by asking residents to take an online survey about their service experience. After tallying the survey results, state Sen Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega (GA)) said a joint committee of state lawmakers will make a set of recommendations, including developing tax incentives to further broadband investment and getting rid of certain government regulation. State Sen Gooch said that substandard Internet service creates a barrier to economic development in rural parts of Northeast Georgia. State Sen Gooch added that businesses say broadband weighs heavily on whether they will locate their business in a particular town or city.

Google’s Got a Plan to Unify the World’s Wi-Fi Hotspots

Public Wi-Fi is great. But it’s infuriating when your connection at the neighborhood coffee shop goes down minutes before deadline and the baristas have no clue what’s wrong. This frustrates the hell out of the coffee shop, too. It wants to offer secure, reliable service but usually lacks the expertise. That’s true of any business that offers free Wi-Fi, especially airports, hotels, and others that offer Wi-Fi on a huge scale. Google plans to fix this with Google Station, a suite of tools designed to make creating and maintaining public Wi-Fi a breeze.

The company isn’t saying much beyond that, but it is working with unspecified Internet service providers and hardware companies to make it happen. Google is now enlisting partners like cafes and shopping malls. This goes beyond a set of recommended tools or preconfigured Wi-Fi routers. Google will handle login info for the different hotspots. You’ll access the Internet from any of them using a single username and password—no more asking the barista for the network name and password. Google also promises to help Wi-Fi hosts to monetize their connections, the suggestion being that it will handle payments for anyone charging for access.

Verizon technician sold calling, location data for thousands of dollars

An Alabama man who worked as a Verizon Wireless technician has agreed to plead guilty to a federal hacking charge in connection to his illegal use of the company's computers to acquire customer calling and location data. The man, Daniel Eugene Traeger, faces a maximum five years in prison in October. He admitted that he sold customer data—from 2009 to 2014—to a private investigator whom the authorities have not named.

According to the man's signed plea deal, "At some point in 2009, the Defendant met a private investigator ("the PI") who wanted to buy Verizon customer information from the Defendant. The Defendant accepted the PI's offer. The defendant used Verizon computer systems and facilities to access customer call records and customer location data that he knew he was not authorized to access, and provided that information to the PI even though the Defendant knew that he was not authorized to provide it to a third party. The Defendant accessed customer call records by logging into Verizon's MARS system. The Defendant then compiled the data in spreadsheets, which the Defendant provided to the PI, including by e-mail. The Defendant accessed customer location data using a Verizon system called Real Time Tool. Using RTT, the Defendant "pinged" cellular telephones on Verizon's network and provided location data for those telephones to the PI." The plea agreement said that Traeger began making $50 monthly in 2009, when he sold two records a month. By mid-2013, he was earning $750 each month by selling 10 to 15 records. In all, the plea deal says he made more than $10,000 over a five-year period.

Fox news exec to staff: Online polls ‘not true measures of public opinion’

Fox News’s vice president of public-opinion research sent a memo to staff reminding employees that unscientific online polls, which were cited in several segments to suggest that Donald Trump won Sept 26’s presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, do not meet the network’s editorial standards.

"As most of the publications themselves clearly state, the sample obviously can’t be representative of the electorate because they only reflect the views of those Internet users who have chosen to participate," Dana Blanton, Fox News’s vice president of public-opinion research, wrote in the memo to the channel's politics team. "Another problem — we know some campaigns/groups of supporters encourage people to vote in online polls and flood the results," she wrote. "These quickie click items do not meet our editorial standards." "News networks and other organizations go to great effort and rigor to conduct scientific polls — for good reason," Blanton added in the memo. "They know quick vote items posted on the web are nonsense, not true measures of public opinion."

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