NETWORKS Rocket Lab buys its way into the satellite big league with $8B Iridium deal SpaceX gains a vertically integrated rival as launch specialist adds global comms network
public sector UK firm bombarded debt-ridden people with 5.5M texts KRA Consultancy Ltd fined £300K over fake bailiff threats in 'calculated' scheme that caused 'real fear and distress'
networks Bend the beam like Beckham to defeat anti-jamming tech It's hard to stop a signal jammer if you can't locate the source, say Rice University researchers
Offbeat London’s BT Tower to get rooftop swimming pool Imagine taking a dip 177m above the streets of London’s West End
Offbeat DIY mystery box will wow your friends by hinting at what the ionosphere is up to A rough guide to when your signal will behave, or not
AI + ML AI companies lick their chops as FCC proposes forcing call center onshoring You actually think companies are going to pay Americans to take customer service calls in the AI age?
Networks Western governments seek to lock down 6G before it even exists Telecoms coalition wants to avoid another 5G-style vendor scramble with early security guardrails
Cyber-crime Cops back Dutch telco Odido after second wave of ShinyHunters leaks Company refuses to pay ransom as attackers threaten larger daily dumps
Personal Tech Ofcom's grumble-o-meter lights up for EE, TalkTalk, Vodafone Q3 figures show the trio drawing the most broadband complaints per 100,000 customers
Cyber-crime Top Dutch telco Odido admits 6.2M customers caught in contact system caper Names, addresses, bank account numbers accessed – but biz insists passwords and call data untouched
Networks T-Mobile announces its network is now full of AI by rolling out real-time translation This AI is so network native, the telco tells us, that it all works on existing hardware - no datacenters involved
Networks Openreach turns up the heat to force laggards off legacy copper lines Half a million businesses face successive price hikes ahead of PTSN shutdown
Software France to replace US videoconferencing wares with unfortunately named sovereign alternative French govt says state-run service 'Visio' will be more secure. Now where have we heard that name before?
Cyber-crime France fines telcos €42M for sub-par security prior to 24M customer breach Three major GDPR violations, including a lack of basic security controls, lead to hefty dent in profits
Cyber-crime Korean telco failed at femtocell security, exposed customers to snooping and fraud One cert, in plaintext, on thousands of devices, led to what looks like years of crime
Networks Ten mistakes marred firewall upgrade at Australian telco, contributing to two deaths Optus gave bad instructions, staff didn’t escalate their concerns
Networks Brit telco Brsk confirms breach as bidding begins for 230K+ customer records Crims claim to know which customers are marked 'vulnerable'
Offbeat Old-school rotary phone dials into online meetings, hangs up when you slam it down Stavros Korokithakis really wanted to slam the receiver on meetings, so he built his own device to do just that
Networks ZTE's Signal Reach Program in Africa advances digital inclusion with sustainable networks in Ethiopia Transforming remote communities with accessible, green, and inclusive mobile networks
Cyber-crime Eurofiber admits crooks swiped data from French unit after cyberattack Regulator reports suggest telco was extorted, but company remains coy as to whether it paid
Security Logitech leaks data after zero-day attack PLUS: CISA still sitting on telecoms security report; DoorDash phished again; Lumma stealer returns; and more
Cybersecurity Month Telecoms wholesaler ICUK restores services after two-day DDoS pelting No idea who's behind it, just happy it's over
Networks Taliban impose tele-ban and take Afghanistan offline No internet or phones, which means no banks or commercial aviation, but lots more misery
Networks Colt changes tune, admits data theft as Warlock gang begins auction Worried about your data? No probs, says firm, we'll check the dark web crims' list for you! Yes really
Networks 'Limited' data leak at Aussie telco turns out to be 280K customer details iiNet breach blamed on single stolen login, with emails, phone numbers, and addresses exposed
Legal Florida Man earns five-year sentence for $100 million telco fraud Q Link claimed subsidies for ineligible customers
Security CISA caves to Wyden, agrees to release US telco insecurity report - but won’t say when The security nerds' equivalent of the Epstein files saga
Networks T-Mobile's satellite service lifts off, and it's open season on rivals Verizon and AT&T customers can now buy D2C connections à la carte from the magenta monster
Cyber-crime Ex-US soldier who Googled 'can hacking be treason' pleads guilty to extortion File this one under what not to search if you've committed a crime
Security A software-defined radio can derail a US train by slamming the brakes on remotely Neil Smith has been trying to get the railroad industry to listen since 2012, but it took a CISA warning to get there
Public Sector Trump's budget bill opens wide swath of spectrum for sale Including frequencies that overlap with Wi-Fi 6E and private mobile networking
Patches Cisco scores a perfect 10 - sadly for a critical flaw in its comms platform The second max score this week for Netzilla - not a good look
Personal Tech Florida man expands crypto empire with new wireless service and phone MAGA MVNO and the gold-plated telephone of destiny
Networks AST just got a small boost in its D2C battle against Elon Musk's Starlink But the five-satellite upstart has a short time window
Networks Wyden blocks Trump's CISA boss nominee, blames cyber agency for 'actively hiding info' about telecom insecurity It worked for in 2018 with Chris Krebs. Will it work again?
Networks FCC on the prowl for Huawei and other blocked Chinese makers in America Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting rackets
Networks Google’s broadband balloon laser comms tech floated out as independent company Another success for the 'Moonshot factory' and an extra rival for Starlink et al
Systems Ampere bets on Arm to muscle into Intel's telco territory Chipmaker touts high-core, low-power Altra processors as the future of 5G and AI inferencing
Networks More victims of China's Salt Typhoon crew emerge: Telcos just now hit via Cisco bugs Networks in US and beyond compromised by Beijing's super-snoops pulling off priv-esc attacks
Networks Robocallers who phoned the FCC pretending to be from the FCC land telco in trouble Don't laugh: The $4.5m fine proposed for carrier Telnyx shows how the Trump administration will run its comms regulator
CSO FCC to telcos: By law you must secure your networks from foreign spies. Get on it Plus: Uncle Sam is cross with this one Chinese biz over Salt Typhoon mega-snooping
Networks Scammers exploit UK's digital landline switch to swipe cash Old deadline of January 2025 being used to push victims into paying up
Networks FCC boss urges speedy spectrum auction to fund 'Rip'n'Replace' of Chinese kit Telcos would effectively fund grants paid to protect national security
Cyber-crime Charter, Consolidated, Windstream reportedly join China's Salt Typhoon victim list Slow drip of compromised telecom networks continues
Cyber-crime Encryption backdoor debate 'done and dusted,' former White House tech advisor says When the FBI urges E2EE, you know it's serious business
Networks Will 2025 be the year satellite-to-smartphone services truly take off? Connectivity direct to unmodified mobes looms, thanks to Starlink and co
Cyber-crime More telcos confirm China Salt Typhoon security breaches as White House weighs in Intrusions allowed Beijing to 'geolocate millions of individuals, record phone calls at will'
Security Blocking Chinese spies from intercepting calls? There ought to be a law Sen. Wyden blasts FCC's 'failure' amid Salt Typhoon hacks
CSO China's Salt Typhoon recorded top American officials' calls, says White House No word yet on who was snooped on. Any bets?
Security Salt Typhoon forces FCC's hand on making telcos secure their networks Proposal pushes stricter infosec safeguards after Chinese state baddies expose vulns
Security Telco security is a dumpster fire and everyone's getting burned The politics of cybersecurity are too important to be left to the politicians
Cyber-crime China has utterly pwned 'thousands and thousands' of devices at US telcos Senate Intelligence Committee chair says his 'hair is on fire' as execs front the White House
Public Sector Trump's pick to run the FCC has told us what he plans: TikTok ban, space broadband, and Section 230 reform Loathes Big Tech and is not at all keen on net neutrality
Networks FCC probes whether it can pop a cap in ISP data caps 'Our networks have the capacity to meet consumer demand without these restrictions,' says chair
Networks Verizon outages across US as hurricane recovery continues California, Arizona, beyond affected as well as storm-smashed states
Networks Verizon snaps up Frontier in $20B fiber power play Marking yet another round of telecom consolidation
Networks FCC finally gets around to banning Kaspersky from telecoms kit Communications agency now passing on the order to operators
Public Sector Indian telcos to cut off scammy, spammy, telemarketers for two whole years There's a blockchain involved so it's totally going to stop you getting those calls
Networks Appeals court kicks fate of net neutrality in America further down the road Judges wonder out loud: If Congress wanted this, it would have passed a law, no?
Personal Tech 64% of people not happy about idea of AI-generated customer service Not unreasonably, nearly half worried it would give them the 'wrong answers'
Networks Why sustainability matters more than ever to telcos ZTE’s 16th annual sustainability report provides an update on progress to date
Cyber-crime Europol says mobile roaming tech is making its job too hard Privacy measures apparently helping criminals evade capture
Networks AT&T forbidden from cutting landline services to large parts of California Telecoms company will remain a carrier of last resort per CPUC ruling
Networks T-Mobile US drags New Jersey borough to court over school cell tower permit denial Comms outfit says 'think of the children' isn't a legal reason to reject application
Cyber-crime Two cuffed over suspected smishing campaign using 'text message blaster' Thousands of dodgy SMSes bypassed network filters in UK-first case, it is claimed
Networks Big Telco takes aim at renewed net neutrality rules New red-tape will cost us big, American ISPs and their lobbyists claim
Networks Flying phone base stations to take off over Japan in 2026 NTT Docomo teams with Airbus subsidiary to make it happen
Networks Recycling old copper wires could be worth billions for telcos 800,000 metric tons of cabling is just lying there
Personal Tech AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile US fined $200M for selling off people's location info Carriers claim real culprits are getting away with it - the data brokers
Networks 911 goes MIA across multiple US states, cause unclear Some say various cell services were out, others still say landlines were affected. What just happened?
Cyber-crime SIM swap crooks solicit T-Mobile US, Verizon staff via text to do their dirty work No breach responsible for employee contact info getting out, says T-Mo
Networks Tele2 secure collaboration hub for public sector keeps Swedish data in Sweden Data sovereignty is eftersökt these days
Networks Vodafone, Three hustle to tie knot before regulators crash wedding Price hikes and reduced competition in virtual network space raised as major concerns
Security ChatGPT side-channel attack has easy fix: Token obfuscation Also: Roblox-themed infostealer on the prowl, telco insider pleads guilty to swapping SIMs, and some crit vulns
Networks UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles if they can't lay cable underground The NIMBYs are fed up, and it's an election year
Off-Prem China Unicom becomes Middle Kingdom's second carrier with a billion subscribers Rivals aren't far behind and 5G numbers are huge, but growth is slowing
Networks Biden admin keeps O-RAN dream alive with $42M funding for R&D facility AT&T, Verizon leading new initiative to finally commercialize OpenRAN technology, sans timeline
Security FCC gets tough: Telcos must now tell you when your personal info is stolen Yep, cell carriers didn't have to do this before
Security Nokia walks the walk about its RAN to play on Uncle Sam’s China fears It pays not to be Huawei, and the US military can be lucrative, too
Networks Adios, dead zones: Starlink relays SMS in space for unmodified phones on Earth Now you'll never have an excuse for missing that weekend work text or call
Networks Is it time for 6G already? Traffic analysis says yep 5G networks won't have the capacity to cope by end of the decade
Public Sector India's long-awaited telecoms bill drops language that would have regulated social media OTT apps in the clear. Indian citizens, not so much – law proposes registration, surveillance, and shutdown powers
Networks FCC reminds US mobile carriers that customer data needs to be protected Telcos schooled on how to combat SIM swapping and port-out fraud
Security UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms Acts under the guise of protecting the public from fraud, yet history suggests Home Office has other motives
Networks Major telco outage leaves millions of Australians disconnected Communication minister advises businesses to “keep receipts”
Networks Brit competition regulator will make or break Vodafone and Three union Interested parties invited to speak now or forever hold your peace
Networks Israel and Italy have cheapest mobile data out of 237 countries Some in globe pay just $0.02 per GB, others rinsed for $43.75
Networks FCC plans to restore net neutrality rules tossed out under Trump Discriminatory handling of data and paid internet fast lanes could again be disallowed
Legal South Korean telco SK Broadband and Netflix call a truce in network payment fight Maybe better together? Duo announce AI and entertainment product partnership
Networks 22 million Brits suffer broadband outage blues and are paying a premium for it Southampton top for connectivity flops, says Uswitch research
Networks Aerial cable tangles are still being strung up, but carriers are slowly burying the problem 'Sky spaghetti' remains on the menu for Asian carriers, and tourists
Networks We'll show you our patents if you show us yours, say Huawei and Ericsson Analysts reckon extension of 2016 deal will be good for industry – as long there are no gotchas
Security Federal Communications Commission proposed stricter rules on how telco carriers should report data breaches
Personal Tech AT&T, Verizon delay 5G C-band rollout over FAA fears of passenger plane radars jammed by signals
Legal Ofcom slams slammers: Telcos fined for switching punters' phone lines without their knowledge or consent
Security Research finds cyber-snoops working for 'Chinese state interests' lurking in SE Asian telco networks since 2017
Networks That other controversial Chinese telco: The FCC rejects ZTE's petition against its 'national security threat' designation
Science Intelsat orbital comms satellite is back online after first robo-recovery mounting and tug job gets it back into position
Personal Tech InLink Limited limited: Firm that puts up UK's ad-supported phone booths enters administration
Networks No backdoor, no backdoor... you're a backdoor! Huawei won't spy for China or anyone else, exec tells MPs
