An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: AT&T smartphone users who see their network indicators switch from "4G" to "5G" shouldn't necessarily expect that they're about to get faster speeds. In PCMag's annual mobile-network testing, released today, 5G phones connected to AT&T got slower speeds than 4G phones in 21 out of 22 cities. PCMag concluded that "AT&T 5G right now appears to be essentially worthless," though AT&T's average download speed of 103.1Mbps was nearly as good as Verizon's thanks to a strong 4G performance. Of course, AT&T 5G should be faster than 4G in the long run -- this isn't another case of AT&T misleadingly labeling its 4G network as a type of 5G. Instead, the disappointing result on PCMag's test has to do with how today's 5G phones work and with how AT&T allocates spectrum.

The counterintuitive result doesn't reveal much about the actual differences between 4G and 5G technology. Instead, it's reflective of how AT&T has used its spectrum to deploy 5G so far. As PCMag explained, "AT&T's 5G slices off a narrow bit of the old 850MHz cellular band and assigns it to 5G, to give phones a valid 5G icon without increasing performance. And because of the way current 5G phones work, it often reduces performance. AT&T's 4G network benefits from the aggregation of channels from different frequencies. "The most recent phones are able to assemble up to seven of them -- that's called seven-carrier aggregation, and it's why AT&T won [the PCMag tests] last year," the article said. 5G phones can't handle that yet, PCMag analyst Sascha Segan wrote: "But 5G phones can't add as many 4G channels to a 5G channel. So if they're in 5G mode, they're giving up 4G channels so they can use that extremely narrow, often 5MHz 5G channel, and the result is slower performance: faux G. For AT&T, using a 5G phone in testing was often a step backward from our 4G-only phone."

A federal appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission's rules that limit municipalities' ability to negotiate with telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon that are seeking to deploy thousands of 5G antennas on city streets and neighborhoods. From a report: The ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a blow to dozens of cities that sued the agency, claiming the FCC's 2018 rules takes away their leverage and autonomy in deciding how the telecom industry can install "small-cell" antennas to build 5G networks. The FCC maintains that its rules -- which prohibit excessive fees and permitting delays by municipal governments -- will speed up the deployment of 5G networks throughout the country by removing burdensome barriers to telecom providers. "The wind is at our backs: With the FCC's infrastructure policies now ratified by the court, along with pathbreaking spectrum auctions concluded, ongoing and to come, America is well-positioned to extend its global lead in 5G and American consumers will benefit from the next generation of wireless technologies and services," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement.

In T-Mobile's Q2 2020 earnings call today, the company says that it has surpassed AT&T in total branded customer count to become the second biggest carrier in the U.S., trailing only Verizon. PhoneDog reports: In Q2 2020, [which is the first quarter that includes Sprint following the merger of the two carriers] T-Mobile added 1.245 million customers, giving it a total subscriber count of 98.3 million. To compare, AT&T finished Q2 2020 with 93 million postpaid and prepaid customers.

T-Mo also shared some good news regarding its 5G network today. The magenta carrier's 2.5GHz mid-band 5G is now live in Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington DC. That 2.5GHz 5G coverage is also live in parts of Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia. T-Mo touts that its average download speeds on 2.5GHz 5G is around 300Mbps with peak speeds of 1Gbps.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President Trump's re-election campaign has accused Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile of "suppression of political speech" over the carriers' blocking of spam texts sent by the campaign. The fight was described Wednesday in an in-depth article by Business Insider and other reports. "The Trump campaign has been battling this month with the biggest US cellphone carriers over an effort to blast millions of cell users with texts meant to coax them to vote or donate," Business Insider wrote. "President Donald Trump's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, didn't appreciate it when AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile blocked mass campaign texts to voters. He called the companies to complain, setting off the legal wrangling."

When contacted by Ars, a Trump campaign spokesperson said that "any effort by the carriers to restrict the campaign from contacting its supporters is suppression of political speech. Plain and simple." The Trump campaign statement also said it "stands by the compliance of its texting programs" with the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Federal Communications Commission guidelines. Business Insider wrote that "the showdown got serious at the start of July when Trump's team sent a blast of texts to people who hadn't signed up for them," and "a third-party firm hired to screen such messages for the major cellphone companies blocked the texts." The article said that campaign lawyers and the carriers "are still fighting over what kinds of messages the campaign is allowed to send and what the companies have the power to stop." Politico wrote about the dispute on Monday. "People familiar with the chain of events said Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T flagged potential regulatory problems with the peer-to-peer messaging operation, which differs from robo-texting in that texts are sent individually, as opposed to a mass blast," Politico wrote. "But within Trump's orbit, the episode has further fueled suspicions that big tech companies are looking to influence the election." The Trump campaign has not explained why the texts are legal and shouldn't have been blocked. They also didn't say how many people they tried to send the texts to, or whether the texts were unsolicited or sent to people who had signed up for campaign communications.

Carriers "viewed the texts as a possible violation of federal anti-robocall laws and Federal Communications Commission rules that come with hefty fines," Business Insider reported, citing information provided by "two Republicans familiar with the effort." Trump "campaign operatives" contend that its texting "exists in a legal gray area that allows campaigns to blast cellphone users if the messages are sent manually," Business Insider also wrote.

Having launched preliminary 5G services using millimeter wave hardware in late 2018, AT&T has technically been operating a 5G network for a year and a half -- but between the "5G+" network's few connection points and extremely limited hardware support, most people in the U.S. couldn't actually use it. Today, AT&T says its low band 5G network is officially available nationwide, reaching a potential 205 million customers across 395 coverage markets. From a report: The carrier is also making 5G service available to a wider range of customers at no additional charge. On a positive note, AT&T is now the second U.S. carrier with a nationwide 5G network, joining T-Mobile, which launched a similarly large offering in December 2019 using long distance but slow low band towers. But T-Mobile's low band 5G peaks at speeds around 225Mbps, nowhere near the 2Gbps peaks seen in Verizon's all but unusably small 5G network, while promising only a 20% improvement over 4G speeds on average. AT&T's low band 5G network is expected to deliver comparable performance but is using a technology called DSS to dynamically split prior 4G spectrum between 4G and 5G phones as user demand fluctuates.

An anonymous reader quotes the Verge: Disney has significantly reduced its spending on Facebook and Instagram ads amid concerns about the social media platform's enforcement of its content policies, The Wall Street Journal reported. It joins a list of large companies that have cut back on Facebook ads as part of an effort to compel Facebook to change how it handles hate speech and misinformation on its platforms.

The monthlong #StopHateforProfit boycott organized by a coalition of civil rights organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Color of Change, and Sleeping Giants kicked off July 1st and includes companies like Hershey, Honda, Ben & Jerry's, and Verizon. Other companies not part of the formal boycott that have pulled ads from Facebook and other social platforms included Coca-Cola, Lego, Starbucks, and Unilever. And Microsoft suspended its advertising on Facebook and Instagram through August.

"Bad-actor" phone companies that profit from robocalls could be blocked by more legitimate carriers under rules approved unanimously yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission. From a report: Under the change, the FCC said carriers can block calls "from bad-actor upstream voice service providers that pass illegal or unwanted calls along to other providers, when those upstream providers have been notified but fail to take action to stop these calls." Carriers that impose this type of blocking will get a safe harbor from liability "for the unintended or inadvertent blocking of wanted calls, thus eliminating a concern that kept some companies from implementing robust robocall blocking efforts."

This expanded level of blocking -- spurred by a new law in which Congress directed the FCC to expand safe harbors -- could be implemented by companies that sell phone service directly to consumers. That includes mobile carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, traditional landline companies, and VoIP providers. Carriers won't be able to block calls from just any provider. As Chairman Ajit Pai explained, the safe harbor will be available in cases when the "bad-actor" telecom has been notified by the FCC that it is carrying illegal traffic and "fails either to effectively mitigate such traffic or to implement effective measures to prevent customers from using its network to originate illegal calls."

Verizon has turned to Google Cloud's Contact Center AI to automate its customer-service phone calls and chatbot conversations. The Register reports: The Contact Center AI technology will, we're told, use natural-language recognition to transcribe on-the-fly customers as they talk down the line. This speech-to-text output will be fed into Dialogflow, a platform that parses the text and generates responses in real-time. Similarly, written conversations with online support chatbots will be processed in real-time by Google's AI. The overall aim is to allow subscribers to rant, er, complain away using natural language at the computer system, from their keyboards or over the phone, and the artificial intelligence should be able to work out what customers want, and help them out, without them having to navigate a menu or bark simple commands.

And presumably the aim is to sort out simple stuff quickly without a human operator having to come on the line and deal with it. Subscribers with trickier problems should also, we hope, be directed to a human being without having to negotiate their way through a menu or a script of irrelevant procedures. The software agents can also suggest relevant online documentation, such as information on how to view or pay a bill, based on a subscriber's request. Amusingly, if you get through to a human, or demand to speak to a person, the staffer will probably just tell you what the AI wanted to say anyway: the software will, behind the scenes, provide prompts to the call-center workers.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Major Internet service providers are scheduled to end their quarantine benefits soon, once again subjecting Americans to data caps and removing protections if they are unable to pay their bills. The FCC's Keep Americans Connected Pledge is set to expire on June 30. Companies initially agreed to the pledge and rushed to add benefits. ISPs like CenturyLink, T-Mobile, Verizon, and many others said they would not discontinue service or charge late fees for those unable to pay because of the coronavirus. They also agreed to open their Wi-Fi access points for free. So far, the FCC has not publicly said that it would extend the pledge.

In some ways, ISPs face the same decision as governors in Florida and Texas: end their benefits, which encouraged users to stay home, or continue them for an indeterminate period of time. This could be the last weekend of unlimited data for Comcast Xfinity subscribers and other major ISPs. For many of those who are out of work, ISPs could begin demanding payment for outstanding broadband bills on June 30. Consumers who have been riding out the quarantine by streaming may also find that their unlimited data expires June 30. On that day AT&T, Comcast Xfinity, Mediacom, and T-Mobile are scheduled to resume normal service, and once again impose data caps. Some ISPs, like Cox, have already terminated some benefits, as its temporary unlimited data program expired in May.

Some of America's biggest brands — Coca-Cola, The Hershey Company and the Levi Strauss & Co. — "are among the latest in pledging to halt advertising on Facebook as part of a growing boycott," reports USA Today: Despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlining several steps the social network will take to combat hate speech ahead of the 2020 presidential election Friday, the companies joined Unilever, Honda, Verizon and others in the protest... Jen Sey, chief marketing officer of Levi's, said in a statement late Friday the company was pausing all paid Facebook and Instagram advertising globally at least through the end of July across all of its brands. "When we re-engage will depend on Facebook's response," Sey said. The ad boycott on Facebook focuses on advertising for the month of July and also includes Eddie Bauer and Ben & Jerry's... Patagonia, REI, Mozilla and Upwork in addition to about 100 smaller companies also have said they are committed.

Nearly all of the social media company's revenue comes from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Shares of Facebook dropped more than 8% on Friday.
Business Insider notes that the 8% drop in Facebook's stock price meant that Mark Zuckerberg's fortune dropped $7.21 billion in a single day.

And then Sunday Starbucks announced they were also taking action, suspending advertising on all social media because "we believe both business leaders and policy makers need to come together to affect real change."

UPDATE: It's also now being reported that even Pepsi is joining the boycott.

As advertisers pull away from Facebook to protest the social networking giant's hands-off approach to misinformation and hate speech, the company is instituting a number of stronger policies to woo them back. From a report: In a livestreamed segment of the company's weekly all-hands meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recapped some of the steps Facebook is already taking, and announced new measures to fight voter suppression and misinformation -- although they amount to things that other social media platforms like Twitter have already enacted and enforced in more aggressive ways.

At the heart of the policy changes is an admission that the company will continue to allow politicians and public figures to disseminate hate speech that does, in fact, violate the Facebook's own guidelines -- but it will add a label to denote they're remaining on the platform because of their "newsworthy" nature. It's a watered down version of the more muscular stance that Twitter has taken to limit the ability of its network to amplify hate speech or statements that incite violence. [...] Zuckerberg's remarks came days of advertisers -- most recently Unilever and Verizon -- announced that they're going to pull their money from Facebook as part the #StopHateforProfit campaign organized by civil rights groups.

In response to the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data (LAED) Act proposed by three Republican senators, Big Tech companies have registered their opposition through their Reform Government Surveillance coalition. From a report: They said that building encryption backdoors would jeopardize the sensitive data of billions of users and "leave all Americans, businesses, and government agencies dangerously exposed to cyber threats from criminals and foreign adversaries." They also pointed out that as the pandemic has forced everyone to rely on the internet "in critical ways," digital security is paramount and strong encryption is the way forward. The coalition's members are Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snap, Verizon Media, Dropbox, and Microsoft-owned LinkedIn. The coalition was established in December 2013, a few months after documents about the United States' PRISM data collection program were leaked.

Forbes reports major internet outages across many companies including T-Mobile, Fortnite, Instagram, Comcast, and Chase Bank. Some experts believe it is the result of a coordinated attack, others not so much. Slashdot reader bobthesungeek76036 shares the report: On June 15, a flurry of reports on a number of different services in the U.S. have indicated that the country may be experiencing a coordinated DDoS, or "distributed denial of service" attack. These attacks are malicious attempts to disrupt or shut down targeted servers by overwhelming them with traffic from multiple sources. According to outage aggregator Downdetector, users reported outages in major mobile carriers (T-Mobile, Metro, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Consumer Cellular, US Cellular), Internet providers (Spectrum, Comcast, CenturyLink, Cox), social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Twitter), games and game services (Fortnite, Roblox, Call of Duty, Steam, Xbox Live, Playstation Network), streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Twitch), banks (Chase Bank, Bank of America), delivery services (Doordash), and other major platforms like Google and Zoom.

Of yet, the would-be source of these attacks is still unknown. @YourAnonCentral, a popular Anonymous twitter account, speculates that it, "may be China as the situation between South and North Korea is currently deteriorating." The same Twitter account cites the Digital Attack Map, which tracks the "top daily DDOS attacks worldwide" offers a visualization of the map of these attacks, but some, like cybersecurity expert Marcus Hutchins, claims that the map is "badly plotted" and does not currently "indicate an attack against the US." All major carriers are listed on Downdetector, but Verizon claims its problems are being artificially represented through attempts to connect to T-Mobile. [AT&T also cites "other carriers' networks" as posing problems for users.]

Mike Dano, reporting for Light Reading: Cox Communications -- one of the nation's largest cable providers -- is preparing to launch a mobile service, according to several sources familiar with the company's plans. However, the details of Cox's mobile strategy, including when it might launch and which wireless network provider it might partner with, are still unclear. AT&T executives have publicly indicated that the carrier is looking to sign MVNO partnerships with cable operators, and the sources said the two pursued MVNO talks earlier this year, but it's not clear whether the companies consummated the deal. It's noteworthy that Cox is preparing to re-enter the mobile industry by offering cellphones and wireless services to its broadband cable customers. The action would put Cox alongside fellow cable companies Altice USA, Comcast and Charter Communications, which have all also launched mobile services to their broadband customers. Comcast's Xfinity Mobile and Charter's Spectrum Mobile piggyback on Verizon's wireless network. Altice Mobile runs on T-Mobile's network. A Cox representative confirmed the company is interested in entering the mobile industry. "We believe the market is becoming more attractive for us to enter the wireless space and we are exploring it more aggressively now, but have not announced any specific plans," company spokesperson Todd Smith wrote in response to questions from Light Reading. "We have not entered into any MVNO agreements yet."

When Robin Frost called Verizon's customer support last month, she was connected with a rooster. At least that's what it sounded like. The Pennsylvania resident wanted to ask about a problem with the telecom company's app, but the agent on the line said she couldn't hear. Punctuating her words was "the sound of a very authentic, real-sounding rooster," Ms. Frost recalled. From a report: Thousands of call-center employees in the Philippines and India are working from home, often on the outskirts of urban areas or outside them, during their countries' coronavirus lockdowns. That has given cows and pigs -- but mainly roosters -- a chance to chime in. "It was funny but not funny, and also maddening, as I couldn't accomplish my task," Ms. Frost said. Stefaan Smith, 36, who lives outside Phoenix, had a similar encounter when he called a Sprint helpline in March. He wanted to defer billing on his account after a pizza-parlor job fell through and left him with no money in the bank.

"The crowing was so close," he said of what sounded like an angry rooster, though that wasn't the only animal present. "It was like right outside her window. You could hear her pigs grumbling and groaning." After follow-up calls, he received a $50 credit from the provider, he said. Call-center executives say roosters are tough to silence. Americans often make customer-service calls in the late afternoon and evening, just when the sun is rising over countries like the Philippines and the birds are at their loudest. That's when Junela Dumaya's job gets tricky. The 20-year-old works for Open Access BPO, a call center, and lives in a mountainous area a few hours' drive from the Philippine capital, Manila. Her neighbor's cow makes a racket in the mornings, as do her brother-in-law's chickens.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After promising 60 days without data caps and overage fees for all customers, Comcast has decided to extend the data-cap waiver until at least June 30. Comcast announced the data-cap waiver on March 13, saying the waiver would last until May 13 to help customers deal with the pandemic. Today, Comcast said it will extend the data-cap waiver and other pandemic-related changes "through June 30 to help ensure students can finish out the school year from home and remain connected to the Internet during the COVID-19 crisis."

Also extended to June 30 is Comcast's promise not to disconnect Internet, mobile, or home phone service and to waive late fees if customers "contact us and let us know that they can't pay their bills during this period." Comcast also previously made its $10-per-month Internet Essentials plan free to new low-income customers for two months. With today's announcement, that offer for new low-income customers will remain on the table until June 30. Additionally, Comcast will keep its Wi-Fi hotspots open to anyone who needs them through June 30. Comcast has a 1TB monthly data cap in 27 states, except for the Northeast where Comcast faces strong competition from Verizon's uncapped fiber-to-the-home FiOS service, the report notes. "In capped areas, Comcast charges an extra $10 for each additional block of 50GB, or $50 more each month for unlimited data."

Verizon Communications, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, and cable giant Comcast said on Monday they will extend a commitment through June 30 not to cancel service or charge late fees to customers because of the coronavirus pandemic. From a report: In March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said major wireless and internet providers -- including Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, T-Mobile and Alphabet's Google Fiber -- had agreed not to terminate service for subscribers for 60 days. In total, more than 700 companies have now agreed to the voluntary measures. Further reading: Comcast's Network Holding Up Fine Without Usage Caps.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Motorola hasn't had a true flagship on the market in a few years after its Moto Z line was downgraded to mid-range status. Today, though, the company has officially unveiled the Motorola Edge and Edge+ with the Snapdragon 865, crazy cameras, and more. Here's what you need to know. The Motorola Edge+ is the true flagship of the two, offering a Snapdragon 865 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 6.7-inch FHD AMOLED display that has a "waterfall" curve on either side, a hole-punch containing the 24MP selfie shooter, and a 90Hz refresh rate. The Motorola Edge+ also features wireless charging, 18W wired charging, and a triple camera system. There's a 108MP sensor to headline that array, but also a 16MP ultrawide shooter and 8MP telephoto lens. There's also a 5,000 mAh battery to ensure plenty of power. It even offers reverse wireless charging.

What about the regular Motorola Edge? That device makes pretty smart cuts to keep a lower price. It has the same display and overall design but uses a Snapdragon 765 to keep 5G and good performance. It's paired with Android 10 and either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on all models. There's also a 64MP camera backed up by the same 16MP ultrawide and 8MP telephoto shooters. The regular Edge does lose wireless charging, though for its 4,500 mAh battery. Here's one fun part of both of these phones. They still have headphone jacks. Both the Edge and Edge+ also feature 5G support (only sub-6 for the Edge), offer red or black colors, and use their curved displays for a few neat software tricks. Both are also promised at least one major Android upgrade, too. As for pricing, the Motorola Edge+ will be available exclusively via Verizon for $1,000, or $41.66/month. The price of the regular Edge hasn't been announced yet, but it should be considerably cheaper and more broadly available.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission is set to approve a new 5G cellular network despite claims from the Department of Defense that it will interfere with Global Positioning System (GPS) services. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today asked fellow commissioners to approve an "application to deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services." The application is from Ligado, formerly known as LightSquared, which for nearly a decade has sought permission to build a wireless network using frequencies near those used for GPS. A previous failure to obtain FCC approval helped push LightSquared into bankruptcy.

The FCC said its draft order would "ensure that adjacent band operations, including GPS, are protected from harmful interference." Pai said the FCC has "compiled an extensive record, which confirms that it is in the public interest to grant Ligado's application while imposing stringent conditions to prevent harmful interference." He continued: "Although I appreciate the concerns that have been raised by certain Executive Branch agencies, it is the Commission's duty to make an independent determination based on sound engineering. And based on the painstaking technical analysis done by our expert staff, I am convinced that the conditions outlined in this draft order would permit Ligado to move forward without causing harmful interference. For example, the draft order would authorize downlink operations at a power level that represents a greater than 99 percent reduction from what Ligado proposed in its 2015 application." The base-station power reduction is "from 32dBW to 9.8dBW," and Ligado committed to a 23MHz "guard-band using its own licensed spectrum to further separate its terrestrial base station transmissions from neighboring operation," the FCC said. "As such, Ligado is now only seeking terrestrial use of the 1526-1536MHz, 1627.5-1637.5MHz, and 1646.5-1656.5MHz bands."

Ligado isn't competing directly against the big telecom giants. Instead, the company "plans to deliver custom private networks for industrial firms, service for [IoT] devices and unmanned systems, and connectivity for other business and government use cases," reports Ars. "Ligado could also supply capacity to the major wireless carriers."

Verizon announced Thursday that it's buying BlueJeans as part of a push into the unified communications market. From a report: Verizon said BlueJeans will be "deeply integrated" into its 5G product roadmap, becoming part of Verizon Business and sold as a secure communications system for areas such as telemedicine, distance learning and field service work. Verizon's ambitions aside, the acquisition is yet another sign that videoconferencing software is having a moment. The novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for collaboration and videoconferencing software, as millions of employees work from home and increasingly rely on software tools to stay connected.