Sarah Krouse

Some businesses are pushing back against a regulatory proposal that would allow phone companies to block unwanted robocalls. Representatives for trade bodies that lobby on behalf of debt collectors, banks, health-care providers and other businesses met with Federal Communications Commission officials recently, urging them to delay a planned June 6 vote on the matter and instead seek public comment, apparently. Banks, collection agencies and merchants say automated calls are crucial, even though some consumers find them annoying.

America’s telecommunications watchdogs have levied hefty financial penalties against illegal robocallers and demanded that bad actors repay millions to their victims. But years later, little money has been collected. Since 2015, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered violators of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a law governing telemarketing and robodialing, to pay $208.4 million. That sum includes so-called forfeiture orders in cases involving robocalling, Do Not Call Registry and telephone solicitation violations.

Companies hunting for space to place wireless equipment in New York City snapped up the rights to street lamps and traffic lights dotting Fifth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan in 2013. They didn’t stake claims to large clusters of sites in less affluent areas until three years later. City officials are now trying to change that trend, pushing companies that lease public space for telecom-equipment installations to move more aggressively beyond the city’s core, to improve wireless services more quickly for a broader swath of residents.

Officials from the US State Department and the Federal Communications Commission outlined their campaign to exclude Huawei from allies’ next generation communications networks, calling the Chinese equipment-maker “duplicitous and deceitful”. The officials, however, declined to offer any specific evidence of so-called backdoors in Huawei infrastructure that would permit it to spy on the US or its allies.

Apparently, Verizon's beleaguered media group is laying off 800 employees -- 7 percent of its staff -- and is focusing on fewer areas to revive its fortunes. Verizon CEO K Guru Gowrappan said in an email to staff that the business would focus on mobile and video-focused products. Yahoo-branded entertainment and news platforms are particularly important to the unit’s strategy. 

Persistent cellular site outages after Hurricane Michael left many first responders and residents of Panama City (FL) unable to reach loved ones or those in need of help for several days, drawing the ire of some government officials. A week after the storm made landfall, nearly half—46 percent as of 11 am on Oct 17—of cell sites in Bay County (FL) which includes Panama City and Mexico Beach, remained out of service, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Hurricane Michael has caused such extensive damage to the fiber that underpins Verizon's wireless network that it has stymied the carrier’s efforts to restore service to parts of the hardest-hit areas of the Florida Panhandle. Verizon’s network suffered “an unprecedented amount of fiber damage” in those areas during Hurricane Michael, said spokeswoman Karen Schulz. Wireless service problems have persisted for the carrier in parts of Panama City, Panama City Beach and Mexico Beach.

Emergency call operators will soon have an easier time pinpointing the whereabouts of Android phone users. Google has struck a deal with T-Mobile to pipe location data from cellphones with Android operating systems in the US to emergency call centers. The move is a sign that smartphone operating system providers and carriers are taking steps to improve the quality of location data they send when customers call 911. Locating callers has become a growing problem for 911 operators as cellphone usage has proliferated.

The early waves of mobile communications were largely driven by American and European companies. As the next era of 5G approaches, promising to again transform the way people use the internet, a battle is on to determine whether the US or China will dominate.

The tech industry has largely declared it is off limits to scan emails for information to sell to advertisers. Yahoo still sees the practice as a potential gold mine. Yahoo’s owner, the Oath unit of Verizon Communications has been pitching a service to advertisers that analyzes more than 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes and the rich user data they contain, searching for clues about what products those users might buy, said people who have attended Oath’s presentations as well as current and former employees of the company. Oath said the practice extends to AOL Mail, which it also owns.