Devices

British communications regulator Ofcom said it had started the process to scrap legislation compelling BT, the former state-owned monopoly, to provide dedicated landlines for the devices at affordable prices.

Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) said the state’s Office of Statewide Broadband will spend up to $30 million on laptops for about 150,000 households. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, which contains the broadband office, plans to partner with local governments and community groups to distribute the devices to “underserved” households, according to Gov. Hogan.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to bolster the operational readiness and security of the nation’s public alert and warning systems, the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. These systems warn the public about emergencies through alerts on their televisions, radios, and wireless phones. In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted, the FCC proposes to:

Scientists from universities in Sweden and Denmark transmitted nearly double an internet’s worth of data through a fiber optic cable in one second using a laser-powered chip — a world record. The chip achieved dizzying speeds by using a single laser and a specialized light-creating device to transmit data over fiber optic cables. The number of data researchers sent, roughly 1.84 petabytes, far exceeds the roughly 1 petabyte of data transmitted over the entire internet every second (A petabyte of data is roughly a million gigabytes).

Identifying problems with Wi-Fi can be difficult, and people often just turn Wi-Fi off on their devices and instead use their cellular data connection.

The availability of faster Comcast uploads has a catch—users can only get the higher upstream speeds by purchasing xFi Complete, which adds $25 to monthly broadband costs. According to the company, "As markets launch, Xfinity Internet customers who subscribe to xFi Complete will have their upload speeds increased between 5 and 10 times faster." Additionally, Comcast is deploying the speed upgrade in the Northeast US over the next couple of months. Plans with 10Mbps upload speeds will get up to 100Mbps upload speeds once the new tiers roll out in your region—if you pay for xFi Complete.

Something is missing from our lives, and from our technology. The goal of consumer tech development used to be pretty simple: design and build something of value to people, giving them a reason to buy it. There has been a sea change in the entire model for innovation and the incentives that drive it. Why settle for a single profit-taking transaction for the company when you can instead design a product that will extract a monetizable data stream from every buyer, returning revenue to the company for years?

White House officials convened industry leaders, policy experts and government leaders to discuss plans for security and privacy standards on connected devices.

The largest ever 5G global consumer study to date. The respondents selected for the interview represent the online population aged between 15 and 69 within the surveyed markets, which in total consists of 1.7 billion consumers and 430 million 5G users. The research reveals that the next wave of 5G is underway, with mainstream consumers now adopting 5G in frontrunner markets that launched 5G early on.

Hurricane Ian took out its fair share of towers in Florida; according to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly a fifth of the cellular sites in its path was put out of service at one point. Many citizens were unable to call for help or to reassure their loved ones that they’d survived the storm. While the need for wired and cellular infrastructure won’t be going away anytime soon, we’re heading toward a future where it’ll be possible to communicate with loved ones and rescue personnel in other ways.