telecommunications

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Verizon, Vodaphone CEOs Strike Vast Deal—at the Gym

Verizon buys out Vodafone in 3rd-biggest deal ever

(Newser) - Things seem pretty cozy at the top in the world of telecommunications: Verizon has bought out its British partner Vodafone and the CEOs involved say the third-biggest corporate deal in history was forged in a San Francisco gym. "We got up early. We were both down at the gym...

Move Over, NSA: DEA Uses Bigger Phone-Call Database

AT&T workers embedded with anti-drug units

(Newser) - The Drug Enforcement Administration has been working closely with AT&T to access a database of American phone calls that dwarfs the NSA's controversial data-collecting efforts, the New York Times finds. In the "Hemisphere Project," which began in 2007, AT&T employees are embedded in anti-drug units...

The World's Last Telegram Will Be Sent Next Month

Yes, people still send telegrams

(Newser) - We're not sure if it's more surprising to learn that the last telegram in the world will be sent next month... or that people are still sending telegrams somewhere. They are, though: 5,000 telegrams are still sent every day in India. But that's all coming to...

Japan's SoftBank Snapping Up 70% of Sprint

$20.5B deal a record for Japan

(Newser) - Japanese telecom giant SoftBank has finalized a $20.1 billion deal to buy 70% of American wireless carrier Sprint, reports the AP . The deal announced in Tokyo today is the biggest-ever foreign takeover by a Japanese company and still needs to be approved by Sprint shareholders and American regulators. The...

Cell Phone Surveillance Surges
 Cell Phone Surveillance Surges 
Jul 9, 2012 4:00 AM CDT

Cell Phone Surveillance Surges

Carriers got more than 1.3M demands for info last year

(Newser) - Cell phone surveillance has exploded over the last five years, and carriers received more than 1.3 million demands for information from law enforcement last year, a Congressional report reveals. The carriers are dealing with thousands of requests a day from all levels of law enforcement, but some legally questionable...

Feds Suspect Cable Firms of Stifling Online Videos

DoJ conducting antitrust probe, sources say

(Newser) - Federal authorities suspect cable companies worried about competition from online video have acted improperly to quash their emerging rivals, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The Department of Justice has opened a wide-ranging investigation, and officials have spoken to online video providers and cable companies, including Time Warner and Comcast,...

Verizon to Phase Out Unlimited Data Plans

'Grandfathered' customers will be shifted to data-share plans upon upgrade

(Newser) - Verizon is scrapping the $30-a-month unlimited data plan that it still gives to 3G customers who signed up for it before the company switched to a tiered system, reports FierceWireless . When the "grandfathered" customers upgrade their devices, they will be shifted over to Verizon's new data-share plan that...

Court OKs Warrantless Cellphone Searches

Phones not that different from diaries, judges decide

(Newser) - The police don't need a warrant to search a suspect's cellphone for its phone number in order to obtain a history of calls, a federal appeals court. The three-judge panel, ruling on the case of an Indiana man convicted of drug charges on the basis of call records,...

Ship Accidents Knock Countries Offline

Anchors cut undersea cables

(Newser) - At least nine countries have suffered telecom outages this month, following a pair of accidents in which ships severed essential undersea cables, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the most recent incident this weekend, a ship dragging its anchor off the coast of Kenya caught on and destroyed a fiber-optic...

Skype Buys GroupMe for More Than $50M
 Skype Buys GroupMe for $50M+ 
Aug 22, 2011 8:58 AM CDT

Skype Buys GroupMe for $50M+

Group-texting firm will stay in New York

(Newser) - Skype has purchased group text-messaging firm GroupMe in a deal worth somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. The startup will remain independent but will likely play a major role in Skype’s mobile and social arenas. It’s a big success for the year-old firm, writes Ben Popper for...

Solar Storm to Hit Earth This Week

Could impact communications, GPS

(Newser) - If your GPS stops working in the next few days, blame solar storms. Following three large explosions from the sun recently, US government scientists are expecting a larger solar event this week—and warn that satellite, telecommunications, and electric equipment, including GPS, could be disrupted. "The magnetic storm that...

Verizon Ditching Unlimited Data Plans

New customers to be offered only tiered plans

(Newser) - Verizon is becoming the latest carrier to scrap unlimited data plans in favor of tiered ones. As of tomorrow, new Verizon customers will be offered options ranging from $30 for 2 GB per month to $80 for 10 GB per month, Fierce Wireless reports. Existing customers will be allowed to...

How Rebels Hijacked Gadhafi's Phone Network

System allows for critical battlefield communications

(Newser) - Until a week and a half ago, rebel forces in Libya were waving flags at each other to communicate on the battlefield, because Moammar Gadhafi had cut off their telephone and Internet service. But now that’s all changed thanks to a plan a Libyan-American telecom executive drew up on...

AT&T, T-Mobile Merger Reactions: Not Good for Consumers
 AT&T, T-Mobile Merger 
 Bad News for Consumers 
early reactions
Mar 21, 2011 6:29 AM CDT

AT&T, T-Mobile Merger Bad News for Consumers

The consensus: 'Ma Bell is back'

(Newser) - Reactions to the surprise AT&T-T-mobile merger are pouring in, and, not surprisingly, most conclude this isn't a good thing for consumers:
  • The Bell telephone system—"aka AT&T"—was broken up in 1984 to increase competition, and the US telecommunications market was deregulated in 1996, again to
...

Google Voice Launches Number Porting

Users now allowed to move cell numbers to service

(Newser) - Google's Voice calling application is adding a long-promised feature: the ability to move a phone number from a cell phone to Google's service. Previously, Google Voice assigned each user a new number,making it more difficult to take advantage of its features, which include cheaper international calls and the ability...

Ship Begins Laying Venezuela-Cuba Cable

Cuba to gain its first fiber-optics line

(Newser) - Cubans will soon find it a lot easier to reach out and touch someone: US sanctions had left the island nation the only country in the Western Hemisphere not linked to the outside world by fiber optics, but a ship has now arrived in Venezuela to begin laying fiber optic...

Cell Phones Can Be Saviors for World's Poor: UN

Report shows gadgets can lead to better livelihoods

(Newser) - For the financially comfortable, cell phones may make life a little easier—but for those in less-developed countries, the gadgets can be the difference between a life of poverty one of relative comfort, a UN report finds. “Mobiles have spawned a wealth of micro-enterprises, offering work to people with...

FCC Battles Cell Phone 'Bill Shock'

Haiti volunteer hit with $30K in roaming charges

(Newser) - A FEMA worker supporting the earthquake relief effort in Haiti was hit with a $30,000 bill for roaming charges when she arrived back in the US. Federal regulators say this kind of cell phone "bill shock" is all too common, and they hope to curb it with regulations...

Google Takes on Skype With Free Gmail Calls

Search giant rolls out email-linked phone service

(Newser) - Google took a bold stride onto Skype's turf yesterday, announcing that Gmail users will now be able to call landline and cell phones directly from their email. The company says Gmail users will be allowed to call phones in the US and Canada free for at least the rest of...

Zombie Satellite Set to Wreak Havoc

Unresponsive satellite drifting into trouble

(Newser) - Telecommunications customers who suffer service problems later this month may have an unstoppable space zombie to blame. Intelsat's Galaxy 15 satellite has become a "zombiesat"—an industry term for a failed satellite—and is slowly drifting toward the orbit of other satellites while carrying a still-functioning load of...

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