---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20161203003842.GA23966@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2016 19:38:42 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink asks for volunteers in new round of 3,000 layoffs Growth in TV, networking can't offset decline in landlines. CenturyLink says it is cutting more than 3,000 jobs to lower its costs. The Monroe, Louisiana-based telecommunications company said Monday that it expects to lay off about 7 to 8 percent of its 43,000 employees. That would be roughly 3,000 to 3,400 jobs. According to industry news site CRN.com, CenturyLink blamed a decline in its landline phone business. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/19/decline-in-landline-phone-service-centurylink-ask-volunteers-3000-layoffs/ -- Bill Horne ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20161203004058.GA23998@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2016 19:40:58 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: FCC: AT&T, Verizon Shouldn't Exempt Own Apps From Data Caps By Tali Arbel U.S. regulators are calling out AT&T and Verizon for exempting their own video apps from data caps on customers' cellphones. This may not result in any changes in how the wireless carriers operate, however, as agency leaders appointed by Donald Trump, the incoming president, are expected to look more favorably on such practices. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fcc-att-verizon-exempt-apps-data-caps-43931218 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20161203003359.GA23908@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2016 19:33:59 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: The FCC is worried about AT&T DirecTV Now By Todd Haselton AT&T's DirecTV Now service may seem pretty compelling on the surface, especially since it offers a solid bundle of more than 100 TV channels for $35 per month, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for consumers. In fact, the FCC is worried that the way AT&T has decided to handle DirecTV data on its network could be in violation of net neutrality regulations. There's good reason why. A recent letter from FCC chief Jon Wilkins to AT&T's lawyers obtained by Ars Technica expresses the FCC's concerns that AT&T allows DirecTV content to stream on its network without affecting the data usage of its customers. While that's a benefit for folks on the network who subscribe to DirecTV, it's not good for competition. http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/12/02/fcc-is-worried-about-att-directv-now/ -- Bill Horne ------------------------------ Message-ID: <59BC6423-B86C-4911-9091-25FF0182C822@roscom.com> Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2016 02:15:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: How a Grad student found spyware that could control anybody's iPhone How a Grad Student Found Spyware That Could Control Anybody's iPhone from Anywhere in the World By Bryan Burrough The night it happened, right after midnight on August 10, Bill Marczak and his girlfriend were staying up late to watch Star Trek reruns in their spare one-bedroom apartment, in El Cerrito, California, just north of the University of California at Berkeley campus. A trim Ph.D. candidate with dense brown hair and a disciplined beard, Marczak wasn't just another excitable, fast-talking Berkeley grad student. He was a pioneering analyst in a new and unusual theater of cyber-warfare: the struggle between Middle Eastern freedom activists and authoritarian governments in countries such as Bahrain and Egypt. He was also a senior fellow at Citizens Lab, the University of Toronto "interdisciplinary laboratory" that had almost single-handedly discovered and alerted the world to how these governments were monitoring dissidents with spyware quietly marketed by a group of shadowy European and Israeli companies that have been labeled the first "cyber-arms dealers." http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/how-bill-marczak-spyware-can-control-the-iphone ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sat, 03 Dec 2016