---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20190124181610.GA17671@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:16:10 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon lays off 7 percent of its media workforce As rivals AT&T and Comcast expand their media businesses, Verizon struggles to find its footing. By Marguerite Reardon Verizon has laid off 7 percent of employees in its digital business as the phone company comes to grips with the hard realities of building a major media and advertising business to compete with Facebook and Google. A spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday that the company laid off about 800 employees in its Verizon Media Group, formerly branded Oath. Verizon Media had a total of about 11,400 employees at the end of 2018. https://www.cnet.com/news/layoffs-hit-verizon-media-group/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190124181126.GA17637@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:11:26 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon blames school text provider in dispute over "spam" fee Verizon won't charge spam fee for K-12 users, but it won't kill fee completely. by Jon Brodkin After being criticized for charging a new fee that could kill a free texting service for teachers and students, Verizon is trying to deflect blame over the possible shutdown. However, Verizon has backed down from its original position slightly, and ongoing negotiations could allow the free texting service to continue. As we reported Monday, the dispute involves Verizon and Remind, which makes a communication service used by teachers and youth sports coaches. Verizon is charging an additional fee, saying the money will be used to fund spam-blocking services. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/verizon-blames-school-text-provider-in-dispute-over-spam-fee/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190124183518.GA17696@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:35:18 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Data Broker That Sold Phone Locations Used by Bounty Hunters Lobbied FCC to Scrap User Consent Zumigo, which sold the location data of American cell phone users, wanted the FCC to remove requirements around user consent. By Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler Earlier this month Motherboard showed how T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint were selling cell phone users' location data that ultimately ended up in the hands of bounty hunters and people unauthorized to handle it. That data trickled down from the telecommunications giants through a complex network of middlemen and data brokers. One of those third parties was Zumigo, a company that gets location data access directly from the telcos and then sells it for a profit. Motherboard has now unearthed a presentation that Zumigo gave to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in late 2017 in which it asked the agency to place even fewer restrictions on how some of the data it sells can be used, and specifically asked for the agency to loosen user consent requirements for data sharing. https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/vbwgw8/zumigo-phone-location-data-sold-lobbied-fcc-consent -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190124222514.GA18205@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 17:25:14 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: "Our Calling is Now" to End the Government Shutdown I copied this from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) newsletter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - As she accepted the 2019 AFL-CIO Martin Luther King, Jr., Drum Major for Justice Award on Sunday, AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson called on conference activists from across the labor movement to come together to address the government shutdown. "Our calling is now," Nelson said. "There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding right now for our 800,000 federal sector sisters and brothers who are either locked out of work or forced to come to work without pay due to the government shutdown. These are real people who are facing real consequences of being dragged into the longest shutdown in history. No money to pay for rent, for childcare, or a tank of gas to get to work." Nelson urged union members not to sit on the sidelines. "Don't wait for an invitation," Nelson said. "Get engaged, join or plan a rally, get on a picket line, organize sit-ins at lawmakers' offices." For more information on how you can support efforts to end the shutdown, visit https://www.afge.org/take-action/campaigns/stop-the-shutdown. -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 25 Jan 2019