When you look at almost any article on the pandemic and working from home, most of the information is anecdotal at best. According to Bryan Robinson, Ph.D., the debate over remote and hybrid work continues to grow, and everyone has a seemingly expert opinion But - What does the scientific data show? We'll tell you that right here.

Bill Gates and Elon Musk have been believers in the promise of low-earth orbit satellite internet as a key to global connectivity. With the private space industry now booming – the battle is on to lead the new space race.

Fierce Telecom’s Diana Goovarets is reporting that the Dell’Oro Group’s Jeff Heynen has forecasted that by 2026 - there will still be 400,000 DSL Customer Premise Equipment Units and around 130,000 new ports still being shipped in North America when 2026 rolls around. Although the carrier giants like AT&T and Verizon both talked up current copper retirement plans at their respective investor day events last month analysts have indicated that the technology is likely to stick around in the U.S. at least until the end of the decade in 2030.

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworsel has once again reminded the OMB that Public Safety telecommunicators SOC classification needs to be changed from administrative/secretarial to one more representative to what they do and should be considered as protective and emergency services, similar to those they dispatch for.

Deutsch Telecom has made a bold move this week taking back enough shares in T-Mobile US (TMUS) to leverage their position as a majority stakeholder in the company. With such a large stake in 5G Network deployments, it will be interesting to see how commercial businesses respond as the 5G network interweaves itself with enterprise networks. Does this open the door for additional offshore attacks?

Michał Medrala, the Head of OSS Consulting, writes that as the Internet of Things expands and 5G is rolled out globally, it’s no longer feasible for telcos to rely on manual efforts to manage and maintain their networks. But automation may nit be enough. It is going to take a unique combination of artificial intelligence as well as machine learning to absorb all of the data points, digest them intelligently, and then react or recommend a reaction BEFORE the network falls on its face from a disruption, innocent or one with malintentions.

Ryan Daws from TechForge Media reports that Toronto Ontario’s Rogers Communications, Canadia’s communications and media giant that operates in the wireless, CATV, telephony, and Internet markets, along with additional mass media assets, has partnered with Ericsson to launch the first commercially available 5G standalone network in Canada delivering advanced services to businesses and users.    Beauty. . . eh?

US security agencies have disrupted a large Russian BotNet before it was able to be weaponized and used against US resources. The BotNet was reportedly operated by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, according to US Attorney General Merrick Garland. While this particular thread has been suppressed, businesses and citizens are urged to maintain a level of diligence in securing their cyber activities and watch for additional attacks against US assets.

ETSI has announced that, as of March 17, all smartphones sold in Europe are required to comply with Advanced Mobile Location (AML) for emergency communications. AML enables the handset to automatically send user location information when contacting emergency services. It was originally standardized by the ETSI technical committee on emergency communications (EMTEL) in 2019. A spokesperson for the ETSI said: “AML meets the requirements of the Delegated Regulation 2019/320. The legislation specifically requires that smartphones process data from global navigation systems, compatible and interoperable with at least the Galileo system, and Wi-Fi data, to establish the caller's position." 

This new capability opens the door for additional data into EU PSAPs, similar to the RapidSOS model in the US.

The FCC announced that they and the DOJ have reached a $13.4 million settlement with Tracfone wireless in connection with violations of FCC Lifeline program rules.

Specifically, the settlement resolves allegations that TracFone violated the false claims act by signing up more than 175,000 ineligible customers for the lifeline program from 2012 to 2015 and that the false claims resulted from TracFone's lax oversight and monitoring of its lifeline program.