All posts tagged: T-Mobile

FCC Fines AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Almost 0 Million for Illegally Sharing Customer Location Data

FCC Fines AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Almost $200 Million for Illegally Sharing Customer Location Data

Published by skeptic

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced [PDF] that it has fined AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint/T-Mobile $196 million collectively for illegally selling access to customer location information without consent. Sprint and T-Mobile (now merged into T-Mobile) have been fined $12 million and $80 million, respectively. Verizon has been fined almost $47 million, and AT&T has been fined more than $57 million. The FCC first began investigating the four major U.S. carriers in 2019 after they were found selling real-time location information from customer devices to third-party data aggregators, which led to that location data being sold a second time to private investigators, bounty hunters, law enforcement agencies, credit card companies, and more. Following the investigation, the FCC confirmed that wireless carriers had violated federal law by sharing consumer location data. Fines were proposed back in 2020, but carriers were given an opportunity to provide evidence and legal arguments against the decision before the fines were formally imposed. The fines vary based on the length of time that each carrier sold access to customer …

An AT&T Outage Is Wreaking Havoc on US Cellular Networks

An AT&T Outage Is Wreaking Havoc on US Cellular Networks

Published by skeptic

It started around 3:30 in the morning on the East Coast, reports flooding in about an AT&T service outage. Customers complained across Reddit and X and logged their issues on DownDetector, a site that, well, detects when services go down. The impact appears to be widespread; AT&T users from New York to Atlanta to Dallas claimed no signal, phones stuck in SOS mode. Multiple police departments, including in San Francisco, reported that some users were unable to contact 911 as a result of the outages. By 9 am ET, DownDetector was showing more than 72,000 A&T outages across the US; the site’s baseline for AT&T service issues is 42. “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T spokesperson Jim Greer said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.” It’s not just AT&T’s customers, though. Every cell carrier on DownDetector showed spikes Thursday morning, including behemoths Verizon and T-Mobile. But both companies confirmed that there’s nothing …

T-Mobile Debuts ‘Magenta Status’ Rewards for Subscribers

T-Mobile Debuts ‘Magenta Status’ Rewards for Subscribers

Published by skeptic

T-Mobile today announced that all of its customers have “Magenta Status,” allowing them to access “one-of-a-kind” benefits from premium brands and services. T-Mobile says that customers can get discounts from “the biggest brands” like Hilton and Hertz. Some of the deals include 15 percent off Hilton hotel brands, no fuel refills at drop off at Dollar Rental locations, one $5 movie ticket per month, and 25 percent off some shows at Live Nation amphitheaters and venues. T-Mobile says that customers can get up to $1,500 a year in extra value. Magenta Status perks are in addition to the T-Mobile Tuesday rewards, with T-Mobile today adding a new “Tuesday” freebie from Little Caesars. The new Magenta Status rewards can be viewed in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app after updating to the latest version. Popular Stories Apple Releasing iOS 17.4 in March With These New Features and Changes Apple last month confirmed that iOS 17.4 will be released in March, and the update includes several new features and changes for the iPhone. Key new features in iOS 17.4 …

SpaceX launches first batch of direct-to-cell Starlink satellites for testing this year

SpaceX launches first batch of direct-to-cell Starlink satellites for testing this year

Published by skeptic

SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites that will be able to connect directly to cell phones ahead of planned testing later this year. The company launched six Starlink satellites with this capability with a batch of fifteen other Starlink birds aboard a Falcon 9 rocket late last night. SpaceX obtained approval to test the satellites in partnership with T-Mobile from U.S. regulators last month. SpaceX has a number of other partnerships with native telecom companies in countries including Australia, Canada, and Japan. The approval, which was granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, was for a 180-day period. SpaceX said the tests would eventually involve 840 satellites transmitting 4G connectivity to around 2,000 unmodified smartphones. The satellites will act as “cell phone towers in space,” according to Starlink’s website. The website estimates that texting will become available this year, with voice and data services starting in 2025 and connection for Internet-of-Things devices also in 2025, though SpaceX will need to get regulatory approval before commencing commercial service. While SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said …

Trump’s Corruption Unbound – The Atlantic

Trump’s Corruption Unbound – The Atlantic

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In the annals of government ethics, the year 2017 exists in a bygone era. That September, Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services, Tom Price, resigned in disgrace. His unforgivable sin was chartering private jets funded by taxpayers, when he just as easily could have flown commercial. Compared with the abuses of power in the years that followed, the transgression was relatively picayune. But at that early moment, even Trump felt obliged to join the criticism of Price. During Trump’s first months as president, it wasn’t yet clear how much concentrated corruption the nation, or his own party, would tolerate, which is why Trump was compelled to dispose of the occasional Cabinet secretary. Yet nearly everything about Trump’s history in real estate, where he greased palms and bullied officials, suggested that he regarded the government as a lucrative instrument for his own gain. Explore the January/February 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More A week and a half before taking office, he held a …