#metropcs call forwarding

[velmaemyers88]

T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier

It’s no secret that T-Mobile and Sprint have spent more than a year trying to win regulatory approval for their merger, or that they were willing to do practically anything officials asked in order to make it happen. FCC commissioners wanted guaranteed nationwide 5G coverage, including rural and underserved communities — they got it. Then the Department of Justice insisted that the carriers sell off enough assets to let another company, Dish Network, become their rival. According to a new Bloomberg report, regulators got that, too.

I won’t call myself mystified by the DOJ’s pursuit of this concession, because I can understand the theoretical basis for preserving the U.S. cellular industry’s status quo. If Sprint’s data plan pricing was actually influencing T-Mobile’s — I’d argue it wasn’t — merging the companies might drive prices up for standard cellular service. But to gain regulatory approval, the carriers pledged not to raise prices for three years, making this issue largely moot.

In the budget cellular market, there could have been a bigger impact. The merger would have combined the carriers’ prepaid cellular brands Boost Mobile and Metro (aka MetroPCS), which might also have led to higher prices or fewer stores to serve the country’s most budget-conscious consumers. So the DOJ stopped that, forcing Boost to be spun off in a $1.5 billion sale to Dish.

The combined deal will see Dish acquire both Boost and $3.5 billion of wireless spectrum to build its own cellular network. In exchange, it will guarantee that it won’t sell its new assets to another company or controlling entity for three years, and receive seven years of access to T-Mobile’s network while it builds its own network and customer base. These durations were a reported sticking point in the DOJ/T-Mobile/Sprint negotiations, as T-Mobile didn’t want to commit its network resources to serving a huge rival’s customers, particularly if Dish opted to sell out to an Amazon-class tech giant.

It’s worth noting at this point that Dish will jump from place zero in the U.S. cellular industry to just ahead of current fifth-place carrier U.S. Cellular, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million users scattered across multiple states — but apparently no great ambition to go national by acquiring T-Mobile assets. Even so, U.S. Cellular might have been a stronger rival to the New T-Mobile than Dish, which has spent years watching its satellite television business deteriorate while sitting on potentially useful wireless spectrum, not exactly the actions of a fearsome cellular competitor.

Thanks to the DOJ, U.S. consumers are about to wind up with basically the same thing they had before with Sprint — another weak “national” fourth-place carrier that consumers will largely write off as inferior to T-Mobile, and on roughly the same playing field as an MVNO. Just as Verizon and AT&T basically wrote off the T-Mobile/Sprint merger last year, it’s hard to imagine T-Mobile’s aggressive CEO John Legere sweating over any smaller rival with limited vision and/or ambitions going forward.

This assumes, of course, that Dish won’t seriously step up and find some viable way to deliver cheaper or stronger service than the T-Mobile network it’s based upon. It could do that — hopefully under a better brand name — and if so, it will be a welcome new competitive force in the cellular market. If not, its only value may be as a stepping stone to bring Amazon, Apple, or Google into the market as a carrier several years from now. The very prospect of overseeing the twists and turns of such a deal may be enough to keep regulators excited while the clock ticks down on Dish’s resale limitations.

Credit: Source link

The post T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186520656092

[reneeacaseyfl]

T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier

It’s no secret that T-Mobile and Sprint have spent more than a year trying to win regulatory approval for their merger, or that they were willing to do practically anything officials asked in order to make it happen. FCC commissioners wanted guaranteed nationwide 5G coverage, including rural and underserved communities — they got it. Then the Department of Justice insisted that the carriers sell off enough assets to let another company, Dish Network, become their rival. According to a new Bloomberg report, regulators got that, too.

I won’t call myself mystified by the DOJ’s pursuit of this concession, because I can understand the theoretical basis for preserving the U.S. cellular industry’s status quo. If Sprint’s data plan pricing was actually influencing T-Mobile’s — I’d argue it wasn’t — merging the companies might drive prices up for standard cellular service. But to gain regulatory approval, the carriers pledged not to raise prices for three years, making this issue largely moot.

In the budget cellular market, there could have been a bigger impact. The merger would have combined the carriers’ prepaid cellular brands Boost Mobile and Metro (aka MetroPCS), which might also have led to higher prices or fewer stores to serve the country’s most budget-conscious consumers. So the DOJ stopped that, forcing Boost to be spun off in a $1.5 billion sale to Dish.

The combined deal will see Dish acquire both Boost and $3.5 billion of wireless spectrum to build its own cellular network. In exchange, it will guarantee that it won’t sell its new assets to another company or controlling entity for three years, and receive seven years of access to T-Mobile’s network while it builds its own network and customer base. These durations were a reported sticking point in the DOJ/T-Mobile/Sprint negotiations, as T-Mobile didn’t want to commit its network resources to serving a huge rival’s customers, particularly if Dish opted to sell out to an Amazon-class tech giant.

It’s worth noting at this point that Dish will jump from place zero in the U.S. cellular industry to just ahead of current fifth-place carrier U.S. Cellular, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million users scattered across multiple states — but apparently no great ambition to go national by acquiring T-Mobile assets. Even so, U.S. Cellular might have been a stronger rival to the New T-Mobile than Dish, which has spent years watching its satellite television business deteriorate while sitting on potentially useful wireless spectrum, not exactly the actions of a fearsome cellular competitor.

Thanks to the DOJ, U.S. consumers are about to wind up with basically the same thing they had before with Sprint — another weak “national” fourth-place carrier that consumers will largely write off as inferior to T-Mobile, and on roughly the same playing field as an MVNO. Just as Verizon and AT&T basically wrote off the T-Mobile/Sprint merger last year, it’s hard to imagine T-Mobile’s aggressive CEO John Legere sweating over any smaller rival with limited vision and/or ambitions going forward.

This assumes, of course, that Dish won’t seriously step up and find some viable way to deliver cheaper or stronger service than the T-Mobile network it’s based upon. It could do that — hopefully under a better brand name — and if so, it will be a welcome new competitive force in the cellular market. If not, its only value may be as a stepping stone to bring Amazon, Apple, or Google into the market as a carrier several years from now. The very prospect of overseeing the twists and turns of such a deal may be enough to keep regulators excited while the clock ticks down on Dish’s resale limitations.

Credit: Source link

The post T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186520656092

[weeklyreviewer]

T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier

It’s no secret that T-Mobile and Sprint have spent more than a year trying to win regulatory approval for their merger, or that they were willing to do practically anything officials asked in order to make it happen. FCC commissioners wanted guaranteed nationwide 5G coverage, including rural and underserved communities — they got it. Then the Department of Justice insisted that the carriers sell off enough assets to let another company, Dish Network, become their rival. According to a new Bloomberg report, regulators got that, too.

I won’t call myself mystified by the DOJ’s pursuit of this concession, because I can understand the theoretical basis for preserving the U.S. cellular industry’s status quo. If Sprint’s data plan pricing was actually influencing T-Mobile’s — I’d argue it wasn’t — merging the companies might drive prices up for standard cellular service. But to gain regulatory approval, the carriers pledged not to raise prices for three years, making this issue largely moot.

In the budget cellular market, there could have been a bigger impact. The merger would have combined the carriers’ prepaid cellular brands Boost Mobile and Metro (aka MetroPCS), which might also have led to higher prices or fewer stores to serve the country’s most budget-conscious consumers. So the DOJ stopped that, forcing Boost to be spun off in a $1.5 billion sale to Dish.

The combined deal will see Dish acquire both Boost and $3.5 billion of wireless spectrum to build its own cellular network. In exchange, it will guarantee that it won’t sell its new assets to another company or controlling entity for three years, and receive seven years of access to T-Mobile’s network while it builds its own network and customer base. These durations were a reported sticking point in the DOJ/T-Mobile/Sprint negotiations, as T-Mobile didn’t want to commit its network resources to serving a huge rival’s customers, particularly if Dish opted to sell out to an Amazon-class tech giant.

It’s worth noting at this point that Dish will jump from place zero in the U.S. cellular industry to just ahead of current fifth-place carrier U.S. Cellular, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million users scattered across multiple states — but apparently no great ambition to go national by acquiring T-Mobile assets. Even so, U.S. Cellular might have been a stronger rival to the New T-Mobile than Dish, which has spent years watching its satellite television business deteriorate while sitting on potentially useful wireless spectrum, not exactly the actions of a fearsome cellular competitor.

Thanks to the DOJ, U.S. consumers are about to wind up with basically the same thing they had before with Sprint — another weak “national” fourth-place carrier that consumers will largely write off as inferior to T-Mobile, and on roughly the same playing field as an MVNO. Just as Verizon and AT&T basically wrote off the T-Mobile/Sprint merger last year, it’s hard to imagine T-Mobile’s aggressive CEO John Legere sweating over any smaller rival with limited vision and/or ambitions going forward.

This assumes, of course, that Dish won’t seriously step up and find some viable way to deliver cheaper or stronger service than the T-Mobile network it’s based upon. It could do that — hopefully under a better brand name — and if so, it will be a welcome new competitive force in the cellular market. If not, its only value may be as a stepping stone to bring Amazon, Apple, or Google into the market as a carrier several years from now. The very prospect of overseeing the twists and turns of such a deal may be enough to keep regulators excited while the clock ticks down on Dish’s resale limitations.

Credit: Source link

The post T-Mobile’s $5 billion asset sale will make Dish a weak 4th place carrier appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=t-mobiles-5-billion-asset-sale-will-make-dish-a-weak-4th-place-carrier

[jennifersnyderca90]

Bug Bounty Hunter Ran ISP Doxing Service

A Connecticut man who’s earned bug bounty rewards and public recognition from top telecom companies for finding and reporting security holes in their Web sites secretly operated a service that leveraged these same flaws to sell their customers’ personal data, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

In May 2018, ZDNet ran a story about the discovery of a glaring vulnerability in the Web site for wireless provider T-Mobile that let anyone look up customer home addresses and account PINs. The story noted that T-Mobile disabled the feature in early April after being alerted by a 22-year-old “security researcher” named Ryan Stevenson, and that the mobile giant had awarded Stevenson $1,000 for reporting the discovery under its bug bounty program.

The Twitter account @phobia, a.k.a. Ryan Stevenson. The term “plug” referenced next to his Twitch profile name is hacker slang for employees at mobile phone stores who can be tricked or bribed into helping with SIM swap attacks.

Likewise, AT&T has recognized Stevenson for reporting security holes in its services. AT&T’s bug bounty site lets contributors share a social media account or Web address where they can be contacted, and in Stevenson’s case he gave the now-defunct Twitter handle “@Phoobia.”

Stevenson’s Linkedin profile — named “Phobias” — says he specializes in finding exploits in numerous Web sites, including hotmail.com, yahoo.com, aol.com, paypal.com and ebay.com. Under the “contact info” tab of Stevenson’s profile it lists the youtube.com account of “Ryan” and the Facebook account “Phobia” (also now deleted).

Coincidentally, I came across multiple variations on this Phobia nickname as I was researching a story published this week on the epidemic of fraudulent SIM swaps, a complex form of mobile phone fraud that is being used to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.

Unauthorized SIM swaps also are often used to hijack so-called “OG” user accounts — usually short usernames on top social network and gaming Web sites that are highly prized by many hackers because they can make the account holder appear to have been a savvy, early adopter of the service before it became popular and before all of the short usernames were taken. Some OG usernames can be sold for thousands of dollars in underground markets.

This week’s SIM swapping story quoted one recent victim who lost $100,000 after his mobile phone number was briefly stolen in a fraudulent SIM swap. The victim said he was told by investigators in Santa Clara, Calif. that the perpetrators of his attack were able to access his T-Mobile account information using a specialized piece of software that gave them backdoor access to T-Mobile’s customer database.

Both the Santa Clara investigators and T-Mobile declined to confirm or deny the existence of this software. But their non-denials prompted me to start looking for it on my own. So naturally I began searching at ogusers-dot-com, a forum dedicated to the hacking, trading and sale of OG accounts. Unsurprisingly, ogusers-dot-net also has traditionally been the main stomping grounds for many individuals involved in SIM swapping attacks.

It didn’t take long to discover an account on ogusers-dot-com named “Ryan,” who for much of 2018 has advertised a number of different “doxing” services — specifically those aimed at finding the personal information of customers at major broadband and telecom companies.

In some of Ryan’s sales threads, fellow forum members refer to him as “Phob” or “Phobs.” In a post on May 27, Ryan says he’s willing to pay or trade for OG accounts under the name “Ryan,” “Ryans”, “RS,” “RMS” or “Stevenson” on any decent sized popular Web site. “hmu [hit me up] in a pm [private message] to talk,” Ryan urged fellow forum members.

The OG User forum account “Ryan” asking fellow members to sell or trade him any major Web site account name that includes the OG username “Ryan” or “Stevenson.”

I found that as late as June 2018 Ryan was offering a service that he claimed was capable of “doxing any usa carrier,” including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and Boost Mobile.

“All I need is the number,” Ryan said of his customer data lookup service, which he sold for $25 per record. “Payment BTC [bitcoin] only.”

For $25 per record, Ryan offered fellow ogusers members the ability to look up customer records tied to any customer of the major U.S. mobile providers.

Very similar offerings were made by Phobia’s alter ego “AOLer” on the sprawling English language online hacking community Hackforums.

I first encountered Stevenson several years back while trying to work out who was responsible for calling in a phony hostage situation and sending a heavily armed police force to our Northern Virginia home in 2013. In a follow-up to that story, Stevenson admitted that he was responsible for the high-profile hack against Wired reporter Mat Honan, who documented how a hacker named Phobia had deleted his Google account and remotely erased all data from his iPhone, iPad and MacBook.

Going by the nickname “Phobiathegod” at the time, Stevenson was then part of a group of young men who routinely hijacked OG account names on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming platform, often using methods that involved tricking customer service people at the target’s mobile provider into transferring the victim’s calls to a number they controlled.

Fast forward to today, and Phobia’s main Twitter account (pictured at the top of this post) includes the phrase “the plug” next to his profile. In SIM swapping circles, a “plug” is hacker slang for an employee at a mobile phone store who can be bribed, tricked or blackmailed into assisting with an unauthorized SIM swap.

Reached via instant message on LinkedIn, Stevenson acknowledged running the ISP doxing services, but said his account on the OGusers forum was since banned and that hardly anyone took him up on his offer anyway.

“I shouldn’t have made the threads even though no one really asked for anything,” he said. “I’m on the good side. But its almost 2019 and I need to find a new hobby I can’t be bothered to look for breaches/vulns, haven’t got 1 job offer or recommendation yet.”

Asked about “the plug” reference in his Twitter profile, Stevenson suddenly stopped replying. Not long after that, the @Phobia Twitter account was deactivated.

Stevenson denied being involved in SIM swapping attacks, but it is clear Phobia was fairly tight with many people who are or until recently were at the center of this scene. In July 2018, authorities in California arrested 20-year-old Boston resident Joel Ortiz for allegedly conducting dozens of fraudulent SIM swaps and stealing at least $5 million worth of cryptocurrency from victims.

Like Phobia, Ortiz had a presence on OGusers and had acquired some of the most OG social media accounts available, including the Twitter and Instagram account names with the number zero (@0), and the OG Youtube accounts “Joel” and “X”.

On Oct 27, 2017, the Youtube account “Joel” published a 4-minute video of Stevenson dancing to a popular rap song in front of the camera. On July 5, 2018, just days before Ortiz was arrested, the Twitter account “0” gave a shout out to @Phobia on Twitter suggesting Phobia was actually tweeting using Ortiz’s “0” account.

from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/11/bug-bounty-hunter-ran-isp-doxing-service/

[amberdscott2]

Bug Bounty Hunter Ran ISP Doxing Service

A Connecticut man who’s earned bug bounty rewards and public recognition from top telecom companies for finding and reporting security holes in their Web sites secretly operated a service that leveraged these same flaws to sell their customers’ personal data, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

In May 2018, ZDNet ran a story about the discovery of a glaring vulnerability in the Web site for wireless provider T-Mobile that let anyone look up customer home addresses and account PINs. The story noted that T-Mobile disabled the feature in early April after being alerted by a 22-year-old “security researcher” named Ryan Stevenson, and that the mobile giant had awarded Stevenson $1,000 for reporting the discovery under its bug bounty program.

The Twitter account @phobia, a.k.a. Ryan Stevenson. The term “plug” referenced next to his Twitch profile name is hacker slang for employees at mobile phone stores who can be tricked or bribed into helping with SIM swap attacks.

Likewise, AT&T has recognized Stevenson for reporting security holes in its services. AT&T’s bug bounty site lets contributors share a social media account or Web address where they can be contacted, and in Stevenson’s case he gave the now-defunct Twitter handle “@Phoobia.”

Stevenson’s Linkedin profile — named “Phobias” — says he specializes in finding exploits in numerous Web sites, including hotmail.com, yahoo.com, aol.com, paypal.com and ebay.com. Under the “contact info” tab of Stevenson’s profile it lists the youtube.com account of “Ryan” and the Facebook account “Phobia” (also now deleted).

Coincidentally, I came across multiple variations on this Phobia nickname as I was researching a story published this week on the epidemic of fraudulent SIM swaps, a complex form of mobile phone fraud that is being used to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.

Unauthorized SIM swaps also are often used to hijack so-called “OG” user accounts — usually short usernames on top social network and gaming Web sites that are highly prized by many hackers because they can make the account holder appear to have been a savvy, early adopter of the service before it became popular and before all of the short usernames were taken. Some OG usernames can be sold for thousands of dollars in underground markets.

This week’s SIM swapping story quoted one recent victim who lost $100,000 after his mobile phone number was briefly stolen in a fraudulent SIM swap. The victim said he was told by investigators in Santa Clara, Calif. that the perpetrators of his attack were able to access his T-Mobile account information using a specialized piece of software that gave them backdoor access to T-Mobile’s customer database.

Both the Santa Clara investigators and T-Mobile declined to confirm or deny the existence of this software. But their non-denials prompted me to start looking for it on my own. So naturally I began searching at ogusers-dot-com, a forum dedicated to the hacking, trading and sale of OG accounts. Unsurprisingly, ogusers-dot-net also has traditionally been the main stomping grounds for many individuals involved in SIM swapping attacks.

It didn’t take long to discover an account on ogusers-dot-com named “Ryan,” who for much of 2018 has advertised a number of different “doxing” services — specifically those aimed at finding the personal information of customers at major broadband and telecom companies.

In some of Ryan’s sales threads, fellow forum members refer to him as “Phob” or “Phobs.” In a post on May 27, Ryan says he’s willing to pay or trade for OG accounts under the name “Ryan,” “Ryans”, “RS,” “RMS” or “Stevenson” on any decent sized popular Web site. “hmu [hit me up] in a pm [private message] to talk,” Ryan urged fellow forum members.

The OG User forum account “Ryan” asking fellow members to sell or trade him any major Web site account name that includes the OG username “Ryan” or “Stevenson.”

I found that as late as June 2018 Ryan was offering a service that he claimed was capable of “doxing any usa carrier,” including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and Boost Mobile.

“All I need is the number,” Ryan said of his customer data lookup service, which he sold for $25 per record. “Payment BTC [bitcoin] only.”

For $25 per record, Ryan offered fellow ogusers members the ability to look up customer records tied to any customer of the major U.S. mobile providers.

Very similar offerings were made by Phobia’s alter ego “AOLer” on the sprawling English language online hacking community Hackforums.

I first encountered Stevenson several years back while trying to work out who was responsible for calling in a phony hostage situation and sending a heavily armed police force to our Northern Virginia home in 2013. In a follow-up to that story, Stevenson admitted that he was responsible for the high-profile hack against Wired reporter Mat Honan, who documented how a hacker named Phobia had deleted his Google account and remotely erased all data from his iPhone, iPad and MacBook.

Going by the nickname “Phobiathegod” at the time, Stevenson was then part of a group of young men who routinely hijacked OG account names on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming platform, often using methods that involved tricking customer service people at the target’s mobile provider into transferring the victim’s calls to a number they controlled.

Fast forward to today, and Phobia’s main Twitter account (pictured at the top of this post) includes the phrase “the plug” next to his profile. In SIM swapping circles, a “plug” is hacker slang for an employee at a mobile phone store who can be bribed, tricked or blackmailed into assisting with an unauthorized SIM swap.

Reached via instant message on LinkedIn, Stevenson acknowledged running the ISP doxing services, but said his account on the OGusers forum was since banned and that hardly anyone took him up on his offer anyway.

“I shouldn’t have made the threads even though no one really asked for anything,” he said. “I’m on the good side. But its almost 2019 and I need to find a new hobby I can’t be bothered to look for breaches/vulns, haven’t got 1 job offer or recommendation yet.”

Asked about “the plug” reference in his Twitter profile, Stevenson suddenly stopped replying. Not long after that, the @Phobia Twitter account was deactivated.

Stevenson denied being involved in SIM swapping attacks, but it is clear Phobia was fairly tight with many people who are or until recently were at the center of this scene. In July 2018, authorities in California arrested 20-year-old Boston resident Joel Ortiz for allegedly conducting dozens of fraudulent SIM swaps and stealing at least $5 million worth of cryptocurrency from victims.

Like Phobia, Ortiz had a presence on OGusers and had acquired some of the most OG social media accounts available, including the Twitter and Instagram account names with the number zero (@0), and the OG Youtube accounts “Joel” and “X”.

On Oct 27, 2017, the Youtube account “Joel” published a 4-minute video of Stevenson dancing to a popular rap song in front of the camera. On July 5, 2018, just days before Ortiz was arrested, the Twitter account “0” gave a shout out to @Phobia on Twitter suggesting Phobia was actually tweeting using Ortiz’s “0” account.

from Amber Scott Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/11/bug-bounty-hunter-ran-isp-doxing-service/

[djgblogger-blog]

With FCC's net neutrality ruling, the US could lose its lead in online consumer protection

http://bit.ly/2AI6DSZ

Three of these smiling people undid U.S. consumer protections online. Federal Communications Commission

The internet may be an international system of interconnecting networks sharing a rough global consensus about the technical details of communicating through them – but each country manages its own internet environment independently. As the U.S. debate about the role of government in overseeing and regulating the internet continues, it’s worth looking at how other countries handle the issue.

Our research and advocacy on internet regulation in the U.S. and other countries offers us a unique historical and global perspective on the Federal Communications Commission’s December 2017 decision to deregulate the internet in the U.S. The principle of an open internet, often called “net neutrality,” is one of consumer protection. It is based on the idea that everyone – users and content providers alike – should be able to freely spread their own views, and consumers can choose what services to use and what content to consume. Network neutrality ensures that no one – not the government, nor corporations – is allowed to censor speech or interfere with content, services or applications.

As the U.S. continues to debate whether to embrace internet freedom, the world is doing so already, with many countries imposing even stronger rules than the ones the FCC did away with.

The US as trailblazer and laggard

Before 2015, many internet businesses in the U.S. discriminated against or blocked customers from particular legal uses of the internet. In 2007 Comcast illegally blocked its customers from sharing files between themselves. In 2009, AT&T blocked access to Skype and FaceTime apps on its network. In 2011, MetroPCS blocked its customers from streaming Netflix and all other streaming video except YouTube (possibly due to a secretly negotiated deal). In 2012, Verizon disabled apps that let customers connect computers to their mobile data service. There were many other violations of the principle of net neutrality, too.

Customers and regulators tried to control these discriminatory practices over many years of public deliberation and multiple court cases. In 2015, under the Obama administration, the FCC finalized the Open Internet Order, a set of rules barring internet service providers from speeding up or slowing down traffic based on its content or whether the companies posting it had paid extra to the company delivering the data. It was far from perfect – but nonetheless a giant leap forward.

In early 2017, after his inauguration, President Trump appointed Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, as the FCC chairman. Pai, an Obama appointee to the FCC who had voted against the Open Internet Order in 2015, has moved rapidly to undo it. He and some other comentators believe that customers will get better service from a less-regulated market, ignoring that the rules only emerged in the wake of problems and consumer complaints.

Pai’s proposal has been criticized by former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler as “a shameful sham and sellout” to big telecommunications companies. A who’s-who list of the people who invented the technologies and systems underlying the internet denounced Pai’s policy as “based on a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of internet technology.”

Other countries are facing similar dilemmas about how to deal with today’s digital realities, and are slowly and individually contributing to a patchwork of laws that differ from country to country. But many highly industrialized and rapidly developing countries share a general consensus that regulations ensuring an open internet are good for consumers and for civil society.

Opening the internet Brazilian-style

Brazil’s Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, enacted in 2014 and further refined in 2016, only allows internet service companies to prioritize certain types of traffic for technical reasons – such as overloaded networking capacity – or to allow network use by emergency services.

Yet, the country has been reluctant to enforce these rules and hold violators to account. Much like in the U.S., there is increasing concern that industry power has overwhelmed government regulatory agencies. Some of the largest telecommunications companies have been providing their mobile internet customers with preferential access to content on sites and services owned by business partners. Many Brazilian consumer rights groups are particularly alarmed because the companies receiving this privileged treatment are all large foreign corporations, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and music-streaming service Deezer (the only non-U.S. company).

In addition, there are proposals in the works that would grant tens of millions of dollars in publicly owned telecommunications infrastructure to private companies for free. Brazilian internet freedom is further at risk because the country’s telecommunications companies are planning to insist that its regulators align with the weakened U.S. rules.

Active enforcement in Europe

The European Union approved strong rules in 2015, requiring companies that provide internet access to handle all traffic equally, leaving flexibility to restrict traffic when network equipment was operating at its maximum capacity. EU rules also allow traffic restrictions to protect network security and handle emergency situations.

In 2016, European Union electronic communications regulators detailed potential problems in agreements between telecommunications companies and content providers. And they explained that quality of service could vary, but no specific applications should be discriminated against.

In 2017, they highlighted the importance of Europe’s emphasis on proactively monitoring compliance with net neutrality rules, rather than waiting for violations to happen before reacting. This gives European residents much stronger consumer protection than exists in the U.S.

India takes a stand

India has taken similarly strong steps. In 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India approved rules stating that “no service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.” In November 2017, the agency also issued “recommendations on net neutrality,” laying out rules of the road for internet service providers that incorporate substantial protections against content and application discrimination.

Indian regulators are looking to balance consumer and corporate priorities in areas such as security, privacy and ownership of data. Moreover, they are considering adopting regulations to spur competition in mobile data services.

Most importantly, Indian regulators make very clear that companies providing internet service should not do anything “that has the effect of discriminatory treatment based on content, sender or receiver, protocols or user equipment.” This puts openness at the core of internet service, the sort of clear consumer protection that public interest advocates and academics have called for.

The U.S. isn’t an island

The U.S. internet industry is a powerful global force, with billions of users of its websites and online services all around the world. Further, the U.S. government has traditionally been a leader in developing policies that balance free speech, consumer protection and other civil rights with strong opportunities for research and business innovation – but this too is now in decline.

Net neutrality protections might not be so necessary if the broadband market were more competitive. But 29 percent of Americans have no options for getting high-speed wired internet service at home. Another 47 percent have just one choice – and 20 percent have just two.

The telecommunications industry continues to consolidate – though the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to block the pending AT&T-Time Warner merger. In this market with few providers, and many companies seeking profits by promoting their own content via their own networks, net neutrality protections will only become more important – not less so.

Lastly, legally speaking, policy and regulatory decisions made in the U.S. don’t hold any direct power in other countries. However, domestic rules about the internet will indeed affect the global conversation around net neutrality. What the U.S. decides, through the FCC, the courts and potentially even through Congress, will determine whether U.S. leadership on the internet remains strong, or whether it will cede ground to other countries willing to protect their citizens.

Sascha Meinrath has previously received funding from Benton Foundation, Cellular South, COMPTIA, Consumer Electronics Association, European Union Delegation, Facebook, Free Press, Ford Foundation, Google, Internet Society, Kellogg Foundation, Knight Foundation, LightSquared, MacArthur Foundation, Media Democracy Fund, Microsoft, NAACP, NCTA, Netflix, Omidyar Network, One Economy, Open Society Institute, Philadelphia Free Library Foundation, Public Health Institute, Public Knowledge, Sprint/Nextel, Skype, SSRC, Sunlight Foundation, T-Mobile, Time Warner Cable & the Wyncote Foundation for work on Network Neutrality and related tech policy issues. He does not currently receive outside funding for this work. He is the founding director of the Open Technology Institute and X-Lab; a co-founder and former board member of the Alliance for Affordable Internet, and the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition; co-founder and steering board member of MeasurementLab.net; member of the American Indian Policy Institute's Advisory Board of Directors; and chairman of the board, Rights and Dissent Foundation.

Nathalia Foditsch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

[gary-sherwin-blog]

ACN : Which Wireless Network Should Trust?

Your absolute least expensive option is to think about Republic Wireless, the carrier I mentioned in the previous answer. This service mostly delivers voice, text, and information services using Wi-Fi networks. And when Wi-Fi isn't available, it uses Sprint's 3G and 4G cordless network to use service. The method it works is that if you remain in a Wi-Fi location, the service uses Wi-Fi to deliver the voice, text, or data service. It changes to Sprint's network if you aren't in a Wi-Fi hot spot. And you don't need to pay extra for the roaming.

T-Mobile provides a prepaid plan through its own service and also the WalMart Straight Talk brand name that gives customers 100 minutes of voice time, unrestricted text messaging, and so-called limitless data, which truly amounts to up to 5GB of information per month at leading 4G speeds. After that threshold has actually been met, speeds slow to 3G speeds.

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Can't Disable Wireless Network Adapter

There is a catch with the Moto X and eventually the Moto G, if Republic Wireless includes that to its lineup. Due to the fact that the gadgets should be substantially customized to access smooth voice service on both Wi-fi and cellular networks, they will just deal with Republic Wireless' network. This suggests that if you wish to take your Moto X, or in the future a Moto G, to another company, you cannot. The reverse is true. You likewise can't bring an existing smartphone to the Republic Wireless network.

Nevertheless, if Message Center 96 attempts to provide a message to mobile station 64 when mobile station 64 is inactive, the delivery may be postponed until mobile station 64 ends up being active, as shown in FIG. 24. Message center 96 sends out to HLR 32 an SMSREQ message 1110 recognizing mobile station 64 as the recipient. In this case, HLR 32 determines that mobile station 64 is non-active and, thus, sends an smsreq-- rr message 1112 indicating that shipment must be delayed. 

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The status of mobile station 64 changes when mobile station 64 registers. Hence, when mobile station 64 sends out a power-up registration demand signal while in the protection area of private network 12, personal MSC 60 sends out a REGNOT message 1116 to Gateway SCP 70. Entrance SCP 70, in turn, sends to HLR 32 a REGNOT message 1118 that consists of an SMSaddr for mobile station 64 as private MSC 60. As explained above, the SMSaddr may represent personal MSC 60, as displayed in FIG. 23, or it might correspond to another network aspect, such as personal BSC 20. HLR 32 sends out a regnot-- rr message 1120 back to Gateway SCP 70, and Gateway SCP 70 sends out a regnot-- rr message 1122 back to personal MSC to finish the registration process.

Which Wireless Network Mode

FIG. 17 is a streamlined call flow diagram highlighting the process of using a feature code from a mobile station operating in the private cordless network, in accordance with an excellent embodiment of today invention.

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When private MSC 60 gets the total directory site number of mobile station 28, private MSC 60 acknowledges it as coming from a mobile station signing up for private network 12. Thus, to discover mobile station 28, private MSC 60 then sends a LOCREQ message 710 to Gateway SCP 70. In this case, mobile station 28 is currently registered with public network 12, rather than with personal network 12, so Gateway SCP 70 transmits a LOCREQ message 712 to HLR 32. HLR 32 retrieves the information record for mobile station 28 from the details included in LOCREQ message 712 determining mobile station 28. In this case, the locator address in the data record suggests that mobile station 28 is being served by MSC 16. Hence, HLR 32 sends a ROUTEREQ message 714 to MSC 16. In action, MSC 16 assigns a TLDN and sends the TLDN to HLR 32 in a routereq-- rr message 716. HLR 32 forwards the TLDN in a locreq-- rr message 718 to Gateway SCP 70, and Gateway SCP 70 forwards the TLDN to personal MSC 60 in a locreq-- rr message 720. Personal MSC 60 then routes the call to this TLDN, such as by exchanging ISUP messages 722 with MSC 16. With the call now routed to MSC 16, MSC 16 sends a signal set 724 to page and alert mobile station 28. When mobile station 28 answers, a voice path is established in between mobile station 64 and mobile station 28.

The registration process is various in personal network 12 because the private MSCs are configured to route most queries to Gateway SCP 70 instead of routing inquiries based upon MIN. The result of the various registration processes utilized in personal network 12 and public network 14 might be summarized as follows. When a customer mobile station is signed up with personal network 12, Gateway SCP 70 has a locator address for it that determines which private MSC is serving the customer mobile station. However, the customer mobile station's locator address in HLR 32 would usually identify only Gateway SCP 70.

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What Wireless Network Does Metropcs Use

FIG. 2 supplies a more in-depth illustration of the functional elements of HLR 32. In FIG. 2, double-headed arrows suggest the most crucial rational or signaling connections between the elements. HLR 32 includes a public network customer database 42 that contains the data records of each mobile station registering for public network 14, as explained above. HLR 32 may likewise consist of a plurality of service reasoning modules, such as service reasoning modules 44-- 48. Although 3 service logic modules are revealed in FIG. 2 for functions of illustration, it is to be comprehended that HLR 32 can include a greater or fewer number. Service reasoning modules 44-- 48 include software application specifying how to supply telecommunications services, such as IS-41 wireless telecommunications services. HLR 32 likewise generally includes a base service logic module 50 that consists of the service reasoning had to communicate with other network elements, such as STP 30. 

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Base service logic module 50 is able to access subscriber database 42 to obtain details about mobile stations requested by other network components, such as VLR 33. Base service reasoning module 50 may also gain access to database 42 and might carry out one or more of service reasoning modules 44-- 48 to develop call processing guidelines to other network elements, such as MSC 16.