New York plans to bring broadband service to all residents of the state by the end of next year.
The $50 million New York Broadband for All program recently extended its grant deadline for provisioning of services to rural areas to August 31, according to StateScoop. Empire State Development, which is managing the grant process, told the site that the extension was not because there are too few entrants.
The state is already almost there, according to the FCC’s definition of broadband as 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. BroadbandNow says that 98 percent of the state’s residents — 19.7 million people – have such access. That makes it the fourth most connected state in the country.
AT&T Makes G.fast, Fiber Moves
AT&T has extended both the slowest and fastest technology it has.
G.fast is one of a family of approaches being used by telcos to extend the life of copper. It is the latest to be widely deployed. Others are in the pipeline. AT&T said that it has completed a trial in Minneapolis and is set to deploy there and in Boston, Denver, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Tampa. The telco has plans to deploy in 14 other metros.
The move is significant in that the metros are outside its 21-state footprint. The press release suggests that the service can support its DIRECTV service in addition to broadband.
AT&T also made fiber announcements. It is offering its 100 percent fiber network to Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, and Savannah, Georgia. It expanded the all-fiber capabilities in 20 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.
Is the Term Computer ‘Virus’ Merely a Metaphor? Hopefully Not in This Case
The term “virus” has long been used to describe certain types of malware. Researchers are taking the virus metaphor literally and attempting to combat the problem in the same way that real viruses are fought.
After studying the Mirai worm and its command and control system, several academic institutions in Denmark, Sweden and Russia came up with the idea of “creat(ing) immunity with a vaccine by exposing the immune system to a weakened form of the disease,” according to Network World.
It’s a very cool idea:
The white worm project, called AntibIoTic, uses the Mirai bot design to gain access and control of these poorly secured devices and inject them with antibiotic-like code. AntibIoTic exploits the efficient spreading capabilities of the Mirai malware. Once in control, this white worm tries to notify the owner or remedy the problem on the owner’s behalf by changing credentials, patching software or updating firmware. Compared to the malicious Mirai that ISPs and carriers have taken proactive measures to stop, AntbIoTic would not be detected because once in control, it does not behave maliciously.
Hopefully, at least in this case, the metaphorical and real world will meet.
5G Fixed Wireless Access: $40B in Service Revenue by 2025
5G fixed wireless access (FWA) is set to expand aggressively once rollouts begin, according to SNS Telecom. The firm says that the first commercial deployments will roll out in 2019, when subscription revenue will be $1 billion. Subscription service revenues will grow to more than $40 billion by 2025. That is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 84 percent.
AT&T and Verizon are pushing the technology in the United States. It is seen as a way to fill in gaps in existing LTE deployments and bring services to rural areas. The firm says that 5G services can be deployed more quickly and costs cut by 40 percent compared to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) approaches. The market will lean toward 28 GHz spectrum for the service.
Oreo 8.0 Ready to Roll for Pixel and Nexus Betas
The beat goes on for Google’s operating system as Android 8.0 Oreo begins beta release for Pixel and Nexus devices.
The program is still accepting beta participants, according to ZDNet. There are “single images” for the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, the Nexus Player and Pixel C. There are two images for the Pixel and Pixel XL. One is for devices on Telstra, Rogers, TMO, Sprint, ISCC and Project Fi networks. The other is for all other carriers.
Android Oreo 8.0 features include “notification dots” that are akin to Apple IOS’s red notification badges, picture-in-picture and techniques to extend memory and battery life. Oreo 8.0 also includes Project Treble, which is aimed at easing transition between Android versions and an autofill framework for easier logging into apps and filling in of credit cards.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
