Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks is leading an effort to scrub US telecommunications networks of gear from companies such as Huawei that’re thought of as a threat to the country’s security. With US operators racing toward deploying gear to build the next generation of wireless, known as 5G, the Commerce Department has blacklisted Huawei and …

The US Justice Department is getting close to approving T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint if the companies agree to sell multiple assets to help create a new wireless carrier, according to The New York Times. The paper reports that three unnamed sources close to the DOJ have said the agency could approve the deal as soon as next week, …

Americans are fed up with robocalls. And the Federal Communications Commission are giving carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile the power to do something about it. On Thursday, the FCC voted unanimously on a proposal to give mobile phone companies greater power to “aggressively block” unwanted robocalls.  “This FCC will stand with American consumers, not with those who are badgering them with …

Dear Maggie, I’m freaked out by reports about how my smartphone can be used to track my every move. Is there anything I can do to maintain my privacy? Thanks, Paranoid Dear Paranoid, Unfortunately, your concerns are rooted in reality. Smartphones have become a human “electronic tag” that we constantly carry with us. Precise locations, dates, times, durations and what …

The Federal Communications Commission signed off on a report declaring that broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a “timely fashion.” But not everyone agrees. On Wednesday, the FCC voted 3-2 to certify a revised draft of its 2019 Broadband Deployment Report. The three Republicans on the FCC, Chairman Ajit Pai, Brendan Carr and Michael O’Rielly supported the conclusions of …

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is trying to quell fears among lawmakers that 5G radios are dangerous to health. On Thursday, the chairman sent a series of letters to lawmakers in response to inquiries about health concerns related to 5G that been sent to him in the past couple of months. In each of the letters he said that the FCC …

The Senate voted Thursday in favor of bipartisan legislation to help stop annoying robocalls on your phone. The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act passed 97-1 and had more than 80 co-sponsors. The bill, introduced by Sens. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, would improve enforcement policies, such as criminalizing …

The US Department of Justice might want to put the kibosh on T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint. Staff in the agency’s antitrust division have recommended that the DOJ sue to block the $26 billion acquisition, according to a report Wednesday from Reuters, citing two unnamed sources. The agency declined to comment, but this isn’t the first report to suggest it could …

Voice-activated digital assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa make trivial tasks like playing your favorite song as simple as saying a few words. But for people like Giovanni Caggioni, who has Down syndrome and congenital cataracts, which makes him blind and unable to speak, these tools are inaccessible without some of sort of augmented hack.  Caggioni, 21, loves music …

That speedier 5G network wireless carriers are promising to build could interfere with the accuracy of weather forecasts. For months, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been sounding the alarm that wireless spectrum the Federal Communications Commission is auctioning off to use for 5G wireless networks could interfere with data collection used in weather forecasting. On …