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Telecom / News Briefs

FCC Approves Google’s Project Loon Balloons for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

The FCC has granted Alphabet's Project Loon an experimental license to operate in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands for the purpose of helping the islands regain Internet connectivity.

Russia Appears to Have Begun Providing an Internet Connection to North Korea

Network experts monitoring North Korea have detected activation of a new internet path out of North Korea. Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Dyn, along with North Korea expert Martyn Williams, report that at 09:07:51 UTC on 1 October 2017, the country's single internet provider, Star JV (AS131269), gained a new connection to the global internet through Russian fixed-line provider Transtelecom (AS20485), often referred to as TTK.

The Impacts of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria on the Internet

The devastation caused by several storms during the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has destroyed neighborhoods and taken lives across a number of Caribbean island nations including Texas and Florida in the United States. Senior Director of Internet Research & Analysis at Oracle Dyn Global Business Unit has posted a blog that takes a look at the impacts.

China to Create National Cyberattack Database

China has revealed plans to create a national data repository for information on cyberattacks and will require telecom firms, internet companies and domain name service providers to report threats to it.

China Continues VPN Crackdown, Targets Alibaba and Other Ecommerce Sites

In the latest series of measures taken by China to clamp down on use and distributions of VPNs, Chinese authorities have issued warning to the country's top ecommerce platforms, including Alibaba's Taobao.com, over the sale of illegal virtual private networks that allow users to skirt state censorship controls.

Verizon, AT&T Speeds Slow After Unlimited Data Plans Launch

Verizon and AT&T re-introduced their unlimited data plans earlier this year, and as a result, studies show that the providers' 4G speeds and overall speeds have fallen due to increased data demand on their networks.

Somalia’s Extended Internet Outage Results in Millions of Dollars of Loss per Day, Says Government

Somalia's internet connection was finally restored on Monday after weeks of outage due to a severed undersea cable.

Over 190 Internet Engineers, Pioneers, Technologists File Comments with FCC on Net Neutrality

A group of over 190 Internet engineers, pioneers, and technologists today filed joint comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) explaining "Technical Flaws in the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rule-making and the Need for the Light-Touch, Bright-Line Rules from the Open Internet Order."

Cloud Leak Exposes at least 14 Million Verizon Subscribers, Phone Numbers and Account PINs Included

A Verizon partner is reported to have exposed millions of Verizon customer accounts due to a misconfigured cloud-based file.

Chinese Scientists Have Built First Quantum Network With No Danger of Being Decrypted

A paper published by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reports a successful demonstration of satellite-based entanglement distribution to receiver stations separated by more than 1200 km -- the results illustrate the possibility of a future global quantum communication network.

European Countries Continue to Lead IPv6 Adoption, Reports Akamai

Akamai Technologies released its First Quarter, 2017 State of the Internet Report last week based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform.

5G Frequency Fees Are Waived in Singapore to Help Drive Market Tests

Singapore government has waived telecom frequency fees for 5G trials until December 2019 in order to catalyze market growth and discovery of potential use cases.

Canada’s Telecom Regulator to Uphold and Strengthen Commitment to Net Neutrality

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that it will strengthened its commitment to net neutrality.

Tom Wheeler Announces Resignation as FCC Chairman

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has announced he will leave the agency on January 20, the day of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

Google Signs Internet Deal With Cuba

Google has signed an agreement with the Cuban government allowing internet users on the Communist-run island quicker access to its branded content.