Hacker News with Generative AI: Telecommunications

FBI offers $10M for information about Salt Typhoon members (arstechnica.com)
The FBI is offering $10 million for information about the China-state hacking group tracked as Salt Typhoon and its intrusion last year into sensitive networks belonging to multiple US telecommunications companies.
5th Circuit Lets AT&T Off the Hook for Major Location Data Privacy Violations (techdirt.com)
For decades, major wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile collected vast troves of sensitive user location and movement data, then sold access to any random nitwit with two nickels to rub together.
UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally (theregister.com)
Scam call centers are metastasizing worldwide "like a cancer," according to the United Nations, which warns the epidemic has reached a global inflection point as syndicates scale up and spread out.
ISPs and robocallers love the FCC plan to "delete" as many rules as possible (arstechnica.com)
Industry groups have submitted deregulatory wishlists for the Federal Communications Commission's "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative that aims to eliminate as many regulations as possible.
Getting a Signal on the Moon: 4G network for lunar missions (ieee.org)
Nokia’s 4G cellular network will be a game-changer for lunar missions
AT&T step-by-step switch (youtube.com)
Hacking the call records of millions of Americans (evanconnelly.github.io)
Imagine if anyone could punch in a phone number from the largest U.S. cell carrier and instantly retrieve a list of its recent incoming calls—complete with timestamps—without compromising the device, guessing a password, or alerting the user.
Why 5G Is an Expensive Flop (bloomberg.com)
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent upgrading the world’s wireless networks to fifth-generation technologies. 5G’s early advocates said it would “change the way we live, work and play forever.” Have you noticed? 
Revolving Door: Ex FCC Boss Ajit Pai Promoted to Top Wireless Industry Lobbyist (techdirt.com)
You probably recall Ajit Pai, Trump’s first FCC boss. Pai took a mindless hatchet to broadband consumer protection and media consolidation limits with no shortage of scandal. Like that time he turned a blind eye as the telecom industry used dead and fake people to generate fake support for shitty policies (like killing net neutrality). Or that time he made up a DDOS attack on the FCC to downplay massive public backlash to those same, unpopular policies.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr starts granting telecom lobby's wish list (arstechnica.com)
The Federal Communications Commission is making it easier for telcos to turn off old copper phone and DSL networks with four changes that relax requirements related to copper shutoffs.
Supreme Court takes up $8B phone and internet subsidy for rural areas (apnews.com)
The Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a major legal fight over the $8 billion a year the federal government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas, in a new test of federal regulatory power.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr starts granting telecom lobby's wish list (arstechnica.com)
The Federal Communications Commission is making it easier for telcos to turn off old copper phone and DSL networks with four changes that relax requirements related to copper shutoffs.
Trump plan to fund Musk's Starlink over fiber called "betrayal" of rural US (arstechnica.com)
A federal broadband official departed the US government with a warning that a Trump administration plan will strand rural Americans with worse Internet access in order to help Elon Musk secure public money for Starlink.
FCC stands up Council on National Security to fight China – like CISA used to (theregister.com)
United States Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has unveiled plans to form a Council on National Security that will combat foreign threats to American tech and telecommunications infrastructure.
FCC Chairman Carr Launches Deregulation Initiative (docs.fcc.gov)
Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) Overview (3gpp.org)
Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are networks or segments of networks that use either Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) operating typically between 8 and 50km altitudes, including High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) or satellites in different constellations to carry a transmission equipment relay node or a base station:
UK Greenlights Amazon Kuiper, Starlink Faces New Rival (ieee.org)
Last month, Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s telecom regulator, granted Amazon’s Kuiper Systems a license to provide low-Earth orbit-based (LEO) broadband Internet in the country.
Carlos Slim cancels Starlink orders (cleantechnica.com)
Billionaire Carlos Slim Cancels $22 Billion in Starlink Orders Due to Elon Musk’s Outburst
SpaceX Urges FCC to Block Globalstar's Cellular Satellite Plans (msn.com)
SpaceX is lobbying the FCC to block iPhone satellite provider Globalstar from launching a new constellation of 48 low-Earth orbiting satellites.
Why most countries are struggling to shut down 2G (restofworld.org)
Telecom companies aim to profit from the 2G-to-5G transition as governments worldwide face pressure to free up mobile spectrum.
NTT Com says hackers accessed details of almost 18,000 organizations (techcrunch.com)
Japanese telecom giant NTT Communications (NTT Com) has confirmed that hackers accessed the data of almost 18,000 corporate customers during a February cyberattack, affecting an as-yet-unknown number of individuals.
4G LTE: One Standard to Rule Them All [video] (youtube.com)
56k modems relied on digital trunk lines (hackaday.com)
If you came of age in the 1990s, you’ll remember the unmistakable auditory handshake of an analog modem negotiating its connection via the plain old telephone system. That cacophony of screeches and hisses was the result of careful engineering. They allowed digital data to travel down phone lines that were only ever built to carry audio—and pretty crummy audio, at that.
Mexican Billionaire Slim Cuts Ties with Starlink, Costing Musk $7B After Tweet (msn.com)
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has officially severed ties with Elon Musk’s Starlink, opting to invest in his own telecommunications infrastructure rather than relying on Musk’s satellite technology.
Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes (theregister.com)
Network operators laying fiber infrastructure could cut their costs by taking advantage of "thousands of miles" of abandoned infrastructure, including gas and water pipes, according to a firm that tracks such things.
Ask HN: Why there's no email address portability like with phone numbers? (ycombinator.com)
Phone number portability has been standard worldwide for years, allowing us to switch carriers while keeping our numbers. Yet email addresses, which have become more important than phone numbers over the last 20 years or so, lack any similar portability mechanism.
FAA Officials Ordered Staff to Find Funding for Elon Musk's Starlink (rollingstone.com)
Elon Musk’s satellite business Starlink may not have officially taken over Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract with the Federal Aviation Administration yet to upgrade the systems it uses to manage America’s airspace. However, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal, according to a source with knowledge of the FAA and two people briefed on the situation.
Starlink to take over $2.4B contract to overhaul air traffic control comms (theverge.com)
While Elon Musk hacks away at the federal bureaucracy in the name of “efficiency,” his company Starlink appears poised to steal a multibillion-dollar government contract from Verizon.
Musk Takes $2.4B Contract from Verizon to Give It to Starlink (jalopnik.com)
News broke that the FAA had awarded a huge contract to Starlink earlier this week and–considering Elon Musk's current role–that set off plenty of alarm bells for anyone who thinks corruption is bad, especially since the government already had a contract with Verizon. As it turns out, that new Starlink contract is actually worth $2.4 billion, the Washington Post reports.
Doc NTIA lead nominee criticizes "woke" and "socialist" fiber broadband subsidy (broadbandbreakfast.com)
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Arielle Roth, telecom director for Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Cruz, to lead the Commerce Department’s telecommunications agency.