GSM

Any discussion of Huawei relating to the Chinese “National Intelligence Law” has to start out from the recognition that all states, always, have tried to weaponize telecommunications systems and have taken considerable legal powers over people and property involved, even where they didn’t create the assets and organizations themselves. Take a look at Section 94,…

Read More Enough with the bad faith about Huawei.

Back at the end of 2007, as we dived into the trough of the Great Recession or Great Financial Crisis or Second Great Depression or what you will, a crucial decision was taken. Verizon Wireless, then still a Vodafone division, chose LTE for its new mobile network, and put one of the most important women…

Read More Ten Years of 4G: Trump, Snowden, Huawei, and Brexit

So here’s the Parliamentary Select Committee on DCMS’s fake news report. Rather, its report on fake news. This bit has been doing the rounds: ‘Free Basics’ is a Facebook service that provides people in developing countries with mobile phone access to various services without data charges. This content includes news, employment, health, information and local…

Read More Now that’s what I call viral

It turns out that 10% of the world’s surviving pagers are in the NHS and apparently we could save some money (not very much money, but maybe more meaningful in the context of an NHS trust telecoms budget) by replacing them with an app. I’m really not so sure about that. As Geoff Hall, of…

Read More Pagers

This piece from Tom Watson is excellent. I can’t think of more than one other pol who understands mobile networks as well, and the other one knows more about fixed. Perhaps Watson is just well advised, but then picking good advice is a very important skill. On this strength, he’s the second best mobile analyst…

Read More #crimsontide is coming for your mobile bill

Earlier this year, I had to spend a week or so with a 2004 vintage feature phone. For connoisseurs, it was one of the early 3G models from LG that 3UK launched with. This was an interesting experience. The first thing that comes to mind about it was that simple wasn’t simple. iPhones are simple;…

Read More I want one that just makes calls: no, you don’t