Tag Archives: Verizon Communications

Business

DirecTV Dumps OAN, Leaving It With No Major TV Distributor

Leave a comment

Photo: Chris Delmas / AFP (Getty Images)

Former president Donald Trump, known for his gluttonous diet of TV news, is going to have trouble finding one of his favorite far-right channels, One America News Network, in a few months.

Satellite TV provider DirecTV, OAN’s largest distributor, said it was dumping the news network on Friday, Bloomberg reported. DirecTV’s decision is a huge blow to OAN, which is not available on any other major U.S. TV provider, but it’s not exactly a shock. OAN basically sued its way onto DirecTV in 2017 and has come under increased scrutiny since then for spewing lies, promoting conspiracy theories, and fomenting violence.

DirecTV confirmed that it was dropping OAN, part of Herring Networks, in a statement to Gizmodo on Friday. In addition to OAN, Herring Networks also owns the lifestyle and entertainment channel A Wealth of Entertainment, or AWE, which is targeted to the ultra-rich.

“We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an email.

Both channels will disappear from the provider’s offerings in early April when its contract ends, according to Bloomberg.

DirecTV’s announcement is the latest move in the strange and suspicious saga between AT&T and OAN. To start off, DirecTV is partly owned by AT&T, which purportedly gave Herring Networks buckets of money to create OAN. Moreover, a Reuters investigation from last October indicates that Herring Networks could be in serious financial trouble in light of DirecTV’s decision. The network’s lawyer said in 2020 that if OAN’s contract was not renewed by DirecTV, “the company would go out of business tomorrow.”

Gizmodo reached out to OAN on Saturday for comment on DirecTV’s decision but did not hear a response by the time of publication. We’ll update this article if someone gets back to us.

Once April comes along, OAN is going to be hard to find on TV. It was never picked up by the other three major providers in the U.S.: Comcast, Charter Communications, or Dish Network. On its website, OAN tells viewers they can watch on a KlowdTV for $4.99 or $9.99 per month, as well as on Verizon FiOS, CenturyLink PRISM, GCI, and Vidgo.

Besides Verizon FiOS, I have never heard of the other providers and would probably think they were spam or full of malware if I didn’t write this article. (If they are not spam or malware, my apologies).

Media Matters, a progressive U.S. media research and information center, told Gizmodo in a statement that DirecTV made the responsible decision in dropping OAN, calling the network “a cauldron of misinformation and extremism.”

“Now that OAN’s anchor distributor has dropped them, Verizon FiOS (OAN’s second major distributor) should follow suit,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said. “And certainly no other cable provider should pick them up.”

Gizmodo reached out to Verizon to ask about the future of OAN on Verizon FiOS but has not heard back yet.

Read original article here

Business

AT&T, Verizon Refuse FAA Request to Delay 5G Launch

Leave a comment

AT&T Inc.

T -0.73%

and

Verizon Communications Inc.

VZ -0.56%

rebuffed a request from federal transportation officials to delay the launch of new 5G wireless services but offered a counterproposal that would allow limited deployments to move forward this week.

The cellphone carriers said Sunday in a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal that they could further dim the power of their new 5G service for six months to match limits imposed by regulators in France, giving U.S. authorities more time to study more powerful signals’ effect on air traffic. The plan from the companies, which have said they plan to start service Wednesday, could prolong a standoff between the telecom and aviation industries over how to proceed.

“If U.S. airlines are permitted to operate flights every day in France, then the same operating conditions should allow them to do so in the United States,” the chief executives wrote in the letter.

Telecom-industry officials have pointed to dozens of countries, including France, that have already allowed cellular service over the frequencies in question, known as C-band. France is among the countries that have imposed wireless limits near airports while regulators study their effect on aircraft.

The message from AT&T CEO

John Stankey

and Verizon CEO

Hans Vestberg

was in response to a letter Transportation Secretary

Pete Buttigieg

and Federal Aviation Administration chief

Steve Dickson

sent late Friday. The New Year’s Eve missive asked the carriers to postpone their planned 5G launch by “no more than two weeks” while officials worked to address the wireless services’ effect on specific airports on a rolling basis over the coming weeks.

The FAA said it was reviewing the wireless companies’ letter. “U.S. aviation safety standards will guide our next actions,” the FAA said. Representatives from the Transportation Department, the FAA’s parent agency, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

Air-safety regulators have said the new cellular services could confuse key cockpit safety systems and have been preparing to impose potentially disruptive flight restrictions.

AT&T and Verizon disputed claims of any air-safety risk, though the companies already postponed a planned December debut of the new signals to provide more time for telecom and aviation regulators to share information about the wireless infrastructure and aircraft equipment in question.

The Sunday letter from telecom CEOs said transportation regulators’ latest delay request would be to “the detriment of millions of our consumer, business and government customers,” noting that carriers spent more than $80 billion to acquire the licenses in a Federal Communications Commission auction that closed in January 2021.

FCC authorities padded the spectrum they auctioned with a swath of buffer frequencies to prevent interference with cockpit systems. But air-safety regulators have expressed concern that more sensitive altimeters that pick up signals well beyond their defined range could mistake cellular transmissions for terrain. The devices feed data to commonly used cockpit systems that help planes automatically land in bad weather, prevent crashes and avoid midair collisions.

AT&T and Verizon have spent the past year preparing to turn on new signals to provide new fifth-generation wireless technology, a faster and more capable mobile service. Wireless companies in other countries already use similar frequencies, but the spectrum wasn’t available to U.S. providers until recently because of existing satellite users that had to be moved into a narrower band of spectrum before 5G service could begin.

Without a resolution to the aviation-telecom dispute, Messrs. Buttigieg and Dickson warned the FAA’s flight limits would bring severe economic consequences.

“Failure to reach a solution by Jan. 5 will force the U.S. aviation sector to take steps to protect the safety of the traveling public, particularly during periods of low visibility or inclement weather,” they wrote in their Dec. 31 letter.

Airlines have been bracing for significant flight cancellations and diversions due to potential FAA flight restrictions because of the regulator’s aviation-safety concerns. Pilots and airlines had been awaiting details of potential FAA flight restrictions that limit the use of systems that rely on radar altimeters. Aviation industry officials have most recently expected the agency to detail flight limits as soon as Monday.

Over the past week, U.S. air travel has been snarled by a mix of winter storms and staffing challenges because of increasing ranks of airline crews calling in sick with Covid-19 as the U.S. deals with a surge by the Omicron variant. Thousands of flights have been canceled and delayed.

5G and Air Traffic

More WSJ coverage on the debate over wireless frequencies and aviation, selected by the editors.

Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com

Copyright ©2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Business

US Asks AT&T, Verizon To Delay 5G Rollout Over Aviation Safety Concerns

Leave a comment

Wireless industry group CTIA said 5G is safe and spectrum is being used in about 40 other countries.

Washington:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday asked AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay the planned Jan. 5 introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns.

In a letter Friday seen by Reuters, Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson asked AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey and Verizon Chief Executive Hans Vestberg for a delay of no more than two weeks as part of a “proposal as a near-term solution for advancing the co-existence of 5G deployment in the C-Band and safe flight operations.”

The aviation industry and FAA have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters that could disrupt flights.

“We ask that your companies continue to pause introducing commercial C-Band service for an additional short period of no more than two weeks beyond the currently scheduled deployment date of January 5,” the letter says.

Verizon spokesperson Rich Young said it had received the letter and needs time to review it. AT&T did not immediately comment but earlier Friday the two companies accused the aerospace industry of seeking to hold C-Band spectrum deployment “hostage until the wireless industry agrees to cover the costs of upgrading any obsolete altimeters.”

Buttigieg and Dickson said under the framework “commercial C-band service would begin as planned in January with certain exceptions around priority airports.”

The FAA and the aviation industry would identify priority airports “where a buffer zone would permit aviation operations to continue safely while the FAA completes its assessments of the interference potential.”

The government would work to identify “mitigations for all priority airports” to enable most “large commercial aircraft to operate safely in all conditions.” That would allow deployment around “priority airports on a rolling basis” — aiming to ensure activation by March 31 barring unforeseen issues.

The carriers, which won the spectrum in an $80 billion government auction, previously agreed to precautionary measures for six months to limit interference.

On Thursday, trade group Airlines for America asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to halt deployment of new 5G wireless service around many airports, warning thousands of flights could be disrupted: “The potential damage to the airline industry alone is staggering.”

Wireless industry group CTIA said 5G is safe and spectrum is being used in about 40 other countries.

House Transportation Committee chair Peter DeFazio Friday backed the airline group petition warning “we can’t afford to experiment with aviation safety.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Read original article here

Business

Stock Market Today: Alibaba Gains, Novavax Drops, and the Dow Rises

Leave a comment

Text size

Macro concerns such as supply-chain issues appear to be on the back burner amid earnings season.


Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The stock market was higher Wednesday, as investors weighed the prospect of strong corporate earnings against broader concerns over the economy.

In midday trading, the


Dow Jones Industrial Average
added 160 points, or 0.5%, while the


S&P 500
—which marked its fifth consecutive session of gains Tuesday—rose 0.4%. The


Nasdaq Composite
was up 0.2%.

Earnings season continued apace Wednesday, with


Abbott Laboratories

(ticker: ABT),


Verizon

(VZ),


Biogen

reporting Wednesday morning—they all beat—following


Netflix

(NFLX) and


United Airlines

(UAL) results Tuesday evening. One thing that stands out: With 16% of S&P 500 market cap having reported, results are nowhere near as good as bank earnings suggested last week, according to Credit Suisse strategist Jonathan Golub. While earnings have topped estimates by 14.1% overall, financials have topped forecasts by 21.6%, while everyone else has surpassed expectations by just 6.3%. It’s something to keep an eye on as earnings season progresses.

Wider concerns around familiar themes—such as inflation, central bank stimulus, and supply-chain disruptions—appear to have been allayed for now, as profit margins continue to hold up.

“Whilst inflation concerns are still very much bubbling under the surface of markets, risk appetite strengthened further yesterday thanks in no small part to decent earnings reports,” said Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank. “There are no signs of widespread erosion of margins at the moment. Perhaps there is so much money sloshing about that for now prices are broadly being passed on.”

Still, bond yields now sit above 1.6% after trading over 1.65% on Tuesday, and that could pressure stocks. Higher bond yields typically weigh on technology companies in particular, because they tend to discount the present value of future cash flows, and the valuations of many tech companies are grounded in profits expected years in the future.


Tesla

(TSLA) and


IBM

(IBM) are among the companies releasing financial results in the day ahead.

Meanwhile,


Bitcoin
prices touched an all-time high above $66,000. The leading cryptocurrency has been buoyed by the launch of the first exchange-traded fund tracking regulated Bitcoin futures—a landmark moment for the crypto industry. 

Trading in the ProShares


Bitcoin Strategy ETF
(BITO) began Tuesday and most of the substantial volume was driven by high-frequency traders and retail investors, according to analyst Jeffrey Halley of broker Oanda.

“Although a regulated ETF based on regulated futures does fit nicely into the mandates of many in the institutional space, I suspect they may wait a while before dipping their toes in the water,” Halley said.

Here are eight stocks on the move Wednesday:


Novavax

(NVAX) dropped 11% following a report alleging that manufacturing problems jeopardize billions of Covid-19 vaccine doses set to be delivered to low- and middle-income countries.

Verizon gained 2.6% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings.

Netflix stock fell 1.2% despite reporting better-than-expected earnings after Tuesday’s close. The stock was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.


Alibaba

(BABA) stock rose 0.5% one day after gaining 6.1% on reports that it would make its own chips and that Jack Ma would be traveling to Europe.

The U.S.-listed shares of Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer


ASML

(ASML) fell 4.3% after the company outlined revenue guidance for the next quarter below Wall Street’s estimates.


Nestlé

(NESN.Switzerland) rose 3.3% in Zurich, as the food and drinks giant raised its full-year sales outlook after posting revenue ahead of analyst expectations—citing strong retail spending.


Deliveroo

(ROO.U.K.) rose 3.2% in London, as the food delivery company upgraded its full-year forecast after reporting strong order growth in the third quarter.


Kering

(KER.France) fell 4% in Paris, as the luxury-goods group, which owns brands including Gucci, saw sales growth held back in the crucial Asian-Pacific region by rising Covid-19 cases over the summer. But the company as a whole posted sales ahead of expectations.

Write to editors@barrons.com

Read original article here

Business

Verizon Tells Users to Turn Off 5G to Save Battery, Regrets It

Leave a comment

Photo: Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Verizon (Getty Images)

In an effort to be helpful, Verizon accidentally stuck its foot in its mouth on Sunday, and then furiously backtracked.

In a tweet on Sunday, which was spotted by the Verge, Verizon Wireless CS told customers that if they were experiencing more battery drain than usual, they should turn on LTE. As the Verge explains, the implication in this tweet directs customers to turn off 5G in phones that have it. Considering Verizon’s big push into 5G, this seems a bit weird.

“Are you noticing that your battery life is draining faster than normal?” Verizon wrote in the tweet. “One way to help conserve battery life is to turn on LTE. Just go to Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data and tap LTE.”

A user on Twitter pointed out this irony. Verizon replied to the user but didn’t really address its previous battery advice, choosing instead to talk about 5G speeds. The original tweet about preserving battery life by switching to LTE has since been deleted, although you can see the 5G reply below.

G/O Media may get a commission

Gizmodo reached out to Verizon to ask for clarification on whether it was really telling customers to turn off their 5G to preserve battery life. We’ll make sure to update this blog if we hear back.

As Mashable points out, 5G could very well be the cause of battery drain for some phones. Many new features and tech don’t work as envisioned at first, which is logical. Besides, 5G is a work in progress in the U.S. Addressing this in a roundabout way is kind of off-putting. Sure, if Verizon came out and flat out said 5G could be the cause of battery drain, some people might get cranky, which is also understandable given all the fanfare around 5G. But it would at least be the truth.

A quick search reveals that other companies have addressed this issue without creating a messy PR situation. Samsung, for instance, dedicated a support page to the issue of battery drains on 5G service. The manufacturer acknowledged that this problem was legitimate and explained that it was due to a limitation of current 5G networks, but that this would improve as 5G networks expand. Huawei also addressed the issue on a support page, stating that on a 5G network, more bandwidth is consumed online, and therefore more power may be consumed.

See Verizon, transparency isn’t that hard.



Read original article here

Business

AT&T Books $15.5 Billion Charge on DirecTV Unit

Leave a comment

AT&T Inc. booked a $15.5 billion charge on its pay-television business, reflecting the damage cord-cutting has taken on its DirecTV satellite unit even as the company’s HBO Max streaming service’s growth ramped up.

The write-down created a fourth-quarter loss as the media-and-telecommunications giant weighs the potential sale of its pay-TV assets and executives focus their investments on newer technologies. The company reported quarterly revenue declines in its legacy-video and WarnerMedia units, offsetting gains in its core wireless-phone division.

Executives called the noncash accounting charge a sign of the pay-TV unit’s aging status as the Dallas company promotes an internet-streaming model that gives its content-production business a direct line to viewers.

“Our biggest and single-most important bet is HBO Max,” Chief Executive John Stankey said on a conference call Wednesday. Executives plan to expand the service’s footprint in other countries this year and launch an advertising-supported version in the second quarter.

Overall, AT&T reported a fourth-quarter loss of $13.89 billion, or $1.95 a share, compared with a profit of $2.39 billion, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 2.4% to $45.7 billion.

Read original article here

Technology

Verizon FiOS Cable Cut, Internet Outage Hits East Coast

Leave a comment

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)

A strange outage is impacting internet users in the Northeast U.S. It’s not entirely clear what is going on, but it sure is annoying.

Around noon on Tuesday, outage reports began pouring in, according to DownDetector, which tracks online service outages. But it’s not limited to one company; users reported issues with Comcast, Google, Zoom, YouTube, Slack, Amazon Web Services, and many others. (AWS’s own status page indicates that its services are operating normally, for what it’s worth.)

While the cause (or causes) remains unconfirmed, a cut Verizon fiber optic cable in Brooklyn, New York, may be the culprit. Verizon’s customer support confirmed on Twitter that one of its cables had been severed, and customers said they received notice of the outage via email.

Not all services, nor all users, appeared to be affected equally. Even among the New York-based Gizmodo staff, the problem seems just… weird. One editor could access Slack fine, but Google services were down. Others experienced slower response times while still being able to access all services they attempted to use.

At the time of writing, several services, including Google and Zoom, appear to be coming back online. Others remain inaccessible for some users.

G/O Media may get a commission

Testing rainbow umbrella

Lorem ipsum dolor sit am ais aute irure dolor in reprehe nderittur adipissmod tempor dolore magna aliqua.

A Verizon spokesperson said in an email that they are looking into the issue.

An AWS spokesperson said the issue was related to an internet service provider and not AWS itself. In an email, a Google spokesperson echoed AWS, saying in a statement, “We are aware of reports regarding issues affecting access to some Google products, but have not found issues with our services. We’re continuing to investigate.”

We’ve also reached out to Comcast for clarity on the outage and will update when we hear back. If the outage is impacting you, let us know what you’re seeing in the comments.

Update 1:25 PM ET, Jan. 26: AWS confirmed that issues customers experienced were related to an internet service provider, not AWS. Google said it’s investigating the issue but has found no problems with its services.



Read original article here