Microsoft Layoffs, Rural Airband Initiative, Day of Action, and more

Internet Telecom Cable Service News

Here is your recap of cable and Internet service industry news from around the US and the world the week of July 17, 2017:

Company Owned By Richest Man in World To Lay Off Thousands

Microsoft has announced that they will be laying off between 3000 and 5000 employees. Just to crunch some numbers, if we average it and say that it is 4000 lay offs and estimate that they make $125,000 a year, that comes to $500,000,000.  Last year, Bill Gates, the world’s richest person, is estimated to have raked in $11.5 billion in income last year.

Microsoft to Help Those Without High-Speed Internet Get Connected

Microsoft has announced a new Rural Airband Initiative to boost Internet connection in 12 states: Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New York, North and South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. They will offer seed money to local telecom providers to aid in the delivery of speedy wireless Internet to areas without it. By Microsoft’s estimate, despite billions of dollars in federal investment, more than 23 million Americans in rural areas currently lack access to high-speed Internet.

Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality

The Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality was held online on July 12th with warnings such as the above appearing on many websites. More than 50,000 websites, organizations, and people including Mozilla, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Netflix, OK Cupid, the ACLU, GoDaddy, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Vimeo, and the mayors of more than 50 cities, among many others, protested Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to repeal Net Neutrality regulations. The current Net Neutrality rules were put in place in 2015 under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and say the ISPs cannot treat websites differently by slowing some sites and speeding others.

Google Releases Blocks For Designing in 3D

Google has just released another software toy, Blocks, a 3D development tool. It is now available for free on the Oculus store and Steam. It allows users to easily create 3D objects on a 2D screen. So far it has an app for Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive but not for their own Daydream platform. Google says it is simple enough for anyone to use, even those without 3D modeling experience. It was designed to be more like playing with children’s blocks that traditional modeling software.

Owner of Cable Shopping Giant QVC to Buy Cable Shopping Giant HSN

Liberty Interactive, parent company of QVC, already owned more than a third of the Home Shopping Network before they worked out a deal to buy the remaining 62%. HSN will continue to broadcast from its St Petersburg Florida studios. Liberty Interactive owns Zulilly in addition to QVC and will be changing its name to QVC after the deal closes. The all-stock deal values HSN at $2.6 billion. Home Shopping Network virtually established the home shopping industry when it was founded as the Home Shopping Club 35 years ago as a local television shopping service in the Tampa Bay Area. It went national a few years later.

Source of NotPetya “Ransomware” Tracked Down

The NotPetya virus/ransomware that shut down businesses across Europe was tracked down to an update of a tax accounting software M.E.Doc from Ukraine. The malware was introduced to computers via an auto updating feature and used a Windows exploit found by the US Government. Ukrainian officials have said they thwarted a second attack by the hackers that was scheduled to occur in early July. Among the businesses and organizations affected by the malware are Maersk, FedEx as well as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Sprint Speculation Runs Wild

Sprint and T-Mobile have been the subject of a number of rumors over the years as to when (and if) they would join forces. Comcast and Charter are now reportedly in talks with Sprint about some sort of deal. But Comcast and Charter, the second and third largest cable TV providers respectively, actually already have reseller agreements with Verizon, the number one wireless provider and number five video provider. Comcast currently delivers mobile phone service through Verizon with its Xfinity Mobile products. Charter is looking to start offering mobile phones soon, too. Charter and Comcast have agreed with each other not to move forward on wireless by themselves for one year. Their two biggest rivals with video and Internet are Verizon and AT&T. AT&T is number one in video and two in the wireless arena. Not sure where this is going with Sprint, but something will probably be made public very soon.

Change your Dish TV Station With Alexa

The Dish Network just announced that Dish customers will be able to control their Dish Hopper set top box with Amazon’s Alexa voice command. The Hopper DVR update was rolled out earlier this year. With the new Alexa/Dish integration, consumers will be able to "get to the content they love easily," Dish says. Now instead of using a remote control, you can just tell Alexa what you want. You could simply say, “Alexa, find a comedy TV show,” or “Alexa, watch Big Bang Theory.”

Competitors Stock Prices Sinking in Amazon’s Current

Sometimes it just takes an announcement from Amazon for a competitors stock price to dive. Case in point, when the Internet retail giant announced that it was looking to purchase natural food chain Whole Foods, stock prices for other food retailers took a big hit. Target lost over 9%, Kroger lost 7% and even Walmart took almost a 6% drop. The biggest loss was almost 16% for Costco. Whole Foods is up 27% on the other hand. When Amazon announced that it was going to go up against Best Buy’s Geek Squad by offering to install its smart home peripherals, Best Buy’s stock value lost more than a billion dollars in one day.

Space Data Wins Patent Lawsuit Against Google

It's not often that a small company goes up against a giant company like Google and wins. The US Patent and Trademark Office just canceled one of Google’s patents because it was too similar to a patent Space Data already owned. The technology that sparked the lawsuit involves weather balloons equipped to provide wireless Internet traveling via air currents at different altitudes. When Google announced their new plan to provide wireless internet using weather balloons, Space Data informed them that they had been using the tech for years. Something Google probably should have known since Google was in talks with Space Data about buying the company ten years ago, but changed their mind.

Facebook Ramps Up “Television Show” Production

Facebook, in an effort to keep you on its site longer, has just greenlighted two new shows. One show, featuring Mike Rowe traveling across America to showcase the actions of do-gooders. It is called Returning the Favor. The other show will be a reality TV type show revolving around the family of Los Angeles Lakers number two draft pick Lonzo Ball. It will feature Ball and his family acting up for the camera. Facebook has several other shows currently in the works and is looking to produce more.

Who Has Your Back? Government Data Requests 2017

The Electronic Freedom Foundation released its annual survey of most of the major tech companies and how well they protect the data and freedoms of their customers. The four lowest performing companies are all telecoms: Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and T-Mobile. For some reason, it doesn't appear that Sprint was rated but they did rate Credo Mobile (at the top of the list). There are nine companies with high marks in all five categories, they are Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr, and Wordpress. The five areas analyzed are:

  • Follows industry-wide best practices    
  • Tells users about government data requests    
  • Promises not to sell out users    
  • Stands up to NSL (National Security Letters) gag orders    
  • Pro-user public policy