Canada: Massive Rogers outage snarling telecom, banking and government services continues

A massive outage at Rogers has brought down internet and cellular service across Canada, and has also interrupted government services and payment systems for businesses and individuals.

The outage began some time early Friday morning, and as of 5 p.m. ET had not been fixed.

The company does not have an estimate when the day-long outage will be fixed, said Kye Prigg, Rogers' senior vice-president of access networks and operations, on CBC's Power & Politics.

Read more at: Massive Rogers outage snarling telecom, banking and government services continues | CBC News

Internet High Speed Communications: 5G: how EU is helping to turn it into an engine for growth

The European Commission has prepared an action plan to facilitate the deployment of 5G across the EU. MEPs voted in favour of supporting the plan on 1 June, but stressed that coordination between EU countries would be crucial to avoid delays that were experienced when 4G was introduced as not enough spectrum was available.

Polish EPP member Michał Boni, the MEP responsible for steering the plan through Parliament, warned: "The member states have to understand that we have to avoid the fragmentation of decisions and solutions if we want to achieve the 5G objectives.”

He also stressed the importance of making it easier to invest in this: “Investments are the key for achieving 5G goals. The simplification of legal framework, flexible models for co-investments and long-term certainty and predictability are required.”

To watch the plenary debate in the EU Parliament click here: Video: watch the plenary debate on 5G

Read more: 5G: how EU is helping to turn it into an engine for growth | News | European Parliament

EU - A call for a 2015-2019 communication plan : Reconnecting Europe with its Citizens - by Christophe Rouillon

The unprecedented crisis of confidence across the European Union requires the European institutions to shoulder their responsibility and come up with a new communication strategy to reconnect the people with the European project.

Christophe Rouillon proposes a joint communication plan with measurable targets for all the institutions by the next European elections in 2019, placing cities and regions at the heart of his strategy.

The plan should both stimulate "a European narrative" that will open up a public debate in Europe on the historical, cultural, philosophical and sociological foundations of European integration. It should at the same time pave the way for a dialogue on the tangible impact of European policies on people's daily lives.

Read more: A call for a 2015-2019 communication plan : Reconnecting Europe with its Citizens | EurActiv

Internet: United States Ranks 31st in the World on Internet Speed - by Jonathan Turley

What is fascinating about the utter failure of our duopoly of two parties is how they have failed to even do the little things rights. You would hope that, while wasting hundreds of billions, the two parties could at least offer a modicum of help for citizens. This week’s report from Ookla Speedtest offers one clear example. The United States ranked behind Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uruguay. We are 31st in the world.

So here is a no-brainer. Faster Internet is better for citizens and businesses. It is offered free in many countries or at low cost. In the United States, it is subject to endless charges and differing speeds. Due the utter failure of Congress to deal with this issue, cities are now trying to move to supply high-speed Internet.

To give you an idea of how bad we are in this study, the best Internet services are found in Hong Kong with a download speed of 72.49 Mbps. We are 20.77 Mbps. It is fighting that we are behind Slovakia since that country also recently ranked higher than the United States in press freedoms.

The reason is simple — lobbyists from the telecommunication companies are one of the most powerful groups in Washington. Few members dare to resist them. Companies Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T have controlled different areas of the country to maximize profits and resist improvements.

hese lobbyists — and their pocket members — passed the 1996 Telecommunications Act with the promise that it would foster competition. Instead, it allowed them to divide markets and merge into effective monopolies — imposing higher charges and lower quality services. For example, fiber optic infrastructure which is a priority in other countries have been largely abandoned by most companies to avoid the costs.

Then again, no one seriously expects us to compete with Estonia and Uruguay on technology, right?

Read more: United States Ranks 31st in the World on Internet Speed | JONATHAN TURLEY

AT&T Is Europe Obsessed, Ignoring The Real Growth Markets - by Jasper Hamill

To some observers, the mobile communications market in Europe is hidebound, rule-bound and stuck in its ways. Yet despite the obvious opportunities on offer in developing nations, the American communications giant AT&T appears to have a perplexing fascination with the old world. Even though it has now dismissed the idea of taking over the British firm Vodaphone, many industry gossips still feel that AT&T is still mulling some kind of European invasion in the future.

There is some sense in such a strategy. If the American telecoms giant were to press forward with a Vodafone takeover at some later juncture, it would create a huge company worth about £150billion ($249billion) with a reach stretching across the continent. Seeing as Europe has been notoriously slow to take up 4G mobile broadband, there could be a huge potential windfall for any firm which can persuade the Continent to upgrade from hoary old 3G. 

There is some sense in such a strategy. If the American telecoms giant were to press forward with a Vodafone takeover at some later juncture, it would create a huge company worth about £150billion ($249billion) with a reach stretching across the continent. Seeing as Europe has been notoriously slow to take up 4G mobile broadband, there could be a huge potential windfall for any firm which can persuade the Continent to upgrade from hoary old 3G.

Read more: AT&T Is Europe Obsessed, Ignoring The Real Growth Markets - Forbes

NSA 'spying on Europe-Asia undersea telecom cables'

The US National Security Agency has collected sensitive data on key telecommunications cables between Europe, north Africa and Asia, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday citing classified documents.

Spiegel quoted NSA papers dating from February and labelled "top secret" and "not for foreigners" describing the agency's success in spying on the so-called Sea-Me-We 4 undersea cable system.

The massive bundle of fibre optic cables originates near the southern French city of Marseille and links Europe with north Africa and the Gulf states, continuing through Pakistan and India to Malaysia and Thailand.

"Among the companies that hold ownership stakes in it are France Telecom, now known as Orange and still partly government-owned, and Telecom Italia Sparkle," Spiegel said.

It said NSA specialists had hacked an internal website belonging to the operator consortium to mine documents about technical infrastructure including circuit mapping and network management information.
"More operations are planned in the future to collect more information about this and other cable systems," Spiegel quoted the NSA documents as saying.

Der Spiegel has over the last several months reported on mass NSA spying on targets in the United States and abroad using documents provided by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

A White House-picked panel this month recommended curbing the secretive powers of the NSA, warning that its spying sweeps in the "war on terror" had gone too far.
US President Barack Obama plans to address the report in January.

Read more: NSA 'spying on Europe-Asia undersea telecom cables' | Bangkok Post: news

European Airline Industry: Europe to allow gate-to-gate electronics use by the end of November - by Zach Honig

Certain air travelers in Europe will soon be free to use smartphones, tablets, e-readers and music players during all phases of flight. An announcement today from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) states that the organization will extend new guidelines by the end of this month, enabling the use of such devices during taxi, takeoff and landing as long as they're switched to "airplane mode," when applicable.

Laptops must be stowed during those periods, just as they're required to be in the US. Curiously, the policy will specifically apply to European airlines -- it's not clear if carriers based overseas will be permitted to allow electronics' use while operating within Europe. The EASA also stated that it's researching methods for certifying phones for voice-call use, though we don't expect to see a ruling there for quite some time.

Phone calls remain banned on US carriers, even though services like Gogo's Text & Talk utilize FAA-approved technologies.

Read more: Europe to allow gate-to-gate electronics use by the end of November

Internet: What Would We Do If the Internet Crashed? - by Amanda Wills

Internet

In 1982, the Internet was a safe place where everyone trusted each other. The community was so small that every email address on the web could fit into one skinny "phone book" written in big font. If you made that same book today, it would be 25 miles thick.

Scientist Danny Hillis was one of the few people in that small digital community. In a recent TED Talk, Hillis says the Internet's current population exposes a new vulnerability. "The Internet was designed with the assumption that the communications links could not be trusted, but that the people that connected computers to the Internet were smart and trustworthy," Hillis tells Mashable via email. "Those assumptions no longer apply." We depend on the Internet for nearly everything, and we cannot imagine what would happen if it just quit working.

But with the influx of what Hillis describes as "bad and foolish people" who connect to the web, a massive breakdown may be in our future.
 
Hillis tells stories of gaping security holes that have already led to incidents of our exposed vulnerability because we are using the Internet in services for which it wasn't originally built. It now supports the basic infrastructure of our society: funds transfers, shipping of food and oil, transportation and even the telephone system.

"We're setting ourselves up for a kind of disaster like the [one] we had with the financial system, where we take a system that was basically built on trust — was basically built for a smaller scale system — and we've kind of expanded it way beyond the limits of how it was meant to operate," Hillis explains in the video above.

Hillis says it's time to have a Plan B: an "alternative communications network that is entirely independent of the protocols of the Internet." As Hillis found out after his TED Talk, people are already working on these backup plans.

"Since this presentation, many people have told me those stories are only the tip of the iceberg," he says, noting that some of those people also told him about various efforts to fix these problems. "So, while I am concerned to hear that things are already worse than I assumed, I'm also heartened that smart minds are starting to focus on solutions," Hillis says. "Like so many other infrastructure problems, this one is likely to eventually get fixed. The question will be just how much pain we will have to accept before we fix it."

Read more: What Would We Do If the Internet Crashed?

Who controls the internet? by Jemima Kiss

Have you ever noticed that wherever you are in the world, every telephone keypad looks the same? Or wondered why satellites don't crash into each other? Or why you dial 64 to reach New Zealand, but 65 for Singapore? These are some of the mundane but essential logistical achievements of the International Telecommunication Union, a specialist UN agency that dates back to 1865.

Yet as it gears up for its first global conference in 14 years, the ITU has found itself under unprecedented attack. The first assailant is the powerful US technology lobby. Companies, including Google, are claiming that new ITU proposals would mean internet companies paying hefty fees to local telecoms companies, reigniting historic tensions between US internet giants and incumbent telecoms firms across the world.

But that's not the only battle that will be played out this December when the ITU's 193 member states gather in Dubai. Russia and China have been explicit in their goal of taking control of the internet away from the US, while developing countries feel the western technology hegemony is limiting their economic opportunities. With the world's internet population predicted to reach 3.4 billion by 2016, there is everything to play for.

The ITU has not helped its case. Suspected by some critics of encouraging the controversial proposals, comments by the eloquent secretary general Dr Hamadoun Touré seem designed to antagonise the US. He told Vanity Fair earlier this year: "When an invention becomes used by billions across the world, it no longer remains the sole property of one nation, however powerful that nation might be. There should be a mechanism where many countries have an opportunity to have a say."

The reaction to some of these new proposals, or ITRs, has been a comprehensive, well-organised and well-funded campaign by a cabal of powerful American corporates – including Google, Microsoft, Cisco, AT&T and Comcast. Much of the resulting media coverage of the ITU, particularly in the US, has ranged from dismissive to aggressive, labelling the low-profile union obscure and irrelevant and exploiting American animosity for the UN.

Western dominance is the one of the biggest challenges for developing nations, says Alice Munyua, a researcher and policy development expert, representing Kenya and Africa on forums such as Icann. "It is a big concern for African governments and stakeholders, and not just because of how the internet is governed, but how it is developed from a commercial and technical perspective," she said. "There is a feeling that we are not able to participate or contribute effectively because of the lack of capacity, skills and resources, so there's a digital divide in terms of access, but also in appropriating the internet for our own development."

Read more: Who controls the internet? | Jemima Kiss | Technology | guardian.co.uk

NATO destroys Libyan state TV

The associated press reports that NATO warplanes bombed three Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli overnight, targeting a key propaganda tool that the military alliance said Saturday is used by Moammar Gadhafi's government to incite violence and threaten civilians.

There was no comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit, but state TV was still on the air in Tripoli on Saturday.

NATO said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Gadhafi's "use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them."

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