The Telecom Digest
Thursday, September 15, 2022

Copyright © 2022 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.
Volume 41 Table of Contents Issue 197
AT&T has started to manipulate the Google search results
Hernando County Sheriff's Office 911 line back open
FCC Takes Action Ahead of the FTC in Regulating Mobile Carrier Privacy Practices
KY: (Opinion) Our 9-1-1 system desperately needs federal money for upgrades
WI: TDS midwest expansion
Message-ID: <20220913154210.GA308105@telecomdigest.us> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:42:10 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: AT&T has started to manipulate the Google search results I'm writing to ask your help once again. Most of the source material I quote in the Digest comes from online searches. For some time now, Centurylink has been able to hide embarrassing or other news that the company doesn't want to show up on Google searches, apparently using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques which crowd out all search results that appear in English with those from sites which publish in other languages. Of course, I've tried other search engines, but with dismal results: neither Bing or Yahoo yield anything newsworthy on most days: if there are other choices worth using, I'd like to know about them. Now, AT&T has adopted tactics similar to Centurylink's. Today's search for news about AT&T produced a "splash" page that showed reports about failures in the 911 system at Baton Rouge, LA - but nothing else in English. Google searches appear to be limited to eight pages of results, at least when searching in the "News" category. If part of the first page, and all seven of the rest, show results written in other languages, well, that effectively causes news about AT&T to vanish from the screens of those whom don't read other languages - those like me. Yahoo goes on for page after page, if I have the patience to wade through them: after about page eight, the search results start repeating the same links, straying off the topic, and getting less and less usable at each page view. Bing is in-between, but it has a lot more unrelated content. Today, I was able to find an interesting article written in Spanish, and the Google "Translate" feature gave a usable result for it, but Google doesn't, AFAICT, have any way to limit search results to pages written only in English. If you know a way around this problem, or know where I can find one, please contact me. I can't pay you, but I'll be happy to publish a public "Thank you" for you or your organization. Bill Horne Moderator -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly, and note that the Telecom Digest email address must be changed in an obvious way to send replies to the Digest)
Message-ID: <d11245c5-c451-ca4b-efa4-4b58d3eb8fac@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:40:38 -0400 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: Hernando County Sheriff's Office 911 line back open By Spectrum News Staff Hernando County Updated 10:24 Am Et Sep. 12, 2022 HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. - The Hernando County Sheriff's Office 911 and administrative telephone lines are back online and working, the agency Tweeted on Sunday at 8:32 p.m. As of Monday morning, the telephone outage had not been resolved, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office in a press release. https://tinyurl.com/3e362r45 -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly, and note that the Telecom Digest email address must be changed in an obvious way to send replies to the Digest)
Message-ID: <20220913221325.GA310409@telecomdigest.us> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 22:13:25 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: FCC Takes Action Ahead of the FTC in Regulating Mobile Carrier Privacy Practices Wednesday, September 7, 2022 There is a quiet (or not so quiet) battle going on between the FCC and FTC and Congress to determine who will regulate and enforce the privacy practices [of] mobile carriers. The FCC is currently far out front. On July 18, 2022, the FCC, under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's leadership, turned its sights on mobile carrier privacy practices, one day before the House Energy & Committee passed the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) on July 19, 2022. https://tinyurl.com/ytx9579r -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly, and note that the Telecom Digest email address must be changed in an obvious way to send replies to the Digest)
Message-ID: <4743d3fc-9416-4ff3-f381-8ef5d33b0de9@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:50:15 -0400 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: KY: (Opinion) Our 9-1-1 system desperately needs federal money for upgrades Since its inception, 9-1-1 has been a victim of its own success. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it just works, and people ignore it. Government leaders have an “if it's not broke, why fix it” mentality. Unfortunately, this approach is short-sighted and puts lives at risk. Simply put, 9-1-1 will increasingly fail to meet the needs of Kentuckians and Americans unless it is upgraded to Next Generation 9-1-1 technology (NG911) - and this can only be achieved through an infusion of federal funding. https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article265431066.html -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly, and note that the Telecom Digest email address must be changed in an obvious way to send replies to the Digest)
Message-ID: <31c983b6-352-752d-c7cf-ddebb91a1020@lol1093.com> Date: 14 Sep 2022 10:44:43 -0500 From: thompson@lol1093.com Subject: WI: TDS midwest expansion TDS Telecom unveiled plans to run fiber to 18 more markets in Wisconsin, stepping up its build plans for the state as competitors AT&T and Brightspeed close in. TDS is pushing to cover upwards of 60% of its footprint with fiber by 2026 https://www.fiercetelecom.com/broadband/tds-tries-get-jump-att-brightspeed-fiber-wisconsin
End of The Telecom Digest for Thu, 15 Sep 2022
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