BY:
Salvatore Nicci
Technology Analyst / Reporter
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
3 January 2022 – So AT&T and Verizon have refued to delay their 5G launch. The main point of the story is that two big Baby Bells (remember them?) are showing their Bell Telephone DNA. The story states:
AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. rejected a request from the U.S. federal transportation officials to delay their planned launch on January 5 of a new variation of 5G wireless services.
The U.S. government is concerned that those outstanding 5G wave forms could have “a negative impact on air traffic”. I think that’s government speak for “it’s gonna cause crashes.” Of course, I’m just guessing. Although in earlier pronouncements the U.S. government was worried the allegedly zippy 5G might disrupt a device: maybe a passenger’s pacemaker or create interference when a pilot checks something on an official Boeing certified iPad.
Just a few observations after chatting with our cyber and tech teams:
• The government is late to the game … again. Lateness means either failing with the Big Tech crowd or getting a detention slip in the form of zero technical support for the annoying official
• Big Tech makes it clear that the US government is irrelevant and will do what it wants. It follows the usual drill: outrage, followed by a hearing, followed by an apology … and then no changes
• And it offers significant encouragement for outfits like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to move forward on several fronts as we discussed last year: deals with China, predatory pricing, cooperation on certain technical matters, and maintaining these firms’ “alleged” monopolies.
Net result: quite a way to start 2022 because ignoring the 5G issue signals to product managers to amp up their methods in order to generate more revenue.
