Chrome OS 87 starting rolling out on Thursday, adding the ability to search tabs, view the battery levels of your Bluetooth devices, and more. 9to5Google reports: Tab Groups help people better manage (and collapse/hide) tabs, but it doesn't always reduce the number open. Google is now introducing Tab Search to let users find what pages they have open across all windows. Tapping the circular dropdown button in the top-right corner -- also accessible with Ctrl+Shift+A -- first shows a list of everything open. It includes the favicon, page name, and domain, as well as an individual close button. This feature is first rolling out to Chromebooks before coming to desktop browsers.

Chrome OS 87 will list the Bluetooth battery levels of accessories in Settings and Quick Settings. Just navigate to the Bluetooth menu. This feature is primarily meant for wireless headphones and will show a notification with the current level in the bottom-right corner of your screen upon connection. Chrome OS 87 also adds 36 new backgrounds created by four different artists. To set, right-click on the desktop or shelf and select "Set wallpaper."

Other features in this release include:
- Saving to Google Drive has been updated with the ability to rename the file and selecting what folder to store it in
- Chrome OS devices now support switch accessibility devices
- Google has updated language settings to be easier for multilingual users to navigate
- The Alt+Tab window switcher now supports mouse, touch screen, and stylus input
- Version 87 makes visual improvements when renaming Virtual Desks and Launcher folders

Discovery is the latest media company to jump into the ever more crowded streaming wars. It will launch its streaming service Discovery+ on Jan. 4, 2021. The service will include a $4.99 per month ad-supported tier and a $6.99 per month ad-free tier. From a report: The lower $4.99 tier costs the same as NBCUniversal-owned Peacock's premium tier with ads. The ad-free $6.99 tier is on par with what Disney+ costs. Both offerings are much less expensive than WarnerMedia's HBO Max, which costs $14.99 a month, and Netflix, which raised its standard plan to $13.99 a month in Oct. Discovery is also partnering with Verizon, which will give 55 million customers up to 12 months of the ad-free Discovery+ plan for free, depending on their wireless plan with the carrier.

Britain will spend $333 million to diversify its sources of 5G wireless equipment after banning China's Huawei from supplying the next-generation technology. From a report: Huawei is set to be excluded from British 5G networks by 2027 due to security concerns, leaving phone carriers reliant on a supply duopoly of Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson. Around $67 million of the total will be spent next year to help build "a secure and resilient 5G network" according to documents published on Wednesday as part of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's spending review. The resulting reduction in competition could hurt security and push up prices, so Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden has started a task force to increase the number of suppliers. He is set to publish more details before the end of the year.

Britain's crackdown on Huawei came in July after UK officials said US sanctions made it impossible to verify the security of Huawei's supply chain. The White House accuses Huawei of being a security risk, which the company has always denied. Since then, Nokia and Ericsson have already won major contracts from British carriers like BT Group and CK Hutchison Holdings' Three UK. The phone industry is banking that longer-term initiatives such as OpenRAN -- a project to make mobile network equipment more interoperable and encourage new suppliers -- will eventually introduce more competition.

The U.K.-based security company NCC Group and consumer advocacy group Which? have found vulnerabilities in 11 "smart" doorbells sold on popular platforms like Amazon and eBay. CyberScoop reports: One flaw could allow a remote attacker to break into the wireless network by swiping login credentials. Another critical bug, which has been around for years, could enable attackers to intercept and manipulate data on the network. The investigation focused on doorbells made by often obscure vendors, but which nonetheless earned top reviews and featured prominently on Amazon and eBay. The researchers raised concerns that some of the devices were storing sensitive data, including location data and audio and video captured by the doorbell's camera, on insecure servers. One device made by a company called Victure, for example, sent a user's wireless name and password, unencrypted, to servers in China, according to the researchers.

In a statement, Amazon said it requires products sold on its site to be compliant with applicable laws and regulations, and that it has tools to detect "unsafe or non-compliant products from being listed in our stores." eBay said it takes down listings that violate its safety standards, but that the devices flagged by the researchers did not meet that threshold. Victure did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The NCC Group-Which? team said they tried to contact the various vendors of the vulnerable smart doorbells, with mixed success. The unnamed vendor of one device, for example, removed an online listing for the product after the researchers shared their findings.

Apple and Microsoft are working on adding support for the Xbox Series X controller to Apple devices, according to an Apple Support page spotted by a Reddit user. MacRumors reports: The support page states that Apple devices only support the Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Xbox Adaptive Controller, PlayStation DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, and various other MFi Bluetooth controllers. However, small print on the page states: "Microsoft and Apple are working together to bring compatibility for the Xbox Series X controller to customers in a future update." There is no mention of the Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense Controller or the Amazon Luna Controller on the Apple Support page, but MacRumors has spotted code mentioning the controllers in the iOS and iPadOS 14.3 betas.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Are Technica: The Federal Communications Commission today voted to add 45MHz of spectrum to Wi-Fi in a slightly controversial decision that takes the spectrum away from a little-used automobile-safety technology. The spectrum from 5.850GHz to 5.925GHz has, for about 20 years, been set aside for Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), a vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications service that's supposed to warn drivers of dangers on the road. But as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today said, "99.9943 percent of the 274 million registered vehicles on the road in the United States still don't have DSRC on-board units." Only 15,506 vehicles have been equipped with the technology, he said.

In today's decision, the FCC split the spectrum band and reallocated part of it to Wi-Fi and part of it to a newer vehicle technology. The lower 45MHz from 5.850GHz to 5.895GHz will be allocated to Wi-Fi and other unlicensed services. "This spectrum's impact will be further amplified by the fact that it is adjacent to an existing Wi-Fi band which, when combined with the 45MHz made available today, will support cutting-edge broadband applications," the FCC said. "These high-throughput channels -- up to 160 megahertz wide -- will enable gigabit Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, hospitals, small businesses, and other consumers." "Full-power indoor unlicensed operations" are authorized immediately, while "outdoor unlicensed use" will be allowed "on a coordinated basis under certain circumstances," the FCC said. The FCC ordered DSRC services to vacate the lower 45MHz within one year.

The other 30MHz currently allocated to DSRC is being set aside for a newer vehicle-safety technology called Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X). "Today's action therefore begins the transition away from DSRC services -- which are incompatible with C-V2X -- to hasten the actual deployment of ITS [Intelligent Transportation Systems] services that will improve automotive safety," the FCC said. The FCC still has to finalize technical rules for outdoor unlicensed operations on the lower 45MHz and for how to transition the upper 30MHz from DSRC to C-V2X. Freeing up 45MHz "will supersize Wi-Fi, a technology so many of us are relying on like never before," said FCC Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel. Meanwhile, FCC Democrat Geoffrey Starks called the spectrum reassignment an important step toward reducing congestion "and ensuring that we realize the full potential of our broadband connections."

In addition to improving home Wi-Fi, the extra 45MHz will benefit public Wi-Fi networks that are relied upon by many people without good Internet access at home, he said.

The number of broadband "power users" -- people who use 1TB or more per month -- has doubled over the past year, ensuring that ISPs will be able to make more money from data caps. Ars Technica reports: In Q3 2020, 8.8 percent of broadband subscribers used at least 1TB per month, up from 4.2 percent in Q3 2019, according to a study released yesterday by OpenVault. OpenVault is a vendor that sells a data-usage tracking platform to cable, fiber, and wireless ISPs and has 150 operators as customers worldwide. The 8.8- and 4.2-percent figures refer to US customers only, an OpenVault spokesperson told Ars. More customers exceeding their data caps will result in more overage charges paid to ISPs that impose monthly data caps. Higher usage can also boost ISP revenue because people using more data tend to subscribe to higher-speed packages.

The number of "extreme power users," those who use at least 2TB per month, was up to about 1 percent of broadband customers in OpenVault's Q3 2020 data. That's nearly a three-fold increase since Q3 2019 when it was 0.36 percent. OpenVault said the average US broadband household uses 384GB a month, up from 275GB a year ago. The median figures were 229GB, up from 174GB a year ago. Usage increases happen every year, but OpenVault said this year's boost was fueled partly by the pandemic. "While bandwidth usage is remaining relatively flat quarter over quarter, it is not retreating to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that COVID-19-driven usage growth has established a new normal pattern for bandwidth usage," OpenVault said. European usage also went up during the pandemic but remained below US levels, with an average of 225GB and median of 156GB in Q3 2020.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Shekinah and Orlandria Lennon were sitting at their kitchen table this fall, taking online classes, when video of their teachers and fellow students suddenly froze on their laptop screens. The wireless antenna on the roof had stopped working, and it could not be fixed. Desperate for a solution, their mother called five broadband companies, trying to get connections for their home in Orrum, N.C., a rural community of fewer than 100 people with no grocery store or traffic lights. All the companies gave the same answer: Service is not available in your area. The response is the same across broad stretches of Robeson County, N.C., a swath of small towns and rural places like Orrum dotted among soybean fields and hog farms on the South Carolina border. About 20,000 of the county's homes, or 43 percent of all households, have no internet connection.

The technology gap has prompted teachers to upload lessons on flash drives and send them home to dozens of students every other week. Some children spend school nights crashing at more-connected relatives' homes so they can get online for classes the next day. [...] Millions of American students are grappling with the same challenges, learning remotely without adequate home internet service. Even as school districts like the one in Robeson County have scrambled to provide students with laptops, many who live in low-income and rural communities continue to have difficulty logging on. "About 15 million K-12 students lived in households without adequate online connectivity in 2018," the report notes, citing a study of federal data by Common Sense Media, an education nonprofit group that tracks children's media use.

"[T]he pandemic turned the lack of internet connectivity into a nationwide emergency: Suddenly, millions of schoolchildren were cut off from digital learning, unable to maintain virtual 'attendance' and marooned socially from their classmates."

An Alphabet X innovation lab project has been working on a high-speed wireless optical communications network that uses beams of light instead of cables or radio waves, and folks in Kenya will be the first to benefit from the fruits of these labors. New Atlas reports: Project Taara, a part of Alphabet's X moonshot factory, has been working on a wireless optical technology that could deliver high-speed, high-capacity connectivity to remote areas using a network of light emitters and receivers. The initiative has now partnered with the Econet Group to install its technology in Sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Kenya. Rather than rely on cables to carry data, which can prove challenging or costly to roll out in the region, Project Taara will send information at up to 20 Gbps using a narrow, invisible beam of light. The beam is transmitted between Taara terminals to create a network of line-of-sight data links, with up to 20 km (12 mi) between two links possible.

There does need to be a constant flow of data between the links, so engineers place the terminals high above ground on poles, rooftops and towers. The technology has already undergone pilot testing in Kenya (and India) and will now roll out from existing Liquid Telecom (a subsidiary of Econet) fiber optic networks to serve remote areas beyond the reach of traditional solutions -- such as over bodies of water, through forests, national parks and post-conflict zones. It is hoped that the optical network could also help to plug coverage gaps of cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots.

"You can't send Hackaday a piece of gear without us taking it apart," warns an article shared by Slashdot reader beggarwoman.

Hackady's verdict? The new Raspberry Pi 400 "is very, very slick." Inside, there's a flat-flex that connects the keyboard, and you see that big aluminum heat sink. It's almost the full size of the keyboard, and it's thick and heat-taped to the CPU. You know it means business. It's also right up against the aluminum bottom of the keyboard, suggesting it could get radiative help that way, and maybe keep your fingers warm in the winter. (I didn't feel any actual heat, but it's gotta go somewhere, right? There are also vents in the underside of the case.)

Four PZ1 screws and a little bit of courage to unstick the pad get you underneath the heat spreader to find, surprise!, a Raspberry Pi 4. This was a little anticlimactic, as I've just spent a couple weeks looking over the schematics for my review of the new Compute Module 4, and it's just exactly what you'd expect. It's a Raspberry Pi 4, with all the ports broken out, inside a nice keyboard, with a beefy heat spreader. Ethernet magnetics sit on one side, and the wireless module sits on the other. That's it!
"[C]ombine this with a small touch screen, and run it all off of a 5 V power pack, and you've got a ton of portable computing in a very small package.

"If you're not mousing around all the time anyway, there's a certain streamlined simplicity here that's mighty tempting."

Panasonic has collaborated with JR East on a vacuum cleaner-style device to solve a new problem that has sprung up on recent years: a rise in people dropping wireless earbuds onto train tracks. "The device is being tested at Ikebukuro station, a major hub in northern Tokyo, and early results suggest it works much faster than the traditional grabber," reports The Verge. From the report: JR East, the part of Japan's formerly private railway group that covers the Tokyo and Tohoku regions of the country, says that there were 950 incidents of dropped earbuds across 78 Tokyo train stations in the July-September quarter, Jiji Press reports. The figure apparently accounts for a quarter of all dropped items. According to JR East, station staff normally use a grabber-style "magic hand" tool to pick up larger items that fall onto tracks, like hats or smartphones. But the gravel between the rails makes smaller objects -- like, say, a left AirPod Pro -- more difficult to retrieve, meaning staff sometimes have to wait until after the last train.

Massachusetts overwhelmingly voted to extend its automobile right to repair law, in a huge win for consumers. From a report: Question 1 was the most expensive measure battle in Massachusetts history with the auto industry (and independent repair companies) spending tens of millions of dollars lobbying, according to the Boston Globe. The measure is an essential win for independent mechanics, auto-repair shops, and consumers, as it will require car manufacturers to continue to make diagnostic tools available for years to come. Under the law, car manufacturers will be required to use an open-data system in cars using telematics. This means mechanics will have access to wirelessly sent repair data -- whether they are associated with an official car dealership or an independent shop. While cars currently use a wired connection for diagnostics, there was concern among independent repair professionals that car manufacturers would switch to a wireless system in order to circumvent a 2012 right to repair law that required car dealers make wired repair codes universal. As new car models are produced in coming years, the thought is many will ditch physical diagnostic ports and instead, cars will wirelessly send repair information. Tuesday's ballot measure closes a loophole in the 2012 law that would have exempted wireless diagnostics from the law. Right to repair advocates have hailed the measure. iFixit's Kevin Purdy wrote of the significance of the vote, "that means that independent repair shops will have a level playing field with car makers and dealerships, which have turned increasingly to locked-down wirelessly collected repair data, or telematics. Car owners, too, will be able to see their cars' maintenance information through a smartphone app. And it opens the door for innovations, like wireless diagnostic apps for iOS and Android."

On Monday, the FCC's Wireless Competition Board announced that newly allocated financing part of Stage Two of the Uniendo a Puerto Rico fund will ensure that every location across Puerto Rico will have access to broadband internet with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, with one-third of the territory getting 1 Gbps internet. From a report: The milestone will come from $127.1 million in funding the FCC will provide over 10 years to two firms: Liberty Communications and Claro Puerto Rico. Of that $127.1 million, $71.54 will go to Liberty Communications, which will take care of connecting 43 of Puerto Rico's 78 municipios -- the equivalent to counties on the mainland. The remaining $55.56 million will help Claro build out broadband connections in the other 35 municipios. All told, the approximately 1.2 million places across the territory will get some form of high-speed broadband access through the funding. In a previous stage of Uniendo a Puerto Rico fund announced in June, the FCC allocated $237.9 million through to 2022 to help AT&T, T-Mobile and Claro build out LTE and 5G networks across Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

On Tuesday Massachusetts will vote on expanding the state's right-to-repair law to include more access to car data, in an initiated state statute known as "Question 1."

Wired reports: The measure is meant to address how data sharing will work as cars start to suck in and share more wireless data. The Coalition for Safe and Secure Data, backed by giant automakers, is urging state residents to vote No, arguing that easier access to this data poses security risks.

At the core of the issue is the not-insignificant question of what expanded access to wireless car data might look like and how secure that is. It's not just a question of who can repair a car and access the data, but who owns the data in the first place. The answer could ripple across the industry for years to come, which is why both sides of Question 1 have poured millions of dollars into the fight. And because the U.S. has been slower to address these issues in federal legislation, Question 1 could have impact beyond Massachusetts state lines. Ultimately, the measure "could set the national standard for cars," according to Kyle Wiens, the founder of California-based iFixit and a vocal right-to-repair advocate...

If a majority of Massachusetts residents vote Yes on Question 1 this fall, carmakers would have to install standardized, open data-sharing platforms on any cars with telematics systems starting with model year 2022. "Owners of motor vehicles with telematics systems would get access to mechanical data through a mobile device application," the ballot summary reads...

Early polling suggests the state of Massachusetts will vote overwhelmingly in favor Question 1...
"Hopefully this means we have an open-standard development process," Wiens tells Wired, "with all cars in the U.S. using the same standard, and a new world of innovation around mobile apps."

Apple's iPhone 12 lineup has the ability to wirelessly charge an external accessory, according to a series of newly unveiled FCC filings that just went public yesterday. The Verge reports: The documents first spotted by VentureBeat's Jeremy Horwitz say the phone "supports a built-in inductive charging transmitter and receiver." Apple has not officially announced any such functionality that could be used to charge future AirPods or Apple's long rumored Tile-competitor dubbed "AirTags." "In addition to being able to be charged by a desktop WPT [wireless power transfer] charger (puck), 2020 iPhone models ... also support WPT charging function at 360 kHz to charge accessories," one of the documents reads. It lists a series of FCC IDs of iPhones with the new feature, which include the the iPhone 12 mini (BCG-E3539A), iPhone 12 (BCG-E3542A), iPhone 12 Pro (BCG-E3545A), and iPhone 12 Pro Max (BCG-E3548A). The maximum reverse wireless charging speed is listed as 5W, if we're reading the documents correctly.

It sounds like the iPhone 12's reverse wireless charging may be limited, at least at first. The documents say that "currently the only accessory that can be charged by iPhones is an external potential apple accessory in future" and that reverse charging currently "only occurs when the phone is connected to an AC power outlet." The FCC's testing appears to have been conducted using only a wall charger and USB-C cable, presumably the same USB-C to Lighting cable bundled with each iPhone 12. It's unclear why Apple did not officially reveal the functionality when it announced the phones themselves, though it could be because the accessory which works with the functionality isn't yet ready to be released. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman speculates that it might work with the company's upcoming AirPods revamp, whose existence was reported earlier this week.

T-Mobile is taking an aggressive new swing at the U.S. pay-TV sector, threatening to further roil the market's dynamics: The carrier announced a new suite of TVision internet packages, available nationwide, that start at just $10 per month. From a report: With the new over-the-top TV play, T-Mobile wants to attract cord-cutters -- and also poach existing cable and satellite TV customers who are fed up with traditional pay TV's high prices and restrictive channel packaging. The TVision services are available in-home and also on wireless apps virtually anywhere in the U.S. T-Mobile also is introducing TVision Hub, a $50 Android TV-based adapter (with a remote) that plugs into the back of an HDTV to provide access to the TVision OTT services and 8,000-plus apps including Netflix and YouTube. "People sure love TV -- but they sure don't love their TV provider," T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said in livestream announcing the TVision lineup. He said incumbent cable and satellite TV providers are holding customers "hostage," because they bundle in "live news and sports with hundreds of other channels you don't want."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Millions of workers in recent months have returned to offices outfitted with new pandemic protocols meant to keep them healthy and safe. But temperature checks and plexiglass barriers between desks can't prevent one of the most dangerous workplace behaviors for the spread of Covid-19 -- the irresistible desire to mingle. "If you have people coming into the office, it's very rare for them consistently to be six feet apart," said Kanav Dhir, the head of product at VergeSense, a company that has 30,000 object-recognition sensors deployed in office buildings around the world tracking worker whereabouts.

Since the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, the company has found that 60% of interactions among North American workers violate the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's six-foot distancing guidelines, as do an even higher share in Asia, where offices usually are smaller. [...] For those employers pushing ahead with a return to the office, sensors that measure room occupancy are proving to be a necessity, said Doug Stewart, co-head of digital buildings at the technology unit Cushman & Wakefield, which manages about 785-million-square feet of commercial space in North and South America. Most offices are already fitted with sensors of some kind, even if it's just a badging system or security cameras. Those lagging on such capabilities are now scrambling to add more, he said. The systems were used before the pandemic to jam as many people together in the most cost-effective way, not limit workplace crowding or keep employees away from each other, Stewart said. With that in mind, companies can analyze the data all they want, but changing human behavior -- we're social creatures, after all -- is harder, he said.

Understanding worker habits is more useful if you have a way to nudge them into new patterns. Since the pandemic began, Radiant RFID LLC has sold 10,000 wristbands that vibrate when co-workers are too close to each other. The technology was originally designed to warn workers away from dangerous machinery, not other people. So far, the wristbands are responsible for reducing unsafe contacts by about 65%, said Kenneth Ratton, chief executive of the company, which makes radio-communication devices. At this point, the data on more than 3 billion encounters shows the average worker has had about 300 interactions closer than six feet lasting 10 minutes or more. Nadia Diwas is using another kind of technology: a wireless key fob she carries in her pocket made by her employer, Semtech Corp., which tracks her movements and interactions -- making it useful for contact tracing if someone gets sick, which is as important as warning people they are too close. The technology originally was developed by Semtech to help devices such as thermostats communicate on the so-called internet of things.

Last month, Amazon announced a gaming platform called Luna that lets users play games via the cloud. The company is rolling out early access today, starting with a library of 50 games and support for Mac, PC, Fire TV, and iOS devices. The Verge's Chaim Gartenberg shares what it's like so far and how it compares to other streaming services out there like Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia. Here's an excerpt from his report: The biggest question for Luna -- like any cloud gaming service -- is performance. For cloud gaming to work well, companies like Amazon need to rapidly deliver compressed video frames that respond to your button presses even if internet bandwidth dips and even if your house isn't located right next to an Amazon server farm. Amazon recommends a minimum connection speed of 10 Mbps for Luna, but your home's internal network also matters. We tested Luna on a variety of devices in two different Verge editors' homes across two different coasts with a variety of internet speeds and connection types. So far, 10 Mbps doesn't seem like nearly enough. We found that we needed a connection of at least 25 Mbps in order to have a consistently playable stream, with more bandwidth obviously being better. My colleague Sean Hollister limited his router to 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps, and 20 Mbps, but he'd still get stretches of choppy video.

The best performance (of course) came from a PC with a wired Ethernet connection and controller, with no other family members streaming video in the house. Playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on that solid of a connection was virtually indistinguishable from the game running natively. (Switching back and forth, you can tell it takes oh-so-slightly longer to swing a sword, but it felt perfectly playable.) Admittedly, there are few benefits to actually using Luna to stream the game on a capable PC. On the other hand, Metro: Exodus, one of the most graphically intensive games available to stream, looked and played decidedly worse streamed to a web browser than it does on a capable gaming PC. Honestly, it doesn't look great in either Luna or Stadia, but at least Stadia could keep up with a mouse and keyboard. Luna's mouse was extremely laggy.

Using wireless connections introduces a lot more variables into Luna's performance. If you have a steady, strong Wi-Fi connection, Luna works pretty well, with little to no lag, smooth HD video, and responsive enough gameplay to enjoy even fast-paced platformers like Sonic Mania on an iPhone with a paired Bluetooth controller. But when Luna has a bad connection, it's rough. For some reason, Amazon doesn't seem to degrade the quality of video streaming when connection speeds are bad; it just tries to power on through by dropping frames until speeds pick up. I also ran into issues where audio started to lag behind what was otherwise smooth gameplay, presumably due to a sluggish connection. Right now, it seems that Luna's performance is almost entirely dependent on having good internet. Further reading: iOS Web App, Game Library, and App Functionality

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg Law: The Federal Communications Commission is poised to delay $9 billion in rural 5G subsidies for 18 to 24 months so it can fix mapping flaws that bar the agency from determining which areas need the service. The holdup is the most recent delay in the FCC's nine-year effort to pay wireless carriers to expand service to remote areas that otherwise are too unprofitable to serve. The FCC scrapped a similar subsidy effort last year, after it found carriers' maps exaggerated existing coverage areas, meaning locations that needed the subsidies wouldn't have gotten them.

The commission plans to vote Oct. 27 on an order that would create the new $9 billion effort to replace the program it scrapped. Under the order, however, the agency would wait to award funds until it evaluates new data it's collecting on rural service locations. The replacement 5G program would distribute twice as many funds as its predecessor. As in the earlier effort, the subsidies would come from the agency's Universal Service Fund, which is raised from monthly fees on consumers' phone bills. It will likely take until at least mid-2022 for the FCC to collect the data, putting the commission on track to start awarding the funding to carriers later that year. That timeline assumes Congress appropriates the $65 million needed to fund the initiative next year, though there is bipartisan support to do so.

With competition among Earth's telecoms providers as fierce as ever, equipment maker Nokia has announced its expansion into a new market, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the moon. From a report: The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by NASA to deploy an "ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened" wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency's plan to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2030. The $14.1m contract, awarded to Nokia's US subsidiary, is part of Nasa's Artemis programme which aims to send the first woman, and next man, to the moon by 2024. The astronauts will begin carrying out detailed experiments and explorations which the agency hopes will help it develop its first human mission to Mars. Nokia's network equipment will be installed remotely on the moon's surface using a lunar hopper built by Intuitive Machines in late 2022, Nokia said. "The network will self-configure upon deployment," the firm said in a statement, adding that the wireless technology will allow for "vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video."