1) Finally, a major company pressuring Facebook to stop censoring messages while allowing false information and hate/racists content. For the last few weeks, Facebook has deleted any posts, even URLs, that refer to 5G. This is just an example of unacceptable control of the flow and sharing of information.
(click on photos to enlarge)
“We’re In. We’re out. The North Face Becomes the first major company to boycott Facebook….”
“The North Face has become the first major brand to boycott Facebook on the heels of mounting pressure from civil rights organizations over the platform’s content moderation policies and handling of hate speech in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
In a tweet saying “We’re in. We’re Out.”, the clothing company announced Friday it would stop buying Facebook ads in the US in solidarity with organizations including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, and Sleeping Giants.
“We know that for too long harmful, racist rhetoric and misinformation has made the world unequal and unsafe, and we stand with the NAACP and the other organizations who are working to #StopHateforProfit,” Steve Lesnard, The North Face’s global VP marketing, said in a statement.
2) Privacy is important to many of us and 5G and IoT threaten it by gathering data via “smart” devices in many of the things we buy and use, including the smeters that were put on our homes without our permission. IEEE, an organization that usually supports telecoms, raises concerns.
The Internet of Things Has a Consent Problem
“IoT companies should tell users what information their devices are gathering and how they’re using it…
In the cloud, images, conversations, and environmental cues could be accessed by hackers. Beyond that, simply by having a connected device, users give the manufacturer’s employees a clear window into their private lives….
Which in turn implies that our governments aren’t keen on respect and meeting people where they are at. Even if that’s true for governments, is that the message that tech companies want to send to customers?”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/the-internet-of-things-has-a-consent-problem
3) Despite having said that they would not be using Huawei equipment in the 5G grid, we all knew that Telus, for one, already had made this huge investment and most likely would drag its feet about removing it.
Even as Bell removes its gear, Bell, Telus say Huawei still in play for 5G
“Both Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. still won’t rule out partnering with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. for their 5G networks if the government grants permission to do so, despite Bell beginning to replace its ageing Huawei network equipment with that of 5G vendor Nokia Corp.
Bell Mobility president Claire Gillies told The Wire Report in a phone interview that Bell remained open to using Huawei equipment in its 5G networks if the federal government allowed it to, but said in the interim that the company “had to make decisions to maintain our network technology roadmap at this point in time.
“There actually has been some work done and there is some work underway where we are removing Huawei and replacing it with Nokia, so our engineering team is actively working on some projects that do that today,” Gillies said.
The Huawei gear currently in place is not interoperable with other companies’ equipment, meaning it would have to be removed from networks if the companies were to switch providers entirely for 5G buildouts.”
[if this link doesn’t work, see article in full @ bottom of page]
4) SpaceX wants to put satellites over Canada to reach rural areas, meaning that the ones that have been put in orbit already don’t. The ultimate goal is to cover the entire globe leaving no place free of EMR, exposing all living creatures to increased levels.
I just learned of this and comments may still be accepted. I couldn’t find it listed as a May 20 posting but I did find several that appear to be related to satellites at:
SpaceX applies for Canadian telecom licence as it looks to deliver internet to rural areas
“Elon Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company has applied for a licence from Canada’s telecom regulator amid plans to offer high-speed internet to the country’s rural areas via satellite. As first reported by The Globe and Mail, SpaceX’s application for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence was posted on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) website on May 20th.
SpaceX is seeking a licence for its Starlink startup, which aims to leverage an extensive network of hundreds of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites to help provide internet across the northern U.S. and Canada. As it stands, it’s unclear exactly how much of Canada Starlink intends to reach. However, the company says its ultimate goal is to provide “near global coverage” by next year.
It’s also worth pointing out that one of the notable aspects of the CRTC website is that it opens certain proceedings for comment, allowing members of the public to share their thoughts on given applications. With respect to SpaceX’s BITS license application, more than 1,200 comments have already been posted, which seems to suggest a general Canadian interest in the matter. In particular, many of these comments express support for Starlink to come to Canada.”
Comments can be made at: https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/instances-proceedings/Default-Defaut.aspx?S=O&PA=T&PT=A&PST=A&Lang=eng
https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/06/18/elon-musk-spacex-canada-telecom-licence-internet-rural-areas/
SpaceX applies for Canadian telecom licence as it looks to deliver internet to rural areas
3) (in full)
Both Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. still won’t rule out partnering with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. for their 5G networks if the government grants permission to do so, despite Bell beginning to replace its ageing Huawei network equipment with that of 5G vendor Nokia Corp.
Bell Mobility president Claire Gillies told The Wire Report in a phone interview that Bell remained open to using Huawei equipment in its 5G networks if the federal government allowed it to, but said in the interim that the company “had to make decisions to maintain our network technology roadmap at this point in time.”
Bell announced Nokia as its first 5G vendor in February.
“There actually has been some work done and there is some work underway where we are removing Huawei and replacing it with Nokia, so our engineering team is actively working on some projects that do that today,” Gillies said.
The Huawei gear currently in place is not interoperable with other companies’ equipment, meaning it would have to be removed from networks if the companies were to switch providers entirely for 5G buildouts.
Bell selected Ericsson AB as its second 5G vendor earlier this month, saying at the time that it would still consider using Huawei equipment in its 5G network if permitted to do so by the federal government. Gillies said that remained Bell’s position, despite its move to strip out Huawei gear.
Bell uses Huawei equipment in the Radio Access Network (RAN) of its 4G networks, and is awaiting a federal government decision as to whether Huawei equipment can be used at all in the fifth generation networks.
“Huawei has been a valuable partner of Bell, and you know, I think, right now we’ve had to make decisions to partner with Nokia and Ericsson, and as I said earlier we use multiple vendors in our network, and that would not preclude us from doing that in the future,” Gillies said.
Asked whether all Huawei equipment was being removed, Bell spokesman Marc Choma said the company regularly upgrades “our network equipment as it ages and have been replacing older Huawei equipment with Nokia.” Choma declined to provide further details about how much Huawei equipment had been removed, or the cost of removing it.
Bell last week launched its initial 5G service in Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The company will not build its own standalone 5G network — in which the entire network infrastructure will be new — until after the 3500 MHz spectrum auction, which has been delayed until June next year, Gillies said. Gillies added that Bell was “quite disappointed” by the postponement, saying the company, like Canadians, wants “to get on with it and realize the benefits” of 5G.
Telus Corp., which on Thursday announced Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. as its third 5G equipment vendor, said that it was also still considering using Huawei’s gear in the RAN of its 5G network, if permitted.
“We are working with multiple vendors on our 5G launch, and are welcoming Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson as partners while continuing to abide by the federal government’s security regulations,” Telus spokeswoman Kalene DeBaeremaeker said in an email.
“If the government permits Huawei to provide 5G equipment in Canada, we would consider maintaining them as a vendor in the RAN portion of our network.”
The company did not answer whether it was also in the process of removing Huawei equipment from its network and replacing it with that of any of its 5G partners.
Telus announced Nokia and Ericsson as 5G partners on June 2, but had previously refused to answer questions about whether that arrangement applies to the core or RAN of the network, and whether it’s still considering partnering with Huawei for the latter, if allowed to do so.
Its initial 5G network will be rolled out in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and the Greater Toronto Area at the outset, before expanding to 26 additional markets throughout Canada by the end of the year, Telus said in a Thursday media release announcing its 5G launch.
OpenSignal analyst Ian Fogg declined to comment specifically on Bell’s decision to remove Huawei gear, but said there was a risk telecoms might decide to proceed with their 5G networks without it, because of a lack of certainty about whether they would be permitted to use its gear.
“I mean telecom is really a long-term investment business. It’s capital intensive, you need clarity for the life of the equipment that you’re planning to deploy and that life is certainly into the years, it might even be into 10 years depending on which bit of equipment we’re looking at,” Fogg said.
“And I think the longer there is uncertainty, not just about what the immediate decision making is, but maybe that the decision might get changed in the future, it makes it very hard for the operators to move ahead with that vendor.”
Fogg pointed to speculation in the U.K. that the federal government may review its decision to allow Huawei gear to be random access parts of the network, with its market share capped at 35 per cent for each of Britain’s four mobile operators, as an example of that uncertainty.
“So if that happens in the U.K. the risk then in Canada is that even if a carrier is told they’re allowed to use Huawei, they might have uncertainty about that decision being changed,” Fogg said.
“Uncertainty doesn’t help business planning, but it really doesn’t help in the telecom sector because of the multi-year life of the equipment and the longer period in which you’ve got to think about a return on investment. “
— With reporting by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
Resistance is fertile.