Use CoolTechZone to Learn about the Best VPN Services

If you are researching virtual private network capabilities for your own personal or business use, especially to circumvent government restrictions on free access to the internet,  CoolTechZone is for you. Among other things, it will recommend the best VPNs for you to consider. 

One surprise for me was that ExperssVPN was not ranked in the top three services. So things are changing in the retail VPN space, apparently. Reviews are quite detailed. 


source: CoolTechZone




The authors work using pseudonyms, which is reason enough to suggest they live somewhere where the internet actually is not free from government content control. 

Spectrum Sharing, Refarming, New Spectrum Supporting 5G Rollout

Traditionally, when mobile operators launch a new next-generation network, several capacity approaches are common. Virtually every next-generation mobile network has launched using new spectrum bands. Mobile operators also recover spectrum from older networks seeing less usage. 

Some new tools also are available. Spectrum sharing now is feasible, in several forms. One form is to aggregate licensed and unlicensed spectrum, typically mobile and Wi-Fi. Another new tool is allowing shared use of already-licensed spectrum, such as Citizens Broadband Radio Service. 

There also are ways to use existing network assets to support the next-generation service. 

Ericsson’s dynamic spectrum sharing solution, for example, now is commercially available, allowing mobile operators to deliver both 4G and 5G  within the same spectrum, using the same radio and the same band, with capacity allocated dynamically, not in a static way.

In principle, DSS allows mobile operators using Ericsson networks to deploy 5G anywhere 4G radio infrastructure exists, by means of a software upgrade. 

source: 3G4G

That has obvious benefits for a quick upgrade to 5G with at least some capital investment savings, albeit with the need to preserve 4G user experience. 

On the other hand, AT&T also is partially using the traditional tool of spectrum repurposing or refarming, shifting perhaps 10 MHz of spectrum away from 4G and instead supporting 5G. 

source: Opensignal

Verizon plans to shut down its 3G network by the end of 2020, while AT&T plans to do so by 2023. Those resources then will be refarmed and used to support 5G.

FDA Finds No Adverse Health Effects on Humans from Cell Phones

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA has completed an updated radiofrequency (RF) exposure risk analysis based on relevant peer-reviewed in vivo (animal) and epidemiological studies published from January 1, 2008 to August 1, 2018 for in vivo studies, and from January 1, 2008 to May 8, 2018 for epidemiological studies. 

That includes 125 articles and 70 epidemiological studies, for a total of about 195 data points. 

The study concludes “there are no quantifiable adverse health effects in humans caused by exposures at or under the current cell phone exposure limits.”

“There is insufficient evidence to support a causal association between RFR exposure and tumorigenesis,” the report says.

Cable Companies Have Lead the U.S. Internet Access Market for 3 Decades

The U.S. fixed network internet access market is somewhat unusual in that cable TV companies absolutely dominate the installed base and market share gains. Of 101,222,628 total subscriptions, cable operators have 69 percent of the installed base, and in 2018 had 3,144,657  of 2,525,052 total net account additions. 

Since telcos lost nearly 620,000 accounts, cable operators had more than 100 percent of all the net additions. 

That leadership of the fixed network internet access market by cable operators has grown for about three decades. 

source: US Telecom

Cable Companies	Subscribers, 4Q 2019	Net Adds
Comcast	28,629,000	1,407,000
Charter	26,664,000	1,405,000
Cox*	5,170,000	110,000
Altice	4,187,300	71,900
Mediacom	1,328,000	64,000
WOW (WideOpenWest)	781,500	21,900
Cable One**	773,000	39,000
Atlantic Broadband	451,463	25,857
Total	67,984,263	3,144,657

source: Leichtman Research

AT&T	15,389,000	(312,000)
Verizon	6,956,000	(5,000)
CenturyLink	4,678,000	(134,000)
Frontier^	3,500,000	(235,000)
Windstream	1,049,300	28,300
Consolidated	784,165	5,195
TDS	455,200	31,800
Cincinnati Bell	426,700	1,100
Total	33,238,365	(619,605)

source: Leichtman Research

Those statistics suggest why 5G fixed wireless access might be so important: it could be the only way telcos actually halt the erosion of market share, and possibly become competitive again in internet access. 

That would presumably also allow T-Mobile to enter the market for the first time.