Networks
Verizon seeks FCC permission to sunset most copper landline phones
Versus Say More Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices All Series The FCC will respond to the request by Nov. 30, Verizon says. Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. If you're a 90s, 80s, 70s, or 60s kid, this photo might induce some nostalgia.
Why is London's mobile phone reception getting worse?
Why is London's mobile phone reception getting worse? Mobile users across London say their mobile service is becoming increasingly unreliable, with reports of slow data speeds, failed connections and calls not getting through. Mobile UK, the trade association representing the UK's major mobile networks, said London's mobile phone connectivity continues to lag frustratingly behind other international hubs. Data commissioned by the BBC England Data Unit found some of the worst areas were Liverpool Street and Covent Garden, where service proved to be extremely slow and unreliable during rush hour but worked normally during quieter periods. So what impact does this lack of connectivity have on Londoners and their ability to earn a living, and what are the reasons behind it?
I ditched T-Mobile for Mint and found 3 major drawbacks of smaller carriers - and their workarounds
I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen Downsizing from a'big three' carrier can save you big money, but it has its downsides. A few weeks ago, I shared my journey of switching over to Mint Mobile, after being a T-Mobile customer for more than a decade. As you may have guessed, the move was easy to justify, with mounting price increases and forced plan upgrades being the main reasons. But going from a big household name such as T-Mobile to a smaller brand like Mint has taught me a thing or two about the downsides of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), too. They're mostly tolerable, with some unique fixes and lifestyle changes that I've picked up over the past few months.
Your Comcast router doubles as a motion detector now - and a potential police informant
I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen Opinion: Comcast's new motion detection technology could benefit your home, but it also raises privacy concerns. The details are in the fine print. Comcast has introduced a new opt-in motion-detection feature in its routers. Xfinity Gateway devices detect movement and alert users via a mobile app. A footnote advisory indicates law enforcement could access your motion data.
The FCC wants to ban drones with LiDAR that it previously approved
The FCC is planning to target even more products in its drone ban, including those it previously approved, and DJI has issued a call to action in response. The federal agency is proposing to prohibit models equipped with certain capabilities, like thermal imaging, LiDAR sensing and aerosol dispensing. Any new ban would not affect drones already in the hands of buyers. In a public notice posted last month, the FCC "seeks comment on extending this prohibition to categories of drones viewed by the US government as having military capability or posing particular national security risks." The proposed expansion would also restrict drones that can "integrate defense articles, those that use docking stations" and "swarming drones."
The FCC just changed the rules for robot vacuums. Here's what it means for yours
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The FCC just changed the rules for robot vacuums. Here's what it means for yours The U.S. just put new restrictions on advanced robots, and your next robot vacuum could be affected. Recently, the U.S. government announced new restrictions affecting certain "advanced robotic devices" sold in the country. According to the Federal Communications Commission, the rules cover " mobile robots, such as humanoids and quadrupeds," as well as autonomous mobile robots.
Robots in society, business and culture: July 2026
On July 28, the United States' Federal Communications Commission blocked foreign-made " advanced robotic devices " from receiving the equipment authorization needed for sale in the United States, citing supply-chain vulnerabilities and cybersecurity risks . The block applies to networked humanoids, quadrupeds, other qualifying mobile robots weighing more than 4.4 lb. In a parallel action, the FCC also restricted foreign-produced connected power inverters. Existing authorized models are unaffected for now, and exemptions or conditional approvals may be available. Meanwhile, John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, told Reuters that the FCC move "protects our country and strengthens our nation's robotics industry."
Trump's AI protectionism has come for robotics
Trump's AI protectionism has come for robotics The FCC has banned foreign-made humanoids, making a fragile, nascent sector part of America's AI industrial policy. Humanoid robots usually elicit more cringe than awe: They stumble, kick children, and despite advances are still worse at using their hands than my toddler. It's a nascent industry, and such robots are more commonly seen in viral videos than real workplaces or homes. It was a surprise, then, when last week the Federal Communications Commission issued a sweeping ban on foreign imports of advanced robots, including humanoids, quadrupeds, and wheeled robots. The decision, made by an increasingly partisan and Trump-aligned FCC, cites two reasons. One is that foreign-made humanoids will collect so much data--in homes but also potentially at sensitive facilities--that they'd pose a threat to national security.
Demystifying Network Foundation Models
This work presents a systematic investigation into the latent knowledge encoded within Network Foundation Models (NFMs). Different from existing efforts, we focus on hidden representations analysis rather than pure downstream task performance and analyze NFMs through a three-part evaluation: Embedding Geometry Analysis to assess representation space utilization, Metric Alignment Assessment to measure correspondence with domain-expert features, and Causal Sensitivity Testing to evaluate robustness to protocol perturbations. Using five diverse network datasets spanning controlled and real-world environments, we evaluate four stateof-the-art NFMs, revealing that they all exhibit significant anisotropy, inconsistent feature sensitivity patterns, an inability to separate the high-level context, payload dependency, and other properties. Our work identifies numerous limitations across all models and demonstrates that addressing them can significantly improve model performance (up to 0.35 increase in F1 scores without architectural changes).
Multiresolution Analysis and Statistical Thresholding on Dynamic Networks
Detecting structural change in dynamic network data has wide-ranging applications. Existing approaches typically divide the data into time bins, extract network features within each bin, and then compare these features over time. This introduces an inherent tradeoff between temporal resolution and statistical stability of the extracted features. Despite this tradeoff, reminiscent of time-frequency tradeoffs in signal processing, most methods rely on a fixed temporal resolution. Choosing an appropriate resolution parameter is typically difficult, and can be especially problematic in domains like cybersecurity, where anomalous behavior may emerge at multiple time scales.