GoKawiil
Tech News
The piece traces how Western Electric, the manufacturing backbone that later became central to AT&T's Bell System, was founded in 1872 by Enos Barton and Elisha Gray—the same Gray who disputed Alexander Graham Bell's claim to inventing the telephone. Gray bought out co-founder George Shawk and became half-owner of the firm, partly intending to manufacture his own competing telephone design.
CNET's People's Picks community survey asked readers to rate their internet service providers on cost, speed, reliability and customer support. GFiber, formerly Google Fiber, emerged as the overall favorite with a 4.72 out of 5 satisfaction score, beating close competitors Verizon Fios and AT&T Fiber, while T-Mobile Home Internet topped the 5G category with a 4.20 satisfaction rating.
Mobile virtual network operators such as Mint Mobile don't own towers or spectrum; instead they lease network capacity from major carriers like T-Mobile and resell it at lower prices. Because they run leaner operations—often prepaid, with no retail stores, no bundled streaming perks, and third-party device financing—MVNOs can undercut the big carriers on cost, though subscribers may face slower speeds during network congestion since direct carrier customers get priority.
AT&T filed a lawsuit against Charter on Friday, claiming Spectrum's marketing of its internet as 'fiber-powered' misleads customers who aren't actually getting a full fiber connection. Spectrum's network relies on fiber-optic lines for most of its infrastructure but typically switches to copper coaxial cable for the final stretch into homes, unlike true fiber providers that run fiber directly to the wall jack. The suit was filed in Dallas, a market where both companies compete heavily for broadband customers.