This month we're sharing posts on prepaid wireless plans, cloud computing, conference call technology, and worldwide mobile data usage.
Keep scrolling to enjoy our picks.
Why the U.S. prepaid market is collapsing
According to this Light Reading story, U.S. wireless network operators are seeing record-setting losses of prepaid customers.
Why? Changes in the economy and greater similarities between prepaid and postpaid plans could be to blame. But, like many stories in this business, it's not that simple.
Cloud Computing Is Not the Energy Hog That Had Been Feared
The number of online services to which you can subscribe seems like it doubles every day. But here's a bit of good news: the energy used to support these tools is not increasing at the same rate.
This New York Times piece does a nice job outlining recent efficiency advances in cloud computing. Stay green, Ponyboy.
Why Conference Call Technology Never Works
Sorry, you go ahead.
No—yeah—you go for it.
Okay, sure, so—wait, who isn't muted?
**Unidentified traffic/keyboard/dog noise.**
This Motherboard article isn't explicitly about the awkward silences and frustrating etiquette of the modern conference call. But it's also not not about that.
Author Ernie Smith digs into the tiny technical reasons that modern video conferencing has, in his opinion, only reached mainstream mediocrity.
Finns Lead the Way in Mobile Data Usage
Mobile data—and related network upgrades—are on the rise around the globe.
And the biggest market in mobile data consumption is Finland. Users racked up an average 34.3GB per month in the first half of 2019. The country’s wireless operators have also been consistent frontrunners in implementing new generations of mobile technology.
Read more about the worldwide mobile boom in this piece.
Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T could be facing big fines for selling your location data
Federal regulators recently told AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon that they could face liability over their management of location data. This could translate to hundreds of millions in fines. This Recode post covers the FCC probe into how telecom companies sell real-time location information to data brokers.
Think you've got something that should be on our monthly reading list? Tweet it to us @TeleGeography.
