I had an unusually space-centric news week, which led me to think anew about when I could next get on a plane to Florida (or Texas) to see a large rocket launch in person instead of on a screen.
6/4/2024: Sorry, Cable: Fiber and 5G Home Internet Win the ISP Popularity Contest, PCMag
A year after the American Customer Satisfaction Index documented a dramatic gap in subscriber approval of fiber broadband compared to cable, a new ACSI survey found that people using fixed-wireless Internet also voiced more contentment with their connectivity than cable users.
6/5/2024: Boeing’s Starliner Finally Launches With Astronauts Onboard, PCMag
This post would have been shorter if Starliner’s first crewed launch had happened last month as originally scheduled, but each delay gave me an excuse to write a little more background about this launch, NASA’s commercial crew program and the history of Atlas rockets.
6/6/2024: T-Mobile’s Home Internet Backup Plan Kicks in When Your Broadband Goes Out, PCMag
After I filed my recap of T-Mobile’s announcement–which also covered a new Opensignal report about the rise of fixed wireless–I read Jon Brodkin’s report at Ars Technica and realized he’d unearthed an important issue with the carrier’s pitch. So I sent in an update to my editor from my phone while on line to get my first in a series of small plates at the NOAA Sustainable Seafood Celebration.
6/6/2024: On Fourth Launch, SpaceX’s Starship Sticks the Landing, PCMag
I wrote a second post about a pioneering rocket launch this week. I’m still amazed that Starship’s second stage made it all the way to the Indian Ocean after I watched one of its fins start to disintegrate from reentry heating live on camera.
6/8/2024: Ep 100 SmartTechCheck Podcast — Apple WWDC 24 guesses, fixed wireless access and broadband trends, Mark Vena
With our usual podcast companion John Quain out on a work trip, the Houston Chronicle’s Dwight Silverman joined us in his place.
6/9/2024: Why the US Falls Short on Easy, Cheap Cross-Border Money Transfers, PCMag
I started gathering string for this story back in February when I traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania to moderate a panel at a financial-technology conference there and get an introduction to the country’s fintech sector (with local hosts covering most of my travel expenses). Then I had to quiz an industry analyst, after which watching a panel at Web Summit Rio gave me another angle to look into.
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