#fixed-wireless-access — Public Fediverse posts

Weekly output: TikTok fine, AI and healthcare, fixed wireless access, Google’s latest AI travel-search tools

About four years ago here, I wrote here that I had to bring my family to the Kennedy Space Center someday so they could see why I’m so crazy about watching rocket launches in person. I finally made that happen with Sunday morning’s launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on a Falcon Heavy rocket. The sound from the KSC visitor’s center, about seven miles from historic Launch Complex 39A, wasn’t nearly as loud as from the center’s press site. But the sonic booms of the rocket’s two side boosters landing may have been even louder than I remembered from 2018’s debut of that SpaceX rocket.

8/24/2026: TikTok Hit With $400 Million Fine for Violating Children’s Privacy Law, PCMag

The Friday-news-dump timing of the Department of Justice’s release about this settlement gave me a little extra time to gather some context about how much this fine might actually hurt the short-form video platform. Answer: not much!

8/26/2026: The Doctor Is Not Real. More Americans Comfortable Consulting AI for Health Info, PCMag

I’d missed chances to cover the last couple of interesting Pew reports about attitudes towards AI, but I did have barely-enough time Tuesday to read and write up this pair.

8/27/2026: 5G Home Broadband Is Soaring in Urban Areas, and This Carrier Comes Out on Top, PCMag

A report with a conclusion that I didn’t expect from an organization whose work I trust always gets my attention.

8/27/2026: Google’s AI Mode Can Track Flight Prices, Help You Book With Points or Miles, PCMag

Appropriately enough, I wrote this from the airport in San Diego. For additional insights about the utility of these tools from somebody with what I’m sure is millions of miles more travel experience than me, see Matthew Klint’s take at Live and Let’s Fly.

No telecom exec stood on a stage in 2020 and announced that #5G’s killer app would be delivering living room broadband to rural homes and suburban subdivisions underserved by cable. But that is what happened. #FixedWirelessAccess will only grow and expand its spectrum usage with 6G, too.

Home Broadband Is the Killer A...

Weekly output: inflight WiFi, Visible’s prepaid Verizon home 5G, Uber’s travel ambitions, AT&T emergency response

Happy World Press Freedom Day to all who celebrate! Which should be all who don’t want to accept the lies of people in power.

I wrote an extra post for Patreon readers Wednesday explaining three fair ways that you can take one story idea and sell it more than once.

4/28/2026: Looking for Fast Wi-Fi on Your Next Flight? Pick an Airline With Starlink, PCMag

This was going to be a straightforward writeup of Ookla’s report about Speedtest measurements of inflight connectivity, but some details seemed just off enough to require follow-up questions.

4/29/2026: Verizon’s Visible Prepaid Brand Adds $300-Per-Year 5G Home Broadband, PCMag

This was going to be a a straightforward writeup of Verizon’s prepaid brand reselling Verizon’s fixed-wireless home broadband at a discount, but then I couldn’t get Visible’s site to show me the FCC-mandated broadband-facts label or even let me start a service order.

5/1/2026: Uber wants to be your travel agent, concierge, and personal shopper next, Fast Company

I took a day trip to New York Wednesday to cover Uber’s Go-Get press event. This Amtrak run was not like any of the others I’ve taken earlier between D.C. and NYC because it featured infrastructure that hadn’t been first built by the Pennsylvania Railroad 90-plus years ago: the new Portal Bridge in the Meadowlands, which is replacing a janky old drawbridge that sometimes gets stuck open.

5/1/2026: For AT&T, Disaster Recovery Includes Flying COWs and a Robot Dog, PCMag

I spent a couple of hours in one of the parking lots next to the former site of RFK Stadium–it’s still weird to see nothing where that concrete donut had stood since 1961–to check out the exhibit of emergency-response hardware that AT&T had set up there.