As a result, our phones can be more expensive to make, and they're more liable to break. Plus, U.S. phones are often sold locked to a specific carrier, which limits their markets and keeps prices high, forcing most of us to sign up for two-year service contracts when we want new phones. With the unlocked phones that are available outside the United States, you can easily add features from a variety of third-party providers.
And speaking of lockouts, remember when 300-baud modems were first invented and the phone companies tried to block their use, claiming that they would damage their networks? How quaint that seems. Sadly, we still have some of the same attitudes today with newer devices that are on the phone networks. Skype is trying to get the FCC to unlock its IP phones for American users so that any phone can be used with any VOIP provider.
And to make matters worse, the latest efforts by cell companies to provide high-speed data service are rewriting history once again, with incompatible systems between Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T networks. When will these guys come together with one single data technology?
Finally, for those of you who travel to Canada with your cell phones, don't forget that you're now making international calls at ridiculously high rates, even though Canada uses three-digit area codes. A short call to my wife from Vancouver ended up being a $50 mistake that I hope to avoid the next time I travel there. There ought to be a better way.
Why can't anyone invent secure e-mail that doesn't require an advanced degree to use?
By now, most of us know our e-mail is insecure, and any e-mail that is sent across the Internet is sent in plain text that can be read by someone with enough time, tools, and temerity to do so. So why is it that secure e-mail is still too difficult to use, or that there aren't more simple solutions to secure our messages that even moderately educated people can easily grasp?
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
There are many network courses that can address your present job's priorities and help you gain the needed skills to keep pace with industry changes and new technologies.
