T-Mobile buys Verizon’s Lower 700MHz spectrum to enable broad-coverage 200Mbps LTE

On Monday, T-Mobile announced that is acquiring Verizon’s Lower 700MHz A block spectrum for $2.365 billion and some AWS/PCS spectrum in some markets. With this acquisition, T-Mobile is finally able to start offering LTE broadly on highly-desirable low-band spectrum.

The Lower 700MHz A block is part of the Lower 700MHz band that AT&T also uses. However, due to how the 700MHz LTE device ecosystem developed, the Lower 700MHz band was unnecessarily fragmented in such a way to prevent the usefulness of the A block for years.

Over the last few months, the situation has been changing for the better. Back in September, AT&T agreed to switch from Band 17 to Band 12 for its Lower 700MHz ecosystem if the Lower 700MHz E block rules were modified to lower the acceptable transmit power from towers. Dish Network (primary owner of the Lower 700MHz E block) said that it would accept those terms if the FCC agreed to allow it the option to convert its AWS-4 spectrum to downlink-only (which means another band would be required to be able to have phone-to-tower communications). At the end of October, the FCC adopted an order that solidified this conditional solution. In late December, the FCC adopted another order that granted Dish the optionality on AWS-4 it requested.

Because of the progress made on full Lower 700MHz interoperability, T-Mobile is acquiring Verizon Wireless’ Lower 700MHz A block spectrum (which it does not use for LTE at all) so that it can start building the kind of LTEnetwork that AT&T and Verizon offer today and thatSprint can offer soon with ESMR. There is one major obstacle, though: Digital TV Channel 51. Several of the major cities still have digital TV stations operating next to the spectrum, and within the range of the TV station, no LTE can be deployed on the Lower 700MHz A block. Most of urban California, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Boston cannot have LTE deployed on the spectrum because they reside in “exclusion zones” that prevent deployment until the TV stations leave channel 51. However, a large portion of the licensed area is clear of channel 51 and can have LTE deployed immediately, especially in the rural areas surrounding many of the major cities under exclusion zones. The exclusion zones are expected to disappear in 2015 after the FCC conducts auctions for the 600MHz band.

Currently, in many of the markets T-Mobile is acquiring 700MHz spectrum, it can already offer up to 150Mbps of downlink throughput through the 20+20 MHz LTE network it will have in place in those areas. Band 12 (Lower 700MHz A+B+C blocks) and Band 4 (AWS, 1.7/2.1 GHz) can be combined using LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation to further enhance downlink throughput up to 200Mbps with a combined 25MHz of downlink spectrum.

T-Mobile and Verizon expect the deal to close by the end of the first half of the year, allowing for T-Mobile to rapidly deploy the spectrum throughout the third quarter of 2014 in time for the first set of devices from T-Mobile with Band 12 to arrive in the fourth quarter. However, T-Mobile has beaten its own estimates before, and perhaps we will see devices introduced earlier and the network deployed much more quickly than expected.

Dell pro-grade 22-inch monitors with dual stand

If you’ve been looking to step into a dual monitor setup on a budget, this deal is for you — and it won’t last long. Right now you can grab two Dell P2213 22-inch monitors and Dell’s own adjustable dual monitor stand for just $278.24 with free shipping, a massive 48% discount.

The P2213 may not have the sexy attributes of some of the new ultra-thin or ultra-high resolution displays, but it has all the right specs to get the job done. The 22-incher serves up 1680×1050 resolution via an LED-backlit LCD. It will connect to most any modern PC via VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort inputs, along with a two-port USB hub for convenient port replication.

Not only do you get two of these little beauties in this deal, but you get Dell’s MDS14 dual monitor stand. It has a u-shaped base that gives you a little more flexibility in your desktop arrangement and allows for both vertical and horizontal adjustment of the monitors.

As a professional grade monitor, the P2213 also enjoys Dell’s generous three-year advance exchange warranty. During those three years of coverage, should you need warranty service Dell will send you a replacement and you just drop the unit to be repaired in their box and ship it back on their dime. When you consider how much it will cost to ship and properly package (because you totally saved the original box) a monitor, you won’t want to buy a monitor without this type of coverage.

Normally Dell charges $539.99 for this bundle, but right now you can stack instant and coupon savings to drop the price down to an amazing $278.24 with free shipping. This is a discount of such magnitude that it may even be a price mistake, so don’t wait long if this is making your deal senses tingle.

How console add-ons have changed the face of gaming

Add-ons for video game consoles are an expected part of the hardware cycle. A console comes out, it starts to age, and add-on hardware is released to breathe a little more life into the platform. We’ve already discussed the future of add-ons for the PS4 and Xbox One, so let’s take a moment to reflect on the history of console add-ons.

There have been an absurd number of accessories released in the thirty-odd years of home consoles, so it’s impossible to fit every single one into this article. Even so, I’ve picked the most interesting, important, and just plain silly add-ons to highlight exactly how console add-ons have changed the face of gaming.

Famicom Disk System

Released in Japan in 1986, the Famicom Disk System added support for proprietary floppy disks to Japan’s version of the Nintendo Entertainment System. After release, high-profile games like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid took advantage of the format’s ability to easily save the player’s progress. Sadly, the add-on never made its way to North America, so ports of Disk System games had to be made on traditional NES cartridges with either battery-powered volatile memory or elaborate password systems.

Robotic Operating Buddy

The Robotic Operating Buddy — better known as R.O.B. — was a small robot released in 1985 for the NES. This crazy console add-on worked with two games: Gyromite and Stack-Up. As specific events took place on the screen, R.O.B. would react accordingly in the real world. It was a very novel concept at the time, but was ultimately just a gimmick to market the NES as a toy instead of a video game machine.

NES Zapper

The NES Zapper wasn’t the first light gun accessory, but it certainly was the first to gain widespread use. With the success of titles like Duck Hunt, this gun-shaped accessory made the NES seem like a much more approachable console for video game initiates.

Power Glove

The Power Glove was a terrible add-on. It looked very futuristic and nerdy, but the functionality was actually quite limited. Infamously, it was featured prominently in The Wizard, but it ultimately failed in the market due to its impracticality and lack of software support.

TurboGrafx-CD

The TurboGrafx-CD was a compact disc add-on for the TurboGrafx-16, and was the first of its kind when it hit store shelves in the late ’80s. While the platform never took off in the United States, it performed quite well in Japan. Without a doubt, this accessory helped fast-track the move towards optical media.

Multitap

Consoles usually came with just two controller ports, so an add-on was needed to enable four-player games. The TurboGrafx-16, NES, and even the PlayStation all took advantage of multitap add-ons. It wasn’t until the Nintendo 64 era that consoles actually started to ship with four controller ports.

Sega CD

The Sega CD was a bizarre add-on to the Sega Genesis. It offered substantially more storage space for games, but it was ultimately a failure due to the large price tag and limited library. While the core idea wasn’t bad, Sega ended up suffering due to the poor implementation.

ATMs running Windows XP robbed with infected USB sticks – yes, most ATMs still run Windows

A high-tech criminal group in Europe has been infecting ATMs (cash machines) with malware, and then completely emptying the machines without a trace. The group has not yet been caught and the attacks continue — and thus very few details have been released — but we assume that they’ve already made off with millions of pounds/euros. The best bit: The hack is carried out by plugging an infected USB stick into ATMs that run Windows XP.

Not many people know this, but most of the world’s ATMs run some flavor of Windows. In the olden days, it wasn’t too unusual to find an ATM that had crashed with a blue screen of death (BSOD), and to this day it’s still fairly common to hear the standard Windows “ding” when interacting with an ATM. A conventional ATM might consist of a standard Windows XP PC (or perhaps XP Embedded), connected to a display, a secure keypad, cryptoprocessor, various other bits of hardware, and of course the vault (where the money is stored). The ATM boots up normally, then launches into a full-screen program that manages all of the tasks that a customer might want to carry out.

Unfortunately, just like your Windows PC, some ATMs also have USB sockets — and just like your PC, some ATMs will automatically boot whatever’s plugged into the USB socket. The USB socket is hidden behind the ATM’s fascia, but it can be revealed if you know where to cut — and once you’ve loaded the malware on, you can easily cover up the hole. If you have knowledge of the ATM’s software, it’s possible to use malware to inject new features, or disable existing ones. In a word, once you’ve infected the ATM, it’s fairly easy to steal its money with complete impunity. (Read: Black Hat hacker gains access to 4 million hotel rooms with Arduino microcontroller.)

You may have noticed that we’re talking in generalities here — but that’s because it’s all we have. Two German researchers, who have asked to remain anonymous, were contacted by the European bank that had discovered this attack earlier in the year. They analyzed the disk image of an infected cash machine, and worked out that the high-tech criminals must’ve reverse-engineered the ATM’s client software and injected a new menu. When triggered by a code entered on the keypad, the menu gives the criminals direct access to the ATM’s cash-dispensing functions. ”For sure, they had to have a profound knowledge of ATMs,” said one member of the research team. “Most likely they actually had one to test. Either they stole one and reverse engineered the cash client, or most likely, they had someone on the inside.”

Security personnel refil an ATM

As you can imagine, given the fact that most ATMs are powered by Windows XP, this isn’t exactly a new attack vector. According to Wired, some banks have upgraded their ATMs to prevent them from booting from external USB drives. This particular attack only affects the cash machines of a sole (undisclosed) bank in Europe, and the researchers say that the malware doesn’t appear to harvest customer PINs or other sensitive data. Basically, they install the malware, wait for the machine to be refilled with cash, and then empty the machine out — presumably in the middle of the night, as it takes quite a while to withdraw thousands of bills. (See: Black hat down: What happened to the world’s most famous hackers?)

Moving forward, there isn’t a whole lot banks can do, except for upgrade their ATMs — but, as you can imagine, that’s a slow and expensive task. The upgrades filter out slowly, too, so while the ATMs in Berlin might be safe, ATMs deployed in developing countries might take a lot longer to be updated. The only saving grace is that developing a hack like this requires a lot of time and expertise — but considering the attack appears to be untraceable, and can be used repeatedly to accrue millions of euros/dollars, it’s probably worth it. Some other operating systems, including Linux, are used by ATMs, but it’s mostly a Windows-dominated market.

NASA beginning next generation of space communication with laser broadband

Orbiting high over the lunar surface is LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, with a mission to probe the moon’s exosphere and dust clouds. It will take readings using a number of spectrometers and specialized pieces of equipment, piling up stores of data as quickly as it can manage. In just 100 days of primary operation, it will compile enough information to change how we understand our only moon — but how to get that data back to us? File sizes have ballooned as sensing technology has advanced, but as of last year NASA could only download those files at about 10 kilobytes per second; even if we were so cruel as to ask the astronauts to go without streaming Game of Thrones premieres, the simple science demands a better, faster solution.

This week, NASA successfully tested just such an alternative, replacing traditional radio communications with specialized lasers and laser detection units. The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) spent about 30 days sending information between lunar orbit and three receiving stations in the US and Spain. At an orbital distance of over 400,000 kilometers, this is a respectable distance over which to test communications — but Mars lies between 50 and 400 million kilometers from Earth, so don’t get cocky.

Last October, the LLCD was clocked at 622 megabits per second — or over 75 megabytes per second — but this 30-day test was a much more comprehensive check of its utility for all-purpose communication. This time, rather than simply downloading a pre-arranged file, NASA used the device for real communication with LADEE, and real collection of data. The lunar dust experiment was able to wake the LLCD in order to get its messages to Earth, an automated process that went off without a hitch, legitimizing its use for general-purpose missions. Check out a short video announcement from NASA’s Charles Bolden, the file of which was transmitted to the moon and back before posting to YouTube.

It took NASA just five minutes to transfer a gigabyte of information, and in fact the limiting factor in transfer speed turned out not to be the LLCD’s transmission from the moon to the Earth, but LADEE’s transmission to the LLCD just a few short miles away. This means that not only is the LLCD a workable solution today, but it already has a certain amount of future-proofing built in, ready to take advantage of speed upgrades in the components around it.

This latest test looked for more than just raw download speed, prioritizing things like signal reliability and accuracy, along with possible distance effects. There were quite a few problems that could have hurt this technology’s chances, but none seem to have materialized as a major issue. Even in broad daylight and through light clouds, the lasersignal could be read without error. NASA was reportedly surprised to find so few impediments to their new laser ideas, finding that it worked well even at extremely oblique angles, when the satellite near the Earth’s horizon and its signals were forced to move through the thickest portions of the atmosphere. Thick clouds, or anything that blocks the majority of visible light obviously stops the lasers cold.

One of several types of ground terminal for the LLCD.

The LLCD is hardly the only method of space communication that suffers periods of black-out, and in general the LLCD represents not just an upgrade in bandwidth but also in versatility. The downside is, as mentioned, range; simply boosting power to the laser to make it cohere better over a longer distance is a losing game. A more reasonable solution, and one that NASA just so happens to be ramping up as their next experiment in this line, is the Lunar Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). This would see NASA pepper space with laser-routers to read and re-transmit laser signals from a new transmitter.

Even if NASA never significantly increases the range of these individual transmitters (unlikely), it will still only take a handful of them to allow total communication with Mars. Additionally, the more the agnecy launches, the easier it becomes to expand the system as a whole; the comms system  is designed to be a general-purpose routing network, rather than a hardline from Mars to Earth.

These sorts of upgrades aren’t the sexiest, since they don’t directly reveal anything about the universe or allow us to explore some previously inaccessible portion of our solar system. On the other hand, they make our current efforts immensely faster and, more importantly, allow NASA to plan future missions without restrictions. Data is quickly becoming the most important commodity on Earth — which makes LLCD a gold mine in space.