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Today’s topics include a big FCC fine for AT&T, a delay in the release of Windows 10 for mobile, significant job cuts at Intel and the FBI’s investigating possible email hacking in the world of professional sports.
The Federal Communications Commission is planning to whack wireless leader AT&T with the largest fine the Commission has ever levied—$100 million, a senior FCC official stated in a media briefing on June 17.
The proposed fine, outlined in a Notice of Apparent Liability, is for alleged violations of the FCC’s Transparency Rule. The FCC is asserting that the company violated that rule when it failed to inform customers that it was limiting the wireless speeds of users paying for unlimited data plans to a very slow 512KB per second once users had accessed 5GB of data in a billing period.
Windows 10 is set to launch next month for Windows PCs. However, Windows Phone users are facing a longer wait, as the company has pushed the release date for the mobile edition of Windows 10 to later this year.
Meanwhile, members of the Windows Insider early-access program can check out some of the progress the company has been making. On June 16, the company released Build 10136 of Windows 10 Mobile, bringing it closer to what users can expect when it is ready for release to the market.
Cortana, in particular, is “very close” to how Microsoft intends users to experience the virtual assistant.
Intel reportedly is cutting hundreds of jobs at different sites around the world. Rumors of the layoffs have circulated for more than a week, but in an internal memo to employees June 16 that was obtained and published by The Oregonian news site, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich confirmed the reports.
Krzanich admitted that some employees were being laid off and added that “with today’s incredible pace of innovation and change, companies consistently need the flexibility to invest in skills and experience required in new growth areas.”
An embarrassing leak of sensitive information from the Houston Astros baseball team last year may have been the result of hacking by its National League rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, according to a New York Times article published on June 16.
The FBI is currently investigating whether front-office employees of the Cardinals used password-guessing to gain access to the Astros’ computer systems and steal team and operations information, according to the report. If true, the incident would be the first known case of cyber-espionage between professional sports teams.