Wade4Wireless: AT&T Outage, Inseego notes, and political leanings. Sept 1, 2024

hey everybody this is Wade with Wade for wireless Haven not a lot of time to write I'll figure something out get stuff up on the blog soon but what I wanted to talk to you about this week I had a couple issues I wanted to go over another AT&T outage like what's going on with AT&T seem to have a lot of problems um and who do you blame is it AT&T or now that Erikson's the only vendors at Ericson or do you blame the core vendor or do you blame the back hall vendor so who do you blame we got I think AT&T has to take the responsibility right it's up to them to make sure everything works but if they're not going to do it they're not going to do it but we'll see what the FCC does again so maybe um maybe they'll get fined again uh that the outages don't bother me as much as the uh security breaches do I think the security breaches and that's all the carriers but lately AT&T and Verizon have had issues too remember when they used to just point to T-Mobile but seems like all the carriers are having security breaches at some point but I don't know it's everywhere right it's not just in Telecom it's everywhere everybody gets hacked at some point everyone has issues and everyone screws up upgrades but there's going to be a point where the FCC or somebody like that has to step in and make sure that things are a little more secure than they are but even the feds get hacked here in the States you know it's just something that happens I I don't have a quick answer but we'll figure it out right so I want to talk talk about that that just I don't know what they're going to do but they they have to get it under control somehow it does seem like AT&T has a ton of outages but the way the networks are now you know we wanted to go to 4G and 5G and the way that is that disperses the network across more than just a wireless it's not like in the 3G days everything went back to the core and you usually had a direct connect whether it was fiber copper microwave the the telecom companies could control the entire line now we've broken it completely up right it's like a typical Internet it's like Google right you log into Google but Google has no idea how you get from your home to them quite frankly they don't care they have the uh Cloud they have all the other connections of servers they don't want to pay for the back hole they don't want to be Last Mile mid mile they don't want any of that you know what they want they just want their Big Data Centers because they can do a standalone and probably their biggest uh Bill outside of salaries is probably utility I know everyone probably thinks it's back haul and everything and they they do have probably kickass connections but it's probably uh salaries and utility it's probably what they have to pay for so um I don't know have to wait and see what's going to change but a lot of things are out of their control plus I think as these carriers they all floated a lot of back hall services not by choice especially not Verizon Verizon and AT&T were trying to do as much themselves whereas T-Mobile all flow a lot but it didn't seem to make a difference they still have outages and the other thing to think about is they don't have Co they don't have fiber everywhere right they have fiber where they have fiber so they got to use a competitor at some point they can try to put in their own at some point but it's just getting to be next to Impossible it's it's damn hard when you have to engineer it pay for it and all that and the other thing people don't understand is how many sites these carriers have and how they aggregate Services through all of them I mean if you think about 12 to 15,000 sites maybe 30,000 to 50,000 throughout the US large and small sites it's a lot of things to connect if you're using fiber Wireless or copper it's a hell of a monthly bill think of what think of what your bill is just for your Comcast or Charter Spectrum AT&T Verizon T-Mobile whether you have fixed Wireless or cable now take that times 25,000 now double that that's what they're probably paying because they have a kick-ass back haul they're they're not going to go with a limited 100 Meg down and limited data you know they have probably dedicated lines which is just probably a small fortune so as much as we all about the carriers and everything and how much money the executives make which I do that all the time I mean the reality is they have huge expenses and they have to pay for all that we often Overlook things like that the Opex that they have to deal with but as far as the outages go back to that with AT&T I don't know the FCC will look into it I'm sure hey the second thing I want to talk about everyone's asking me about Nokia and Samsung and no comment I don't know anything nobody does but let me these companies you got to admit you You' if you had a chance to sell something and make a lot of money you'd do it right why wouldn't you look into it speaking in general why why would you just consider it whether it's going to happen or not and um when you look at some companies with their track records they have a lot of losses or like well maybe we should get out of this business or maybe it's not as profitable as you'd like however when it's a big chunk of your Revenue it'd be hard to sell it but it's been done before you know so but with that said let's wait and see that's what I say let's just wait and see hey I uh was watching another podcast and I often forget I was doing business a while back with this company called Ino what they have uh they're like cradle point right they have an LTE 5G back hul and um you know they connect via wifi or Ethernet or whatever the hell you want to connect at your end User it's a really cool product in SEO but the reason what here's what sets it apart that I think's really cool you can connect to all three carriers so if you wanted to if you were a midsize small to Mid size business or if you just wanted some kick-ass Wireless back hul at home you would um buy this in SEO which ain't cheap it's like right around cradle point if not more it's you know it's competitive but it's a little more but you have all three carriers and it's certified one the three large carries and US Cellular I Believe by the way too so I think I think it's all of them why is that important well for one if you're if they allow you I I don't know if they allow you to move around or not I think they do and by them Ino doesn't care right it's the carriers that say Hey you were in like I'm in New York Pennsylvania and you went to Baltimore and you took it with you you can you can or cannot do that so you got to be careful about that especially for fixed wireless access because you're going to suck down a lot of data from the nearest Tower site which you should all be prepared for but you know we have to be careful about that however all three carriers would give you a lot of options right like if you had someone who worked better at your house that'd be great if they went down you would have a backup like AT&T just went down you had Verizon or T-Mobile's a backup Life's good or even US Cellular so you got to look at it that way too when you uh have multiple carriers or maybe you want to aggregate them I think it actually allows you to aggregate the data through multiple carriers two or three of them and maybe you can you know Bunch it all together or if one goes down it has a fail over to the second one so I thought that was pretty cool it's the reason I bring it up is because I think even with cradle point it's one maybe two carriers that they're certified on I don't know which one it's it's Erikson so I would imagine Erikson does business with the big three you know they're in every Network they're in a huge portion of Verizon and now they're about to be the only vendor for AT&T uh the Monopoly vendor for AT&T and then they're going to be they have a huge chunk of T-Mobile as well so here in uh the United States Ericson's kicking ass man they're just everywhere on every major network uh I think that's why private Wireless isn't such a priority to them because they have a clear path to growth especially when 6G hits are already in they're the incumbent and in Telecom the incumbency is a huge advantage in Telecom whether that changes in 6G or whether 6G will even be about the radio and the ran who knows we'll wait and see I don't want to talk about 6G hey um the last thing I wanted to talk about was the upcoming election I have a lot of people asking me questions about you know who's going to do what well Biden's out I I I'll talk about Telecom in a minute but for me personally I am a bit biased and I'll tell you why in the past four years all my bills went up I pay my own bills okay as I imagine a majority of you do all my bills went up my grocery bill went up probably 15 20% my utility bill went up 15 20% my when I say utility Electric I have gas and those bills went up my taxes continue property taxes continue to go up uh that's just not going to change and a lot of things I just want to buy have gone up oddly enough if I get stuff on Amazon I can still find reasonably priced items but it's amaz everything went up for me like my expenses personal home expenses went up 15 to 25% and people just charge more for everything and now once once they know they can charge more everyone's going to do it so we're just going to have to live with this right and that really happened in the past four years the previous four years um a lot of my expenses were just level and maintained some things went down some things went up and the reason reason I'm bringing this up because Trump put a lot of tariffs on China and that did really Jack prices up and cause problems in beginning as did co co was sort of a nightmare to live through not because the disease disease if you got it however a lot of people that I know didn't necessarily get it bad it was like a severe case of the flu or pneumonia and I think the best thing I know we had to get the shots and everything and the vaccinations but I honestly think the best thing that happened to my wife and I is when we got it we were sick for a week or two and since then if we have gotten it and we we don't really know it or if we get it again it doesn't affect us that bad now with that said my wife and I are pretty healthy uh so life's pretty good for us right we're healthy and we have good lungs we have a good heart so things are good for us and that that's a huge difference my whole family my kids and everything they all got Co they all did just fine right we all got sick we're all laid up did they get it a second and a third time some did some didn't some may have and they didn't know it like a lot of times when you get sick you're like do I have Co who knows now it's like it's like the flu right sometimes you get the flu or pneumonia really bad I've had pneumonia like five times in my life five and the reason is I used to work along I worked long hours and I got exhausted I wore my body down at least that's what I have in my head plus I had a shitty diet I was just eating crap food you know eat fast food all the time listen I don't get what anyone says fast food will kill you but back to the election so when you're in that Booth alone it's up to you how you want to vote I don't have a say no one else has a say You're going to have people swinging you one way or the other vote for this person because you like them they're likable and CA Harris it's all about Joy which I don't know man I'm not joyful when I pay for all this I get a little pissed off just saying I my joy would be if my bills came down which now that's probably never going to happen so I am I am biased one way now let's get back to Tech and Telecom a lot of the tech companies if they're in Silicon Valley in California they're going to they're going to support um Harris right vice president Harris why cuz that's what they want have you ever been to California you think things are expensive everywhere else New York City and California the whole a majority of the State of California it's insanely expensive they literally I believe they or Seattle Washington another very liberal state have the highest state taxes in the US there may be a couple places higher but last I checked California was between 9 9 and 10.5% on top of your federal tax so imagine you pay the feds 22% you're paying another 10% to the uh State and then whatever else local you got to pay and then whatever your sales tax is however I will say one thing it's odd when you go to California because booze is really cheap so I can buy booze for a lot less money they had a thing with property taxes which I assume still a thing they were trying to repeal it where they locked in the property tax for as long as you own the property which I think would be great CU in Pennsylvania man all these guys just keep jacking up the price and uh I I don't know I don't know where the money goes all the one thing I learned about taxes they never have enough money they being the government doesn't matter what branch they never have enough money they spend it all well whatever we'll never know the truth the feds are the worst but we're putting a ton of money into Ukraine right now I mean literally I mean think about hey another one of the things I've a chiped my shoulder with is the Biden family gets tens of millions from ukrainians for whatever years ago and then they pay Ukraine back with hundreds of billions of our money it just bothers me but that said I know no one wanted Russia to invade Ukraine but I I don't know if that could have been avoided or not I just don't know I don't think people in My Level don't know but anyways back to the upcoming election I know I keep going don't onun tangents I'm sorry I I have a lot of opinions I I try to look at the facts I I don't know all the facts but back to the opinion here in the uh upcoming election when Trump was in office he supported the 5G buildout he supported tower climbers if you guys remember you can look at Nate you can look at everything I felt he was very suppored of and his administration of Telecom in general and not just Telecom but the workers he saw workers he saw path and he saw that as part of his infrastructure plan which to me is awesome right because to me that's where you should put be putting the money in infrastructure we all want better roads don't get me wrong that I totally agree with the roads the bridges everything's dilapidated and the government doesn't want to pay for that unless they have to now and the reason for that they P out the off because it was so expensive back then well now it's like literally five times as expensive and now like I said everything costs more it's going to be literally 10 times more than it was 10 years ago probably so I think we have to think about things like that I think with Biden you know Biden released all that bead money but did he who got it who got the bead money who's getting these grants it takes forever not just it's not just the Biden administration's fault I mean he released it it just takes so long the way they structure the grants and everything they keep pulling it back and making changes it is so freaking frustrating at least when we did the 5G build like when they gave grants they put them out there but a lot of this stuff they put so many rules around it and I don't know now I'm a fan of the FCC still um I'm very critical of what the feds have done the past couple years but I think the FCC has done a lot of what I think they can do with that said people are going to complain and they're going to about the FCC but you know they have a lot on their plate they just do I I don't know how they're going to keep up with everything so I think I think what we're going to have to do is just when we move ahead we're going to have to actually just use our head and uh do the best we can with what we got as to whoever gets elected I mean we all have our preferences all I'm asking you is when you're in the booth you're there alone no one's looking over your shoulder at least we hope not and you're actually making a choice on your own here so it's up to you to decide what your priorities are the border is a big issue for a lot of people now years ago Trump made it an issue and for whatever reason Biden made it I don't know what Biden and Harris were doing they just I I don't understand it it just seems like things were out of control and I was just reading about how the border crossings they had a record month December of 2023 a record month for illegals and legals coming in it's just insane and then the feds they're giving out cell phones because they want you to to use the app to log in to say you know you're coming into the us because we don't know how honest people are on those apps you're a survey and you're like ah click click click click click cuz you just want to get through the damn thing just to get your $5 Amazon gift card at the end I mean come on man these guys are coming into the country they want a new life and and God bless I get it we live in the United States of America truly is one of the greatest countries in the world and I hear all these Arguments for and against it but I think if someone comes here legally that's great if they're legal and and they do the paperwork and wait in line and especially if they become citizens you know I do get pissed off when we have citizens like my my wife's from South Korea she came over when she was a baby she's an American citizen but a lot of people when they're older and they come to the US and are sissons I see a lot of it I have a ton of Indian friends from India a ton I have a ton of friends from Ukraine from Russia and uh turkey a lot of friends from Turkey Saudi Arabia Iranians I have a I have quite a few Iranian friends they came here for a reason regardless of what their religion is they came to the United States because they saw a better future and every one of them I feel and they would admit this they feel they have a better future here than in any of those other countries they feel we're the land of opportunity what I'm trying to say is this is your land of opportunity and if you see someone who is broken English or troubl speaking English if they're a citizen or if they're working to become a citizen they have to work really hard for all of us that were born here we get bitter and angry but a lot of it's just jealousy right these people have worked very hard and I I see it on all social class levels I see the the multi-millionaires the middle class the lower class they all want the opportunity that there is here in the United States so my point is I'm not against bringing people in across the border I just want people to come in Legally and and I would like it to be controlled in some way so terrorists or whatever can't come in also with the economy I think the economy has to be at least looked at but I think all the governments do that I mean all these governments say we're making this a priority that priority I think everyone does that so I think that's going to continue it's just how they handle it and I think in the past four years it's been handled very poorly now I don't like it but I pay my own bills when you hear these people in TV that say things are great things are wonderful just ask them what their grocery bill is a week I'll tell you what my grocery bill a week is probably about $130 to $140 on average I pay less than that sometime sometimes you know we buy enough for two or we go we go to a bigger store and we buy enough supplies and maybe it's 50 or 60 a week but I spend a lot of money on food because I eat at home a lot I don't go out as much as I used to you know why cuz it's so freaking expensive it's not cheap anymore and I do like the tip so when I go out I like to give a you know 15 20 25% tip depends where I'm going who I'm going with and who I'm trying to impress you know what I'm saying so I I think what we have to do is just be honest with ourselves and what's important to us hey a lot of people the abortion thing but it's down to the States I I I'm having trouble understanding someone moves to Texas and then they complain they can't get an abortion most people that complain don't even want abortions it's usually these kids usually not always usually these kids but yet every show you watch there's like a billion medical emergencies that need abortions and they all die in certain States because abortions are illegal listen I I really don't know about that I got to tell you I I don't see that at all but that's a major issue because people say oh they're taking women's rights away it's a state thing and and I heard someone say that about Florida right oh they took women's rights away I go well I I'm I'm a guy so maybe I don't understand but they don't even live in Florida they live in Pennsylvania and I'm like you live in P abortions are legal here why you bitching you know why don't you bring more people up to PA because Pennsylvania would love it to bring more people in and yet that's not the point you know the point is they focus on all this things that they have no control over if you want to complain about Florida and you live in Florida thumbs up I have I know a ton of people that live in California and complain and they have every right to right they see it as a totally screwed up State totally screwed up I mean think about if you're um think about if you're retired and you're collecting your retirement from a social security it's a fixed income more or less if you get a raise it's cuz inflation up and that sucks so but anyways fixed income and you're paying that extra 10 or 10% to the state it's insane whereas if you live in Pennsylvania I think our tax rate went up recently it's like roughly three and a half% state tax but not on retirement income it's only earned income so the state of Pennsylvania is very fair with its retired citizens but if you live in Texas of Florida you don't pay state income tax at all so Life's good right I I think when you live in a state the state has a lot of control in what you do whether it's the abortion thing state taxes the services they offer when you live in certain States they offer a lot more services they they just do when you live in New York City they have a ton they have services for everything but New York City also tried to control thing remember when they tried to control the size of soda you could get I know their heart was in the right place but that's an insane thing to tackle why don't they either ban soda be done with it which they'll never do there's too much money being made or they'll just say hey get what you want because you know if you're going to save people you can't have a large Pepsi Coke State your soda here that's insane you can't have a large soda that's banned that doesn't even make sense to me I get what they're trying to they like oh people are drinking too much soda people are just going to buy multiple small sodas or a bottle you know a 2 lit bottle they didn't Ban 2 L bottles but ton of people eat fast food which is bad for you but I don't think that's any secret anyway I'm rambling on I'm going to get back to the point vote the way you feel it's going to improve your life going forward um I know a lot of people when they vote they think their vote doesn't count because they're either in a blue or a red State and it's very like if you're in California or New York and you vote Republican you feel like you're throwing your vote away but don't you still have to vote and vote with your heart vote with your family vote what's best for you and your family I just don't want you to feel like you're um wasting your vote and I don't want you to stay home I want you to get out and vote obviously I want you to vote the way I want you to vote but you're going to vote the way you want to vote when you're in that Booth when you're in that voting booth it's you and your conscience if you vote for a and that turns gives you bad policies if they lied there's nothing you can do about it now I will say one thing the Harris and walles are so vague with their policies who knows who knows what they're going to do I love when they steal Trump's policies that's funny right so Trump makes something up and says it and then she's like that's a good idea I'm going to do that like not taxing tips which why did they start taxing tips I never understood that some making up taxes said we're going to tax tips that's income you know you're talking to people that make less than minimum wage any tip they get they've earned and yet you're going to tax it and then that opened up a whole new can of worms because you know what happened all these restaurants and places that get tips now they split the tips among everybody which I don't think it's a bad thing because a bus boy everybody gets her share of the tip I'm all for that however now the company owners are like well we should get part of that tip and if they work there that's fine like if the owner and the manager are also serving the customers they deserve part of that tip I'm not not taking that away from them but what I am saying is now that's tip is split 30 ways and now they're not going to tax it so everybody gets that that tip so you got make a lot of tips to really get the money and everyone well everyone I a majority of people I know not everyone some people pay cash and leave a cash tip um it would be nice if the the server could pocket the money but they're not supposed to but I leave everything on the card once it's on the card They probably tax it they split it whatever plus you know visa and MasterCard take out their share of it whatever that is you know one two% so anyway I went on about the elections I said very little about how to affect Telecom but I don't think Telecom is exactly going to be booming for the next four years I don't see any politician looking at Telecom and saying way to go guys because 2023 and 2024 it's a huge downsizing in all of Telecom but I do think if we get someone in there that can help us write the ship I think Telecom could grow again and I do think 2025 will be a better year for all of us in Telecom so anyway there you are um I think that's all I have today so I know I rambled on a bit but I'm just trying to give you some perspective all right everyone be smart be safe be careful and pay attention see y