5 things to know today …
1. T-Mobile US resolved another early-morning network outage on Friday. The company said in a statement that “there were some calling issues nationwide for some time.” It is unclear how many people were impacted. Several users aired their frustrations on Twitter using the hashtag #tmobileoutage. T-Mobile said the issues were resolved by 4:51 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and advised customers who were experiencing problems to try restarting their phones.
Last week T-Mobile experienced temporary network problems in parts of Pennsylvania, and late last month its LTE network went down across the country. Both problems happened during the very early hours of the morning.
2. Verizon Communications may try to renegotiate its purchase of Yahoo now that information about a major security breach at the web portal has come to light. According to the New York Post, Verizon still wants to buy Yahoo, but may try to negotiate a new price closer to $3.8 billion, instead of the $4.8 billion the two companies agreed upon. Verizon might need to set aside as much as $1 billion to cover potential liabilities associated with the Yahoo hack. The internet giant said that as many as 500 million accounts may have been compromised in 2014.
3. Verizon Communications has reportedly tested an LTE-enabled drone to provide connectivity to first responders. The large drone was flown by American Aerospace Technologies with the goal of understanding whether it could be used in a weather emergency. Data gathered from the test will be shared with the Federal Aviation Administration.
4. Qualcomm is reportedly closing in on the biggest technology deal of the year, as the chip giant continues acquisition talks with NXP Semiconductor. The biggest technology acquisition to date for 2016 is SoftBank’s planned purchase of ARM for roughly $32 billion, but Qualcomm and NXP are said to be discussing a deal that would value NXP at more than $35 billion. If the deal falls through, NXP may remain independent for now. No other companies are expected to bid.
5. Ericsson and Orange will work together to develop “5G” use cases in Europe. The companies said Orange will be able to implement Ericsson 5G technologies as soon as next year. The companies said projected use cases will include wireless multigigabit internet access in suburban and rural environments, mission critical “internet of things” applications, mobile coverage solutions and connected cars.
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