Category Archives: Technology

Indoor Cellular Coverage

In an experience that is probably familiar to everybody, in the last few months I’ve found myself unable to get a cell signal in places I routinely visit. At the pharmacy, the only cell coverage I could find was directly next to the front windows. I went to my doctor and found I couldn’t get any reception while biding my time in a waiting room. There was no signal in the back half of the grocery store.

I know my experience is not unique, and I regularly see other people grumbling in these locations about the lack of cell signal. It seems extraordinary in today’s world, where people want nearly ubiquitous cellular coverage, to find so many places with poor or no cell coverage indoors.

My first reaction to this was surprise, since my cellphone data speeds are easily ten times faster than they were a decade ago. The fact that I can’t receive indoor cellular coverage is a reminder that cell reception is due a lot more to the power of the signal rather than the speeds being delivered.

There are several reasons why indoor cell coverage is getting worse. One big reason is that cell carriers have been migrating to higher frequencies. Years ago, cellular networks widely used frequencies like 700 MHz and 900 MHz, which were able to easily penetrate buildings. The higher frequencies used today do a much worse job of penetrating buildings. A second reason is that the building materials used in newer or upgraded buildings deflect a lot of the cell signal. Modern insulation materials are generally less friendly to cell signals. Ookla recently documented that low-E glass, which is used to reflect heat in many new buildings, reflects cell signals along with reflecting heat. The bottom line is that you aren’t imagining it if you notice that indoor cell coverage isn’t as good as it was in the past.

There are several possible fixes for this, but they aren’t cheap and aren’t widely deployed. One is for businesses to invest in a cellular repeater to put on the roof to aim downward to provide better cell coverage inside the building. Cell carriers have been pushing this technology for years, and many hotels, convention centers, and office buildings are willing to pay for the capital costs and recurring fees to provide better cell indoor coverage. But groceries, hardware stores, doctors’ offices, and pharmacies aren’t willing to make this kind of investment.

Another alternative is to provide free public WiFi inside large buildings. Many businesses where customers spend significant time do this today. A large percentage of the restaurants I visit have WiFi for customers, but most require a customer to find the password and log in, something I’m rarely willing to do during a quick trip to the grocery or pharmacy. Very few stores offer WiFi that doesn’t require a password.

There has been talk for years of implementing Hotspot 2.0, a technology that allows a subscriber to automatically connect to any WiFi router that is part of a larger Hotspot 2.0 network. Every year we hear of a few smaller cities or ISPs that put together this kind of network. However, the idea has never gotten enough traction to bring it to larger markets. I’m sure the issue is figuring out a way to monetize the effort to cover the costs of implementing it.

Another new concept for improving indoor coverage is to allow access to a neutral 5G host. This would involve a third-party infrastructure provider to build, own, and operate shared cellular infrastructure for buildings that can be used by any cellular carrier. The neutral 5G host would likely want some up-front money from building owners, but would expect to also charge the cell carriers for the extra reach provided to their networks.

One interesting technology solution is the use of small cellular repeaters that would work in conjunction with a neutral host. Ericsson markets a repeater called the Radio Dot, shown at the top of this blog. Repeaters can be distributed throughout a building to make sure the cell signal reaches all needed spaces, much like is done with WiFi extenders.

The FCC Opens the 900 MHz Band

The FCC voted in its recent open meeting to expand the use of 900 MHz spectrum. The order opens up the full 10 MHz available in the 900 MHz spectrum bands 896–901 and 935–940 MHz, for licensed broadband services. 900 MHz is an attractive band for users since the signals carry a long way and are good at penetrating buildings.

The licensed portion of the spectrum is not of interest to WISPs due to the small size of the channels, which won’t deliver the kinds of speeds expected by home broadband users. But the spectrum can easily support smartphone applications and is of interest to those wishing to deploy private 5G network.

This FCC change does impact the other bands of 900 MHz spectrum. For example, there are numerous uses allowed for the spectrum between 902 and 928 MHz, including ham radio, FM radio repeaters, alarm and security camera systems, video surveillance for law enforcement missions, and transmission of infrared scanner imagery during overflights of disaster areas. Some of these uses are restricted in Texas and New Mexico since this spectrum is also used to monitor the border.

The primary users of the expanded-use bands will be electric, gas, and water utilities that have been using the spectrum for automated meter reading and other network monitoring devices. The purpose of the FCC’s change is to provide more bandwidth and expanded capacity to utilities. The FCC order predicts that the changes to the spectrum usage will promote better smart metering, grid modernization, and network security and resilience. Under the former rules, transmissions in the band were restricted to 5 MHz licenses, which limited the ability for utilities to launch private 5G and LTE networks.

The new order provides different options for a current license holder to:

  • Continue to use the legacy configuration of 20 wideband channels and 200 narrowband channels.
  • Operate two paired 3 MHz channels and two segments of the remaining 4 MHz of spectrum to operate 159 narrowband channels.
  • Operate two paired 5 MHz channels to deploy more broadband use cases.

This change largely benefits Anterix. The company purchased a nationwide license for 6 MHz of the spectrum from Sprint in 2014. Anterix has been selling and leasing that spectrum to utilities to create private wireless networks. This new order gives the company the use of all 10 MHz of the spectrum.

One of the most interesting aspects of the new order is that it anticipates that the spectrum will be made available to others through voluntary negotiations and market-based transactions. The Anterix spectrum today is largely deployed on a county-by-county basis, and this order opens the door for entities other than utilities to license the spectrum to create local private 5G networks. This could be used by corporations or local governments looking for a private and secure wireless network outside of the public cellular networks.

I recently noted how the public cellular networks crashed in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. While a number of cell sites sustained physical damage, many were still operational, but still failed since the backhaul fiber lines feeding the region were damaged or destroyed. While the lack of cell signal was a major inconvenience for the public, it was a crushing blow to first responders who found themselves unable to communicate. A private in-county 5G network for first responders using 900 MHz could have continued to work locally on the functional cell towers. This would have greatly benefited the search and rescue effort and the overall coordination of first responder resources.

It will take a while to see if this is a giveaway to Anterix or if this will really open up new opportunities for first responders and other local private wireless network providers.

Hydrogen Generators

There is an interesting technology that is slowly edging into the telecom industry. There are a handful of places that are using hydrogen fuel cell generators instead of the more standard diesel generators for backup power. Everybody who works with a telecom network is aware of the wide use of diesel backup generators that kick in when commercial power fails. Diesel generators are permanently installed for critical hub sites, and telecom companies use portable generators that can be quickly driven to remote powered sites like huts and cabinets.

Diesel generators have a few drawbacks. Diesel fuel in notoriously challenging to use in very cold weather. Diesel generators also expel clouds of oily smoke. The biggest downside to diesel generators is that they are loud – the larger the generator, the louder. The largest diesel generators used for large sites like data centers can operate at 110 decibels, the same sound level as a rock concert. One of the biggest complaints about neighbors of data centers is the loud noise when generators are being tested.

Hydrogen fuel cells offer an alternative to the shortcomings of diesel generators. They are nearly silent in operation. The technology doesn’t generate any heat. Most impressively, hydrogen generators don’t generate any pollution since the waste product of a hydrogen fuel cell is water.

Hydrogen fuel cells operate by a simple chemical reaction. In a hydrogen fuel cell, pure hydrogen is passed by an anode that separates the hydrogen molecule into protons and electrons. The electrons are used to power the applicable application, such as the electricity from the backup generator. The protons are passed through an electrolytic membrane where they combine with oxygen to form water.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology has been used in practical applications for decades. An early version of a hydrogen fuel cell was used to provide the electricity for the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s. The technology began to be practically used in the 1990s when cities created zero-emission bus fleets operated by hydrogen. There are now delivery trucks that use hydrogen technology. There have been successful tests using hydrogen fuel cells to power trains and airplanes. Most car companies have experimented with making hydrogen-fueled cars. Several countries are experimenting with hydrogen power in submarines because of the silent operation and the lack of heat.

Hydrogen fuel cells have a potential place in telecom. In 2020, Microsoft was able to operate a data center continuously for two days with hydrogen fuel cell generators. Tele2 and Telia are using hydrogen fuel cell generators for telecom sites in Estonia.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a33499249/microsoft-hydrogen-generator-test/

There are practical downsides to using hydrogen on a commercial basis, although cities with fleets of hydrogen buses have solved the biggest problems. Hydrogen has a low volumetric energy density, which requires storing it in large quantities. Bus fleets have solved this issue by storing hydrogen in vehicles at high pressure, which carries a different set of risks. Hydrogen is flammable, but so are fossil fuels used for combustion generators. The solution to the widespread use of hydrogen as a fuel would be to develop hydrogen depots, which would be the equivalent of gas stations, where hydrogen canisters could be refilled or swapped.

For now, the biggest downside is probably the upfront cost of the generators and the infrastructure that is needed to store the gas to support them. However, cities say that ongoing costs compare favorably to diesel generators. The number one way to get costs down would be widespread adoption, which would bring economies of scale to manufacturing the units.

This seems like a technology that data center operators should be interested in. The public is increasingly pushing back against the noise and pollution created by data centers, and hydrogen generators would help to lessen the negative impacts on those living close to a data center.

WiFi Router Ban

The FCC issued a ban on March 23 on all consumer-grade routers made in foreign countries. A router is the device in your home that connects your ISP broadband to the WiFi that almost everybody uses to connect devices in the home. Businesses use routers to direct ISP broadband around the business on fiber or copper networks. The ban covers all new brands and models of routers except those that have been granted a Conditional Approval by the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security.

The ban comes after the White House convened an interagency group comprised of government security experts, which collectively decided that new routers made overseas “pose unacceptable risks to national security of the United States and the safety and security of United States persons”. There have been previous technology bans for security reasons, such as a ban on using software from Kaspersky Lab, and telecommunications services provided by China Telecom and China Mobile International USA. It’s worth noting that the FCC cannot decide to ban any equipment or service and can only do so if directed by national security agencies.

The ban noted that malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack households, disrupt networks, engage in espionage, and steal intellectual property. The notice says that foreign-made routers were involved in cyberattacks from Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon.

The ban does not stop consumers from using existing routers. It doesn’t stop retailers from selling existing stocks of routers or from continuing to buy routers that previously have been approved by the FCC’s equipment authorization process. All that is blocked is any new models or generations of routers.

Router manufacturers can petition the DoD or DHS for conditional approval, which would allow them to apply to the FCC for equipment authorization for new routers. There are no manufacturers today that have this conditional approval.

It’s hard to know where this ban will lead, but this could become a big concern for ISPs, since most ISPs provide a WiFi router for new customers. Many cable companies and fiber builders build the router into the modem. Any ISP that is currently using a router that has not been approved by the FCC is in trouble, because according to this ban, they can’t give an unauthorized router to a new customer. Every ISP should be checking this week to make sure the routers they are providing have been blessed by the FCC.

This has longer-term implications since virtually all routers are made overseas, including those made by American companies like TP-Link, which manufactures its routers in Vietnam. Manufacturers routinely upgrade and improve routers every few years, and American ISPs will be stuck with older routers if the government doesn’t approve any new brands or models of routers.

One unspoken intent of the order is probably to promote the manufacture of routers in the U.S. I have to wonder if an American-made router would be any less susceptible to hacking than a foreign-made one. If not, I’m not sure what this ban will accomplish, other than making it more expensive to get routers. It will be interesting to see if any router companies move manufacturing to the U.S. due to this ruling. A more likely outcome might be that American consumers won’t be able to get some of the newest routers that are available to the rest of the world.

The Rapid Evolution of Transport Lasers

The Internet in the U.S. relies on long-haul and middle-mile fiber routes that are used to connect every part of the country to the core internet hubs located in Virginia, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles. New York, and Denver. In more recent times, the growth of data centers has created additional major Internet hubs in places like Phoenix, Silicon Valley, Portland, and Seattle.

Like every other part of the industry, there has been a constant evolution in the lasers that were used to power the long-haul fiber routes. When I first got involved in working with companies providing transport in the early 2000s, the transport electronics delivered 1 GB (gigabit) speeds – something that everybody at the time thought was blazingly fast. Today, millions of homes are buying 1 GB broadband.

The Internet was exploding during the 2000s as millions of people started to buy broadband provided by DSL and cable modems. Gigabit transport routes became full, and carriers knew they had to upgrade. The IEEE standard for 10 GB transport was adopted in 2002, and over the next decade, it became the standard for transport fiber routes.

Of course, 10-gigabit transport routes grew full as growth continued, and carriers were looking for more speed. The IEEE standard for 40 GB transport was adopted in 2010, although a few vendors, like Nortel, had started to market 40 GB products as early as 2008. The biggest technical breakthrough for 40 GB lasers was the introduction of Digital Signal Processing, which better handled light dispersion across long-haul fiber routes. The higher speed became the industry standard for transport by 2012.

Next in the evolution were 100 GB lasers. This standard was also adopted by IEEE in 2010. This faster technology was slower to be adopted because of the relatively high cost of the lasers. By 2014, there were only about 600 deployments of this technology worldwide. But over time, 100 GB lasers became standard for anybody building transport fiber routes.

The next step in progressively faster lasers was 400 GB, with the IEEE standard adopted in 2017. Network owners started to introduce these faster lasers into networks in 2020, and by 2022, 400 GB lasers became the new standard for long-haul transport.

The general continuous growth of Internet traffic, and the new demand from AI, is pushing transport fiber owners to seek even faster lasers. A few vendors introduced 800 GB lasers as early as 2019. Ciena announced the 800 GB WaveLogic 5 laser in 2019, and Infinera and Windstream successfully tested a 800 GB long-haul route in 2020. While 400 GB lasers are still the most affordable option, Nokia and Ribbon say that they are now seeing a lot of demand for 800 GB lasers.

Ciena says it is seeing demand for even faster lasers and has installed a few fiber routes with 1.6 TB lasers for Lumen in the U.S., e& in the USA, and Cirion in Latin America.

The faster speeds are also moving down market into last-mile uses. Nokia is selling a lot of 800 GB pluggable fiber electronics for inside data centers.

This has been an amazingly fast evolution. As recently as 2019, almost everybody in the industry was still buying 100 GB lasers for transport, and in the few years since then, we’ve seen increases to 400 GB, then 800 GB, and now the beginnings of 1.6 TB. I remember seeing a PowerPoint at a trade show twenty or so years ago where a vendor claimed that within twenty years we’d be seeing terabit lasers. It was a bold prediction at a time when 10 GB lasers were cutting-edge technology, but it turned out to be a good prediction. I’m not even going to try to predict the speeds we’ll be seeing twenty years from now.

Technology Shorts March 2026

Today’s blogs looks at some of the recent breakthroughs coming out of labs and research facilities that could have practical applications that could eventually benefit the broadband industry.

Rainbow Chip. Researchers at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science have created a chip that turns a single laser beam into a “frequency comb” that produces dozens of light channels at once. As often happens in science, the breakthrough was discovered by accident when the team was working on a project related to Lidar.

Normal laser beams used in telecom are not precise and transmit a closely bunched group of similar light frequencies that scientists refer to as a messy light signal. This new chip creates multiple laser beams in a range of colors, with each beam precisely at a single light frequency. The chip output is called a comb because there is a clear gap between each different beam, so there is no interference between separate light beams. This chip could revolutionize fiber optic technology by simultaneously sending dozens of even-spaced light channels at precise frequencies through a single fiber, with no interference between colors. Scientists have created precise laser beams in the lab for research, but this chip could bring the technology into practical use.

Energy Efficient Wireless Chips. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new device that could revolutionize wireless technology. The breakthrough is the creation of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonon laser that can create ultra-high frequency vibrations on a single chip. The new device layers silicon, piezoelectric lithium niobate, and indium gallium arsenide to amplify radio vibrations much like a diode laser amplifies light. SAW technology is already embedded in smartphones, GPS, and radar systems and is used to filter signals and reduce noise. However, today’s SAW technology  requires multiple chips and external power. The new phonon technology simplifies this to a single chip that can be powered by a battery. The new chip can also reach far higher frequencies and currently operates at about 1 gigahertz, but has a clear development path to boost this ability to tens or even hundreds of gigahertz.

Efficient Power Module. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory unveiled a breakthrough that could squeeze more power from existing electricity supplies. They’ve created a silicon-carbide-based power module they call ULIS (Ultra-Low Inductance Smart). The ULIS device dramatically improves the way electricity is converted and delivered inside devices. Most electronic devices contain a power module, which houses the power electronics that regulate the flow of electricity inside the device. The ULIS device is smaller and lighter while bringing up to a five times improvement in power efficiency. The device would make sense in data centers, electric grids, and any devices using next-generation electronics, like in ships and aircraft. The secret to the success of the new device is that it slows parasitic inductance by seven to nine times, which is the resistance to the process of changing or converting an electric current inside a device.

Some of the benefits come from its new design. Traditional power modules stack components inside a box-like package, while ULIS has found a way to arrange components in a two-dimensional octagon. This creates a smaller light-weight device that also minimizes magnetic interference. One of the most interesting features is that the device can be controlled wirelessly, without needing to be connected to communications cables.

ULIS is expected to impact multiple sectors. Probably the most beneficial is in the electric grid. Today, the devices in the grid require electricity to be converted into a usable form before entering every smart device in the grid. The ULIS device could make this conversion more efficiently and with less power loss in the grid.

Cooling Data Centers with Hot Water. One of the biggest challenges of large data centers is having a large supply of cool water for cooling. At CES this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the company is using water at 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) to cool supercomputers. This is a big breakthrough because hot water doesn’t require water chillers and the accompanying power-hungry compressors. Those devices account for about 6% of the power used at a data center. This breakthrough could be a boon for two-phase liquid cooling systems. Most liquid cooling systems today circulate water, which then must be cooled before reuse. A two-phase system extracts more heat from computers by using the heat to convert the liquid to a gas and then converting back to a liquid. This is not a new technology and has been used on a limited basis for a few years, but the NVIDIA announcement will prompt data center owners to consider hot water as the primary way to cool data centers. The announcement instantly tanked the stock prices of companies that make cool-water chillers for data centers.

Low Latency AI Networks

A partnership has been announced that has the goal of creating a low-latency private Internet for AI traffic. The three partners involved are Moonshot Energy, a manufacturer of electrical and modular infrastructure for AI data centers, QumulusAI, Inc., a provider of GPU-as-a Service, and Connected Nation Internet Exchange, which has been promoting the creation of more Internet Exchanges.

The group’s goal is to initially create 25 carrier-neutral interexchange points designed to handle only low-latency traffic. The goal is to scale to 125 locations, many which would be located at major research university campuses and municipalities. The coalition has labeled the new hubs as AI Pods.

The goal of this coalition is to create a network designed specifically for AI and other data traffic that requires low latency. The network will be designed with highly efficient switches at the hub sites that will move traffic quickly. This would essentially be a private network that would isolate low-latency traffic from the large volumes of general Internet traffic that can clog up Internet hubs at busy times.

The idea of creating private networks for data is an old one. Many universities in the country are connected to the Internet2 fiber network that allows for low-cost transfer of large amounts of research and other data between universities. Many corporations have created private networks between company sites to keep corporate data traffic out of normal Internet traffic flow and to provide a higher level of security.

Tackling this as a new venture makes a lot of sense. If the companies that run the large Internet hubs  decided to somehow give priority to AI or other traffic to reduce latency, they would awaken cries about violations of network neutrality, since such behavior is exactly what network neutrality is supposed to block. If the normal Internet hubs gave priority to bits from AI data centers, then all other traffic would get a lower priority and see more problems from delays. However, a private network for AI avoids such issues by isolating AI traffic from other traffic.

The first data site for the network is scheduled for activation in July 2026, located at the campus of Wichita State University. The coalition is working towards providing dual, geographically diverse fiber routes between the new AI hubs using 400 GB transport. Each AI site would house redundant 400 GB IX ports and switches. Data centers that want to connect to the network would acquire dark fiber to one of the AI hubs.

QumulusAI says the new network would result in moving GPU computing directly to the network edge, meaning the AI network could be expanded to reach large businesses and other users of large amounts of AI data.

Connected Nation has been touting the benefits of creating more Internet hubs for a number of years. These new hubs would also become carrier-neutral locations for the interexchange of normal Internet traffic, which would lower the cost to ISPs to reach the Internet.

Technology Shorts January 2026

Sensors That Beat Lidar and Radar

The Boston startup Tarador has developed a sensor that co-founder Matt Carey says beats the performance of radar and lidar. The sensors are solid-state, meaning no moving parts, and use the terahertz band of spectrum that sits between microwaves and infrared light.

The spectrum band allows the sensors to easily pierce rain and fog. The use of higher terahertz frequencies improves the resolution of images by twenty times compared to radar. The sensors have a range of 325 yards. One of the sales points for the new sensors is a target cost to be far less than lidar. This would make the sensors a great solution for driver-assisted and self-driving cars.

Laser Cooling for Data Centers

Sandia Labs, the federally funded energy research lab, has found a way to use lasers to cool things. It’s anti-intuitive since lasers generally generate heat when they hit an object. Scientists at the lab have been working with Maxwell Labs from Minneapolis to develop the technology.

Lasers can create a cooling effect, and this has been used in the past to chill antimatter and to study quantum phenomena. How does this work? Lasers tuned to a specific frequency and targeted at a small area on the surface of a certain element can cool it instead of heating it. Small means an area in the order of hundreds of microns. The technology would utilize a photonic cold plate with components a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair that would channel the cooling lasers. The cold plate would be composed of a millimeter-thick plate of pure gallium arsenide. The scientists believe this can bring as much cooling as the current method of circulating water close to chips. This would be a huge breakthrough since 30% to 40% of the cost of operating a data center is used for cooling. This could also extend the life of chips, which tend to burn out in two years under data center loads.

A Chip that Can Stream Thoughts

A team from Columbia University, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania has collaborated to create a tiny brain implant that could significantly change how people interact with computers.

The brain implant is called a Biological Interface System to Cortex (BISC). The power of this technology is the small size, since the BISC is thinner than a human hair, along with the ability to transmit large amount of data. The implant is a big improvement over current technologies because it is controlled by a single small chip that can be easily implanted inside the skull.

One of the benefits of the BISC implant is the ability to treat conditions like epilepsy, spinal cord injuries, ALS, strokes, and blindness. The chip can hopefully create a communication pathway to the brain to help restore motor, speech, and visual abilities.

Like all new technologies, this could also power other uses, like creating an interface between humans and computers. This team was not focused on that goal, but this is another technology step forward in brain/computer interfaces, a goal of scientists over the last decade.

Network Timing

One element that is key to all networks rarely gets discussed. Network timing (or network clocks) involves hardware or processes to make sure that all parts of a network are in synch.

Timing and synchronization are critical for network services that depend on precise, synchronized timing on network devices. Accurate and reliable synchronization of any network device helps manage the security, availability, and efficiency of the network devices. Timing is essential for the function of telephone, cellular, and broadband networks.

There are multiple kinds of timing in use.

Frequency Synchronization. This makes sure that all electronics inside a network operate using the same clock rate or frequency. Many kinds of network gear come with built-in clocks, and having different parts of a network using different clocks will result in data loss, corruption, or misinterpretation of bits. Frequency synchronization forces all of the clocks inside the network to operate in unison by matching the frequency of each clock to a source clock. There are different sources for frequency synchronization:

  • Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) chooses one clock and forces the other clocks to match.
  • Networks can be synchronized to external clocks such as BITS or the GPS satellites. BITS can choose any reliable external clock.
  • Many networks use Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which eliminates the danger of losing the connection to an external clock.
  • A network can use a free-running internal oscillator chip that holds an accurate clock.

Many networks have used GPS for frequency synchronization. A GPS satellite carries a highly stable atomic clock that provides precise time signals, which can be converted into frequency references by a GPS receiver. While the atomic clock provides highly precise time and frequency information, GPS is not as reliable when there isn’t a clear view of the sky during weather events.

Phase Synchronization makes sure that the phase of network signal is consistent throughout the network. Phase refers to a specific point in time on a waveform cycle. Phase synchronization ensures that electronics agree on the timing of the start and end of each bit in a data stream. This is critical in applications where data from multiple sources have to be combined or compared, such as in a cellular network.

Time Synchronization, also called Time of Day (ToD) ensures that all electronics agree on the current time, which is critical in applications where timing is crucial. Networks differ in the need for precise time. Network Time Protocol (NTP) can be used to provide millisecond accuracy, while PTP can provide nanosecond accuracy along with phase synchronization.

A New Security Risk

A new security risk has recently been brought to my attention. I was on a Teams call that included an attorney who would not let the call continue while an AI notetaker was present. His comment was that the notetaker is listening to everything that is said, transmitting everything verbatim to a data center somewhere in the cloud. He said he was aghast that people would hold meetings about sensitive topics and then give everything that was said to unknown parties outside of the call. He used the analogy that having an AI notetaker is the equivalent of inviting a reporter into a meeting.

It didn’t take much research to realize he is right. An AI notetaker records everything that is said in a meeting so that AI servers somewhere in the cloud can make a transcript or summary of the meeting. Every word said in a meeting, from the brilliant to the mundane, is sent to a data center out of the control of the people on the call.

There is no way to know what the folks who control the recording will do. At a minimum, it’s almost certain they are using the data to further train AI models, which are voracious for more data. A record of the meeting could be sold to others. It’s possible, and even likely, that somebody really good at AI prompts can figure out what is discussed at a corporate meeting.

Of course, the AI notetaker companies can all swear that they don’t use the data for purposes other than making a summary of the meeting. But I have to ask, does anybody have the slightest idea of the identity of the people who own and work at these businesses, and do you trust them? Nobody would let an unknown stranger into a work meeting, but that’s exactly what companies are doing with AI notetakers. But suddenly, companies have begun willingly sharing conversations with the cloud that they might not even want to share with everybody else inside their company. It’s hard to see this as anything but a self-inflicted data breach.

Before writing this blog, I asked a few people about this. One friend who is an AI expert said that it would be too tempting for anybody in this kind of business to monetize the data they are gathering by selling it to others to train AI models. He said that most AI companies are struggling to be profitable, and that secondary revenue streams have to be tempting (just as it is tempting for ISPs to sell user data). He thought that it’s too expensive for companies to routinely sift through the data for tidbits of corporate espionage, but that it would be possible for anybody willing to spend the processing time, or who is interested in a specific business or a specific person. He also said he would be worried that AI companies could be using the data to gather a voice print of meeting participants, something that they might otherwise have a hard time finding for most people.

I don’t have any knowledge that the companies in this line of business are doing anything nefarious with the data gathered, and perhaps they are not. But letting key information out of a closed circle of people on a call is practically the definition of a security risk. There is no way to know if this might harm a business.

There are a few companies that sell notetakers that say that they keep all data on a user’s computer and don’t share it in the cloud. The AI engine that summarizes a call is still going to be in the cloud, so unless that can be proven somehow, that still feels like a risk. Tech companies have been lying to the public about how they use the data they gather since AOL and early web companies figured out how to monetize user data.

This is one of the oddest blogs I’ve ever written because it makes me wonder if I’m being paranoid. But that feeling is probably a sign that this is a real concern.