AT&T vs Cox

Reco Raises $55M for AI Agent Security Platform

Reco, an AI security startup, has raised $55 million in an extension of its Series B funding round, bringing its total capital to $140 million. The funding was led by existing investors, including AT&T's venture arm, Forestay, and Quadrille Capital. Reco is repositioning its platform to focus on AI agent security, using a context graph to map agents' access to apps, data, and permissions. The company claims to have discovered over 21,000 undocumented agents at a Fortune 100 customer. Reco plans to use the funds for hiring, sales, and partnerships, and expects its ARR to triple this year.

• Reco raised $55 million in an extension of its Series B funding round.
• Total funding for Reco now stands at $140 million.
• Investors include AT&T's venture arm, Forestay, and Quadrille Capital.

T-Mobile Technician Cuts Cable to Thwart Salt Typhoon Hack

Bloomberg reports that T-Mobile's cybersecurity team ended a Salt Typhoon espionage attack by physically cutting a cable at a data center in Chicago. In autumn 2024, the Chinese hacking campaign infiltrated nine major US telecoms, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, compromising routers and accessing metadata of millions of customers. T-Mobile's security team traced a suspicious signal to a manipulated router in Chicago that was spoofed as a T-Mobile device, operated by attackers. A technician drove to the site and cut the router's cable with scissors, halting the attack. The attackers only gained access to external networks, not customer data, according to T-Mobile's CIO Jeff Simon. The severed cable is now displayed in a frame at T-Mobile as a memento of the physical response to cyber threats.

• Salt Typhoon attacked nine major US telecoms, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, in autumn 2024.
• T-Mobile stopped a Salt Typhoon attack by physically cutting a router cable at a Chicago data center.
• The attackers accessed metadata of millions of customers but not customer data.

AT&T, Crocs, Southwest Detail Cautious AI Agent Adoption

At Salesforce's Dreamforce event, executives from AT&T, Crocs, and Southwest Airlines shared their realistic approaches to deploying AI agents. They emphasized that while automation improves efficiency, human interaction remains critical, especially in sensitive areas like cancellations or 'right here, right now' customer issues. AT&T uses AI to cut phone upgrade times but reserves human intervention for cancellations. Southwest uses chatbots for servicing but relies on humans for empathetic support. Crocs uses an AI chatbot 'Rivet' but insists on keeping 'a human in the loop' and stresses the importance of a solid data foundation. The article also notes Salesforce's Agentforce adoption (about 20% of its customers) and highlights DE&PT's consumer survey showing decline in comfort with AI as autonomy increases. AI safety debates between Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Jensen Huang were also discussed, with contrasting views on regulation and safety.

• Salesforce's Agentforce is used by about 30,000 customers, roughly 20% of its 150,000 customer base.
• AT&T uses AI to reduce phone upgrade times from 30 to 10 minutes, but keeps humans for cancellations.
• Crocs has deployed an AI agent named Rivet for consumer chat and voice, and uses AI internally for developer tasks.

Spectrum Says 'Hi!' to 11+ Million Homes and Businesses Across Major Markets Including Las Vegas, New Orleans, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Orange County, Phoenix, Providence and San Diego

The Cox Communications newsroom has been rebranded as the Charter Communications newsroom, with a new press release announcing Spectrum's expansion to 11+ million homes and businesses across major markets.

Architecture of CoxOutage.us Launched for Outage Tracking

The author launched CoxOutage.us, a site to map and track Cox Communications outages, and describes the technical and SEO architecture used to ensure instant, localized pages during sudden traffic spikes. Key infrastructure choices include aggressive caching (LiteSpeed Cache + Memcached), edge delivery via Cloudflare, hosting on InterServer, and SEO tactics such as hyper-specific URL slugs and using the Google Indexing API with Rank Math for automated indexing and schema generation. The site focuses on scaling localized landing pages and improving the automated reporting pipeline.

• CoxOutage.us was launched to map and track Cox Communications disruptions.
• The site uses LiteSpeed Cache combined with Memcached for object caching to minimize database queries during traffic spikes.
• Cloudflare is used for DNS management and edge-level caching; the site is hosted on InterServer.

Spectrum Offers Free Amazon Prime to Eligible Customers

Spectrum announced a partnership with Amazon to include a full Amazon Prime membership at no additional cost for customers who qualify for Spectrum Internet Assist, the ISP's low‑income program offering speeds up to 50 Mbps. The benefit is available to new and existing qualifying Spectrum customers (already included for legacy Spectrum accounts, with Prime inclusion coming soon for eligible legacy Cox customers). Customers activate the offer by visiting Spectrum.net/Prime and completing account setup or sign-in on Amazon's site. Spectrum highlighted Prime perks—grocery and delivery savings, Prime Video and Music, Amazon Pharmacy delivery, and Prime Day deals—and cited a retail valuation of about $14.99 per month ($139 per year). Adam Ray, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, said the initiative is intended to add value for customers and support communities.

• Spectrum partnered with Amazon to provide Amazon Prime at no extra cost for qualifying Spectrum Internet Assist customers.
• Spectrum Internet Assist is a low‑income program offering speeds up to 50 Mbps.
• The offer is available to new and existing qualifying customers; activation requires visiting Spectrum.net/Prime and completing account setup or sign-in on Amazon.