AT&T vs Cox

T-Mobile Technician Cuts Cable to Thwart Salt Typhoon Hack

A T-Mobile technician literally cut a cable to stop the Chinese Salt Typhoon cyberespionage campaign, as reported by Bloomberg. In autumn 2024, Salt Typhoon infiltrated nine major US telecom companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, compromising routers and accessing metadata of millions of customers. T-Mobile's security team discovered an unusual router in its California data center that was communicating despite being offline. Tracing the signal, they found a manipulated router at another telecom company in Chicago, posing as a T-Mobile device. A technician drove to the site and cut the router's cable with scissors, successfully halting the attack. The router was later re-activated in an isolated test environment, but the attackers had already disappeared. T-Mobile's CIO Jeff Simon stated the hackers never accessed customer data, and the severed cable is now displayed in a frame as a memento of the incident.

• Salt Typhoon attacked 200+ targets across 80 countries in autumn 2024.
• Nine major US telecoms were hacked, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
• T-Mobile technician cut a router cable in Chicago to stop the attack.

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.

AT&T Blog Updates: New Posts on AI Networks, NYSE Milestone, and More

The AT&T blog page has been updated with new posts, including 'Why Enterprise Networks Need to Adapt for the AI Era' (Sept 10, 2026), 'AT&T: Built to Keep Up With What's Next' (Sept 09, 2026), 'AT&T and Mynd Immersive are Making a Change for Older Adults' (Sept 03, 2026), and '125 Years on the New York Stock Exchange: A legacy built for the future of connectivity' (Sept 03, 2026).

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.

Charter Adds Spectrum SportsNet LA After Cox Acquisition

Charter Communications has completed its acquisition of Cox Communications and, following the announcement, expanded distribution of Spectrum SportsNet LA into former Cox markets within the Los Angeles Dodgers broadcast territory. Beginning August 20, 2026, Spectrum customers in specified former Cox service areas (Las Vegas, Orange County, Palos Verdes, Santa Barbara) with Contour TV Preferred or Contour TV Ultimate will receive SportsNet LA on assigned channel numbers, timed ahead of the August 21 Dodgers game. The channel is the exclusive 24/7 linear television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and will carry pregame and postgame studio programming.

• Charter Communications has acquired Cox Communications (official announcement referenced).
• Spectrum SportsNet LA is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets across the Dodgers broadcast territory.
• Availability began August 20, 2026, ahead of the August 21 Dodgers game versus the Pirates.