The European Union’s abolition of roaming fees has been one of the bloc’s most popular initiatives. EU mobile phone users will continue to enjoy free roaming across Europe for mobile phone calls and web surfing until 2032, negotiators agreed on Thursday. Since 2017, the abolition of roaming charges has been one of the most popular…
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Solid, metal antennae have been the standard in a wide range of technologies for decades, including a wide variety of radio communications and scanning such as radar. However, research into the concept of liquid antennae was discussed in the 1990s. A liquid antenna would comprise a lightweight and perhaps collapsible container…
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The SDGSAT-1 science satellite is launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on November 5, 2021. Credit: ZHENG Bin/Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center China launched the SDGSAT-1 science satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China on November 5, 2021. The satellite was launched aboard the Long March-6 (CZ-6) carrier rocket and entered…
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Engineering researchers have developed a method to use signals broadcast by Starlink internet service satellites to accurately locate a position here on Earth, much like GPS does. It is the first time the Starlink system has been harnessed by researchers outside SpaceX for navigation. The Starlink satellites, sent into orbit by…
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The novel compact optical amplifier is thousands of times smaller than its precursor. Credit: Ping Zhao, Zhichao Ye and Yen Strandqvist/Chalmers University of Technology Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present a unique optical amplifier that is expected to revolutionize both space and fiber communication. The new amplifier offers high performance, is compact enough…
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Cable coming ashore from a ship. Credit: Coral Sea Cable System If you’ve ever emailed a resort in Fiji or Vanuatu about that long-awaited holiday, it’s likely your email traveled through an undersea internet cable. Such cables carry much of the internet traffic around the globe, in conjunction with underground fiber connections, satellites and microwave…
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Credit: Jeshoots.com/Unsplash, CC BY-SA Of the 8.2 million homes and businesses active on Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) in July 2021, 77% are now reported to be on a broadband plan that delivers speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps). This is plenty to accommodate a typical household’s needs for video streaming (Netflix…
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers in UC Santa Barbara professor Yasamin Mostofi’s lab have enabled, for the first time, counting a stationary seated crowd using WiFi signals, and without relying on people to carry a device. The technique, which also counts through walls, needs only a wireless transmitter and receiver outside the area of interest…
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Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104167 As cities around the world continue to urbanize, there is a greater need to expand and optimize existing spaces. Cities have accelerated looking into how underutilized rooftop spaces might contribute to climate action, food production, and other purposes. Sustainable roofs, such as those with greenery and photovoltaic panels, can contribute…
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The W-Cube nanosatellite transmits test signals at an altitude of 500 kilometers in the Q and W band (37.5 and 75 GHz) in order to explore new frequencies for future data transmissions. Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft In June, the W-Cube nanosatellite began its journey aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral to polar orbit. About a…
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, a computer scientist at the University of California, Irvine, presented her findings last week at the SIGCOMM 2021 data communication conference regarding her concerns about vulnerability in the global internet communication structure. She believes that a major coronal mass ejection could wreak havoc on international internet communications due…
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UC San Diego electrical and computer engineering Ph.D. student Ish Jain poses with the new millimeter wave setup that he developed. The setup improves the throughput and reliability of millimeter wave signals. Credit: University of California – San Diego Consumers of today’s 5G cellphones may have experienced one of the following tradeoffs: impressive download speeds…
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