With Hurricane Milton hurtling toward Florida, I wanted to share these two.
The FCC has authorized T-Mobile and Starlink to launch their satellite texting service in Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton, allowing emergency alerts for all carriers and basic texting for T-Mobile subscribers even if they lose network connectivity. This service is part of a broader response to Hurricane Helene, with over 10,000 Starlink kits being delivered. Users will connect to the service if their phone shows “T-Mobile SpaceX” and may need to resend messages manually if they fail initially.
I’ll also highlight that there is coordination between MSPs, IT Service Providers, and vendors on Reddit for those who need help, both from Helene and Milton.
And while I’m thinking about broadband, The Institute For Local Self-Reliance has released an updatedinteractive map showing that there are now 400 community-owned broadband networks in the U.S., serving over 700 towns and cities. Often more efficient and cheaper than private-sector options, these networks have been growing rapidly, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite pushback from major ISPs, community broadband initiatives continue to gain popularity and financial support, highlighting a grassroots response to inadequate telecom services.
And while I’m thinking about sharing, MITRE has launched the AI Incident Sharing initiative, collaborating with over 15 companies to enhance community knowledge of threats to AI systems. This initiative aims to facilitate secure collaboration on incidents involving AI, expanding the MITRE ATLAS knowledge base. Organizations can submit incidents for data-driven risk intelligence, while the Secure AI project has also updated the ATLAS framework to include generative AI threats. The initiative seeks to improve collective defense against AI-related incidents across various industries.
Why do we care?
Tactically, this is on-the-ground information that is quite important for the moment, and I wanted to get that out.
Now, I want to highlight community-driven efforts. Broadband in your community a problem? There’s a collective solution. Security? Collaboration has long been a staple of that space, hopefully true with AI. There’s opportunity there.