2018-02-28 In New Brunswick hearing, experts say smeter program is an uncertain, risky investment.

[4G LTE – 5G Millimeter mmWave Fixed Wireless / RAN Radio Access Network – 1996 Telecommunications Act – Agent Orange – Airline Wi-Fi Seamless Air Alliance (Airbus, Delta, GoGo, Sprint) – Animals – Apple iPhone & Intel 5G Modem – AT&T – Benefits – Bills – Brain Cancer – Cell Phones – Cell Towers – Children – Chris RouseDaniel LeBlanc – Doctor Devra DavisEdmund Finamore – Ericsson – FCC – Fibre Optices – Francois Beaulieu, EUB Energy & Utilities Board – Gerald Bourque – Hacking – Health – Heather Black – IoT – John Furey – Laws – Lennart Hardell – Massive MIMO Radios – Microcells / Small Cells Antennas – NB Power Smart Meter Hearings – Nokia – NTP – Pesticide Spraying & Pest Control (Chloropicrin, Chlorpyrifos, Methyl Bromide, Neonicotinoid) – Phantom Costs – QiWo Mi-Cam Baby Monitors – RF Microwave Radiation – Roger Richard – Ronald Neil Kostoff – Safety – Scott Stoll – SEC Consult – Security – Software Upgrades – Studies – T-Mobile – Tim Woolf, Synapse Energy Economics Inc – Too Big to Fail – TOU – Trump – Verizon – Wireless Devices – Youngky Kim, Samsung | BC – Fredericton & Saint John, New Brunswick – China – Los Angeles, California & Washington, DC & Atlanta, Georgia & Chicago, Illinois & Germantown & Potomac, Maryland & Dallas & Houston & Waco, Texas, USA]

1)    As has been well documented, wireless devices are vulnerable to hacking. In addition, software is vulnerable to viruses, etc.  “Smart” baby monitors are the most recent targets.

Critical Vulnerabilities in Mi-Cam Baby Monitors Could Expose 53,000 Victims

“A series of critical vulnerabilities in QiWo Mi-Cam Baby Monitors could allow threat actors to remotely connect to more than 52,000 cameras from anywhere in the world, potentially spying on you or your children.

Six vulnerabilities were discovered, ranging from insecure API calls, password change verification codes and exposed serial interfaces to hardcoded default credentials, incremental user account enumeration, and outdated firmware. Researchers from SEC Consult, though, failed to contact the smart device’s developer for reporting and submitting the vulnerabilities…

With cybercriminals potentially eyeballing you and your children’s activities within your home, these vulnerabilities pose serious security and privacy risks. Since no official patch is available nor an estimate on when it might hit devices, everyone that has one of the vulnerable baby monitors remains at risk.”

https://www.bitdefender.com/box/blog/iot-news/critical-vulnerabilities-mi-cam-baby-monitors-expose-53000-victims/?cid=soc|box|fb|noncomm

[(video 13:18) Mi-Cam Wi-Fi Camera Baby Pets Monitor Security Remote Camera 2-Way Video with 720p HD Quality – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLmrbW5-Vc0]

2)    5G is really being pushed in the USA.

On February 23 the Federal Communications Commission approved Samsung’s 5G access units, which the company said makes the devices the first 5G millimeter wave products in the world to be granted government regulatory approval. At MWC 2018, Samsung also plans to present its first 5G New Radio products supporting spectrum bands both below and above 6GHz, which will be compliant with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s Release 15 plan, delivering the first set of 5G standards for the industry.

All of Samsung’s product announcements today follow an announcement earlier in the year that confirmed the company will be providing Verizon with commercial 5G home routers and other devices to help fuel the carrier’s 5G network rollout. This is said to begin in Sacramento, California in the second half of 2018 and expand from there.

Besides Verizon, most other carriers have announced tests or plans to introduce a 5G network in the near future, including AT&T and T-Mobile. Late in January, a new report suggested that the United States federal government was looking into building a centralized 5G wireless network across the country, which would fundamentally alter the way that communications networks are implemented by having the government “rent access to carriers.””

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/26/samsung-fcc-approved-5g-equipment/

January 29, 2018 – https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/29/16944666/fcc-chairman-government-5g-network-ajit-pai-spectrum/29/16944666/fcc-chairman-government-5g-network-ajit-pai-spectrum

(click on photos to enlarge)

[FCC chairman Ajit Pai is opposed to a government-run 5G network by Chaim Gartenberg – The Verge – January 29, 2018 – https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/29/16944666/fcc-chairman-government-5g-network-ajit-pai-spectrum]

3)    Dr. Kostoff [https://ehtrust.org/book-chapter-modified-health-effects-non-ionizing-emf-combined-agents-kostoff-lau/], in his Facebook comment, seems to be echoing Dr. Devra Davis’s prediction – nothing will be done until the bodies pile up.  We cannot wait for this – we must, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, work to stop this very dangerous technology.  We  have to continue to spread the word and demand action from our politicians.  Remember the court action in California re pesticides. This can be done re. microwave radiation, too.

Maryland: Letter from Ronald N. Kostoff, Ph.D. to the Montgomery County Council Members on Proposed Installation of Small Cell Towers

“The usual excuse for inaction on opposition to cell tower construction of any type, including 5G, is the statement from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that health reasons cannot be used as a basis to halt tower construction. This, in my view, is an abdication of responsibility of elected officials.

Suppose the Federal government passed a law stating that herbicides could be sprayed over populated areas by contractors, and these sprayings could not be opposed for health reasons. If a local company wanted to initiate daily sprayings of Agent Orange over Montgomery County, would the members of the County Council allow it, despite what the law stated? Would the residents allow it, despite what the law stated? I suspect there would be an armed insurrection to block the spraying. Yet, cell tower developers are proposing to ‘spray’ a highly toxic substance (non-ionizing radiation in RF bands) over Montgomery County, and the decision-makers act as if they have no options.”

http://mieuxprevenir.blogspot.ca/2017/11/maryland-letter-from-ronald-n-kostoff.html

– https://ehtrust.org/science/facts-national-toxicology-program-cellphone-rat-cancer-study/

Comment by Dr. Kostoff on Facebook:

NTP STUDY: “Make no mistake: the debate on the NTP study is more theology than reality. The elaborate scenario of report versions incorporating public comments is pure Kabuki theater. My own research (based on a comprehensive evaluation of the premier biomedical research literature) convinces me that personal RFR exposure should be limited to a few microwatts/square meter. I try to obey that limit where feasible and believe that is the limit that should be set for the general public to minimize adverse health consequences. The present FCC limit is many orders of magnitude beyond what has shown to be harmful in the biomedical literature.

We are at the stage of wireless radiation dependency where if we were to set the above limit for safe public exposure, our economy would collapse. While some static applications could substitute hard wiring for wireless (as some fiber optic proponents have suggested), it’s not possible with intrinsically mobile applications. If the public wants these mobile applications, and all evidence shows they do with a vengeance, there’s no option other than wireless expansion.

We talk about Banks (and other institutions) being Too Big To Fail. Wireless is Too Big To Fail, and that’s why thousands of credible studies showing potential serious damage from wireless are essentially irrelevant in the decision to proceed with 5G and the Internet of Things!” – Ronald Kostoff via Facebook

4)    At New Brunswick hearing re. smeter application, expert questions the benefits of the program when other, better,  less risky options are available. I have written to Mr. Woolf to find out what these options are.

– http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-eub-hearings-smart-meters-1.4552434

2 U.S. experts doubt NB Power’s business case for smart meters

“Woolf, who is-vice president of Synapse Energy Economics Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., recommended the EUB reject NB Power’s smart meter proposal outright until the utility produces more convincing evidence to justify the expense. 

He also said the utility should explain why other lower-cost options to achieve the same energy-saving objectives have been passed over.

“I know of states, other jurisdictions that run energy efficiency programs that save two, three, four, five times the amount of energy that this company is saving with no (smart meters). None. So if energy saving is the goal here, there are much better ways to spend the money than on a $120 million commitment to a very uncertain and a risky investment.”

Woolf suggested some of the savings NB Power has been claiming smart meters will generate, like replacing current meters with years of usable service still left on them, with new meters is actually a cost. 

And he claimed other listed savings are overblown — even fake — since they could be achieved whether smart meters are installed or not.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-eub-hearings-smart-meters-1.4552434

5)    Telecoms already announcing where 5G will be introduced, although what “5G” is may vary. Also concerning is that this says that software can be upgraded to 5G without having to climb the tower and that multiple frequencies and types of technology can be in the same microcell.

– http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprint-unveils-5g-ready-massive-mimo-markets.htm

After AT&T, Sprint names the first six US cities to get 5G

“Interestingly, of the three cities named by AT&T and the six by Sprint, two of them are set to see 5G service from both carriers …

Sprint says that its first six cities will be Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, LA and Washington, DC. It has Atlanta and Dallas in common with AT&T, which also included Waco, Texas.

There are, though, a couple of catches to Sprint’s announcement. First, while AT&T says it will begin 5G service by the end of this year, Sprint is aiming only for the first half of 2019. Second, with carriers arguing about what 5G actually means, Sprint says that it will initially be providing ‘5G-like capabilities,’ suggesting that it may not be fully compatible with 3GPP standards…

Sprint will deploy 64T64R (64 transmit, 64 receive) Massive MIMO radios using 128 antennas working with technology leaders Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung Electronics. The Massive MIMO radios from all three suppliers are software-upgradable to 5G without additional tower climbs. The Massive MIMO radios support split-mode service, enabling Sprint to offer both 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio.”

https://9to5mac.com/2018/02/27/sprint-first-us-cities-to-get-5g/

 

 

Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters

“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”
~ B.F. Skinner

www.facebook.com/Coalitiontostopsmartmeters

Smart Meters, Cell Towers, Smart Phones, 5G and all things that radiate RF Radiation