Cellcom will adjust customers' phone bills due to cell service outage
"We know the recent disruption shook your trust, and we're serious about earning it back," the company wrote in a May 30 Facebook post.
The company said the measure was a "gesture of goodwill" and its way of thanking customers for sticking with the Howard-based cellular provider.
Customers would not have to take any action for the adjustment to take effect, according to the company.
The cellular provider further said that eligible customers could activate its "Double the Downtime offer," which would be a second adjustment equal to the amount of time customers were without service due to the outage.
Customers would automatically receive the first adjustment to its bill and then can go here to apply for the extra adjustment by June 16, the company said. The automatic adjustment will be on the July bill and the extra one will be on the July or subsequent monthly bill.
The outage began at 9 p.m. May 14, affectingh SMS texting and voice calls, leaving customers with their phones on SOS mode for days.
On May 19, the company restored texting and Cellcom-to-Cellcom, with some users still reporting issues.
On May 27, Cellcom said that most customers had service restored.
Brighid Riordan, CEO Nsight, which owns Cellcom, said the outage was caused by a cyber incident.
She the cyber incident was in an area of the network separate from where the company stores sensitive information about Cellcom and Nsight customers.
Nsight, the Howard-based telecommunications company, owns Cellcom as well as Nsight Telservices and Nsight Tower.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Cellcom adjusts customer phone bills after cyber incident outage
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
31 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
California's rooftop solar rules in limbo after state Supreme Court ruling
SAN DIEGO - A controversial overhaul of rooftop solar regulations instituted more than two years ago by the California Public Utilities Commission will get another look after the state Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a trio of environmental organizations. The highest court sent the third iteration of the state's net energy metering tariff program, colloquially known as NEM 3.0, back to the state appeals court. All seven justices determined an earlier decision by an appeals court judge gave too much deference to the utilities commission when it rebuffed the environmental groups' lawsuit seeking to overturn the NEM 3.0 regulations. In its 18-page decision, the state Supreme Court said it was not concluding the new solar rules are "correct or incorrect - only that the Court of Appeal erred in applying an unduly deferential standard of review to reach that conclusion." Roger Lin, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the three environmental groups were elated by the ruling. "Hopefully this will send a message to the commission that you must follow the letter of law," Lin said. "You cannot interpret the law the way the commission wants to interpret it because at the end of the day, the courts are going to have the final say." Thursday's ruling does not overturn NEM 3.0 - at least for now. The current regulations remain in effect until the court case is ultimately resolved. That will require the filing of briefs from the opposing sides and then a rehearing at the appeals court. Lin estimated a date for a new hearing could be scheduled in about three or four months. "It is a long road. The fight is not over," he said, "but this decision is a very encouraging step forward." The Union-Tribune reached out to the utilities commission for a comment on the Supreme Court's ruling but had not received a response as of 2:30 p.m. The dispute centers on a decision in December 2022 by the utilities commission, known as the CPUC. The CPUC's five commissioners unanimously voted to update rooftop solar regulations. The 260-page decision included incentives to encourage customers to pair their solar installations with battery storage systems. But the decision also included a revision so that new rooftop solar customers would no longer be credited at the retail rate of electricity when their systems generated surplus energy. Instead, they get paid at the "actual avoided cost," which is lower. The CPUC's decision, which went into effect in April 2023, said the change sends "more accurate price signals that encourage electrification" across the state. But opponents said reducing the rate of compensation undercuts the incentive for potential customers to put solar on their roofs because it will take longer for new customers to recoup the thousands of dollars they spend to install the systems. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Working Group and San Diego-based Protect Our Communities Foundation filed suit, challenging the new rules. The groups were turned down in December 2023 by the state court of appeals that said a "uniquely deferential standard of review is accorded" to the CPUC "because of its status as 'a constitutional body with broad legislative and judicial powers.' " But the California Supreme Court on Thursday cited revisions made by the state Legislature that expanded judicial review of most CPUC decisions. The seven justices concluded the appeals court "erred by relying on that highly deferential approach," thus reversing the judgment and remanding the matter back to the court of appeals. In the runup to the NEM 3.0 decision, California's three big investor-owned utilities - San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric - said earlier rooftop solar regulations were too generous. They argued that the growing number of rooftop installations leads to a "cost shift" that leaves customers who don't have solar paying an unfair share of the fixed costs that come with maintaining the electric system - substations, transformers, poles and wires, etc. Opponents of the CPUC decision have long disputed the cost-shift argument, saying that it does not properly take into account the benefits of rooftop solar, such as reducing the need for utilities to spend ratepayer dollars on building more infrastructure. They also cite a statute in the Public Utilities Code that includes a provision that "ensures that customer-sited renewable distributed generation continues to grow sustainably" across the state. They say the new rules violate the statute. "The sun shines a little brighter in California today," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for the California chapter of the Environmental Working Group. "The California Supreme Court has ruled in our favor that the CPUC is not above the law, and the Court of Appeal must revisit their NEM 3 decision, which gutted California's rooftop solar market." SDG&E spokesman Anthony Wagner said the utility is "still reviewing the California Supreme Court's decision and its implications for rooftop solar policy." The California Solar & Storage Association, a trade group for the solar industry, welcomed the Supreme Court decision. "We haven't seen a rebound in the market two years after NEM 3 went into effect, so we really need to increase the rate of rooftop solar installation," said the group's executive director, Brad Heavner. "Something has to happen and the environment just got even more challenging." That's a reference to the federal budget legislation, dubbed the "One Big Beautiful Bill," backed by Republicans on Capitol Hill and signed into law by President Donald Trump last month. The 940-page bill included provisions that will eliminate the 30% federal tax incentive on Dec. 31 for homeowners who want to put solar panels on their roofs under Section 25D of the U.S. Tax Code. The CPUC's current NEM 3.0 rules apply only to customers who had their systems installed in April 2023 or later. Solar customers who had their systems installed under earlier iterations of the tariff still get compensated at the retail rate for 20 years from the time their systems became operational before the new rules affect them. For example, a customer who had a system installed in 2018 gets credited at the retail rate until 2038. But after that, the customer will be credited at the lower NEM 3.0 rate. With an estimated 2 million solar systems atop homes, businesses and other locations, California has more rooftop installations than any other state in the nation. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Business Insider
33 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Could Ethereum One Day Surpass Microsoft's Market Cap?
Bitcoin just passed Amazon (AMZN) in market value. Now, crypto fans are wondering if Ethereum could be next in line to challenge a tech giant like Microsoft (MSFT)? Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Ethereum is growing fast. It's already the second-biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Some investors believe it could eventually match or even surpass major tech giants like Microsoft in value. That idea may seem far-fetched, but when you look at how Ethereum works and where it could go, the possibility becomes a lot more real. Today, Microsoft is worth over $3.4 trillion. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a market cap of around $470 billion. That means it would need to grow more than seven times to reach Microsoft's level. This kind of growth wouldn't happen overnight. But if certain things line up, Ethereum could close the gap. Ethereum Is More Than Just a Coin Unlike Bitcoin, which mostly acts as a store of value, Ethereum is a platform. It supports a wide range of digital applications. These include lending platforms, decentralized exchanges, gaming, NFTs, and tools for digital identity. Every time one of these apps is used, Ethereum's network processes the transaction. In this sense, Ethereum is like the operating system of the blockchain world. This is similar to what Microsoft achieved with Windows. Microsoft's software became the standard for businesses and homes worldwide. Ethereum is trying to do the same in a new digital economy. It wants to become the base layer for financial apps, digital ownership, and programmable money. If it succeeds, the value created on top of Ethereum could be massive. Big Investors Are Starting to Pay Attention For Ethereum to catch Microsoft, a lot more money would need to flow into the ecosystem. A major step in that direction happened in 2025 when the US approved spot Ethereum ETFs. These products allow traditional investors to get exposure to Ethereum through regulated stock exchanges. Since then, billions of dollars have entered the space. But it's still just the beginning. Institutional investors like pension funds and asset managers currently hold a small share of Ethereum-based assets. If that changes, the demand for ETH could rise sharply. These large investors often wait for clearer regulations and more stable infrastructure before making big moves. Ethereum will need to keep improving in those areas to win them over. Ethereum's Real-World Use Cases Need to Grow Most Ethereum usage still happens within the crypto world. That needs to change if ETH is going to become truly mainstream. Ethereum must find ways to be useful outside of DeFi and crypto trading. For example, it could play a role in processing cross-border payments, issuing digital bonds, or powering loyalty programs. Tokenization is another big opportunity. Financial institutions are already experimenting with putting real-world assets like stocks and real estate on the blockchain. If this trend continues and Ethereum becomes the preferred platform for these new markets, it could unlock trillions in value. Ethereum must also stay ahead of technical challenges. Competing platforms like Solana, Avalanche, and others are fighting for market share by offering faster and cheaper services. Ethereum's recent upgrades have helped, but it must keep innovating to hold its lead. Regulation Will Play a Big Role Government policy is always a bit uncertain. Clear and favorable regulations would give investors more confidence in Ethereum. In 2025, new laws like the Clarity Act helped lay out some basic rules for digital assets. These kinds of steps help reduce uncertainty and open the door for more serious capital to enter the space. Still, regulators will keep watching Ethereum closely. It hosts thousands of apps, some of which could be seen as financial services. That means compliance will be an ongoing challenge. The more Ethereum can prove it's safe, stable, and legally sound, the better its chances of mass adoption. What Would It Take to Match Microsoft? To match Microsoft's market cap, Ethereum would need to be widely used in everyday life. It would need to support a range of industries beyond crypto, attract massive institutional investment, and become a trusted foundation for digital finance. It would also need to keep its edge as the leading smart contract platform, which means constantly improving the user experience and developer tools. The gap today is large, but Ethereum is still young. Microsoft took decades to become the tech powerhouse it is today. Ethereum could be on a similar path, just in a different type of economy. At the time of writing, Ethereum is sitting at $3,819.32.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Transcontinental Realty: Q2 Earnings Snapshot
DALLAS (AP) — DALLAS (AP) — Transcontinental Realty Investors Inc. (TCI) on Thursday reported net income of $169,000 in its second quarter. On a per-share basis, the Dallas-based company said it had profit of 2 cents. The real estate investor posted revenue of $12.2 million in the period. _____
