smart phones

The Florida Public Service Commission on Tuesday released a report that said about 900,000 landlines were in use in Florida in 2022, about 19.5 percent fewer than in 2021.

New phone customers in Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys will get a 645 area code starting Aug. 4, the state Public Service Commission announced Friday.

The state of Florida is taking part in a wide-ranging lawsuit targeting a Voice Over Internet Protocol service provider for facilitating billions of illegal robocalls, with nearly 620 million of those calls made to Sunshine State residents. A news release from the office of Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday said the legal action involves Florida and 48 other attorneys general in the form of a complaint against Michael D. Lansky, LLC, d/b/a Avid Telecom, its owner Michael Lansky, and its vice president Stacey S. Reeves, for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people.

CEO of Everbridge releases letter to Floridians: “I’m sorry, and here’s what happened.” Follow-up to 4:45 a.m. emergency text notifications

A tweet from the Florida Department of Emergency Management offered an apology, but little solace for those awakened early:"We know a 4:45 AM wake up call isn't ideal. @FLSERT wants to apologize for the early morning text. Each month, we test #emergencyalerts on a variety of platforms. This alert was supposed to be on TV, and not disturb anyone already sleeping. We are taking the appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night."

Smart phones have become ubiquitous since the release of the first iPhone in 2007. They connect us to the world in ways we could hardly have dreamed of…