Technologies

AT&T Subscribers Just Got a Significant 5G Speed Boost Due to New Spectrum

The carrier’s recent purchase of spectrum licenses from EchoStar broadens AT&T’s 5G capacity.

AT&T announced Monday that it has improved 5G performance across its network in the continental United States by activating wireless spectrum — the frequencies used for data transmission — that it acquired in a $23 billion purchase from EchoStar in September. If you’re an AT&T customer who owns a 5G-capable phone or subscribes to AT&T Internet Air home internet, you might already be seeing a boost.

The company says customer download speeds can increase 80% when connected to the wireless network in areas with the upgraded spectrum. For AT&T Internet Air subscribers, the speed increase could be up to 55%. The new increased capacity opens up more possibilities for gaming, streaming content and accessing other high-data applications, as well as connecting rural customers who don’t have access to home fiber internet options.

The upgrade is also arriving — at least so far — without a price increase for existing customers. Verizon and T-Mobile instituted three-year and five-year price guarantees in 2025, so hopefully AT&T’s improved infrastructure doesn’t trigger higher rates. Based on the company’s announcement, though, the expanded spectrum also benefits AT&T internally, making its network more efficient, reducing the need to build new cellular towers and encouraging customers to subscribe to both mobile and home internet services.

It also boosts the capabilities of AT&T’s FirstNet program, which enables first responders to have guaranteed communications even when capacity is restricted, such as during a natural disaster.

Over a period of «a few weeks,» the company has deployed hardware to 23,000 cell sites that enables midband (3.45 GHz) spectrum in more than 5,300 cities across 48 states, according to AT&T.

What’s the significance of midband? 5G networks work across a swathe of spectrum frequencies. High-speed millimeter-wave signals offer the highest speed and performance, but have limited range and don’t work well with obstructions, such as buildings. Low-band 5G offers the slowest speeds but works over a broader area. Midband is a balance of the two, offering faster speeds than low-band with larger coverage.

From the customer’s perspective, this should translate into faster, more consistent network access. If you’re an AT&T subscriber, you’ll see «5G+» in the status bar of your phone when connected to a millimeter wave or midband network, or «5G» in a low-band area. (You might also see «5GE,» which is actually 4G LTE and not 5G.)

To give you a single data point, I was sitting in my home office in Seattle using an AT&T-connected phone with full bars and «5G+» displayed. I ran Ookla’s Speedtest app and got download speeds of nearly 500Mbps and upload speeds of around 80Mbps. That’s comparable to many home internet speeds (and echoes the performance I got on a recent United Airlines flight using onboard Starlink Wi-Fi).

(Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Technologies

Roblox Will Pay $12 Million to Settle Nevada Child Safety Lawsuit

The deal with the Nevada attorney general will require Roblox to have stricter safeguards to protect children online.

Popular gaming platform Roblox agreed to pay more than $12 million and implement new safety features as part of a settlement with the state of Nevada. This settlement comes amid several lawsuits accusing the company of an alleged lack of protection of children on the platform.

The agreement resolves potential litigation over allegations that Roblox failed to adequately safeguard children while they played the online game, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a press release on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Roblox will spend $10 million over three years to encourage children to engage in non-digital activities, as well as institute age verification for all users. This will include «facial age estimation technology and government-issued ID for age assurance, and will use behavioral monitoring to identify users who may have been aged incorrectly,» according to the press release.

«The injunctive relief that Roblox has agreed to will give parents the tools they need to protect their children on the platform; institute default protections to block predators from engaging with children; and ensure that messages involving minors are not encrypted,» Ford said in the press release.

Roblox also committed to spending $1 million over two years on a campaign to educate minors and adults about online safety and another $1.5 million to develop a law enforcement liaison position to work with state law enforcement agencies over concerns about the platform.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said it’s part of the company’s «work to establish a new standard for digital safety.»

«This resolution creates a blueprint for how industry and regulators can work together to protect the next generation of digital citizens,» Kaufman said Thursday. «We have no finish line when it comes to safety.»

Roblox is under significant legal pressure amid more than 140 lawsuits, according to Reuters. The suits, filed in 2025, allege the company knowingly created a gaming platform that allowed child predators to target minors.

The company also faces lawsuits from state attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida over similar accusations.

Age-based accounts coming soon

Two days before the settlement announcement, Roblox CEO and founder David Baszucki revealed new accounts for younger Roblox users.

Roblox Kids will be available for children between the ages of 5 and 8, and Roblox Select is for those ages 9 to 15. Roblox is reportedly used by nearly half of US children under 16. Children who are older than 16 will be in their own age group, simply called «Roblox.»

Kids and Select accounts would be available in those age groups as determined by Roblox’s age-check technology or by a verified parent.

Unmonitored chat in the game has been a point of criticism for the platform, as it allows predators to chat with children. Kids’ accounts will have chat turned off by default, with limited access to Minimal or Mild games as determined by the platform. Select accounts will have chat with safeguards and access to games with Moderate content, which is described by the platforms as having «moderate violence, light realistic blood, moderate crude humor, unplayable gambling content, and/or moderate fear.»

These new age-based accounts will roll out sometime in early June.

Technologies

Opera Adds Browser Connector Feature to Integrate AI Chatbots Into Browsers

New feature will allow users to include the AI tools of their choice.

Opera announced Thursday the launch of a new tool that allows users of its browsers to include more AI chatbots in their browsing experience.

Browser Connector is a free feature for Opera One and Opera GX browsers that allows users to integrate AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude into their live browsing sessions via Model Context Protocol. MCP is an open standard developed by Anthropic that allows for a secure two-way connection between AI models, external data sources and tools such as search engines.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Last month, Opera introduced MCP compatibility to Opera Neon, its subscription-based agentic AI browser. Opera says the new feature willallow a user’s AI of choice to provide real-time context of open tabs and active content.

«With Browser Connector, Opera ensures users aren’t bound to a single company’s ecosystem, but are instead free to combine the best tools for their specific needs,» Mohamed Salah, senior director of product at Opera, said in a statement.

To enable the feature, which is now available in Early Bird mode, users need to go to Settings in the browser, search for «AI Services» and install the Browser Connector feature. They then have to connect ChatGPT or Claude to the feature.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 17, #571

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 17 No. 571.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tricky one, especially the purple category. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: «Yer out!»

Green group hint: They score goals.

Blue group hint: Daddy dearest.

Purple group hint: Home, home on the…