Comcast's new Xfinity Wireless service isn't all that old, but the company is already being accused of failing to adequately address fraud related to the service. A new class action filed against the company (pdf) accuses the cable giant of not doing enough to prevent scammers from opening wireless customer service accounts in users names--then using customer financial info to ship phones to alternative addresses. The lawsuit also alleges that Comcast has turned a blind eye to this problem as part of an attempt to artificially inflate the company's Xfinity Mobile subscriber numbers.

“In an apparent effort to grow its fledgling mobile business segment, Comcast leveraged the personal account information of its existing cable and internet customers to allow the opening of XFINITY Mobile accounts through its online customer portal,” O’Neil says in the XFINITY Mobile class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit is arguably vague about what mechanism in Comcast's systems is being exploited by these scammers, though the company has been recently dinged for two different instances of website security problems in as many months. Comcast wouldn't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit when I pressed them for comment, but did suggest there was no specific security flaw being exploited.

“We are aware of the lawsuit that was filed in the Northern District of Illinois and we are in the process of investigating the claims," Comcast told DSLReports.com in a statement. "Fraud is an issue across the wireless industry, and there is no indication of a breach of our systems. We are prepared to vigorously defend against this action.

The DOJ says it was outgunned and outspent during the recent trial over AT&T's $86 billion acquisition of Time Warner. That blockbuster deal was recently approved after a lengthy lawsuit thanks in large part to US District Court Judge Richard Leon, who based his ruling on a comically-narrow reading of the telecom and media markets.

Sling Orange, the Sling TV channel bundle that features ESPN, Disney, AMC, Comedy Central, and 25 additional networks, is getting $5 more expensive. The move isn't surprising; after all, broadcasters still often dictate programming costs whether we're talking about traditional cable TV or streaming video alternatives.

AT&T has quietly jacked up the company's arbitrary "administrative fee" on wireless customer bills to $1.99 from 76 cents, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk noticed on Wednesday. With 64.5 million regular monthly customers likely to pay the fee, AT&T's change nets the company an additional $1 billion annually for doing absolutely nothing differently.

Boost Mobile executives aren't buying Sprint and T-Mobile's claims that their looming $23 billion merger will be wonderful for jobs, competition, and American consumers. The two companies spent yesterday testifying before Congress, claiming that reducing the total number of wireless carriers from four to three will somehow increase competition in the space (which historically never happens).

Consumer Reports has launched a new PR campaign taking direct aim at Comcast's use of sneaky fees to covertly jack up subscriber bills. Like many ISPs and cable companies, Comcast has long made an art form out of falsely advertising a lower rate, then socking consumers with a higher bill thanks to various, misleading below the line fees.

A California lawmaker that derailed the state's effort at tough net neutrality rules is being named and shamed in a new crowdfunded billboard backed by net neutrality activists. Last week we noted how California Assemblymember Miguel Santiago became internet famous for helping AT&T neuter the most important portions of the state's looming net neutrality bill.

A new Silicon Valley startup by the name of Necto received ample hype this week after a profile piece by Business Insider highlighted the company's goal of letting consumers build their own ISP. Leaning on the recent death of net neutrality as potential user motivation, the company's website states that the company's focus is in enabling entrepreneurs to build their own small local broadband networks, handling customer acquisition and marketing while Necto handles network engineering, monitoring, troubleshooting and billing.

At least some analysts believe that Netflix growth has peaked, and the surge in skinny bundle streaming competitors will likely only erode Netflix's market share moving forward. While Netflix will likely continue to see growth over the next few years, analysts like Tony Gunnarsson at Ovum believe that incumbent skinny live streaming bundles from the likes of Dish (Sling TV), AT&T (DirecTV Now) and eventually most other ISPs will inevitably erode Netflix's market share.

The WiFi Alliance today announced that the organization has begun certifying the first devices to adhere to the much-more secure WPA3 WiFi standard. WPA3 replaces Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (aka WPA2) which was first introduced way back in 2004 and had been showing its age for some time.

Last week, AT&T scored yet another major victory after it convinced California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago to scuttle what could have potentially been one of the toughest state net neutrality laws in the country. Santiago, at AT&T's behest, included numerous last-minute amendments to the original bill backed by State Senator Scott Wiener.