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Comment by isostatic | Hacker News Reader

Just wait for TVs and other gadgets with built in 5g and iot sim cards that you can’t simply “skip network” on.

I was shocked when a medical device I got had a built-in CDMA modem to send telemetry to my insurance company. Thankfully there's an airplane mode.

That's terrifying! If it weren't for the airplane mode, I'd open it up and destroy the antenna traces.

Just hope it's not a pacemaker

Patient appears to not be using device, increase rates accordingly.

That's pretty much what it's for! If you don't use the modem, you need to export usage data onto an SD card and mail it in.

Conceptually, I understand that they don't want to continue paying for a therapy if you're not actually using the equipment. But having a wireless modem built-in is a bridge too far.

> I was shocked when a medical device I got had a built-in CDMA modem

That's really bad -- they should be well insulated

(tip your waiter)

Various system-on-a-chip devices with built-in TLS/CDMA support have been available for years. The only reason TVs/etc still ask for local WiFi access is using the cellular networks requires negotiating some sort of contract. Left unregulated, they will eventually move to cellular. we already see this happening with cars; cheaper devices are only a matter of time.

5g is incredibly sensitive to physical interference, I'm sure someone will make a cool looking antenna cover for popular models.

Many new cars already have this anti-feature.

in that case, either:

  - place them in a faraday cage
  - open and cut the antenna trace

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