Axios

AT&T is bringing its 5G network technology to Raleigh, Charlotte and Oklahoma City in 2018, the company announced on Friday.

The big picture: While AT&T is bringing 5G connectivity to cities that aren't in major markets, the cities that are on their list overlap with the list of tech centers around the country, the Herald Sun reports. Company executives believe the improved network will support "similar advances in other fields, most notably the auto industry’s move to introduce driverless vehicles." The upgrade closely follows the announcement that the 2020 Republican National Convention will be held in Charlotte.

Facebook has temporarily suspended Crimson Hexagon, a data analytics firm, over a potential data-sharing policy violation, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Why it matters: Facebook believes the company may have had deals to analyze data for outside clients including United States government agencies and a Russian organization with ties to the Kremlin. This comes on the heels of Facebook's controversy with Cambridge Analytica where the company improperly sold information about 87 million Facebook users.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft together founded the Data Transfer Project (DTP) to allow users to move their content, contacts and other data across apps, reports Tech Crunch.

The details: The DTP will create a tool allowing users to upload their content from application to application. The partnership could allow users to transfer social connections, contact info, music playlists and even health information across apps so long as they are a participating provider. Go deeper: Read the DTP white paper here.

Netflix has announced it acquired the rights to Ellen Pao's memoir, "Reset," with Shondaland. The book details "the lawsuit she brought against her former employer that shook Silicon Valley to its boys’ club core and pre-saged the Time’s Up movement."

Why it matters: Pao's lawsuit pre-dated the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, and was arguably the first high-profile legal battle over Silicon Valley's sexism that put it in national spotlight.

SenseTime, a Beijing-based developer of facial recognition technologies, is in talks to raise around $1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund, per Bloomberg.

Why it's the BFD: It's already the world's most valuable AI startup, having raised money earlier this year at a $4.5 billion valuation. And this additional money would help further shift the balance of power from privacy to security, with all of the trade-offs that entails.

AT&T is announcing today that Charlotte, Raleigh and Oklahoma City will be among the dozen cities that will get 5G service this year.

Why it matters: There's a big marketing battle shaping up over the race to 5G with all four major carriers saying they will be first in one way or another. Eventually 5G will pave the way for connecting whole new types of devices, but the first use will be for faster internet service.

Silicon Valley's tech companies have a new argument in the unfolding debate over their size and power: We're better than the Chinese competition.

Why it matters: Washington is concerned about both China's rise and the tech giants' power. Now the companies are trying to use the former to defuse the latter, as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg did this week.

After a months-long battle, Comcast said Thursday it would no longer pursue the acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, nearly guaranteeing that Disney will acquire most of Fox barring any regulatory concerns.

Why it matters: The combined company will nearly double Disney's size, giving it enough content and international assets to take on Netflix, which has quickly become a dominant force in the American entertainment industry.