In recent years, unwanted calls have become a top priority for the FCC. In 2016, analysts estimated that US customers received over 2.4 billion robocalls per month. As a result, the FCC has provided carriers new tools to combat this problem.
Earlier this month, AT&T quietly introduced a new "Mobility Administrative Fee" which levies a $0.61 monthly charge to all postpaid contracts. While it's a seemingly small amount on an individual basis adding up to $7.32 per year, with its huge customer base, AT&T stands to make around half a billion from the tight-lipped move. AT&T has stated that the fee will "help cover certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell site rents and maintenance" that's consistent with other phone carrier...
Wouldn't it be nice to just sit at your buddy's house, plug into his network, and see exactly what he's doing? What if it was as easy as that? What makes packet sniffers like Wireshark such potent tools is that a majority of local area networks (LANs) are based on the shared Ethernet notion.