News of Note—Cricket’s referrals, EarthNow’s funding, Sprint’s unified communications and more

Here are the other stories we’re chasing today:

> Verizon’s Marni Walden is now the chair of Globetouch's board of directors. Release

> AT&T’s Cricket is offering credits to customers who refer their friends to the service. PhoneScoop article

> Google Fiber and Verizon have come to loggerheads with the NCTA’s one-touch-make-ready plan to accelerate the make-ready review process for new pole attachments. This is the latest battle in what has been a contentious debate between incumbent providers and competitors expanding broadband services. FierceTelecom article

> The California Cable & Telecommunications Association, a group representing Comcast, Charter and Cox, is teaming with AT&T to lobby against new net neutrality rules emerging from the California State Senate. FierceCable article

> EarthNow, which plans to launch hundreds of small satellites for real-time video, has received funding from the likes of Bill Gates, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and OneWeb’s Greg Wyler. Wall Street Journal article

> BT, Telefonica, Nokia and other tech companies have inked an international agreement to refuse to help governments launch cyberattacks. MWL article

> An NB-IoT agricultural pilot test in Norway tracked over 1,000 sheep across various locations. GSMA post

> Sprint said it launched a unified communication service powered by Cisco’s BroadSoft. Release