Russian state bodies and law enforcement agencies to get own cellular network – report

Russia may get a dedicated cellular network servicing only civil servants and law enforcement agencies, Vedomosti reports, quoting a national plan framework for developing the digital economy. The proposal to create a separate network for state agencies has been included in the passport of the ‘Digital Economy’ program recently approved by the government, Vedomosti daily […]

AT&T wants you to forget that it blocked FaceTime over cellular in 2012

(credit: Aurich Lawson) AT&T’s push to end net neutrality rules continued yesterday in a blog post that says the company has never blocked third-party applications and that it won’t do so even after the rules are gone. Just one problem: the blog post fails to mention that AT&T blocked Apple’s FaceTime video chat application on iPhones […]

An AT&T drone is now providing cellular service to people in Puerto Rico

Enlarge / An AT&T Cell on Wings. (credit: AT&T) AT&T is using an LTE-equipped drone to reconnect some Puerto Ricans who lost wireless service after Hurricane Maria. This obviously isn’t a permanent fix for Puerto Rico, where 48 percent of cell sites are still out of service more than a month after the hurricane wrecked […]

Qualcomm covers all the bases with a cellular “vehicle-to-everything” chipset

Enlarge (credit: Qualcomm) A few weeks ago, I wondered whether connected cars might end up using LTE modems for Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications rather than the 5.9GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) protocol. Although the DSRC bandwidth was allocated in 1999 and the 802.11p spec outlined in 2002, the National Highway […]

Apple Watch with cellular service reportedly coming later this year

Apple may finally be ready to release a version of Apple Watch that cuts the gadget’s dependence on the company’s iPhone. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is readying an Apple Watch that works on cellular networks. It would represent a pivotal step in the development of the wearable. Since its launch two years […]

The Cellular as Spiritual: Olivier Assayas on ‘Personal Shopper’

The very standard, uninteresting scenario in which I meet Olivier Assayas — on a day when he’s giving a ton of interviews in a hotel lobby, designed with antique comfort precisely to hide the liminality of its purpose — at least feels fitting for a director so focused on lives lived in transitory spaces. This scene could be […]