Cellular

Everyone Thinks Elon Musk is Going to Build a SpaceX Mobile Network

The company is buying up spectrum.

Apple Does the Inevitable and Begins Development on Its Own Cellular Modem

After bringing processor development in-house with the arrival of its Arm-based M1 chip, Apple has now taken the next logical step by beginning the development of custom-designed cellular modems. In a recent town hall hosted by Apple senior VP of hardware technologies Johny Srouji, according to Bloomberg Srouji told employees “This year, we kicked off…

BBC Goes to Conduct Its First Broadcast Over 5G, Immediately Hits Data Cap

There’s a dark secret lurking behind all the promised benefits of the impending 5G networks slowly coming online around the world: All that extra speed and bandwidth is going to make it really hard to stay within your monthly data limits, as the BBC recently discovered with its first live segment streamed over 5G. Today,…

The Apple Watch’s Best New Feature Was Mysteriously Blocked in China

Apple may be riding the highest stock prices of its lifetime, but China continues to be a vexing problem for the hardware giant. With a high-profile legal dispute with Qualcomm threatening a ban on the iPhone in China and its market share in the country falling, more bad news arrived late last month when the…

AT&T’s Wi-Fi Calling Is Now a Cheap Way to Phone Home From Overseas

In case Google’s free voice calling or Skype wasn’t enough for you, iPhone users on AT&T now have a stupid-simple way to keep in touch when they’re travelling. Wi-Fi Calling—connecting a phone call over Wi-Fi, rather than the cellular network—has been a feature on iPhones since iOS 9 came out last year. In that latest…

Why I’ll Probably Ditch My Carrier For Google’s Project Fi

One month ago, we tried Google’s experimental cell phone service. It was a disaster. But I guess the second time’s a charm. After spending two weeks with Project Fi in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m just about ready to ditch my old carrier. What’s Project Fi? To recap, Project Fi is a new way…

The FBI Now Needs a Warrant To Use Its Phone-Sniffing Stingray Boxes

Privacy took a blow last week when the NSA got permission to keep operating a massive dragnet. Here’s some better news: As of today, federal agents should have a harder time using Stingrays to spy on cell phones. Today, the Department of Justice issued a new policy that requires federal agencies to get a search…

My Time With Google’s Cellular Service Was Mostly a Disaster

I glimpsed the future before it collapsed into bullshit. I wanted Project Fi, Google’s new and experimental cellular phone service, to be amazing. The idea sounded so superior to the status quo that it just had to be destined for greatness. But like the Star Wars prequels and most food with black olives, it let…

If You Live in the Southeast, Has Your Cell Phone Stopped Working? 

We’re getting a lot of tips about a widespread cellular coverage outage in the southeast for AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon customers. Local news stationsare reportinglarge outages in Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville in Tennessee, as well as parts of Alabama and Kentucky. Sprint has confirmed that it’s experiencing problems in Kentucky: We are aware of impacts…

Pro/Con: Why Google’s Fi Could Be Awesome and Terrible

Today, Google announced its very own wireless network. Just $20 a month for unlimited call and texts, plus $10 per gigabyte of data. No contracts or termination fees. Google will even refund your unused megabytes. Sounds awesome. So what’s the catch already? The catch is that if Google becomes a cell carrier, it’ll wield more…

Dish Just Agreed To Blanket San Fran With This Crazy New Cellular Tech

Dish wants to be a mobile phone carrier. Dish wants it bad. And Steve Perlman—the genius behind QuickTime, WebTV and OnLive—has spent over a decade working on tech that could allegedly leapfrog our current cell networks. So guess who just teamed up to potentially revolutionize the mobile internet? Yep. Dish just agreed to lease some…

Sprint has announced that it will close down its WiMAX network on November 6th 2015. So, if you haven’t made the switch to LTE, you have about a year to consider your upgrade options

Nvidia Shield Tablet LTE: Stream Games Anywhere (If You’ve Got the Cash)

I just stepped into the future of gaming. Well, that’s not quite correct. I sampled one possible future: the one where you can take the power of your entire gaming PC absolutely anywhere. I walked into a Starbucks, grabbed a mocha, and sat down with my brand spanking new Nvidia Shield Tablet with LTE. Then,…

The Android Hangouts Video Chat App Doesn’t Work on AT&T Cellular

If you try and use Google’s new Hangouts app for Android on AT&T’s cellular network, don’t expect to video chat—because you can’t. Slashgear reports that the video chat capability in the new Hangouts app doesn’t work on AT&T’s cellular networks, throwing up a message that reads “you must be on a Wi-Fi network to join…

Sprint Will Have LTE iPad Minis in Stores Today

Sprint has announced that it will be selling cellular versions of the iPad Mini, and updated iPad, in its stores as of this morning. Go grab one while you can. Sprint has explained that “limited quantities of the new iPad” will be available in select Sprint stores. It’s not clear how limited those stocks are,…

These 15 Cities Have Sprint LTE Service Right Now

If you live in Texas, Georgia, or the greater Kansas City metropolitan area, you might have woken up to suddenly zippier wireless data speeds. Sprint has now switched on 4G LTE service in 15 markets. Here’s a complete list of the covered areas from Sprint: Georgia: Atlanta, Athens, Calhoun, Carrollton, Newnan, Rome, Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth,…

The iPhone 4 Won’t Get FaceTime Over 3G Either

We heard that the iPhone 4 and 3GS were going to get stiffed over Apple’s new Maps app and its fancy Flyover and turn-by-turn directions, but it seems there are more things the older iPhones won’t get out of iOS 6, including 3G FaceTime. You’ll have to stick to Wi-Fi to FaceTime if you’re using…

iOS 6 Gives You Amazing Control Over Which Calls You Receive

There are a handful of cool features coming to the iPhone with iOS 6, Scott Forstall announced at today’s WWDC keynote. First up is Do Not Disturb, which tells your phone not to bother you with any push notifications or texts. If you want, you can choose not to receive any calls at all, or…

Japan’s Softbank Carrier Unveils Earthquake-Proof Floating Cell Towers

Even as Japan begins to emerge from the devastation from the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami, seismologists are predicting another 9.0 within the next four years. To protect its invaluable telecommunications network the next time around, Japanese carrier Softbank will deploy an emergency balloon network. Softbank is a major player among Japanese carriers, providing both internet…