News of Note—Samsung’s RCS, AT&T’s LPWAN SIMs, Affirmed Networks’ vEPC and more

Here are the stories we’re chasing today:

> According to new figures, more than half of rural Americans said it’s hard to access high-speed internet services. Cnet article

> Samsung said it will use Google’s RCS services in its phones. PhoneScoop article

> AT&T said its company-owned retail and authorized retail stores are now more accessible to customers with vision problems. Release

> AT&T said it is working with Giesecke+Devrient Mobile Security and Altair Semiconductor to “integrate a SIM into the modem chipset for deployment across licensed Low-Power Wide-Area cellular networks.” Release

> Affirmed Networks said its new virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) is now available to mobile operators on Amazon Web Services. Release