PureTalk work with Pinephone?

[car46999]

Hello all,
I checked before I bought my Pinephone that PureTalk worked, but now I am running into issues registering on the Cell network. And I found a few posts that make me think PureTalk started whitelisting Pinephones.

So is there anyone currently using PureTalk for voice and messaging in the US? Or does anyone know for sure that they blocked Pinephones?

Thanks.

[mikehenson]

Hello all,
I checked before I bought my Pinephone that PureTalk worked, but now I am running into issues registering on the Cell network. And I found a few posts that make me think PureTalk started whitelisting Pinephones.

So is there anyone currently using PureTalk for voice and messaging in the US? Or does anyone know for sure that they blocked Pinephones?

Thanks.

In my experience, AT&T is the one blocking PinePhones. I was kicked off 2 virtual providers that used AT&T as the backbone.
I have had issues with Verizon also.

I am currently using Patriot Mobile[1] T-Mobile (Make sure you get a T-Mobile SIM. They have both AT&T and T-Mobile)

Check the wiki for carrier support [2]

Here is the Patriot Mobile APN settings [3]

[1] https://www.patriotmobile.com/ 
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_C...g_carriers
[3] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_A..._T-Mobile)

[car46999]

Hello all,
I checked before I bought my Pinephone that PureTalk worked, but now I am running into issues registering on the Cell network. And I found a few posts that make me think PureTalk started whitelisting Pinephones.

So is there anyone currently using PureTalk for voice and messaging in the US? Or does anyone know for sure that they blocked Pinephones?

Thanks.

In my experience, AT&T is the one blocking PinePhones. I was kicked off 2 virtual providers that used AT&T as the backbone.
I have had issues with Verizon also.

I am currently using Patriot Mobile[1] T-Mobile (Make sure you get a T-Mobile SIM. They have both AT&T and T-Mobile)

Check the wiki for carrier support [2]

Here is the Patriot Mobile APN settings [3]

[1] https://www.patriotmobile.com/ 
[2] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_C...g_carriers
[3] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_A..._T-Mobile)

I appreciate the insight. PureTalk is a reseller for AT&T. 
I just recently tried changing my PP IMEI to one that I know is good for PureTalk. But still no luck getting it to register on the cell network.

I checked the carrier support WIKI previously, it lists AT&T as good. I also read several posts saying that PureTalk works.

Not really looking to change carriers, so for now I will continue testing and troubleshooting.

[car46999]

I went and bought a few other SIM cards tonight, tried the Mint mobile one first and it recognized the carrier, network type, and registered shortly after logging into the phone.


So the issue is PureTalk.


Does anyone know how to get this phone to register on PureTalk? I am not really wanting to change carriers at the moment.


Thanks.

[car46999]

I went and bought a few other SIM cards tonight, tried the Mint mobile one first and it recognized the carrier, network type, and registered shortly after logging into the phone.


So the issue is PureTalk.


Does anyone know how to get this phone to register on PureTalk? I am not really wanting to change carriers at the moment.


Thanks.

Finally had some more time to try a few more things.

running the command mmcli -m 1 --3gpp-scan --timeout=300

• Most of the time the command errors out with "Couldn't scan networks: QMI protocol error (3): 'Internal"
  
• Lists a list of carriers, none marked as "current", Puretalk is listed as either "lte, avilable" pr gsm avilable"
  
• Lists a list of carriers, Puretalk marked "gsm, current" or "lte, current"
  

I ran the command mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+QMBNCFG="list"'

• +QMBNCFG: "List",1,1,1,"VoLTE-ATT",0x0501033C,201909271
  

Stopped and restarted the eg25manager

Although it at times shows that Puretalk is current, it have not seen it show up as the current carrier in the GUI modem details.
And even when it does show that Puretalk is marked "gsm, current" or "lte, current", the next time I scan it will either present the error or just show avilable.

To me it really seems like it is a carrier issue, but I am not sure how to confirm this. And I suspect the carrier tech support for Puretalk will be of little help.

With a Mint mobile SIM inserted (connected to Tmobile, shows registered in GUI modem menu), mmcli -m 0 --command='AT+QMBNCFG="list"'
Couldn't scan networks in the modem: "unknown error" (is this because it is connected to a network?)


Any thoughts?

[car46999]

Still working on this as time permits. Figured I would continue to document my quest here.

Tonight just for kicks I tried an AT&T prepaid SIM (new, never been in another phone). It instantly registered on the AT&T network, shows 4G LTE network. And I got a text message inviting me to register my new service. 
mmcli -m 1 --3gpp-scan --timeout=300   shows AT&T as current each time I run the command. No errors. Interestingly it does not show PureTalk network as available (just 312, 311, T-mobile, T-mobile, Verizon, FirstNet, and AT&T).


Tried another Puretalk SIM (different than previous, already active in an Apple device). Same behavior previously observed, really the only difference I saw was that each time I ran the command mmcli -m 1 --3gpp-scan --timeout=300   I got the list of available carriers (no error messages like I got previously). (list of networks 312, 311, T-mobile, Puretalk, Verizon, FirstNet, and AT&T).

I think my next path is to investigate if the APN is being set correctly and or try as many different PureTalk/AT&T APN settings I can find and test.

[car46999]

I finally got my Pinephone working!! It did turn out to be an issue with the APN settings.

Running the following command got me a working phone: voice, cellular data, sent and received messages and SMS/MMS all tested to work.

mmcli -m 0 --3gpp-set-initial-eps-bearer-settings="apn=RESELLER,ip-type=ipv4"

As soon as I entered that command 4G showed up by the cell signal icon. Under modem status: carrier now shows AT&T, network type is lte, network status is registered.



This drove me crazy, glad I finally figured it out hope this helps someone else.

This is on Manjaro  6.0.3-1, which IIRC I used this OS to have working AT modem commands. I assume I could have gotten other OS(s) to work the same way. Gonna try out Manjaro for the time being.