US cellular service (as I understand it as of post date)

[rik-shaw]

In the US, mobile on PP will have to work on 4G / LTE now.  No more falling back to 3G/2G to make a txt or call go through.

Verizon 4G VoLTE calls, data, sms, and mms all are working on the pinephone thankfully (confirmed just last week): the compatibility is integrated at the hardware level in the modem. So US users won't have an issue to use the pinephone / PPP. The US users that will have issues are those using any other device: halium devices like my trusty Pixel 3a running Ubuntu Touch do NOT have VoLTE support so I will have to go to the PP as my daily driver.

I am using US Mobile as the carrier with the "Black" Verizon SIM, BTW. US Mobile is very friendly to work with, no problems having devices "black listed" etc. I even registered a new SIM using the pinephone, but I did need to list an IMEI from a different device since the PP IMEI wasn't recognized as valid (but then when putting the SIM in the PP it activated just fine and I confirmed with US Mobile support this was not a problem).

[KNERD]

I have two cell phones with AT&T Mexico. One i have had for about 6 years, and older Android phone. The other is the Manjaro Community Edition. When was that? 2019?
For the old Android one, I kept getting messages from AT&T Mexico that I would need to change out my SIM card by February 2022 to keep using the phone in the US on the AT&T US network. Though they indicate the old phone does not support VoLTE, which they say I will need. I have not gotten any warning messages about the PinePhone being blacklisted, or other problems.

I'll be back in the US in a couple of weeks, and will be able to see what happens when the PinePhone gets back on the US AT&T network

[vap0rtranz]

rik-shaw wrote:

    I am using US Mobile as the carrier with the "Black" Verizon SIM, BTW. US Mobile is very friendly to work with, no problems having devices "black listed" etc.

We're in more agreement than disagreement but there are some important points to re-state.I do like US Mobile, but my cell signal while at home sucks.  If anyone is to blame, it's me for living way out in the backwoods    

My big beef with the 5G rollout --



-- the assumption that everyone everywhere is now covered by 4G/LTE is just fabricated myth.  If I were wearing a TinFoil Hat, the myth originates with BigTelco who want to push new sales of 5G devices on everyone, regardless of silica waste.  Not wearing a TinFoil Hat, an apologist would say 4G/LTE has been around for 10+ years, so get with the program! But ...



... this forum (and Reddit) show that fallback to UMTS/GSM or CDMA is. still. happening.  In 2022.  These folks aren't (always) using flip phones that pre-date 4G rollout, though it is nice to sweep them under the rug with the pithy: "upgrade your device".  Well, the PP is LTE capable, and anyways I'm not going to upgrade it.



The bigger point is several 4G devices are not always on LTE networks so fallback is still happening.  To be comedic: If everyone just picks up and moves to living next to new / upgraded towers, and doesn't travel away from any Big City -- so they teleport between Big Cities?? -- then the fallback "problem" goes away   My guess is: there will be Dead Zones again, like the 1990s -- large but remote areas where 2G/3G towers are not upgraded and simply shutdown.  Look at any map of GSM/CDMA vs 4G/5G -- if you overlay those maps and get rid of GSM/CDMA, there. are. gaps.  Oh but don't worry: Big Telco will fill it all in all the gaps with 5G, just like they've been doing for 10+ years with 4G!   "Let's Do The Time Warp, Again!"



We'll know soon enough if my guesses are right: https://www.pcmag.com/news/cdma-vs-gsm-w...difference

•         AT&T has already shut down its 2G GSM network and most recently said it will shut down 3G GSM/UMTS in February 2022.
  
•         T-Mobile will shut down 3G GSM/UMTS in July 2022. It has not set a date to turn off 2G, but has greatly reduced its coverage and quality.
  
•         T-Mobile will shut down the 3G CDMA network used by some Sprint and Boost customers on March 31, 2022.
  
•         Verizon will shut down its 3G CDMA network on December 31, 2022.
  

Some AT&T customers have very recently suspected their PPs were getting blacklisted, but given the EOL date from AT&T there ^, I wonder if their voice & SMS was actually riding on GSM/UMTS, and they simply don't have an upgraded tower nearby.  Just a guess ... because our PP's modem can negotiate LTE service and display "4G" very proudly to Phosh but still fallback during voice calls.  https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=14284



Humor aside: the entire PP community can test what's going to happen.  A forum member suggested switching to 4G only now.  <-- That works in UI for ModemManager + Phosh distros.

[KNERD]

After testing, my PinePhone works great with AT&T US.

[dukla2000]

Visiting the USA and trying to get a temporary prepaid SIM has been quite some experience.

I kept myself limited to T-Mobile & AT&T as research said they were the GSM folk: didn't realise till I came to this thread that Verizon had some potential but think they do not do short term/prepaid deals?

Short story - my recommendation is go into a T-Mobile shop. It worked for me: silly expensive for a few Gb of data compared to the UK but 1-off so no matter.

Longer version: AVOID boost like the plague! First their website would not load for me in the UK (based on geography which was bizarre) to check anything but my daughter got a SIM from Target that included 15Gb data for 30 days that needed to be activated. To activate you have to load an IMEI, turns out a Xiaomi 11 Lite we have is not supported as it is made in China! "It's not possible to use phones that was produced from China in the US. That seems to be the same case with other carriers." At this stage I was much bemused.

My PinePhone passed the IMEI test (even more bemused but hey-ho!) but no way would it activate the SIM. This short summary is after an hour or more online chat and a visit to a boost shop. They are completely useless - they have no ambition to help and could not give a monkeys about customer service. We did play the various games like "buy this black SIM from us as it will work" - "well, I have already paid for this white SIM of yours and it appears you are unable to get your stuff to work so why should I pay you more money ...." and they didn't get the irony!

[KNERD]

Visiting the USA and trying to get a temporary prepaid SIM has been quite some experience.

I kept myself limited to T-Mobile & AT&T as research said they were the GSM folk: didn't realise till I came to this thread that Verizon had some potential but think they do not do short term/prepaid deals?

Short story - my recommendation is go into a T-Mobile shop. It worked for me: silly expensive for a few Gb of data compared to the UK but 1-off so no matter.

Longer version: AVOID boost like the plague! First their website would not load for me in the UK (based on geography which was bizarre) to check anything but my daughter got a SIM from Target that included 15Gb data for 30 days that needed to be activated. To activate you have to load an IMEI, turns out a Xiaomi 11 Lite we have is not supported as it is made in China! "It's not possible to use phones that was produced from China in the US. That seems to be the same case with other carriers." At this stage I was much bemused.

My PinePhone passed the IMEI test (even more bemused but hey-ho!) but no way would it activate the SIM. This short summary is after an hour or more online chat and a visit to a boost shop. They are completely useless - they have no ambition to help and could not give a monkeys about customer service. We did play the various games like "buy this black SIM from us as it will work" - "well, I have already paid for this white SIM of yours and it appears you are unable to get your stuff to work so why should I pay you more money ...." and they didn't get the irony!

All you need to do is run down to some local store and purchase a prepaid SIM kit and throw it into the phone. Though some require you to call into activate, or use some sort of internet connection.

Some of the authorized branded stores will activate for you on the spot.

[dukla2000]

Visiting the USA and trying to get a temporary prepaid SIM has been quite some experience.

...

All you need to do is run down to some local store and purchase a prepaid SIM kit and throw it into the phone. Though some require you to call into activate, or use some sort of internet connection.

Some of the authorized branded stores will activate for you on the spot.

Yup - worked fine for T-Mobile.

The main point of my post was to advise to AVOID Boost.

Despite a long session online chat followed by a visit to their store they were unable to activate a Boost SIM (that had been bought from Target with 15Gb preloaded data). Rather than replacing their own product that would not work, their advice was to buy yet another Boost SIM and give that a go! I might be dumb once but I do try learn from my mistakes: my post is to try help others learn from my mistake. (I am still $30 out of pocket thanks to boost!) For amusement I attach a photo I took of part of the online chat that opines about phones built in China as evidence of my experience that Boost talk out of the wrong orifice - both the Xioami and PinePhone later ran the T-Mobile SIM just fine.
   

[kb-zealot]

Changing the IMEI will definitely work, then wait like 30min and remove/re-insert the battery for good measure I've got cell data working on my pinephone pro (2023/7).  I've noticed that installing Arch/sxmo as the main OS causes me problems with cell data for some reason, PostmarketOS/Phosh may be more stable.  On a related note if you've had an android device recently you can find get their IMEI numbers from google: lookup "your devices google"
bootloader: Tow-Boot
carrier: AT&T
main OS: PostmarketOS/Phosh
SD card: Arch/sxmo