I live in the USA and own a Pinebook Pro. After my experience with that I look forward to experimenting with the PinePhone Pro.
My cell provider of choice is TING. They have a compatibility tool that requires the ESN, MEID, or IMEI of the phone. Since I do not HAVE the phone yet, I cannot provide that.
My questions then are:
#1 have we an example number that would give me the information I need to test/predict if the PinePhone Pro will work with TING?
#2 Is anyone else in the USA using TING with this phone? If so, can you tell me a little about your experience?
Ancient teacher (Secondary Field Science/Math), Warrior (USARNG- RET SSG), and IT warrior (30+ years Coder, Network/Systems Administrator, general house geek).
Pinebook Pro user (Debian, Manjaro)
(02-28-2023, 04:16 PM)wpeckham Wrote: I live in the USA and own a Pinebook Pro. After my experience with that I look forward to experimenting with the PinePhone Pro.
My cell provider of choice is TING. They have a compatibility tool that requires the ESN, MEID, or IMEI of the phone. Since I do not HAVE the phone yet, I cannot provide that.
My questions then are:
#1 have we an example number that would give me the information I need to test/predict if the PinePhone Pro will work with TING?
#2 Is anyone else in the USA using TING with this phone? If so, can you tell me a little about your experience?
i cannot directly answer these qustions, because i do not reside in the usa.
pinephone pro uses same modem chip than pinephone, e.g. eg25-g. i put pp's imei number to a website https://www.tingmobile.com/mobile/check_device , and it says "Sorry, this phone is not compatible with Ting". however, it seems that ting uses t-mobile network, what i know t-mobile has been more lenient about letting weird devices in.
(btw, ting website seems to work poorly on firefox).
i tested three pinphone imei numbers. beta edition imei says following, "Your phone is compatible!". and two says "no". if these are correct, ting has arbitrary blocks!
TING piggy-backs on main providers cell networks. My current GSM connection uses T-MOBILE. when I power up the phone the first connection says it is connected to a T-MOBILE network, then switches to TING as it detects the TING channels T-MOBILE has leased to TING. So you see the TING restrictions and also the other channel restrictions. Also Ting now requires VoLTE even if the other carrier does not, adding another exclusion for some devices.
You can see why I had to ask. It can be complicated.
So far, TING has been worthwhile. They have better service and friendlier support than any other carrier I have used in my entire life.
I had been paying about $100USD per line per month for a major carrier, and now pay under $50USD for THREE lines.
BUT I think I will have to wait for the next PinePhone (PinePhone Pro II?) and check compatibility again, or move to a different carrier for that phone.
Thank you for the replies! You helped!
Ancient teacher (Secondary Field Science/Math), Warrior (USARNG- RET SSG), and IT warrior (30+ years Coder, Network/Systems Administrator, general house geek).
Pinebook Pro user (Debian, Manjaro)
I am interested in this question too.
Has anyone actually used TING with a PinePhone Pro, and what issues were there?
TING says in their fine print that they use both T-Mobile and Sprint networks (the two companies merged, but their networks aren't fully combined yet, and T-Mobile has the unique 1700MHz band in North America, which may mean their two networks might never be fully combined). So, whatever phone you use has to be capable of supporting both T-Mobile and Sprint as it may flip-flop between the two networks while on TING.
(05-27-2023, 05:44 PM)dchang0 Wrote: I am interested in this question too.
Has anyone actually used TING with a PinePhone Pro, and what issues were there?
TING says in their fine print that they use both T-Mobile and Sprint networks (the two companies merged, but their networks aren't fully combined yet, and T-Mobile has the unique 1700MHz band in North America, which may mean their two networks might never be fully combined). So, whatever phone you use has to be capable of supporting both T-Mobile and Sprint as it may flip-flop between the two networks while on TING.
From user feedback, looks like work with TING/T-Mobile bit not TING/Sprint.
(05-27-2023, 05:44 PM)dchang0 Wrote: I am interested in this question too.
Has anyone actually used TING with a PinePhone Pro, and what issues were there?
TING says in their fine print that they use both T-Mobile and Sprint networks (the two companies merged, but their networks aren't fully combined yet, and T-Mobile has the unique 1700MHz band in North America, which may mean their two networks might never be fully combined). So, whatever phone you use has to be capable of supporting both T-Mobile and Sprint as it may flip-flop between the two networks while on TING.
(06-22-2023, 06:05 PM)tllim Wrote: (05-27-2023, 05:44 PM)dchang0 Wrote: I am interested in this question too.
Has anyone actually used TING with a PinePhone Pro, and what issues were there?
TING says in their fine print that they use both T-Mobile and Sprint networks (the two companies merged, but their networks aren't fully combined yet, and T-Mobile has the unique 1700MHz band in North America, which may mean their two networks might never be fully combined). So, whatever phone you use has to be capable of supporting both T-Mobile and Sprint as it may flip-flop between the two networks while on TING.
From user feedback, looks like work with TING/T-Mobile bit not TING/Sprint.
I used to work at a T-Mobile store about 6 months back. T-Mobile will not activate any new phones on Sprint's CDMA network as they are in the process of shutting that network down and redeploying the spectrum used by Sprint for T-Mobile's GSM/LTE network. Since the 3G network is shutting down, to clear out any last remaining Sprint CDMA phones, T-mobile was offering free replacement phones and warning users what was going to happen. So dchang0 is right when he says the two networks aren't ever going to be fully combined, Sprint's network is being killed and replaced. If someone could update the wiki page regarding Sprint support to reflect this, I would appreciate it. I'm not sure if I can.
Fwiw, Ting also uses the AT&T network. They bought the AT&T portion of FreedomPop and renamed it Ting Mobile, some years ago now.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
I bought a Ting GSM SIM and inserted it into my PPP, and it does work properly for calls and cellular data. I have not tried SMS or MMS yet.
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Will a Pinephone Pro (Explorer) work with TING
