Mobile Carriers in the United States

[rocket2nfinity]

*  I heard someone mention Google FI  a while back,  but I myself am not familiar with their  offering.

BUT  I am just a bit wary of all things Google,  that's just me.

There are cheaper plans for data, but no restrictions of any kind with Google Fi. If you have a  Nexus/Pixel you get access to three networks at one time - Sprint, us cellular, t-mobile. And you don't get charged for data you don't use.

The best part is international travel - no extra costs, no needing to get extra sim cards. It just works and for the price you normally pay.

[ThatGeoGuy]

Interesting :
Google Fi  data only...
  SO you are using your Pine phone as a mini pocket tablet, 
    Not as a phone ?

Personally,  I use mine mostly as a phone/text device,  and use the data as a hotspot for my laptop,  I prefer the larger screen for online usage.
  Can you still hotspot with the data only plan ? 
    > Some Carriers forbid hot spotting and tethering <
    My 'Prepaid' service Does allow both,  but the same carrier does not in the Post pay version
 
But it IS about making our own choices.

Indeed! I don't think the software is near mature enough to use as a daily driver yet, and I rely on my phone a lot for work. So I'm keeping my Pixel 3 for the time being, and keeping the PinePhone on data-only until the software is in a much stronger state. I may not be able to test phone / SMS / MMS, but for the most part I don't care since I rarely use those on my existing smartphone anyways.

The data-only option is good enough to test most of the things I care the most about (Matrix.org use, camera, browsing, mail, keybase, etc).

[brb78]

Any update on Verizon incoming texts? Has anyone gotten that to work? if so, how?

I'm in the same boat as you both, any progress on incoming texts via Verizon?

For everyone: How are missed calls/voicemails handled? If I have my phone off or in deep sleep (mobian + verizon), incoming texts and calls never show up once the phone is powered on.

*edit: Maybe I can get texts when the phone is in low power mode through the modem-manager-gui. I just received a text but the gui says it's from November 30, 1999, 00:00:00.
* edit 2: and now incoming texts through the same sender are showing up in the Chatty gui. Not sure how this happened but hope it sticks.

What distro are you on? I had a brief few hours of incoming sms on Mobian, after an update. Seems Chat has issues fetching sms from the modem. Probing the modem shows messages received, but Chat doesn't pick them up to display.

What is "modem-manager-gui"?

---

Using "modem-manager-gui" as my sms app I'm able to send and receive sms on VZ... not as polished looking as Chatty, but at least it works. The trouble I've had would seem to be on Chatty's end, not Pine64.

[0x070]

Any update on Verizon incoming texts? Has anyone gotten that to work? if so, how?

I'm in the same boat as you both, any progress on incoming texts via Verizon?

For everyone: How are missed calls/voicemails handled? If I have my phone off or in deep sleep (mobian + verizon), incoming texts and calls never show up once the phone is powered on.

*edit: Maybe I can get texts when the phone is in low power mode through the modem-manager-gui. I just received a text but the gui says it's from November 30, 1999, 00:00:00.
* edit 2: and now incoming texts through the same sender are showing up in the Chatty gui. Not sure how this happened but hope it sticks.

What distro are you on? I had a brief few hours of incoming sms on Mobian, after an update. Seems Chat has issues fetching sms from the modem. Probing the modem shows messages received, but Chat doesn't pick them up to display.

What is "modem-manager-gui"?

---

Using "modem-manager-gui" as my sms app I'm able to send and receive sms on VZ... not as polished looking as Chatty, but at least it works. The trouble I've had would seem to be on Chatty's end, not Pine64.

modem-manager-gui is a graphical program that lets you see and send texts. Just

Code:

sudo apt install modem-manager-gui

and there will be a clickable icon on your 'desktop' to access it. I'm using Mobian.

[bcnaz]

I am using very recent nightly build of Mobian O.S. on my Brave Heart, with AT&T PrePaid as my carrier.

As a GUI only user   it works very dependable, just a few imperfections :
  I get 3 copies of every incoming text on this very recent nightly download.  (I can live with that.)

I am using it "Out of the Box"  with no mods.  Everything is default settings.

From reading the other forum posts,  it seems  'some Verizon users'  have had success, some do not
   Possibly different operating systems ?

I do not think the UB community edition phone should act any different,  though I could be wrong there.

Good Luck,  BC

[YepYepperson]

I'm on Verizon and using Mobian. I didn't have to dial any number to get the APNs to show up, but it did take a while. It took maybe a minute for Network to show as Verizon, and then a few minutes after that I suddenly had the same list of APNs that the other person had. Then I could enable Mobile Data, and once I selected the "vzinternet" option, I received both a public IPv4 and IPv6 address. NetworkManager didn't populate the /etc/resolv.conf file, so after adding a manual nameserver entry, mobile data seems to be functional.

I've previously tried UBPorts and pmOS, both with no luck.

Also, calling and texting behave as others have described. Modem-manager-gui is needed to see received messages. Otherwise, that all functions fine.



Edit: It looks like the Mobian people are aware of the issue, and it's up to the Purism people to fix.

https://gitlab.com/mobian1/packages/mode...-/issues/2
https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/purple-mm.../issues/15

[Subsentient]

Using Consumer Cellular here, which uses T-Mobile towers.
VoLTE is supported, and I know it has worked because the audio quality is very high with some callers.
Any manufacturer that says your PinePhone is not supported, just report a different, supported model of phone and try the SIM card that way. Odds are, it will work. Seems they don't check that at network registration time. Other carriers that are restrictive about what phones they allow however, ymmv.

[daniel]

So, what works?

From I can read here...

TracFone send a text msg (February), UBports could call but no sound (February)
AT&T made a call (February) . Calling and texting. Data not working on UBports/Debian(March) SMS triplicate (July)
Verizon, not detected in UBports (February) calls text-on direction, data on Debian(March) not working (June)
T-Mobile, access denied (February)
Mint mobile call and text (March)
Red Pocket calls and text (March)
Sprint Unknown.
Google Fi data only, looks it works? (June)

Carriers using Verizon network: https://www.androidcentral.com/best-mvno...ns-network


So, my impression is that pinephone can get some features from different carriers, but this is still not properly working.
I might be wrong, since I only followed this thread, and info form other parts might be more precise.

Please it would be good if people with updates on carriers in the US could update

thanks

[natasha]

So, what works?

From I can read here...

TracFone send a text msg (February), UBports could call but no sound (February)
AT&T made a call (February) . Calling and texting. Data not working  on UBports/Debian(March) SMS triplicate (July)
Verizon, not detected in UBports (February) calls text-on direction, data  on Debian(March) not working (June)
T-Mobile, access denied (February)
Mint mobile call and text (March)
Red Pocket calls and text (March)
Sprint Unknown.
Google Fi data only, looks it works? (June)

Carriers using Verizon network: https://www.androidcentral.com/best-mvno...ns-network


So, my impression is that pinephone can get some features from different carriers, but this is still not properly working.
I might be wrong, since I only followed this thread, and info form other parts might be more precise.

Please it would be good if people with updates on carriers in the US could update

thanks

Thank you for summarizing. So, what carrier should we pick?

[KC9UDX]

It's possible that different accounts have different RF band permission. For instance, an AT&T unlimited plan might work different than a "pay as you go" plan or various plans with AT&T network MVNOs.

So you pretty much have to try out each plan on each service to know if it's going to work.

I don't have a PinePhone, but I've done the "bring your own device" thing on discount MVNOs about a dozen times over the years. So I've run into these "gotchas" a lot. Sometimes it's possible to find the actual technical restrictions of a given plan, sometimes it is not.

These appear to be the bands the PinePhone will work on:

Code:

LTE: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B8, B12, B13, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, B38, B39, B40, B41
WCDMA: B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B8, B19
GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 (MHz)

Are there current software restrictions on this?
At least you can mostly eliminate some plans just knowing this.