US Mobile, via T-Mobile, won't support Pinephone Pro - SOLVED, SIMPLY
07-18-2025, 04:24 PM
Follow up on my last post.
US Mobile has recently undergone some changes to their "unlimited" data terms, especially in regards to Dark Star (AT&T).
I used 122GB on Dark Star and was hard-cut-off. Then, when calling their tech support three times, the customer service agents dodged explaining why. I was finally able to figure out that I had hit some secret hard limit, even though the agents were all telling me that I would simply be throttled down to a very slow speed after reaching the monthly data cap of 70GB. I found a post on Android Authority talking about some other user who had been hard-banned for going over 200-something GB.
Anyway, while talking with the agents, two of them separately accused me of using a router. I explained that the PinePhone Pro has what looks like a standalone Quectel modem, but that didn't seem to convince them. At the end of the billing cycle, my line was suspended, and I simply declined to renew the service and asked for a refund of the prepaid charge for the month.
I had never had any trouble going over the lower 35GB limit on the US Mobile Lightspeed (T-Mobile) network; they simply throttled it down as stated in the terms,, and that's fine with me. I'd rather have throttling than a hard-cutoff.
My suspicion is that AT&T's terms to its MVNOs are harsher than T-Mobile's. This is based on my seeing many used smartphones being sold on ebay where they state that the phone's IMEI has been blacklisted by AT&T.
In my case, it doesn't seem US Mobile has blacklisted my PPP by its IMEI yet; I can take a working Dark Star SIM from a different line and put it in my PinePhone Pro and it will work. But I figure I'll be flagged again by notes in my account and then have to spend hours debating with customer service that it's a phone and not a standalone modem, so I won't bother trying to get the PPP working with US Mobile again, on any of their carriers.
Instead, I'm planning on switching to Verizon (but I will need a Verizon-whitelisted IMEI). Then again, my PPP is getting so slow with the LINUX distros that I'm thinking of just retiring it entirely.
US Mobile has recently undergone some changes to their "unlimited" data terms, especially in regards to Dark Star (AT&T).
I used 122GB on Dark Star and was hard-cut-off. Then, when calling their tech support three times, the customer service agents dodged explaining why. I was finally able to figure out that I had hit some secret hard limit, even though the agents were all telling me that I would simply be throttled down to a very slow speed after reaching the monthly data cap of 70GB. I found a post on Android Authority talking about some other user who had been hard-banned for going over 200-something GB.
Anyway, while talking with the agents, two of them separately accused me of using a router. I explained that the PinePhone Pro has what looks like a standalone Quectel modem, but that didn't seem to convince them. At the end of the billing cycle, my line was suspended, and I simply declined to renew the service and asked for a refund of the prepaid charge for the month.
I had never had any trouble going over the lower 35GB limit on the US Mobile Lightspeed (T-Mobile) network; they simply throttled it down as stated in the terms,, and that's fine with me. I'd rather have throttling than a hard-cutoff.
My suspicion is that AT&T's terms to its MVNOs are harsher than T-Mobile's. This is based on my seeing many used smartphones being sold on ebay where they state that the phone's IMEI has been blacklisted by AT&T.
In my case, it doesn't seem US Mobile has blacklisted my PPP by its IMEI yet; I can take a working Dark Star SIM from a different line and put it in my PinePhone Pro and it will work. But I figure I'll be flagged again by notes in my account and then have to spend hours debating with customer service that it's a phone and not a standalone modem, so I won't bother trying to get the PPP working with US Mobile again, on any of their carriers.
Instead, I'm planning on switching to Verizon (but I will need a Verizon-whitelisted IMEI). Then again, my PPP is getting so slow with the LINUX distros that I'm thinking of just retiring it entirely.