Carriers do not support PinePhone?

[rey70]

I went to an AT&T store and purchased a sim and phone number for my PinePhone. The rep told me that when they input the IMEI, if it was not allowed on the network, it would have said so. There was no notification that the IMEI was not not approved for use on the network.

I insert the sim and the phone never registers with the carrier network, all settings are correct, APN, etc., but still no registration. Reviewing the posts on the forum, this is a known issue and multiple people are using MVNO's to be able to use their PinePhone. I have had the phone for some time and when I first received it, I put the sim from my S5 into the PinePhone and was able to make calls, something has changed.

I would like to purchase the Pro but if it is not possible to use the phone to make phone calls unless I play whack a mole with different MVNO's, I don' think it is worth it. Is there any conversations with the Pine64 and the carriers to remedy this or is the current state only going to get worse until the phone is obsolete?

I am not complaining, just disappointed if this is the case. I am a long time OSS user, not developer, and am used to things not working and waiting for it to get developed and lending any help I can, documentation, testing, or whatever I can do to help.

Let me know if what I am reading is the unfortunate truth,

Jon

[Zebulon Walton]

I use my Pinephone on AT&T with no problem, however I had to active the SIM in a supported phone. They had shipped me a KaiOS 4G flip phone to replace my old 3G flip phone due to the phaseout of 3G service. Once the SIM was activated in their device I installed it in the Pinephone and it works fine for making and receiving calls. (I don't use mobile data though.)

[rey70]

I use my Pinephone on AT&T with no problem, however I had to active the SIM in a supported phone. They had shipped me a KaiOS 4G flip phone to replace my old 3G flip phone due to the phaseout of 3G service. Once the SIM was activated in their device I installed it in the Pinephone and it works fine for making and receiving calls. (I don't use mobile data though.)

Thanks Zebulon,

Is there a process to follow for this? Do you have to put the sim in a phone that already has a sim and is working in the working phone before you insert it in the pinephone or does that matter?

---

I use my Pinephone on AT&T with no problem, however I had to active the SIM in a supported phone. They had shipped me a KaiOS 4G flip phone to replace my old 3G flip phone due to the phaseout of 3G service. Once the SIM was activated in their device I installed it in the Pinephone and it works fine for making and receiving calls. (I don't use mobile data though.)

Thanks Zebulon,

Is there a process to follow for this? Do you have to put the sim in a phone that already has a sim and is working in the working phone before you insert it in the pinephone or does that matter?

I think I may understand what is going on. When I was at the store and getting a micro sim to replace the nano sim, because the nano didn't fit my device and I wanted to transfer the number to an older phone. When we first booted the phone and it came up, it asked for a network password, the rep had to call AT&T and request the number to unlock the device and allow the sim to work on the network. It was explained to me then that it was odd because they usually only see that when transferring a sim from one carrier to another, i.e. from T-Mobile to AT&T, etc.

I just put the sim into my working android phone and when it came up, it was asking for a network code to unlock the device. I don't think the pinephone "see's" this message and just boots and cannot register. You can go read below at the link to understand how to request a code to unlock the phone. When I tried this, the response back was I needed to wait 60 days after activation.....yeah, that makes sense. No, no it does not. I will go back to the store tomorrow and see if I can get this thing unlocked and if that solves the problem. Odd thing is, I had booted this sim in the other phone a couple of times but didn't get the Network Unlock message.

Will reply back tomorrow after I visit the store and explain to them what is happening, not really wanting to wait 60 days just to send in a request...crazy.

https://www.att.com/ecms/dam/att/consume..._FINAL.pdf

[Zebulon Walton]

60 days? That really is nuts. Once you have a SIM activated in a phone supported by AT&T you can just put that SIM in the Pinephone. Since this was a nano SIM I used a Micro adapter. You have to be careful that the SIM doesn't come loose from the adapter because you can wind up breaking pins in the phone trying to extract it. (I'm using an adapter that was part of a Tracfone SIM kit and it's been fine.)

[bcnaz]

Pure Talk is a AT&T MVNO, but their sim cards WORK --> just put in the card, Calls and Text work, ---> put the APN into settings and data works,

About half the monthly cost of AT&T, and much better customer service.

AND NO NEED TO ACTIVATE IN A DIFFERENT PHONE !

*( I currently have 3 'test' Pine phones on Pure Talk myself )
>>> Reminds me I should get another sim for my new 'Pro' phone

[Zebulon Walton]

Does Pure Talk provide AT&T's "outcall notification" service? (It would be in the account setup options if so.) I use that so I can keep the phone off most of the time and thus not be location-tracked 24/7. When someone leaves a voicemail message I receive notification on an old-style numeric pager which is a receive-only device. Also with AT&T I have the option of disabling SMS, though I had to call customer service to do that that - I don't do texting and don't want to be bothered with text messages. Those things are what's kept me with AT&T for ages now despite there being cheaper options.

[bcnaz]

I am not familiar with that function, but being an AT&T - MVNO, I would think that it may be possible.

You can call or email them, they have been quick to answer my emailed questions so far.

I have been with AT&T for a lot of years, They do have a pretty good system, but when something breaks
.... their customer service is "friendly" but they cannot fix anything, ---> after waiting hours on hold.

My daily use Pine phone is still on AT&T, -- But all of my test Pine phones are on Pure Talk. ---> ( I am Not trying to sell their service, just share my experiences )

Note : I had a Verizon Post paid plan back when cellular was new to Arizona, -- my typical monthly bill was over $1,000. USD per month.
---> Then I moved to a $20 a month prepaid plan from TracFone ! .... and I will never go back to Post Paid --> (or Verizon )
*** So all of my references here are about "PREPAID"

[undata]

I just moved the sim card from my iPhone into the Pinephone (base 2021 model) and it works. At first I didn't think it worked completely for SMS messages. But actually it does - just not Apple iMessage. So calls and messages work out of the box on both PMOS and Manjaro. This is with T-Mobile.

In general it's my opinion that most Linux offerings are doing things in a generic way that will work with almost any carrier. However if you overlook the obvious steps of trying different distros and making sure the repository you have is updated, you may think it doesn't work. When actually it could work, but you make it so that it can't work by trying to fix what is not actually broke. Don't have preferences at first and see what works out of box.

[bcnaz]

A year or so ago I bought and tried 30 or 40 different Prepaid sim cards just for test drives, most are very easy to install and activate. (in the USA)

It is as difficult as you imagine it is, be that simple or hard.

[rey70]

I took the phone down and got the network unlock code, which only showed up on the android when the sim was inserted and booted, the PP did not show the message. Explained exactly what I was doing and what needed to happen. You ever talk to someone and they get this look in their eyes where you just know they have no idea what your talking about but keep agreeing with you that they understand? So that didn't work.

Called the 611 number and explained the situation, I think they understood because they associated the sim to a "Miscellaneous EG25-G", that's the modem, so hope springs eternal. Waiting for the sim to arrive today and will give that a shot.

I also changed my OS from Mobian to Manjaro, I think Manjaro is using the updated modem code but not 100% sure. Mobian has not been updated by the developers since early last year, I was on the stable version. Didn't want to use testing or nightly, so I just put the latest Manjaro on, Beta 21, to ensure I had the most up2date OS.

If this doesn't work, and hearing that others are working, I am not sure how to troubleshoot the modem to ensure that nothing is wrong with it. I have no issue with AT commands or digging deeper but not sure what I am looking for.I am wondering if my IMEI is on some sort of blacklist because early on when switching the sim from my android and back to my android caused some sort of watch program to auto blacklist in the AT&T system, that will be hard to figure out.

Will post back when I get the new sim and share my results. Last resort would be to grab an old broken phone and use that IMEI on the PP for a test.

Jon