US cellular service (as I understand it as of post date)
#1
The only network you'll have service on is based on T-mobile by the end of Feb 2022.

Coming into 2022 service did work on AT&T.    AT&T has decided on a whitelist for network access and the modem in the PinePhone is not on their whitelist.   Because AT&T liked to lie about 4G its possible the older 4G display on the phone was really 3G they called 4G.   It doesn't matter if they were supporting the phone in 4G before this switch or not based on "search to see if your phone will work" tools - come Feb 22nd or so.

Using the Verizon search tool the PinePhone is not listed as supported.

So Ting - here I come.
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#2
(02-05-2022, 02:34 PM)freebsd Wrote: The only network you'll have service on is based on T-mobile by the end of Feb 2022.

Coming into 2022 service did work on AT&T.    AT&T has decided on a whitelist for network access and the modem in the PinePhone is not on their whitelist.   Because AT&T liked to lie about 4G its possible the older 4G display on the phone was really 3G they called 4G.   It doesn't matter if they were supporting the phone in 4G before this switch or not based on "search to see if your phone will work" tools - come Feb 22nd or so.

Using the Verizon search tool the PinePhone is not listed as supported.

So Ting - here I come.

I'm on AT&T so will see if service stops working at that time. I don't use cellular data (have it turned off), don't know if that will make any difference. Maybe time to try changing the modem's IEMI.
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#3
[quote pid="106313" dateline="1644093264"]
Sorry not regular here but looking again at options for the PinePhone because T-Mobile just announced that by June 30, 2022 they will shut down their 3G network, meaning 4G VoLTE will be the only option for voice calls. As you note, a new SIM with AT&T will only register with 4G VoLTE (I think an existing SIM using 3G is still working for now).

Ting and other MVNOs like US Mobile (that I use) aren't an option: it is the physical networks that are shutting down. I confirmed with US Mobile they will have no choice to continue service for 3G customers.

So basically your device MUST support VoLTE :-( The "good news" is that as I understand VoLTE is supported by the Pinephone modem (builtin to the modem blob itself). That means that even Verizon is working for users that I have heard of on Mobian and even Ubuntu Touch (and I assume other distros if the DE supports it, since again the support is in the firmware of the modem regardless of OS).

Anyway, my pinephone has been collecting dust for the last year as I am a happy Pixel 3a with Ubuntu Touch user, but with VoLTE not supported in Ubuntu Touch, I am looking to revive the Pinephone until UT supports VoLTE which may be a long wait. I am not sure which distro to go for, but will try out Mobian and Manjaro (I think I read I will need Phosh for VoLTE to be usable, Plasma Mobile not supporting it yet??? but I will try that also).
[/quote]
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#4
This thread or any other thread that highlights the current state of supported cellular services for the PinePhone in every country needs to be stickied.

This issue came to mind for me after my 5 year old Sony Xperia phone got canceled by TMobile after trying to switch it to a prepaid plan... it was working fine until that point and then they straight up told me they didn't support my phone anymore. Needless to say, I canceled them.

From my understanding, and as it was pointed out by OP, the big 3 in the US are changing what phones they're supporting. My Sony phone has VoLTE support for its modem and it was running Android. Again, it was working fine until TMobile decided to change their minds to get me to buy into the 5G craze.

I checked all the 3 big carriers in the US and none support my Sony phone. I have no clue what this means for the PinePhone and its future but I would highly suggest there being a thread stickied to track any changes for this not just in the states but also for those in other countries.

While the majority owning a PinePhone might be in the US, the community needs to know what works where to keep thing open.

Unfortunately, as much as I would love to use my PinePhone on the daily, calls are not reliable yet and because I have one of the earlier PinePhones, the battery life really sucks on this thing. I'm not saying they're at a bad state now nor that they haven't made great strides--every knows they have--all I'm saying is I can't user it on the daily. I'm not opening this up for debate.

If there's a mod that can do it, I would see which of these threads can be stickied to put this very much relevant info out to the masses.
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#5
(02-05-2022, 02:34 PM)freebsd Wrote: The only network you'll have service on is based on T-mobile by the end of Feb 2022.

I was able to use an already-activated Verizon SIM in my PinePhone with 4G LTE.  I'm now using a Ting X3 SIM (T-Mobile?), also with 4G LTE.  I think I activated the Ting SIM in the PinePhone.
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#6
Quote:@thatrandomguy
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to use my PinePhone on the daily, calls are not reliable yet and because I have one of the earlier PinePhones, the battery life really sucks on this thing. I'm not saying they're at a bad state now nor that they haven't made great strides--every knows they have--all I'm saying is I can't user it on the daily. I'm not opening this up for debate.

I have not seen these problems in months. I think the OS you are using still needs more work. I can get a full day of light phone usage out of my phone. I have not missed any calls or text messages.

Carrier: USA - FaithWireless (Virtual AT&T)
Phone: 32G PinePhone
OS: Arch with Phosh
Calls: Calls from Gnome
Text: Chatty from Librem5
Signal: Axolotl
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#7
With any phone that supports VoLTE and is not on a carriers whitelist, the trick to activate has been to use an MVNO that does not care what your device is. You do need to provide an imei for a device that is approved on their parent network (which is what they provide the parent network). Then simply put the sim in your Pinephone, or other android phone, and you're good.

Red Pocket and US Mobile are good choices, some don't even require the imei from an authorized device.
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#8
(02-07-2022, 08:13 AM)mikehenson Wrote: I have not seen these problems in months. I think the OS you are using still needs more work. I can get a full day of light phone usage out of my phone. I have not missed any calls or text messages.

I can see why you haven't seen these particular problems, you're using Arch (or maybe Manjaro?). I don't find them reliable/stable. I'm waiting for postmarketOS or Mobian to make better strides. I will admit I got more battery life out of postmarketOS a few months back when they put out their new release but I literally left the phone on idle.

I can't test calls or texts since I don't really find the current state of things worth it for getting a new carrier. All I can base their status on is via their Gitlab issues.

Again, it's not that they haven't made progress, there's just a few kinks for the basic functionality that has yet to reach maturity.

Anyway, that is all off topic. I will not continue that discussion.

The thing the community needs to be made aware of is what phone carriers will support the PinePhone.
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#9
(02-08-2022, 06:12 PM)thatrandomguy Wrote: The thing the community needs to be made aware of is what phone carriers will support the PinePhone.

I will agree to that! 2 or 3 hours after I made that post, AT&T kicked my PinePhone off their network. I am going to try Patriot Mobile with T-Mobile towers.

I did some looking into why and found that AT&T could not throttle my internet speed.
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#10
It's looking like this year (2022) will be the year of big changes for mobile & PinePhone.

T-Mobile's EOL dates for UMTS & 3G:
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverag...-evolution
  • As of March 31, 2022 Sprint’s older 3G (CDMA) network will be retired
  • As of June 30, 2022 Sprint’s LTE network will be retired
  • As of July 1, 2022 T-Mobile’s older 3G UMTS network will be retired

My local MVNO (Cellcom riding off Verizon) has announced termination of all 2G & 3G service by EOY.  (And yes, we still have 2G / GPRS out here in the backcountry!) No specific dates ... so one day soon I won't be able to send SMS.

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.
PPv1.2a running PMOS ... almost a daily driver!
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