Best US Cell Carrier for PinePhone Pro

[Fred Zyphal]

First a short back story, then the answer at the end. I live out in the trees in Washington State, where there is virtually no signal. Because Comcast has cable buried in the road, I have decent internet, so about 5 years ago Verizon gave me a "network extender" which plugs into my local network and gives me my own private little cell tower inside my house. This has worked great with my 3G Palm Pre 3, but 3G is going away soon so I'm paying close attention to my original PinePhone and my new Pro now. Verizon said they would allow my PinePhone on the network, but I filled out the forms a long time ago, and it's going nowhere. In the meantime, I paid Consumer Cellular $9 a month to hang on to my old land line number that I had for about 25 years. This has turned out to be a blessing for the PinePhone because Verizon seems to be useless. I took the already activated SIM out of my cheap CC phone and stuck it in the original PinePhone and it worked, although I had to stand in one corner of the house near a window on coffee table to get usable signal. Once the PinePhone Pro arrived I was tickled to discover that it works far far better, I can use it in the deepest darkest corners of the dungeon otherwise known as my basement, it's amazing, it just works. So the answer to your question ...

Consumer Cellular, which piggybacks on either AT&T or T Mobile, works great for me in the Pro.

[S H]

First a short back story, then the answer at the end.  I live out in the trees in Washington State, where there is virtually no signal.  Because Comcast has cable buried in the road, I have decent internet, so about 5 years ago Verizon gave me a "network extender" which plugs into my local network and gives me my own private little cell tower inside my house.  This has worked great with my 3G Palm Pre 3, but 3G is going away soon so I'm paying close attention to my original PinePhone and my new Pro now.  Verizon said they would allow my PinePhone on the network, but I filled out the forms a long time ago, and it's going nowhere.  In the meantime, I paid Consumer Cellular $9 a month to hang on to my old land line number that I had for about 25 years.  This has turned out to be a blessing for the PinePhone because Verizon seems to be useless.  I took the already activated SIM out of my cheap CC phone and stuck it in the original PinePhone and it worked, although I had to stand in one corner of the house near a window on coffee table to get usable signal.  Once the PinePhone Pro arrived I was tickled to discover that it works far far better, I can use it in the deepest darkest corners of the dungeon otherwise known as my basement, it's amazing, it just works.  So the answer to your question ...

Consumer Cellular, which piggybacks on either AT&T or T Mobile, works great for me in the Pro.

So the Key seems to be to have an already activated SIM and not ask them to active with the PPP IEMI

[Fred Zyphal]

So the Key seems to be to have an already activated SIM and not ask them to active with the PPP IEMI

So it seems, even some of the Verizon users in this thread have eluded to that.  My Verizon Pre 3 is CDMA (no SIM card involved), as all US Verizon devices were before 4G, so when the time comes to give it up, I'll either buy a cheap phone with a SIM card in it, or order a SIM card under the "bring your own device" option and try to activate it with someone else's phone.  It just worries me a little that when you try that option, and get to the IEMI portion of the song and dance, it says "not supported", so they could potentially shut it off at any time.  Buying a cheap throw away phone with a SIM card in it might be the best way to go.

[kbm]

First a short back story, then the answer at the end.  I live out in the trees in Washington State, where there is virtually no signal.  Because Comcast has cable buried in the road, I have decent internet, so about 5 years ago Verizon gave me a "network extender" which plugs into my local network and gives me my own private little cell tower inside my house.  This has worked great with my 3G Palm Pre 3, but 3G is going away soon so I'm paying close attention to my original PinePhone and my new Pro now.  Verizon said they would allow my PinePhone on the network, but I filled out the forms a long time ago, and it's going nowhere.  In the meantime, I paid Consumer Cellular $9 a month to hang on to my old land line number that I had for about 25 years.  This has turned out to be a blessing for the PinePhone because Verizon seems to be useless.  I took the already activated SIM out of my cheap CC phone and stuck it in the original PinePhone and it worked, although I had to stand in one corner of the house near a window on coffee table to get usable signal.  Once the PinePhone Pro arrived I was tickled to discover that it works far far better, I can use it in the deepest darkest corners of the dungeon otherwise known as my basement, it's amazing, it just works.  So the answer to your question ...

Consumer Cellular, which piggybacks on either AT&T or T Mobile, works great for me in the Pro.

My T-Mobile SIM works just fine, but it was already activated using another phone. Also tried Freedom POP SIM and it worked without issue. But, also registered it years ago using a different phone.

My PPP was able to pick up the T-Mobile data settings from the SIM, which usually doesn't work.

[bcnaz]

USA, Southern Arizona

The AT&T prepaid sim card in my daily phone was "swapped in"  It originally came in a new iphone s5, when the iphone quit  the card went into a BLu phone, then into the Brave Heart phone and now into a PMOS convergence phone.
That sim card always had problems with data, but I have had that phone number for over 12 years, talk & sms text work almost perfect.

For test purposes I have tried Verizon from resellers and was never able to get any service.
On the Tmobile and AT&T "resellers" (MVNO's)  all the particular ones I have tried did "activate" fine in my Pine phones.
Talk, text, and cell data worked,  a few of those did take a few extra steps to get the data working, but it did work.

Granted that was short term, I only tried each of those for a single month each.

Currently I have 3 Pure Talk sim cards in my "for testing phones"  they were all activated in the Pine phones.
---  The sim in my new Pro was 'swapped' from a PMOS convergent phone, it 'works'.

I did have to call Pure Talk's service center to get the 'Hot Spot' data turned on, but their customer service was quick and friendly.
I have been using the Pure Talk sim cards for about a year now without carrier problems (so far)....

Since the forum is global, I did add the location at the top.

[realrichardsharpe@gmail.com]

The AT&T  "resellers"  work very well,  I have 3 test phones running effortlessly on Pure Talk prepaid,  and only 1/2 the monthly price of AT&T prepaid direct.
Their customer service is the best I have come across.    *(sim cards activate very easy in the Pine phone)

My daily driver Pine phone is still on AT&T because I have had that 'Number'  for years,  but the data is screwy there, 3 years of bugging tech support with no success.
Customer service is very friendly,  but ..... not much success.

all of the T-mobile  "resellers"  (like Simple) that I have tried,  activate and work with no issues.  *(sim cards activate easily in the Pine phone)

I have never had any luck trying to activate a Verizon sim card,  a very few have had store associates help them activate a sim in a different phone, then swap
..... that into their Pine phone.
................  but some of those encountered more problems later.

There are some threads on this forum that discuss this in great detail,    check the sim cards and carriers threads.

Hi, I had a quick question. I am trying to activate a sim card with T mobile but they refuse and say the PPP is not a compatible device. what did you say or how did you activate a sim card with T mobile?

AT&T switched off 3G around Feb 22. Does the phone still work on AT&T? I have had to replace two phones from China because they did not support the specific 4G bands AT&T wants.

[bcnaz]

UPDATE on Pure Talk :

The customer service lady I talked to at Pure Talk yesterday was very negative.

She said they will be disconnecting service for the Pine phones, regardless if they are 4g compatible !

I did not want to post this,  especially since I have previously been praising them.

I HOPE some other forum members have better news.

[Simon Belmont]

My existing Verizon SIM works. I've had the same one since I got my Galaxy S5 the first week those came out. Not really planned, it just happened to be the newest one when my previous flip-phone died. Actually, they might have just moved the SIM from that one, into the S5; come to think of it. Needless to say, it's a full-size SIM. And Verizon keeps asking me to head to their store to get it replaced with a modern ver. No chance!!! lol.. I'm not messing around with adapters, if I don't have to! My full-sized SIM is easy to get in/out of my PPP. Though, not much reason to take it out, really..

Just wanted to add to the "Verizon does work" side of the conversation.

[mikehenson]

I am currently daily driving a PinePhone with Patriot Mobile (T-Mobile)

https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_C...th_America

https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_A..._T-Mobile)