Sim cards and carriers, discussion

[Angle]

So, it seems calling out usually works fine with Verizon, and sometimes I think I can get calls in, but text messages don't seem to work at all, either way. :/

Have you tried other carriers ?

No, I don't want to pay for another carrier, or get a new number. Though it might have to be that, or a new phone... XD

@Angle
You seem to have had better Luck with verizon than most...

Note: Verizon bought TracFone just a few years back, and I suppose that includes Net-10, as they were a subsidy of TracFone.
** TracFone resells  AT&T, T-mobile, and Verizon carrier services.

Mmm, yeah I gather so. XD

[county93]

Is there a data only SIM card available that someone has tried? I know of the one from US Mobile. I'm using VoIP only.

[bcnaz]

Is there a data only SIM card available that someone has tried? I know of the one from US Mobile. I'm using VoIP only.

There is the Google Fi  that I have seen mentioned here on the forum, 

but they are probably available from other sources/carriers as well.

[Angle]

Alright, I switched to mint mobile and entered the info the wholesale APN. I can now use my phone, except it constantly disconnects and reconnects to the APN, spamming me with notifications about that and about 'The modem shows no carrier.' This also means that when I make calls, the audio periodically cuts out, and then it eventually disconnects. I've heard that flashing biktorgj's firmware can help, thinking I might try that: https://sspaeth.de/2021/08/flashing-the-...pinephone/

[Zebulon Walton]

I've heard that flashing biktorgj's firmware can help, thinking I might try that: https://sspaeth.de/2021/08/flashing-the-...pinephone/

Let us know how you make out with that. I've not had many problems with the "002" factory modem firmware, just a very occasional disconnect where the modem is not seen by the phone. Doesn't happen enough to be a problem with my usage pattern which is leaving the phone off most of the time. My main interest in the FOSS firmware, aside from better support and bug fixes, is not having to worry about modem corruption if the power suddenly fails like the battery going dead during a call.

[parry]

Has anyone been able to get a Verizon or Verizon MVNO sim card to be recognized by the Pine phone ?

I guess 'plainenough' did get one going with the help from a Verizon employee at the retail store, but that seems to be the only one..?

So far in the US  it seems just AT&T and T-Mobile and their MVNO's are the carriers who have sim cards that work in the Pine phones.

US Mobile (not US Cellular) is a MVNO under their "Super LTE" branding and I have working calls, sms, and LTE. Tested under Manjaro Beta1 with the new modem firmware.

Interesting.  Im just going through this. I went to an ATT store (they dont have microSIM cards (the Pinephone uses microSIM cards) any more and this seems to be the case with the industry, they are all going to nanoSIM cards. TMobile did not have a microSIM card, they tried with an adaptor (I should have brought mine), but the adaptor was cut slightly differently and the nanoSIM card would not stay in place.  The chap at the Verizon store inserted a SIM card and it authenticated to Verizon, but we could not check whether a call could be made, because the SIM card was not loaded.  I told him that a verification of my IMEI with some of the providers basically came back with a message that the Pinephone I was using was not usable on their network, He said that as long as he was setting up the phone, he could add a usable IMEI number during the provisioning process which would allow the non viable IMEI associated with the SIM card to be used. Sounds a bit fishy, but that's what he said.     This link claims to be reasonably authoritative https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...er_Support about support for the phone.     If phone companies make a decision as to whether a given phone will be allowed to a network based on an IMEI, then we are in trouble.

[rocket2nfinity]

Has anyone been able to get a Verizon or Verizon MVNO sim card to be recognized by the Pine phone ?

I guess 'plainenough' did get one going with the help from a Verizon employee at the retail store, but that seems to be the only one..?

So far in the US  it seems just AT&T and T-Mobile and their MVNO's are the carriers who have sim cards that work in the Pine phones.

US Mobile (not US Cellular) is a MVNO under their "Super LTE" branding and I have working calls, sms, and LTE. Tested under Manjaro Beta1 with the new modem firmware.

Interesting.  Im just going through this. I went to an ATT store (they dont have microSIM cards (the Pinephone uses microSIM cards) any more and this seems to be the case with the industry, they are all going to nanoSIM cards. TMobile did not have a microSIM card, they tried with an adaptor (I should have brought mine), but the adaptor was cut slightly differently and the nanoSIM card would not stay in place.  The chap at the Verizon store inserted a SIM card and it authenticated to Verizon, but we could not check whether a call could be made, because the SIM card was not loaded.  I told him that a verification of my IMEI with some of the providers basically came back with a message that the Pinephone I was using was not usable on their network, He said that as long as he was setting up the phone, he could add a usable IMEI number during the provisioning process which would allow the non viable IMEI associated with the SIM card to be used. Sounds a bit fishy, but that's what he said.     This link claims to be reasonably authoritative https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...er_Support about support for the phone.     If phone companies make a decision as to whether a given phone will be allowed to a network based on an IMEI

I have been using the Pinephone with US Mobile verizon SIM since last March. You have to sign up using a verizon allowed phone imei. But, I have not been blocked, unlike on AT&T.

[bcnaz]

Back in 2020 I bought several dozen sim cards from different sources, all of those came in a plastic card form, where you punch out the size you need,

Full size, Micro, or nano sized*. I was looking for the best carrier with competitive prices. * ( this may have changed since then.?)

I only purchased from MVNO's as they are always cheaper, but there are only 3 real backbone carriers here, in the USA.

Verizon got scrubbed from my list pretty quick, while T-Mobile and AT&T --> MVNO's both were very easy to activate and use.

I finally settled on Pure Talk for my 3 'test' phones, I did have to mail order their sim cards, but there was very little 'set-up' just pop in the sim card and use the phone.

Free Phone Service ? --> NOT Really Free ! --> Just a politicians method for buying votes with taxpayers money.

For the government to give one person $50. USD monthly phone service, --> it likely costs $5,000. USD in taxpayer dollars.

[bcnaz]

Wednesday - - Feb. 23, 2022 RE: Kroger Wireless

I was just at the Kroger website, they have unlimited talk/text + 3gb data for $15 per month when purchased in 3 month packs ($45)

I put my Pine phone (rev:1.2a ) 'imei' number into their verification checker and I was approved.

( though I could not find any mention about hot spot availability )

I stopped just short of a purchase this time, but at that price I may give it a whirl soon.

[parry]

Wednesday - - Feb. 23, 2022    RE:  Kroger Wireless

I was just at the Kroger website,  they have  unlimited talk/text + 3gb data for $15 per month when purchased in 3 month packs ($45)

I put my Pine phone (rev:1.2a )  'imei' number into their verification checker and I was approved.

( though I could not find any mention about hot spot availability )

I stopped just short of a purchase this time, but at that price I may give it a whirl soon.

It was interesting to see your posts @bcnaz  about puretalk.  I had 3 different blackberries (but see the 2 Ronnies here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIaXSBSQ0W0 ) 1 Z10 and 2 Z30's. The Z10 was showing LTE (It was an STL100-3) on the ATT network and the Z30' s  one an STA100-5 and an STA100-2 showed 4G (which ATT really misled people about).  Based on the data https://www.phonearena.com/news/Cheat-sh...SA_id77933  it would have seemed that the Z10 and STA100-5 could have accessed the ATT network.  Of course there is the Voice over LTE codec that is needed and afaik the phone company has a lot of input into it and may even supply it -  I am dead unsure about the latter.

We were warned by ATT in early Feb(even before) that they would shut down the "3G" network on Feb 22 but I thought I would hold out until the bitter end. But I bought a purephone plan for our family and reduced out bill by about 50-60 dollars following your recommendations in anticipation that ATT's, unnecessarily stringent requirements (to make money no doubt) would not fall over Purephone.  Thanks
Yesterday (March 2) the 4G logo (it was really 3G ) that showed on my Z30's disappeared and it was clear that ATT has turned off the signal in my area.   I turned to an older iphone 6 which I had wiped, but despite the fact that it should have connected to the LTE bands, it did not get access.    Despite the fact that I asked Purephone directly whether it was supported (they said it did), and after migrating from ATT to Puretalk, the only phone showing up on my account (3 phones) that was supposedly NOT supporting LTE was my blackberr,y but the iphone 6 and iphone 6s did not initially.  It turned out that I could not update the SW because there was no room.  

My iphone 6 did not work on Puretalk despite the fact that it should have done but one of the other iphones, an iPhone 6s did work after upgrading the OS from 12 to 15.  So that was a rather interesting issue -  how was Apple determining the phone's function ?  It would be greate to know.

When all else failed I turned to my Pinephone.  It sort of works on Puretalk (I will post some details) but at least Puretalk does not ban it,  Frankly it is becoming eminently clear to me that this 3G migration is heavily coupled to sales plans by phone manufacturers. The challenges that Blackberry but most importantly Apple throw in making it  easy (they make it v hard) to move contacts are clearly very well thought out and intended to make it very difficult. It is a royal pain to move contacts from an iPhone to any other phone, but it is dead easy to move them in, say by a SIM card. It is not easy to move contacts from a Z10 or z30 blackberry as vcf files either as the files are not complete.  

I cannot rely on my Pinephone for anything right now. Yes it sort of makes calls, the audio quality is variable and poor on the latest majaro phosh and the simplest things like adding a pause to a phone call is impossible(like you would if you wanted to use a phonecard).   The battery life is lousy and the strange names given to the various  applications are far from intuitive.   So Im going to have to buy a used something or other while I try to make this pinephone useful.  I am still amazed at the business model of (a) buying a phone that does not work that well and (b) hoping that the community will make it better.  But one lives and learns I suppose..  If anyone has some suggestions about an OS that works well on the pinephone that
(a) Provides good voice quality
(b) Allows facile import and export of contacts and even just allows contacts to be edited!
© Integrates a good mail program
(d)Makes chat easy
(e)Improves the UI
(f)Allows pause characters to be added to a number

That would be great.  

In any case, thanks again for the pointer to Puretalk.  I will post some of the trials and tribulations of the 3G shutoff and the use of the Pinephone elsewhere in this forum.