04-05-2022, 12:03 PM
(04-03-2022, 03:17 PM)kwdevel Wrote: ...
Now for the reason(s) why everyone should be ALLOWED to change their IMEI.
Many providers (AT&T in the USA; Three(3) in the EU) do not activate a pre-paid SIM card if the SIM card is used with an unsupported brand or model of phone (stupid, greedy logic). I spent over an hour on the phone with AT&T trying to activate my prepaid SIM with the PinePhone. They were clueless, but provided me with a bunch of clues. First was "That brand isn't supported" is what they kept saying. Basically, their network did not recognized my device as being a "supported" device on the network. I had to take my new SIM, put it in an old AT&T phone I had, and let it register on the network which took about 2-5 minutes. After that, the network activated my SIM, and I was able to put it back into my PinePhone and IT FINALLY WORKED! There was nothing technically wrong with what I was trying to do and it should have worked, but AT&T must have a team of Chad's working for them just to make everyone else's life harder. If I had an easy way to change the IMEI on my PinePhone to the IMEI of my old AT&T phone, it would have worked immediately. T-Mobile doesn't have this problem. You can just buy a SIM, put it in any phone or modem, and it works (as it should!)
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Thank you for reading this long post and best regards!
finland has a law, which bans operators or carriers to block compatible devices. assuming the device is compatible enough. interfering devices and similar can blocked though. it seems that e.u. does not have corresponding law or directive.
https://finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2014/...#O9L29P246 , section 246
generally speaking, it just seems weird that u.s. carriers can arbitrarily block anything what they want for any reason. i recently heard for some u.s. carriers, that if device does not connect volte also known as "ims" then carrier bans other access as well like data and text messages.