Official Tello Mobile thread

[bobdevnul]

I respectfully disagree.

Tello was a great company when it started and until about a year ago when its PG utter confusion expiration debacle started.

Before that, I would have recommended it to anyone looking for a small MVNO with a personal touch.

As has been stated on this thread ad nauseam, Tello's C.S.R.s give wrong information more times than not and its new expiration policy is haphazardly applied.

I attribute it to Tello's exponential growth and the inability of its owners and (apparently, inexperienced) managers to handle it properly. Perhaps in four or five years (if it hasn't been taken over by another MVNO or carrier), Tello will no longer be disorganized. Who knows.

The handwriting was on the wall over a year ago that they wanted to get out of the paygo business. The only problems I have seen reported have been about scheming or trying to make Tello paygo work like it did a few years ago.

I have heard no problems with their monthly service and have one monthly line myself. No billing problems. It just works.

IIRC, Tello sold out to Tucows a while ago.

[jmac32here]

Tello told us that they wanted to get out of the paygo business over a year ago. No one should be bothering with Tello paygo now.

Other than paygo, Tello remains a good company to deal with. How things go with them being a Sprint MVNO remains to be seen. Personally, I wouldn't touch anything with Sprint until it is all sorted out with T-Mo.

This, I stopped using PayGo a long time ago. Most carriers don't want to be in the PayGo business and make it obvious by their policies regarding PayGo.
Honestly I think Tracphone is the only one left that isn't trying to push out PayGo in favor of monthly plans, and they are usually 2-3 times more expensive than anyone else. So I started doing monthly plans mainly because I was finding them to actually be CHEAPER than any PayGo options, even for glovebox phones. (Especially when you can get a plan for like $5 a month.)

As for Tello being a Sprint MVNO, that is going to change by the end of the year. They are already preparing to migrate all customers to T-Mobile's network.
(New customers will soon begin getting Tello branded SIMs for use on T-Mobile's network and existing customers will get migrated over a bit later. Existing customers will be sent out FREE SIMs to migrate over if they have compatible devices.)

[jmac32here]

I respectfully disagree.

Tello was a great company when it started and until about a year ago when its PG utter confusion expiration debacle started.

Before that, I would have recommended it to anyone looking for a small MVNO with a personal touch.

As has been stated on this thread ad nauseam, Tello's C.S.R.s give wrong information more times than not and its new expiration policy is haphazardly applied.

I attribute it to Tello's exponential growth and the inability of its owners and (apparently, inexperienced) managers to handle it properly. Perhaps in four or five years (if it hasn't been taken over by another MVNO or carrier), Tello will no longer be disorganized. Who knows.

Part of this issue is Tello is owned by the International company Keep Calling, which has done calling cards for 20 years.
As for Tello, it appears much of its PR is handled by their office in Romania.

[bobdevnul]

This, I stopped using PayGo a long time ago. Most carriers don't want to be in the PayGo business and make it obvious by their policies regarding PayGo.
Honestly I think Tracphone is the only one left that isn't trying to push out PayGo in favor of monthly plans, and they are usually 2-3 times more expensive than anyone else. So I started doing monthly plans mainly because I was finding them to actually be CHEAPER than any PayGo options, even for glovebox phones. (Especially when you can get a plan for like $5 a month.)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out if Verizon is able to buy Tracfone next year. My gut feeling is that Vz isn't going to keep paygo that gets them $5 a month for a line for long.

As for Tello being a Sprint MVNO, that is going to change by the end of the year. They are already preparing to migrate all customers to T-Mobile's network.
(New customers will soon begin getting Tello branded SIMs for use on T-Mobile's network and existing customers will get migrated over a bit later. Existing customers will be sent out FREE SIMs to migrate over if they have compatible devices.)

I was thinking of buying a Sprint branded phone as something I wouldn't touch. There have been reports of people contacting T-Mo about unlocking their Sprint phones and switching to T-Mo and T-Mo not taking care of them. Sprint had some of the worst carrier locking on their phones of anyone. I wouldn't want to buy a Sprint branded phone for $$$ and be stuck with it be non-functional off-Sprint until T-Mo gets things sorted out.

The Sprint network is in a state of flux too with T-Mo reallocating things. I want nothing to do with Sprint. Sorry Tello. I hope you survive the transition.

[jmac32here]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out if Verizon is able to buy Tracfone next year. My gut feeling is that Vz isn't going to keep paygo that gets them $5 a month for a line for long.



I was thinking of buying a Sprint branded phone as something I wouldn't touch. There have been reports of people contacting T-Mo about unlocking their Sprint phones and switching to T-Mo and T-Mo not taking care of them. Sprint had some of the worst carrier locking on their phones of anyone. I wouldn't want to buy a Sprint branded phone for $$$ and be stuck with it be non-functional off-Sprint until T-Mo gets things sorted out.

The Sprint network is in a state of flux too with T-Mo reallocating things. I want nothing to do with Sprint. Sorry Tello. I hope you survive the transition.

Tello is actually working pretty hard to survive the transition, along with most the other MVNO's that stuck it out this long. (Nearly all of them have begun announcing the "New" network now, with lifeline being the only exception and Altice Mobile.)

As for that $5 a month for PayGo, sometimes it's less, which is why nearly all PayGo carriers now require some minimum amount paid into the account at least once every 3 months or so. (This is usually a $20 minimum, so even the $5/100 Min monthly plan offered by Tello is CHEAPER than using PayGo for ANYONE. Not to mention the carriers that offer free Talk/TXT now too, namely TextNow.) Hell, even the lifeline program requires that the customer at least places one call on the device each month. So there really is no _great_ options for glove box phones anymore.

I am a wireless reviewer and a Tello customer. So I've been getting their updates as to their new network on the regular. The new SIMs will be available before the end of the year, so sometime next month at the latest. Then between the release of the new SIMs and the beginning of next year, they will begin sending out notifications and sending out new SIMs to existing customers. They have been boasting about getting on-board and migrated over to T-Mobile on the BLOG and on Facebook pretty much daily now. (With at least one major update regarding it once a week, which is better than it was since the initial announcement at the beginning of October. We waited nearly a whole month to hear anything new.)

As for those reports regarding Sprint devices, most of those were customers trying to force T-Mobile to migrate a device over to T-Mobile's network that is not compatible. T-Mobile already tried to inform them the only way to switch is to upgrade phones, which now requires being on a T-Mobile plan. Thing is many of them were informed to make the upgrade back when they were still able to while keeping their Sprint plans, but they refused and now are in this "stuck" stage since they waited too long to upgrade to a compatible device. Which means T-Mobile now has to remain "fair but firm" on this stance, since the devices won't be able to use any of T-Mo's network. The joys of carriers using incompatible technologies merging.

[bobdevnul]

...As for that $5 a month for PayGo, sometimes it's less, which is why nearly all PayGo carriers now require some minimum amount paid into the account at least once every 3 months or so. (This is usually a $20 minimum, so even the $5/100 Min monthly plan offered by Tello is CHEAPER than using PayGo for ANYONE. Not to mention the carriers that offer free Talk/TXT now too, namely TextNow.) Hell, even the lifeline program requires that the customer at least places one call on the device each month. So there really is no _great_ options for glove box phones anymore.

Truphone remains as true paygo with no recurring cost. Don't know if all would consider that a _great_ option, but it's good enough for me. It was my first smartphone service and I have had it for years as a backup. It is now my glovebox phone since Tello dropped my paygo. I have no criticism of Tello for that. I paid them $5 as the paygo deposit several years ago when Ringplus folded. They don't owe me anything.

I am a wireless reviewer and a Tello customer. So I've been getting their updates as to their new network on the regular. The new SIMs will be available before the end of the year, so sometime next month at the latest. Then between the release of the new SIMs and the beginning of next year, they will begin sending out notifications and sending out new SIMs to existing customers. They have been boasting about getting on-board and migrated over to T-Mobile on the BLOG and on Facebook pretty much daily now. (With at least one major update regarding it once a week, which is better than it was since the initial announcement at the beginning of October. We waited nearly a whole month to hear anything new.)

I still have one line with Tello on a $5 a month for 500 MB data only that we just use for a hotspot. I have not noticed any email communications from them about the transition.

As for those reports regarding Sprint devices, most of those were customers trying to force T-Mobile to migrate a device over to T-Mobile's network that is not compatible. T-Mobile already tried to inform them the only way to switch is to upgrade phones, which now requires being on a T-Mobile plan. Thing is many of them were informed to make the upgrade back when they were still able to while keeping their Sprint plans, but they refused and now are in this "stuck" stage since they waited too long to upgrade to a compatible device. Which means T-Mobile now has to remain "fair but firm" on this stance, since the devices won't be able to use any of T-Mo's network. The joys of carriers using incompatible technologies merging.

My Sprint phones are all old first generation LTE. They don't even use a SIM. They will never transition to T-Mo. It doesn't really matter to me. T-Mo is pretty horrible around here, especially without band 71. We will transition a Vz feature phone and the Tello Sprint phone to one new phone with Vz Prepaid for phone and hotspot. My Sprint phones are all fully depreciated and don't owe me anything.

I am looking forward to the end of Spinrt and Verizon CDMA so we can get on with modernizing the national cell networks.

[jmac32here]

As for the move away from PayGo plans.

Imagine if you were a carrier shelling out millions of dollars every month into your network, would you want your customers only paying you $5 only once every 5 years? If you didn't have the promise of incoming cash, say from monthly plans, you'd go bankrupt and have to close. (This remains true if your customers only paid $20 every 3 months, its making you run in the red.)

MVNOs are in a unique position. While they don't have to invest directly into the networks they ride on, they still have to shell out Network Access Fees to the parent network that is in line with the number of subscribers they have. Those fees are charged no less often than once a quarter, with them usually being monthly fees too. So these MVNOs are shelling out thousands of dollars in fees to the carriers each month. They cannot be sustainable on the PayGo structure, which is why there's been this push for monthly plans. The MVNO's have to pay those fees for all active lines, regardless of if those lines are bringing in the cash each month to pay those fees. So a lot of PayGo carriers ended up going bankrupt, while others decided to avoid that by pushing monthly plans.

If a carrier goes bankrupt, it has to close and cease offering all services to all their customers.

[jmac32here]

Truphone remains as true paygo with no recurring cost. Don't know if all would consider that a _great_ option, but it's good enough for me. It was my first smartphone service and I have had it for years as a backup. It is now my glovebox phone since Tello dropped my paygo. I have no criticism of Tello for that. I paid them $5 as the paygo deposit several years ago when Ringplus folded. They don't owe me anything.



I still have one line with Tello on a $5 a month for 500 MB data only that we just use for a hotspot. I have not noticed any email communications from them about the transition.



My Sprint phones are all old first generation LTE. They don't even use a SIM. They will never transition to T-Mo. It doesn't really matter to me. T-Mo is pretty horrible around here, especially without band 71. We will transition a Vz feature phone and the Tello Sprint phone to one new phone with Vz Prepaid for phone and hotspot. My Sprint phones are all fully depreciated and don't owe me anything.

I am looking forward to the end of Spinrt and Verizon CDMA so we can get on with modernizing the national cell networks.

Only reason I've gotten e-mails is because they know I'm a reviewer and have been active in asking good questions about Tello's future both on their BLOG and on their FB pages.

Most of the actual updates have been shown over FB.

[cellular-dude]

So all prices are going to remain the same after the T-Mobile transition?

[jmac32here]

So all prices are going to remain the same after the T-Mobile transition?

According to what they stated on their BLOG and FB posts, all rates will remain the same throughout the transition. So it looks like the plans won't be changing any at this point in time. (Also with T-Mobile offering some similar plans like their own $15 2 GB plan, I don't see anything to indicate T-Mobile would cost Tello that much more than Sprint did.)

[mo832]

Only reason I've gotten e-mails is because they know I'm a reviewer and have been active in asking good questions about Tello's future both on their BLOG and on their FB pages.

Most of the actual updates have been shown over FB.

I have a question that I'm almost afraid to ask since I anticipate I won't like the answer.

I am using a Sprint branded Phone Connect 2 device, which uses a cell voice line and adapts it to a landline device connection, with a standard RJ plug. As I understand it, the device doesn't even have a sim card, and is a dedicated Sprint device that either uses 3g or CDMA. It has been in use on Tello for about 1.5 years now with no issues.

But is this device going to be bricked soon? (when might this be?) Is there some tiny capacity of the old network that will be retained for legacy systems, like meter reading and such? Or is there a new device that will do the same function on the newer network?

[bobdevnul]

I have a question that I'm almost afraid to ask since I anticipate I won't like the answer.

I am using a Sprint branded Phone Connect 2 device, which uses a cell voice line and adapts it to a landline device connection, with a standard RJ plug. As I understand it, the device doesn't even have a sim card, and is a dedicated Sprint device that either uses 3g or CDMA. It has been in use on Tello for about 1.5 years now with no issues.

But is this device going to be bricked soon? (when might this be?) Is there some tiny capacity of the old network that will be retained for legacy systems, like meter reading and such? Or is there a new device that will do the same function on the newer network?

You can read the details of what T-Mo reported on the Sprint transition at:
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-t...ll-transcript/

Looks to me like they expect to be substantially done in 2021.

Will T-Mo inform you as a Tello customer? Unlikely. Will T-Mo inform Tello and Tello inform you? Who knows? Tello has been reported to be actively working with T-Mo to transition from Sprint to T-Mo. In any event your Connect 2 will be bricked at some point. AFAIK T-Mo does not have this kind of device service to upgrade to.

Unless Sprint had contracts for IoT devices like meters, etc., I doubt that T-Mo will leave even a small slice of Sprint CDMA for them.

Straight Talk has a device for this. It uses the Verizon network. $15 a month plus tax for unlimited calling. The tax on mine is something like 64 cents, but that varies widely by state and locality.

[jmac32here]

I have a question that I'm almost afraid to ask since I anticipate I won't like the answer.

I am using a Sprint branded Phone Connect 2 device, which uses a cell voice line and adapts it to a landline device connection, with a standard RJ plug. As I understand it, the device doesn't even have a sim card, and is a dedicated Sprint device that either uses 3g or CDMA. It has been in use on Tello for about 1.5 years now with no issues.

But is this device going to be bricked soon? (when might this be?) Is there some tiny capacity of the old network that will be retained for legacy systems, like meter reading and such? Or is there a new device that will do the same function on the newer network?

Like bob said, Sprint CDMA is slated to be shutdown by the end of 2021 entirely and CDMA only devices will all cease to function.

Tello has already stated on their BLOG on FB posts:
"Older Sprint phones will work up until at least mid-2021 and our great value plans will not be changed."
"The new network will continue basic CDMA voice service even on older phones until at least mid-2021."
"We will keep our customers updated with any migration steps that may be of interest to them and everybody will be notified well ahead of time on how to ensure that their service is not affected. We will provide at least 3 months of notice prior to a closure of the Sprint network and then (if you have not already switched over from CDMA phones) provide you information on how you can keep using the Tello service."

So, while your device will more than likely become a brick, they will begin communicating ways to keep the service active. (Though I've yet to see any other similar devices for T-Mobile, so I have no idea if they exist.)

Keep an eye on your e-mail, Tello account, and their FB page.

https://blog.tello.com/news/tello-an...sprint-merger/
https://www.facebook.com/tellomobile

[Rockchuck]

[Tello] will begin communicating ways to keep the service active.

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[mo832]

Straight Talk has a device for this. It uses the Verizon network. $15 a month plus tax for unlimited calling. The tax on mine is something like 64 cents, but that varies widely by state and locality.

A friend has this, but it is several years old. I actually tried to buy one before I found the Connect 2 but they were completely sold out at Walmart and the ST website was out and the CSR told me they didn't know when or IF they would get any more. All they sold was the refill cards for service.
Do you know if these are still available or is there a substitute?