Former Sprint CDMA Network Shutdown: 01/01/22

[jmac32here]

Even the phones Sprint sold 4-5yrs ago could have had VoLTE (at least for "high end android") but Sprint just never enabled it.

A six year old Galaxy S6 though... while it WAS a great phone (the last samsung phone I personally liked, actually), a mid-range android phone today is still going to perform far better with better battery life (and be on a current OS to boot)

Any cheap android phone from the time is going to be trash to use now, and the Galaxy series would only need a small update to enable VoLTE if T-Mobile decides to go that route (It would not be hard, as the S6 and above have at least B12 support), and iPhone 6 and newer just need a carrier pack update, but the 6 will have reduced service due to no Band 12 - but a phone that old simply needs replaced anyway - and i'm sure T-Mobile has plenty of refurb T-Mobile branded S7's around, as well as iPhone 6s's available to swap out for people, but it's still better to just give them a free, new mid-range device and move on.

Ill have to look into this since the 1st gen SE does have b12.


Sent from my Tello iPhone using HoFo

[DRNewcomb]

T-Mobile needs a solid, basic LTE flip phone to replace CDMA devices used by folks who aren't really interested in the current meta for phones. I don't consider a GoFlip or MyFlip to be "solid".

[Serial Port]

Id say that people who have paid their bill on time and kept that 3G phone for 10 years deserve a free replacement.

And because I have bought gasoline from the same station and drove the same car for 10 years I should get every other gallon of gas free. Yeah right .........

[bobdevnul]

And because I have bought gasoline from the same station and drove the same car for 10 years I should get every other gallon of gas free. Yeah right .........

No. That is not enough. They OWE you a new luxury model car of your choice. ;~>

[Serial Port]

No. That is not enough. They OWE you a new luxury model car of your choice. ;~>

LOL .......

As a society, we need to get over our entitlement mentality.

[jmac32here]

LOL .......

As a society, we need to get over our entitlement mentality.

I couldn’t agree more.


Sent from my Tello iPhone using HoFo

[brad15]

Ill have to look into this since the 1st gen SE does have b12.


Sent from my Tello iPhone using HoFo

Put a T-Mobile SIM in it, it'll register with VoLTE no problem.. just not with a Tello SIM.

iPhones using carrier packs and "just working" with any SIM I put in it is one reason I hate using Android now.. Apple did get that right and as someone who travels it's nice to not need to fuss with APN's and other settings.. everything "Just works" when I swap the SIM, regardless of where I got the phone.

T-Mobile needs a solid, basic LTE flip phone to replace CDMA devices used by folks who aren't really interested in the current meta for phones. I don't consider a GoFlip or MyFlip to be "solid".

I do agree, but at least Nokia did release the 225. I wish T-Mobile would carry it directly. I have one and it's a solid VoLTE bar phone, and has a decent UI... unlike most of those flip phones.

No. That is not enough. They OWE you a new luxury model car of your choice. ;~>

hah! I do love the mentality of some folks.. but I do hope T-Mobile steps up their game on having an *actual* replacement for basic phone users.

[jmac32here]

Put a T-Mobile SIM in it, it'll register with VoLTE no problem.. just not with a Tello SIM.

iPhones using carrier packs and "just working" with any SIM I put in it is one reason I hate using Android now.. Apple did get that right and as someone who travels it's nice to not need to fuss with APN's and other settings.. everything "Just works" when I swap the SIM, regardless of where I got the phone.

Not always true.

Had a friend port his iPhone 6s from Verizon to T-Mobile. Took him a week to get it to work at all, required doing some serious updates and resetting APN and network settings TWICE. Even then, he never got data to work on it, and it was missing bands for T-Mobile, so it didn't give him a good T-Mobile network experience. (This was 2 years ago.)

As for my SE:

Put a Verizon SIM in and everything "just worked" (Verizon did a popup that forced a re-provision of the device, which included a reset of APN.)

Put an ATT SIM in and had to manually reset APN.

Put TWO different T-Mobile SIMs in. One refused to even register (Invalid SIM) the other required I manually reset network settings.

As for my SPRINT SIM for Tello (since many Sprint MVNOs use SPRINT/BOOST branded SIMs and never got their own branded or even an unbranded SIM) had to again reset APN and network settings, then go onto Tello's site to force a re-provision of the iPhone to make it work with them after performing these tests.

Though now that I think about it, I now understand why many Sprint MVNOs will have "Sprint, Home, LG, Moto" or similar as the network name on the top of the screen - more than likely due to the use of Sprint branded SIMs. Other parent networks have given MVNO's either an unbranded SIM or the SIM is branded to the MVNO - so the network message can say "Tello" instead. (Like how MetroPCS says Metro)

[brad15]

Not always true.

Had a friend port his iPhone 6s from Verizon to T-Mobile. Took him a week to get it to work at all, required doing some serious updates and resetting APN and network settings TWICE. Even then, he never got data to work on it, and it was missing bands for T-Mobile, so it didn't give him a good T-Mobile network experience. (This was 2 years ago.)

As for my SE:

Put a Verizon SIM in and everything "just worked" (Verizon did a popup that forced a re-provision of the device, which included a reset of APN.)

Put an ATT SIM in and had to manually reset APN.

Put TWO different T-Mobile SIMs in. One refused to even register (Invalid SIM) the other required I manually reset network settings.

As for my SPRINT SIM for Tello (since many Sprint MVNOs use SPRINT/BOOST branded SIMs and never got their own branded or even an unbranded SIM) had to again reset APN and network settings, then go onto Tello's site to force a re-provision of the iPhone to make it work with them after performing these tests.

Though now that I think about it, I now understand why many Sprint MVNOs will have "Sprint, Home, LG, Moto" or similar as the network name on the top of the screen - more than likely due to the use of Sprint branded SIMs. Other parent networks have given MVNO's either an unbranded SIM or the SIM is branded to the MVNO - so the network message can say "Tello" instead. (Like how MetroPCS says Metro)

Verizon requires a feature code on the account (Advanced Calling) for that stuff to work

I've moved sims between each provider, I currently have accounts on all three networks.. been doing this since the iPhone 4, and never once had an issue unless the account was encoded incorrectly.

[hwertz]

iPhones using carrier packs and "just working" with any SIM I put in it is one reason I hate using Android now.. Apple did get that right and as someone who travels it's nice to not need to fuss with APN's and other settings.. everything "Just works" when I swap the SIM, regardless of where I got the phone.

Don't know if it fixes everything, but within the last couple years Android began using a "Carrier Services" app; the early versions were an empty useless app (since they knew they'd be using it soon, that way it could be pre-installed knowing it'd be updated to do something useful soon, rather than users having to manually install it later.) Apparently first the RCS (rich text) support in Google Messages showed up in Carrier Services, so other apps could use RCS more easily; after that, it started taking care of the IMS info (to set up VoLTE, text, MMS, RCS/rich text if the carrier supports it, and so on) that previously was as far as I know just included in the phone ROM somewhere. It says it's for back to Android 6, although I don't know that Android 6 even supports VoLTE so maybe it only does the RCS-related stuff on there. My KeyOne with 7.1 gets Carrier Services updates fairly frequently. I *think* with Carrier Services, you can in fact pop a SIM in now and it'll set stuff up like the carrier bundles do; instead of getting new sets of carrier updates, it gets updates to Carrier Services app.

[brad15]

Don't know if it fixes everything, but within the last couple years Android began using a "Carrier Services" app; the early versions were an empty useless app (since they knew they'd be using it soon, that way it could be pre-installed knowing it'd be updated to do something useful soon, rather than users having to manually install it later.) Apparently first the RCS (rich text) support in Google Messages showed up in Carrier Services, so other apps could use RCS more easily; after that, it started taking care of the IMS info (to set up VoLTE, text, MMS, RCS/rich text if the carrier supports it, and so on) that previously was as far as I know just included in the phone ROM somewhere. It says it's for back to Android 6, although I don't know that Android 6 even supports VoLTE so maybe it only does the RCS-related stuff on there. My KeyOne with 7.1 gets Carrier Services updates fairly frequently. I *think* with Carrier Services, you can in fact pop a SIM in now and it'll set stuff up like the carrier bundles do; instead of getting new sets of carrier updates, it gets updates to Carrier Services app.

That's correct.. but Android being android.. my OnePlus 8 for instance is still wonk, and it's up to the carrier to actually provision the IMEI for carriers like AT&T.

iPhones I like because not only do they have the carrier packs, but they're also universally supported by every carrier, and "just work"

Android is getting there, but still has A LONG way to go.

[techguru30]

They can disable obsolete infrastructure any time they want to and they don't owe you anything, certainly not an $800 phone to replace your ten year old one.

I disagree they are owed a comparable phone model to their older phone that is compatible with the new network.

[Serial Port]

I disagree they are owed a comparable phone model to their older phone that is compatible with the new network.

You would be incorrect. It's like trying to argue that if your 10 year old car suddenly became obsolete that you should receive a new model for free from your gas station.

[brad15]

I disagree they are owed a comparable phone model to their older phone that is compatible with the new network.

You can disagree all you want.. but like anything else that's mechanical it will eventually be obsolete, break down, depreciate, etc.

Any smartphone that does not support VoLTE is depreciated to practically nothing value wise, and new "feature" phones are only $100 now. You are free to order that with your $250 credit toward a new device.

[jmac32here]

You can disagree all you want.. but like anything else that's mechanical it will eventually be obsolete, break down, depreciate, etc.

Any smartphone that does not support VoLTE is depreciated to practically nothing value wise, and new "feature" phones are only $100 now. You are free to order that with your $250 credit toward a new device.

Feature phones can end up being well under $100, depending on what you are looking for and available offers.
I've seen a lot of VoLTE flip phones for $50-$75 and have seen some "value" (low-mid range) smart phones for $100 or less.