BMW recently sent out an email of impending loss of 3G connectivity. > The decision to phase out 3G network technology was made at the discretion of the respective cellular carriers and lies beyond the control of BMW. As a result of the sunset of 3G service by wireless carrier partners, by February 2022 your vehicle will no longer be able to receive any ConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services, such as BMW Assist eCall, Ad…
I was going to say, this is going to be awful for so many devices. There's still quite a few areas along I5 that only get 3g.
BMW recently sent out an email of impending loss of 3G connectivity. > The decision to phase out 3G network technology was made at the discretion of the respective cellular carriers and lies beyond the control of BMW. As a result of the sunset of 3G service by wireless carrier partners, by February 2022 your vehicle will no longer be able to receive any ConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services, such as BMW Assist eCall, Ad…
The loss of 3G is going to be an unmitigated disaster it seems. Might even be appropriate for the FCC to step in and force them to keep it up. A lesser loss is that 3G often works in a big crowd where LTE is overloaded. Maybe that'll at least change to 5G vs LTE over time.
That's not the case everywhere. Depending on your network's configuration, it's entirely possible to have areas of high traffic where 3G service is so poor even 4G is miles ahead. This is because networks may decide to provides lots of spectrum to 4G whereas the spectrum available to 3G has be reduced to the bare minimum they need to operate. This is the case for all three networks operating here in New Zealand. One carrier has gone from providing 30 MHz of 3G spectrum down to only 15 MHz (basically halving the capacity), meanwhile the same network provides up to 80 MHz of 4G spectrum with plans to reduce 3G usage further so it can be reallocated to 4G or even 5G. Also 4G is so much better at handling poor signal conditions—I know of several places where the rollout of 4G saw marginal singal locations improve from sporadic data (coming in bursts randomly every now and then) to actually being able to slowly browse the web anytime with data coming in at a steady stream. The difference was like night and day. I'd be glad to see 3G go but am disappointed about all the issues with VoLTE as its making the migration to 4G more difficult.
Can confirm, I've worked with mobile phone related stuff for about 15 years and never before this article have I heard of a whitelist. My first reaction is that the concept sounds ridiculous, you're supposed to be able to put a SIM card to any device you find and just use it.
The US (not sure about Canadian) mobile market is completely different to the European one. It's almost alien in comparison - the carrier tries to control absolutely everything, and generally sees the handset as an extension of their network to the extent they want to "type approve" every firmware release on every handset that is "allowed" onto their network. Apple appeared to become the exception due to having such…
> Apple appeared to become the exception...
Apple was the exception because they initially went with AT&T. Jobs demanded no carrier interference. The first carrier they approached (Verizon, IIRC?) refused Jobs' demand, so instead of caving, Jobs went with another carrier.
Can confirm, I've worked with mobile phone related stuff for about 15 years and never before this article have I heard of a whitelist. My first reaction is that the concept sounds ridiculous, you're supposed to be able to put a SIM card to any device you find and just use it.
The US (not sure about Canadian) mobile market is completely different to the European one. It's almost alien in comparison - the carrier tries to control absolutely everything, and generally sees the handset as an extension of their network to the extent they want to "type approve" every firmware release on every handset that is "allowed" onto their network. Apple appeared to become the exception due to having such…
Apple went with Cingular not AT&T. The iPhone would not have been possible in this era of monopoly where we only have 3 carriers left. This is what we have lost not enforcing antitrust.
The US (not sure about Canadian) mobile market is completely different to the European one. It's almost alien in comparison - the carrier tries to control absolutely everything, and generally sees the handset as an extension of their network to the extent they want to "type approve" every firmware release on every handset that is "allowed" onto their network. Apple appeared to become the exception due to having such…
> Apple appeared to become the exception... Apple was the exception because they initially went with AT&T. Jobs demanded no carrier interference. The first carrier they approached (Verizon, IIRC?) refused Jobs' demand, so instead of caving, Jobs went with another carrier.
The carrier VoLTE support for limited phones is not just a single carrier issue but its for a lot of carriers all over the world.
And thanks to the Android ecosystem some phones which support VoLTE will never get the required update to have the carrier settings nor will the carrier get anything from the OEM to be added to that whitelist.
Blog fell over already. https://web.archive.org/web/20210718185549/https://benergize... Yeah, I got that second text. But the funny thing is, I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which is absolutely supported. Here is the whitelist [PDF] https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/wireless/Device... I contacted AT&T support via chat and they did some debugging. The last thing they had left to try was swapping out the SIM…
It seems like the only support specific variants which seems a tad ridiculous. My Canadian Samsung A51 doesn't seem like it would be supported because it's an A515W and not an A515U. What's the difference? I think for those two variants just the firmware.
I’ve flashed a Canadian S8+ to work on Verizon previously. It was a a royal PITA and I had to get the phone unlocked as well (carriers are required to provide the activation codes here).
It ended up working though and my grandmother is still using the phone.
I have an old OnePlus phone that still works fine, but it won't work with AT&T's network changes. I called and AT&T said I could get an iPhone SE for free, but when the contracts came for me to confirm, there was no mention of getting a free phone, and instead I was committing to paying $400 over three years. The AT&T reps assured me I'd get be credited at some point in the future and that the phone would end up bein…
I would record the call, that should be proof enough once they “forget” to refund you.
Someone else had all of their outgoing calls redirected to AT&T customer service. https://twitter.com/mcclure111/status/1415078945989566469
I just tried an "unlocked" iPhone 7 on my brother's Verizon prepaid, and SMS works, but calls don't. He bought a Samsung, and that seems fine. He's keeping the iPhone for Siri. I don't feel like teaching him how to enable Google Assistant just yet.
About 15 years ago I had a teacher who remarked that phones are starting to do more and more things. He said that it won't be too long until the calling functionality becomes spotty. I guess we're there now.
I have an old OnePlus phone that still works fine, but it won't work with AT&T's network changes. I called and AT&T said I could get an iPhone SE for free, but when the contracts came for me to confirm, there was no mention of getting a free phone, and instead I was committing to paying $400 over three years. The AT&T reps assured me I'd get be credited at some point in the future and that the phone would end up bein…
I would record the call, that should be proof enough once they “forget” to refund you.
Because no one can fake a phone call? Just get the offer in writing.