Cell Service Providers for Nexus 5?
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Hello. I just got a Nexus 5 and installed Ubuntu touch. But Verizon won't activate the phone because it is too old. I've checked some other providers with no luck. Can anyone out there tell me which service providers will still support this phone? thanks!
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My Nexus 5 works fine on Ubuntu Touch here in the UK so it is not a matter of the age of the phone. If you are in the USA I suspect it is more to do with national policy.
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@cliffcoggin Thanks for the response. Yeah. I am in the US. It is a policy thing. These providers are refusing to support older phones, but there must be providers that still support the Nexus 5's because I know other people here are using them.
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@fitz If you check the phones compatible bands it looks like the Nexus 5 does not have any bands compatible in North America except 2G and 2.5G . I would suggest looking for a OnePlus One. I got mine in near mint condition for $50 last year.
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@antidroid Thanks for the tip. Would 2G or 2.5G still work, but be slower? I'm open to getting a different phone, but a friend also ordered a couple Nexus 5s, so I want to try and get this one to work.
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@fitz The Nexus 5 has LTE bands. It will work on T-Mobile or AT&T (or any of the smaller ones like Metro, Mint, etc… that provide GSM SIMs).
As long as your phone is D820 (D821 is EU and I think might only get coverage on ATT in US), you should be OK.
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@fitz Well that is the carrier issue. In the US and Canada they use different frequencies than globally because the normal bands are reserved for military use in north america.
I did a bit more searching and found there are different models of the nexus 5 and some have more compatibility. But again US providers do some stuff making things harder for you. Like you need to activate the sim card in a new phone before putting it in a non-official phone.
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@antidroid The Nexus 5 was released in US market and has US frequency support. Please stop saying it doesn't work in NA. I used a Nexus 5 for like 4 years until power button died and the repair damaged wifi/bluetooth on it.
It works fine.
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@dobey I have a D820, but when I checked a number of service providers' websites (including Mint) for their supported phones by entering either "Nexus 5" or my specific IMEI number, they all said the phone was not supported.
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@dobey Did you check my link? It shows some models of the Nexus 5 only have 2 and 2.5g support which has almost no support in the US. Also most carries are dropping 3g as well which makes the phones less and less compatible. So I guess the answer is some models of the Nexus 5 are still partially compatible in North America for a short time.
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@antidroid and @dobey It seems some providers will support these phones if you've already had them on their plan for a number of years. They won't boot you off, but they won't let you bring any of these phones into a new plan.
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@antidroid No, because it's not true. There are only two models of Nexus 5, and they both have LTE. D820 is NA market phone, and D821 is EU market.
As for carriers dropping 2g/3g, yes that is true, though ti has not happened yet.
Verizon has always had Nexus 5 blocked, and it never worked on there.
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@fitz Right, it sounds like the problem is that you simply can't get a SIM card of the appropriate size, because all carriers are refusing to activate older phones, and all new phones are either the smaller nano SIM, or just straight e-SIM at this point.
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@dobey I actually got a SIM card of the right size from a Verizon store, but when I went home and tried to activate the phone, it wouldn't work.
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@fitz Yes, but Verizon is a two-fold problem. The Nexus 5 won't activate because is blocked by Verizon, and always has been. If it hadn't, Verizon was (is) a CDMA carrier, not GSM, so due to an issue in Ubuntu Touch, it still wouldn't work even if the device wasn't blocked by the network.
If you can get a proper sized T-Mobile SIM that is active, I can tell you for sure it will work (until they cut off 2g/3g access unless VoLTE starts working on Nexus 5 under UT).
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@dobey I see. So you're saying that I can't just get a new SIM from T Mobile that will work? How would I get a SIM that is active? Would it have to come from someone who is already using another phone on T Mobile?
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@dobey I just entered my IMEI number at the T Mobile site. It said my phone is not supported.
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@dobey I am not here to argue. I was just trying to help using the information I had being in North America and having to deal with carriers dropping bands. The problem is even bigger as the bands are dropped regionally so for one person it may work and for another it will not. It is often that low usage areas keep their old bands longer as they are not seen as worth the cost to upgrade the towers in those areas but busy places get new hardware and lose support sooner.
We are both correct. If I go on eBay and search "Nexus 5" I will not only get one compatible with US carriers because there are at least two model variations of nexus 5 so you can not just say that the Nexus 5 is compatible either. But as you say if you get a specific version of the Nexus 5 it is compatible in the US on certain carriers for a limited time.
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@fitz I don't know if they will give you one or not. You'll have to go into the store and see I guess.
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@dobey Okay. I'll try that. Will report back. Thanks!