US networks compatible with Volla phone
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In short: I have a Volla phone with UBports installed. T-Mobile is not working with it. Does anyone know of a US mobile carrier that works with the UBports on the Volla phone?
More details: I purchased a Volla phone and installed a T-Mobile SIM in it. The T-Mobile SIM works fine in a Librem5, it gets a 4G connection that allows me to browse the web and such. However, in the Volla, the same SIM only gets a 2G connection. When I first installed the SIM, I received a text from T-Mobile saying it did not have the correct APN settings and those would be sent to the handset. I checked the APN settings, set them to the ones given on the T-Mobile web site, but still nothing more than 2G service.
I went to the T-Mobile store to ask for help. They entered the IMEI number for the phone into a hardware compatibility database on the T-Mobile web site and told me that the hardware in the Volla phone is not compatible with the T-Mobile network, so no amount of APN changes will help the situation. Does anyone know of US mobile carriers that are fully compatible with the Volla phone?
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Checking the IMEI on the T-Mobile site says:
"For the best experience on the T-Mobile network, you'll need a phone that supports these key technologies:
Extended Range LTE helps deliver blazing-fast speeds on the T-Mobile network.
Voice over LTE provides crisp, clear audio quality and helps prevent dropped calls." -
@joebeach - for my Volla Phone I had to go to two carrier / dual sim usage in order to get both LTE mobile data and calls/sms going. I use a T-mobile SIM for calls/sms in slot 2, and Red Pocket Mobile (AT&T network) SIM in slot 1 for 4G/LTE mobile data. Be aware that this only works for mobile data if you are in an area where AT&T has 850MHz band supported - it works for me well here in Central Texas, but was not available when I traveled to Southern California (I used a backup running Lineage instead then).
I still get errors in receiving MMS of photo attachments or group texts, but apparently if you can figure out the right APN settings and have wifi turned off it can get these.
Best regards,
Steve Berson -
Adding another data point. I'm in the Bay Area of Northern CA and get 2G when using a T-Mobile SIM card and no service with an AT&T SIM card.
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G GT referenced this topic on
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I traveled to Europe (Iceland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Italy) and the Volla phone worked flawlessly there. Strong LTE signal, fast data, texts, and voice. That was using a T-mobile SIM that a bought in the US and the T-Mobile Magenta plan, which provides LTE data around the world.
So the Volla hardware is fine if you are in a place where the cellular service providers use the right frequencies. Unfortunately, the US is not such a place. In my experience, the Volla phone is basically unusable on mobile networks in the US. That is the case whether it is running UBports or Volla OS.
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@joebeach They're working on it,Check this link. https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/first-steps-in-volte-support-for-ubuntu-touch-3768
