*UPDATED* USA: T-Mobile (and MVNO) settings for a fully functional UT device

mw4jet

@rik I saw your posts on Telegram and figured I would give this a try. I had just reflashed my OP6T back to android 12 to peddle on Ebay, so I reflashed to UT and find no change from what I had before, Calls in and out, SMS in and out, no MMS at all. I have it in 2G on US Mobile.

Do you have any other MODS on the device? I had done some fiddling to the phone before but it's all stock UT now. I have a Pixel 3A but I cannot try it on US Mobile as it was supposed to be unlocked but it only works on AT&T so I cannot try that one.

rik

@mw4jet said in USA: T-Mobile (and MVNO) 2G settings for a fully functional UT device:

@rik I saw your posts on Telegram and figured I would give this a try. I had just reflashed my OP6T back to android 12 to peddle on Ebay, so I reflashed to UT and find no change from what I had before, Calls in and out, SMS in and out, no MMS at all. I have it in 2G on US Mobile.

Sorry I have lost track of your specific issues, but MMS photos should be working on US Mobile (T-Mobile). You do have wifi disabled when attempting to download a MMS, correct? Additionally, if it is a group MMS then you need the group pre-created (this is "fiddly": you need to look in the error log to find what phone numbers are part of the group message, then manually create the group with those numbers, then again attempt to download). I think @rocket2nfinity has an OP6T and can confirm that MMS is working in 2G mode.

Do you have any other MODS on the device? I had done some fiddling to the phone before but it's all stock UT now. I have a Pixel 3A but I cannot try it on US Mobile as it was supposed to be unlocked but it only works on AT&T so I cannot try that one.

Sorry you got a carrier locked one. For me, yes I did some "fiddling" in the past, but am now at "stock RC channel".

mdl

@rik Thank you very much for posting this. I just purchased a Pixel 3a for use on T-Mobile, not knowing that it would not work. This answers a lot of questions. Is there a table somewhere that shows which things work on which carriers? Which carriers are fully supported on UbuntuTouch? (meaning I don't have to fall back to 2G for simple phone calls)

rik

@mdl I am sorry to disappoint you, but from our testing your ONLY option for UT to work with USA carriers is the above T-Mobile (or mvno) settings. ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile all dropped their 3G networks last year and I don't think (??) anyone has gotten ATT or Verizon to work in 2G mode. 4G (LTE), as noted above, is not yet supported by UT Until very recently, we all thought there was NO carrier working with UT after the drop of 3G networks. Thankfully T-Mobile still works in 2G, so that is as successful as we are right now!

wizardi3

T-Mobile is phasing out 2G this month.

rik

@wizardi3 said in USA: T-Mobile (and MVNO) 2G settings for a fully functional UT device:

T-Mobile is phasing out 2G this month.

Do you have a source for this? According to their own site (link in first post above), "We’ve also shared that we plan to retire T-Mobile’s older GSM 2G network as well, but no date has been set. We will update this page with any additional information in the future."

wizardi3

@rik https://www.tmonews.com/2021/09/t-mobile-unveils-official-network-shutdown-dates/

AppLee

@wizardi3
Your article is dated 2021 and stipulates:

The information doesn’t reveal a timeline for T-Mobile’s 2G shutdown.

rik

@wizardi3 of course it is not certain, but in our discussions on the "North America Carrier Issues" telegram group, our speculation is that there isn't a lot of motivation for T-Mobile to shut down the 2G network. It's frequency spectrum doesn't conflict with pending 5G (that is why we understand US carriers have discontinued 3G: to free up the frequency band for 5G). Also, there are existing 2G industrial and commercial customers (warehouses, package tracking, etc.) that they make money from.

So, it certainly can be the case that they will shut down the 2G band with little warning, but we are hopeful that it will last long enough. In the meantime it remains the only way to have a working UT phone in the USA, so we will stay with it until we can't

wizardi3

@rik T-Mobile would not activate my Nexus 5, I will try their prepaid plan and just get a sim and see if it works. Local staff was not helpful on the future of 2G only talk about 5G which is not yet available from any carrier in my area.