AT&T tells consumers to change their phones since they will stop working

[spartaman64]

Quote

Amid an economy-crushing pandemic, AT&T has decided that now is the best time to send a scaremongering email to some customers, telling them that their device "is not compatible with the new network and you need to replace it to continue receiving service." The email conveniently doesn't even explicitly mention that this will only affect customers as late as February 2022, only linking to that information.

The email's formatting suggests that the easiest path forward is just getting a new phone via the carrier straight away: It advertises that AT&T makes "getting a new device online easy," detailing various free and fast shipping options. Someone who just skims over the mail without clicking the red "Learn More" button might conclude they need a new phone right now.

Quote

You might think that this isn't a widespread issue since most modern phones support 4G data and calling (or HDVoice, as AT&T calls it). However, AT&T only whitelists a small number of handsets it directly sells to customers for 4G voice calling, and it looks like identical non-carrier phones don't necessarily work with the carrier's HDVoice service, like the aforementioned Galaxy S10e. Depending on how many handsets are incompatible, this email might have gone out to a significant amount of subscribers.

source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/07/22/att-tells-customers-to-change-their-phones-or-they-wont-work-anymore/

 

Seems like a desperate move to try to get more sales because they had poor numbers. They should have had more information in the emails instead of leading people to think their phones will stop working soon especially with the pandemic. 

[Guest]

 

 

[jaslion]

Wait so you are telling me perfectly good smartphones people have just bought and that can still be bought new just will not work? That just sounds stupid to me.

[maartendc]

This is pretty repulsive tactics by AT&T, likely to get older customers to upgrade their aging phones, and boosting sales.

 

I could totally  see someone less tech savvy or older falling for this: "Oh no, I'm going to lose service, I should buy a new phone!"

[rcmaehl]

 

PHISHY as hell, if I do say so myself.

[williamcll]

Does this mean they are turning off 2G and 3G?

[AngryBeaver]

It is time for the FCC to step in and get rid of these carrier locked phones in the first place. Which sure as hell doesn't benefit the consumer and makes it possible for stuff like this to happen. Then again the FCC is next to worthless these days as they are in the pocket of the large corps and isps. What good is a consumer protection group that doesn't actually protect us.

 

If they had a massive exodus to other providers they would quickly change their tune on this. but what we truly need we will never see since these companies pay millions of dollars blocking any competition that might offer us something worthwhile .

 

The biggest slap in the face is if I OWN the phone and it has all of the functionality, but is being blocked by their crap software/bootloaders... then why do they have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do with said device. With all of these bootloaders it is becoming increasingly hard to root these devices an gain the proper admin access we should enjoy on these from DAY ONE!

[jagdtigger]

Aaaaand this is why i never buy a phone(or any device for that matter) from the carrier........

[circeseye]

16 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Aaaaand this is why i never buy a phone(or any device for that matter) from the carrier........

exactly

[Drama Lama]

1 hour ago, AngryBeaver said:

carrier locked phones

That is still a thing?

in what banana republic are you living  ?

[StDragon]

"AT&T tells consumers to change their phones since they will stop working"

 

Are they going out of business? Because if not, they will for advocating their customers move to Verizon. 

[suicidalfranco]

i blame the people who still keeps buying phones from carriers

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/07/22/att-tells-customers-to-change-their-phones-or-they-wont-work-anymore/

 

Seems like a desperate move to try to get more sales because they had poor numbers. They should have had more information in the emails instead of leading people to think their phones will stop working soon especially with the pandemic. 

Nah. I've worked for AT&T Wireless. It's almost certainly this:

a) the system is automated, it sees that the IMEI of the device registered is of a 3G-only or pre-VoLTE device

b) the system checks the last time they upgraded. If they have not upgraded their device since their last contract renewal, it creates a marketing plan and executes it.

 

AT&T Wireless, at least pre-cingular, you could basically get a free phone every 6 months if you paid attention to your contract time. The phones would be trash-tier, but they would be new. 

 

If there is more than 6 months remaining in a contract, it's not supposed to offer anything that would renew the contract because that is more expensive to AT&T. The ideal time to get a contract renewal is to anytime in the last 90 days of the contract, because that locks the customer in for longer, and AT&T gets more money out of them.

 

That is why, make sure any time you accept a devil's deal from your wireless carrier, that you get something for it. Because they will convince you to renew your contract just to lock you into worse promotions. Promotions can expire, but only if you change the plan. Hence it's never worth changing the plan for ANY reason, and thus remain month-to-month until the wireless company offers you a deal you actually want.

 

Hence this mass data mail-out is almost certainly triggered by those who have not replaced their device with one from AT&T (and thus the last IMEI is still on the line) in the last 2 years or have 6 months or less on their contract with no VoLTE device on that line. If you bought a phone directly from an Apple store, or an unlocked device elsewhere, chances are you likely got the mailout too.

 

Like it's not inherently evil to do this, but it's also not terribly honest because users who have non-VoLTE devices can just hang on to them until their contacts are up and then ask for better upgrades, or get a better offer from another carrier. Not that the carriers have been competitive at all since the disappearance of Sprint and Nextel.

[linkboy]

8 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Aaaaand this is why i never buy a phone(or any device for that matter) from the carrier........

The issue with AT&T is that restrict features like Wi-Fi calling and HD Voice to just phones sold by them, running their firmware (in the case of Android phones). Since some unlocked phones (they're relenting on this with iPhones and Samsung phones) lack VoLTE, they won't work anymore when the 3G network gets shut down.

 

Verizon and T-Mobile/Sprint are also shutting down their 3G networks, but they allow most newer unlocked devices to access features like Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE.

 

They're hands down the worst carrier in the US when it comes to using an unlocked device.

 

 

 

 

[Donut417]

22 hours ago, williamcll said:

Does this mean they are turning off 2G and 3G?

I think most carriers killed 2G. But 3G is probably on the chopping block as well. They will need the bands to do 5G and expand 4G. 

[ryao]

On 7/22/2020 at 2:20 PM, williamcll said:

Does this mean they are turning off 2G and 3G?

They turned off 2G years ago. If I recall, T-Mobile made a big deal out of how they would still have 2G until 2020 and tried to acquire all of the customers.

[Kisai]

47 minutes ago, ryao said:

They turned off 2G years ago. If I recall, T-Mobile made a big deal out of how they would still have 2G until 2020 and tried to acquire all of the customers.

Very wrong. T-Mobile did not have a 2G network, at least not by the marketing used in the US.

 

But this requires re-framing the entire "2G, 3G" problem.

 

Verizon (then GTE), AT&T, US Cellular, Cingular, Sprint, Nextel, Alltel and so forth's "2G" networks were all AMPS (Analog, 1G)-compatible networks. So all the predecessor networks were AT&T and whoever was "B side" spectrum. AT&T had half (A carriers), other local carriers (B carriers) had the rest (I'm recalling information that is very obsolete, so don't nitpick this.) This was all 850Mhz spectrum.

 

In 1984 AT&T was broken up, and some fun things happened. It resulted in several fragmented 2G networks.

 

D-AMPS aka PCS was all 1900Mhz spectum. This split into TDMA (AT&T, Western Wireless(T-mobile as Voicestream), Cellular One (Cingular)) and CDMA (Western Wireless(Cellular One), Verizon, Sprint, Alltel), with Nextel using an entirely different incompatible system called iDEN. All of these 2G networks were shutdown by the end of 2009.

 

For all intents, all 2G service in the United States and Canada ended in 2009. However what is called 3G in North America (GSM) is actually 2G in Europe.

 

AT&T's "3G" network was GSM-EDGE, and really it was 2.5G in internal systems. UMTS was the 3G network. So you had some phones that would say 2.5G, some would say EDGE, some would say 3G, and some would say 3.5G depending if they were using the GSM voice mode or EDGE(2.5G)/HSPDA(3.5G) data features. GPRS(2G) was supported but pretty much unused by the GSM devices as most devices at the time did not have bluetooth, and devices required tethering to use GPRS and it was slower than dialup. EDGE wasn't that much of an improvement. 

 

LTE is 4G. LTE-Advanced, is also... 4G

 

Devices that support LTE/LTE-Advanced also have GSM/UMTS/HSPDA radios in them and can not simultaneously use them. This is also why Verizon models that used the CDMA2000/1X voice mode, can not simultaneously use voice and data. Only LTE where VoLTE is supported can do that as only one radio is needed. CDMA2000/1X support requires two entire radio stacks in the chip and additional power amplifiers. As it is, most CDMA2000 cell phones do not support the AMPS mode anyway, as there hasn't been an AMPS network to connect to in 10 years.

 

So when Verizon and Sprint shut down their "2G" networks, they are really talking about their AMPS/D-PCS compatible networks, but those were running their own "3G" tech that has nothing to do with GSM 3G. Verizon is shutting down their CDMA2000 network this year, Sprint is still in the process of migrating things to T-mobile, but the same would be expected by next year.

 

This is why AT&T and T-Mobile shutting down their "legacy" networks, the 3G GSM networks is going to be a thing in the next 2 years as well. By the end of 2022 there should only be LTE/LTE-advanced networks in north America, and we will finally be back to one standard like it was in 1983.

 

T-Mobile started as GSM, so by US definitions, it started as a 3G network, under the brand Voicestream, which was later acquired by T-Mobile (Germany.) This also kinda hobbled it since GSM devices could not use the D-PCS or AMPS networks. 

 

The relationship between all the pre-4G carriers and each other is complicated as there's basically a babybell explosion in 1984, followed by multiple independant cellular networks before they all started merging with each other.

 

Verizon and AT&T are the surviving companies of the baby bells and their wireless ventures merging. 5 of the 7 became AT&T again. 1 of the 7 became Verizon, and the last one is CenturyLink which is actually a major internet backhaul carrier and didn't venture into wireless.

 

While we're at it, for completeness. 

Bell Canada hadn't been a part of the "bell system" for decades before the breakup, and thus was independant of goings on in the USA. Bell operates the Central/Atlantic Canada wireline and wireless

 

GTE (Verizon) owned investments in BCTel in Canada, prior to the breakup of the US Bell system, and references to GTE can still be found in pre-Telus documentation. BC Cellular was an early AMPS network. 

GTE created Sprint but had to operate it independently.

 

Rogers Wireless was previously known as Cantel AT&T, and previously just Cantel. AT&T owned part of Cantel at the time before Rogers bought it out. Rogers Wireless (as Cantel) operated 2G TDMA and GSM 2G networks.

 

BellSouth (BellSouth Mobility) and SBC (which had Cellular One) created Cingular One out of their previous AT&T spectrum assets, on GSM.

 

So what was sometimes called a 2G network on one carrier was a 3G network on another. Even some pre-LTE stuff that AT&T and T-Mobile engaged in called their 3.5G networks 4G. They also did this with 5G and had their arm twisted to not do it.

 

So AT&T has announced their 5G network now. Like literately today. Available August 7th.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/23/21335456/att-5g-network-nationwide-verizon-hbomax-warner-date

 

Quote

Both AT&T and rival Verizon have faced challenges about previous 5G claims; last year, the National Advertising Review Board recommended AT&T stop using its “5G Evolution” branding for its 4G networks because the claims could mislead customers into thinking they were actually getting 5G. AT&T agreed to stop using the branding for advertising and marketing campaigns, but it said it wouldn’t remove the “5G E” logo from smartphones. And just last week, National Advertising Division recommended Verizon stop making claims about its 5G coverage and speed, which it said were misleading about where 5G would be widely available.

Like literately, Verizon and AT&T were renaming their LTE service to 5G and just going "whatever"

 

[mcbaes72]

Yeah, got that notification email a few days ago.  I reported it to "abuse@att.net", but then found out that it's an actual email from AT&T.  

 

They need to explain it better, doesn't make me want to buy a phone from them.  It's the opposite, I'll continue buying used smartphones from shady, suspicious people on Craigslist. 

[Guest willies leg]

Don't want to fan the flames here, but T-Mobile is pretty good. Moved from ATT to T-Mobile a while ago, kept the same phone, just replaced the SIM, got a lot faster service and a lot cheaper. Even kept the same phone number. Took around 15 minutes at the T-Mobile store. Probably do it all online now.

Flame away folks!

[mcbaes72]

29 minutes ago, willies leg said:

Don't want to fan the flames here, but T-Mobile is pretty good. Moved from ATT to T-Mobile a while ago, kept the same phone, just replaced the SIM, got a lot faster service and a lot cheaper. Even kept the same phone number. Took around 15 minutes at the T-Mobile store. Probably do it all online now.

Flame away folks!

No flames from me, glad to hear you like the carrier, especially after the T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

 

I've been an AT&T customer for nearly 20 years, but if my Note 9 stops working by Feb 2022 (assuming I still have it) because it's not compatible with the network upgrade, I'll be upset.  But knowing me, I haven't left by now, I'll probably never leave.  So, I'll end up buying a used/refurbished smartphone that's compatible because I refuse to spend $1,000 + on a new phone.  That kind of $$$$ can go towards my gaming rig upgrade...haha!

[Nena Trinity]

Classic murican telecoms

[Results45]

Does this mean that this flip phone of mine is Dead?

 

.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Results45 said:

Does this mean that this flip phone of mine is Dead?

 

Depends. Does it support LTE, if not then likely at some point. I know that many flip phones back in the day only did up to 3G, as there was no point to give them LTE and at the time VoLTE wasn't a thing. But now that VoLTE is a thing, I think some flip phones have moved to LTE. 

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, Results45 said:

Does this mean that this flip phone of mine is Dead?

 

.

Almost certainly. If it doesn't show "4G" or "LTE" where it says 3G then it it's not an LTE device.

 

To tell if it supports VoLTE you need to locate the settings for network and see if there is a VoLTE/LTE switch. Phones made after 2016 should support it, but it may be network-dependent.

 

[atxcyclist]

The fact that an iPhone 5S will be bricked is unreasonable, that was a phone they sold refurbished not long ago.