[Android Police] Some Flagship Phones will not work with T-Mobile

Agent181 · August 26, 2015

Android Police

If you're the happy owner of a 2015 Moto E, a pretty solid phone, you may also be a T-Mobile subscriber. You may have also bought the phone relying on the fact that it had a key forward-looking feature for the network - support for LTE on band 12. T-Mobile is the only national network here in America currently utilizing band 12 LTE (regional operator US Cellular being the next largest), and support for that band is key in congested metro regions, where its low 700MHz frequency provides superior building penetration and increased capacity for the network.

Well, in the latest update to the Moto E (Android 5.1) way back when, Motorola removed support for band 12 LTE from the device completely - and they're pointing the finger at T-Mobile

Motorola on reddit response

Thanks for providing these details. It is true that Band 12 support was removed with the update to Android 5.1. This was a carrier requirement over concerns about Band 12 connections by phones that are not capable of VoLTE. On non-VoLTE phones like the MOTO E, your phone could even show you have a signal, but would be unable to complete a call. At this point, there is no plan to change or address Band 12 support on the Moto E.

At least a couple of you have indicated that without Band 12, the Moto E doesn't meet your needs. If that's the case, please email me at [email protected]<script cf-hash='f9e31' type="text/javascript"> /* */</script> and include a link to this thread and your Reddit username and I will see what we can do.

The reasoning provided by Motorola support is simple enough, but we're not sure why it necessitates stripping out band 12 entirely. The explanation is that T-Mobile's band 12 makes phone calls over LTE only, meaning Voice over LTE must be supported by the end handset if that band 12 connection is to be able to complete calls. If there is no secondary band to drop back to (which could happen - T-Mo's band 12 is re-farmed EDGE spectrum), a user on band 12 may encounter a situation where they have full LTE signal and data connectivity but are unable to make a phone call (such as a 911 call, which to be fair, would be bad). Why this is a problem requiring the complete removal of band 12 support from some end devices, though, isn't clear. Couldn't such situations be handled on the back-end with a handoff to a compatible roaming partner if emergency services were needed? Isn't that the whole freaking point of E911? Will devices like HTC's unlocked One M9 (which does have VoLTE), the OnePlus 2 (which may get VoLTE), and Alcatel's OneTouch Idol 3 (which does not have VoLTE at all) continue to support T-Mobile band 12 down the road? Again, we're left scratching our heads.

TL:DR:

If the band fails then the phone will no longer be able to make calls and you have a dud phone that may not be able to do things at all, t-mobile is asking the device manufacturers to turn of the bad 12 LTE before they sell them. If this happens you may buy a phone that won't be supported on T-Mobile's network many of which that will be flagship phones.

Phone that will cause problems as of now will be 2015 Moto X Pure Edition (aka Moto X Style) and many more.