Most of the time put the stuff in a box, that I till box fills up & need the space as I still have way too many older things… most either need some TLC or go to that recycle shop in the sky.
It gets bad when the local Maker / Hacker space DON’T want your stuff either.
I can’t throw out stuff that still works or might still work. Old phones, computers, chargers, cords, cordless chargers, speakers, stereo equipment, kitchen appliances. “We might need it some day!”
I remember what I paid for some of these items (like an Adaptec 2940 ultra wide SCSI card) and I have a lot of trouble just pitching them. So, they sit around. I haven’t reached my storage threshold yet so they are still here.
Dang! I just looked up that card and they sell for over $200 on Ebay. I may be building my retirement.
All I will say is a very large chunk of the population have inaccurate personal definitions of the terms ‘old’ and ‘useless’.
One person’s ‘old’ iPhone 6 Plus could easily be someone else’s badly needed upgrade at an affordable price. A laptop that is several generations old could become an email machine for someone less fortunate. Many older electronics have eminent value to many people, but literal TONS of it gets recycled or worse, landfilled before people who need it get the chance to use it. One of the things I do is take old cell phones that are otherwise unusable to the general population and destined for recycling, clean them up, and give them away to people who need a way to dial 911. I also re-home loads of discarded electronics, which nets me a lucrative side income.
People who wipe old cell phones can give them to homeless charities. If someone can, it helps to add in a charger cable, a charging brick for auto/wall, and possibly donate $ to the charity to cover the cost of a cheap prepaid cell service.
The homeless often can’t get social/medical/housing/mental health services without a phone. And it’s nearly impossible to look for a job if someone has no access to the internet.
@Kyeh@PooltoyWolf@fool cell phones are an especially easy one. For homeless or any womens shelter. When you leave your house with nothing and might be at risk just being able to call 911 is something.
@fool@Kyeh@mike808@unksol Additionally, ALL phones, regardless of band, at least in the US, are legally required to be able to dial out to 911 if they can power on, as far as I remember.
@fool@Kyeh@mike808@PooltoyWolf ugh. I forgot about them shutting down the 3g network for some reason which is weird cause I was just making sure mine was configured correctly on my MVNO. That is a problem. Not just for donations. They absolutely won’t work on AT&T and it’s not like the people relying on them will have been told since they don’t have an active carrier.
@fool@Kyeh@PooltoyWolf@unksol
4G and LTE are fine (for a while longer), but AT&T (and Cricket by extension) are forcing people to buy new 5G phones because they won’t whitelist any non-5G BYOD phones.
I moved 5 lines off Cricket to Metro (which works just fine with 4G/LTE and 5G/VoLTE BYOD phones like my three 3-year old Nokia 6.1 phones). Metro threw in 2 free brand new Nokia N100 phones to boot. The plans are more expensive (to get the free phones - nothing is really free), but I changed them to the cheapest plan available $25/mo after the first month. Which happens to be what I was paying at Cricket.
I’ll probably move to full on T-Mobile prepaid because I can get prepaid cards on sale from Target, and Metro prepaid cards are only sold exclusively at Walmart, which almost never has them on sale or part of any 5% cash back category.
@fool@Kyeh@mike808@unksol How would this behavior manifest itself on a 4G BYOD phone? My Galaxy S9+ was working just fine ever since we bought a Cricket SIM to replace the one in my stolen S8+, up until three days ago, when I started experiencing very slow 4G data speeds. Almost as if it wasn’t working at all. WiFi is fine. I took the phone to a Cricket store today and the woman at the counter said she turned off a data warning on my phone, which I had set myself, which she claimed would limit my speeds. I didn’t think this could happen, at least on my older phones, because all it did was to notify me once I’d reached whatever data usage amount I’d set it to notify me of. So far, after the store visit, data seems to be working better again.
@fool@Kyeh@PooltoyWolf@unksol
AT&T (and Cricket) whitelisted the S9 on their 4G/LTE services a while back. Samsung is the biggest Android mobile manufacturer on the planet. They’re not going to piss off that many people by cutting them off. Folks like me that have a better made Nokia 6.1 but when Nokia doesn’t pay AT&T to get on the BYOD whitelist, they get left off. Especially after Nokia cut an exclusive deal with T-Mobile/Metro to launch the new Nokia X100 (competes with the Samsung A52 or OnePlus Nord 200).
@fool@Kyeh@mike808@unksol The phone never left my sight while at the front counter, and unless she could have set it up in about 20 seconds, I doubt things were changed. I do know WiFi calling has been available since I bought the phone in mid-February.
@fool@Kyeh@PooltoyWolf@unksol
The article looked like it had links to the settings to check if VoLTE was setup and turn it on if not.
It could be that AT&T or Cricket pushed an OTA update to your phone. Especially if you bought the phone from AT&T or Cricket (it has their proprietary defects, back doors, and bloatware baked into the Android firmware on your phone, on top of the Samsung customizations).
@fool@Kyeh@mike808@unksol This is a used unlocked handset bought from a swap meet; the device was sold for Verizon (per the Samsung box) but he had been most recently using it on T-Mobile.
@f00l@mike808 Technically it’s a Verizon phone I think, as that’s whose logo is on the corner of its retail box. It must either be factory unlocked or someone unlocked it before I got it, because the previous owner used it on T-Mobile, and it had T-Mobile’s splash screen on it until I inserted my Cricket SIM card, at which point the splash screen changed to an AT&T one.
@f00l@PooltoyWolf
Carriers won’t provide technical support for BYOD devices.
You might have some luck finding specs based on the exact model number.
It could be that your phone doesn’t do VoLTE on the same specific frequencies that AT&T (and Cricket by extension) has enabled it on. Because Verizon and T-Mobile might have added it to their towers’ primary frequencies and they’re different than AT&T’s.
@f00l@mike808@PooltoyWolf well. AT&T shutdown 3G at least two weeks ago I think? so it supports volte if it works. Since it had WiFi calling it should.
You could try dialing ##4636##
And seeing if it’s on but my byod unlocked to redpocket on att shows non configured but. It still works and they say all gsmn are enabled by default so I’m not to stressed about what the phone says since it’s still working.
@f00l@PooltoyWolf@unksol
They only shut down 3G. 4G services are working fine. That’s why it was mostly bullshit scare tactics to get people to buy new phones.
I’m getting 40 Mbps down 7 Mbps up using testmy.net. been a while since I tested/I don’t use cellar data. That is way faster than my land line internet. And way faster than my cell data used to be. Idk
@f00l@mike808@PooltoyWolf yes that’s true but when some phones showed 4g they were doing calls over 3g. Then some phones show 4g volte. It’s weird. Especially when you have an unlocked phone on a MNVO.
Mine doesn’t show what you want to see but it’s still functional so. I imagine that’s just a failure on provisioning. Cause. Layers of junk. I don’t care if it works
@unksol VoLTE is a feature only turned on by the carrier (or MVNO). It is a 4G extension (LTE) that is part of 5G. 5G is really a collection of capabilities, not all of them have to be turned on. It’s like “internet” isn’t just http (web). It’s RPC, FTP, SMTP, IPsec, etc.
So your phone might be making regular 4G calls, just not VoLTE calls. Or it could be doing VoLTE behind the scenes. It just depends on the carrier (and on which frequencies they support VoLTE), your phone (which might only support VoLTE on other frequencies) — and the tower provisioning you’re connected to (with yet a different configuration of supported frequencies), which might not be AT&T/Cricket and you’re really “roaming”, which would not be doing VoLTE which counts as data, not voice traffic. Even though both are digital.
@unksol AT&T/Cricket also whitelist devices. If your S9+ ain’t on their list, you need a new carrier or new phones. That’s why I left fired Cricket. My Nokia 6.1 literally would display “VoLTE” for a while if I power cycled my phone until AT&T/Cricket would check the IMEI and disable the feature on their side, going back to 4G. Then they started intercepting calls to play a recording telling me my phone wasn’t compatible with their network and to buy a new phone.
Since it was their choice to not whitelist a phone capable of VoLTE, I chose to switch to Metro (T-Mobile’s MVNO) and get new Nokia X100 phones for free during their Black Friday sale.
I will probably switch to regular T-Mobile prepaid soon. i like the X100 so far. A few quirks, but 3 years Android One and 2 upgrades was better than 1 year on the Samsung A52 and Nord N200 or the One Plus I was looking at.
@unksol The main quirk with the Nokia X100 is the dedicated “Google Assistant” button on the left side (thumb rest). Thankfully it can be disabled, and was. Shame it can’t be reassigned to some other function. I love that HMD doesn’t load up the phone with bloatware or T-Mobile/Metro crapware. It’s as close to stock Android as you can get that isn’t a Pixel. And the Zeiss camera lenses ain’t slouches.
@mike808@PooltoyWolf might be relative. My fully unlocked, fully VoLTE phone that I tested and worked when they said it was shutdown no longer works. I get pings for voice mails and can’t call it. Even though it’s the same hardware as the att version, because it’s unlocked, they blocked it even though they support the exact same one. Same bands. Everything. And it’s the same network.
I have to go by a shit $40 phone from Walmart to get calls I tested at the shutdown. To replace my much much better unlocked device. That fully supports their “5g” bands and protocol.
So att is intentionally blocking 911 capable phones
@mike808@unksol I am still having serious 4G data issues on Cricket with my Galaxy S9+. I verified the exact model number is on AT&T’s list of approved devices, and the IMEI is valid on Cricket’s website. I can make and receive voice calls and send and receive text messages just fine, but 4G data for anything is slow as molasses, to the point things like Twitter are literally unusable. On WiFi everything works fine.
A woman behind the counter at a Cricket store downloaded a network switching app to my phone, and I can sometimes get my data to work briefly by rapidly switching network types in the app, but other than that, being away from WiFi is almost like not having a data plan at all. I am really hoping this problem works itself out soon…I just bought this phone in February.
@mike808@PooltoyWolf idk on data speeds. Maybe an underserved spot and the switch over is overwhelming it? Would not surprise me.
I almost never used data or the phone. but I’m definitely annoyed they basically black listed my phone that I intentionally bought to avoid their BS. And spent good money on. And fully supports wifi calling and volte. And tested they were still up at the deadline. Then weeks later I start getting voicemails that don’t ring and I can’t call. From my boss. Ugh
@mike808 also yes att is BS but I have red pocket for like $99 a year I don’t use it much. The lg v40 unlocked should also support Verizon without att fuckery and can also be crossflashed. But not a good time to have your phone go out due to lies/bs. They could just switch it
@PooltoyWolf@unksol
I couldn’t be happier switching from Cricket to Metro (T-Mobile’s MVNO). T-Mobile has a new $15/mo prepaid plan that I’m probably going to switch to. No problems with volte on my Nokia 6.1 that AT&T/Cricket chose not to whitelist out of pure greed So fuck 'em.
I don’t like Metro’s $4 fee to pay your bill in-store vs online auto-pay. But that’s how the franchise stores make their money. And on “hidden mandatory” accessory bundling. i.e. they will waive a metro fee because they swap it for an overpriced accessory. Because they make commission on the accessory sale and don’t on the metro fee. What a dumb incentive model from corporate. Try to go through a corporate store, but the salespeople won’t cut you slack on any fine print.
I know several people who’ve left Att / Cricket / RedPocket recently over this.
One of my friends found a really cheap, mostly “call-text, little data” plan from T-Mobile, but I don’t know the specifics. I think it might be that $15 plan mentioned above.
This person told me: any phone that used to work on the ATT network, but that stopped working for calls when ATT shut down both 3G and enforced allowing VoLTE connections only for whitelisted devices (but said phone is good for LTE), ought to work fine on T-Mobile or a T-Mobile based-MNVO.
@f00l@PooltoyWolf@unksol
Can confirm. My Nokia 6.1 would indicate VoLTE in the display and then AT&T/Cricket would actually disable it. Switched to Metro and no problems. Metro upgraded me to the new X100 for free (Had to get the 2 lines $90/mo unlimited plan to start, and downgraded to $25/mo plans). Phones unlock automatically after 6 months.
@f00l@mike808@PooltoyWolf mine supposedly supports Verizon bands and I can probably switch to a different mvno. Just can’t test that because I can’t afford to have my phone offline or number switched/being ported at the moment.
Yet the cheapest Walmart phone works… Whatever. I hate that thing but it rings for a few weeks
@f00l@PooltoyWolf@unksol
Do you qualify for the government-mandated low-cost programs the carriers were require to offer as part of the 5G spectrum deals? Or is that too much socialism/big government for you?
That’s also why all the “base” plans got bumped in price, btw. Because carriers lie to claim they can’t survive on net profit margins (pre-dividend/cashpiling) of less than 20% to 30% with year-over-year increases. Greedy fuckers.
@f00l@mike808@PooltoyWolf
That is a real issue but no. I could get a more expensive plan but I use my phone so little. I’m just a cheap bastard. I check Slickdeals
I bought a nice unlocked phone 2 years ago . That supports all Carriers then I chose red pocket as my mvno. What they should have done in my opinion is send out warning that ATT has blocked you. They have your IMEI. They know. But instead a blanket 3g is dead and all volte GSMA phones will work. Despite knowing there is an att whitelist. I don’t use my phone much but I’m critical for work so…
@unksol
T-Mobile has a $10/mo prepaid plan.
The BIG catch is that prepaid does NOT include taxes and fees. Unlike the MVNOs prepaid plans. So be careful.
And my state, county, and local cities all have “use tax” referendums coming up. And they’re pitching it as a “help out little local guy compete” deal. It’s a tax increase, so they’re changing the subject by pretending there is confusion that it is a double-tax and dumb-splaining that it isn’t this imaginary thing they made up to cover their lies.
They’re really trying a tax grab on the mobile carriers (ATT, TMo, Verizon, & their MVNOs), cable (Charter, Comcast, Warner, etc), streaming (Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+, Hulu, GoogleTV, Roku, Amazon Video, etc) and delivery (Grub Hub, Shipt, Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc) and e-commerce (Amazon, eBay, all .com e-stores) companies - and there aren’t and never will be any “local” competitors to the Nevada, North Dakota, and Delaware companies for any of that.
They go in the old tablet box or the old phone box. For some reason the old cameras ended up with the phones. I have no idea why I am compelled to save these things and they’re surely a fire hazard.
My city has a good recycling program. Most is curbside except electronics which is done several times a month in select church parking lots. The only thing I don’t like is that they charge to take old TV’s. Which many don’t want to pay and then they end up in a landfill.
I gather that current my old kindle e-readers (2g and 3g) are dead unless they have a wifi chip, or can be used w a computer and USB cable?
I have a few old kindles in storage. I was so fond of them that I kept them each time I upgraded, except for a few I gave to people I liked, way back when.
I think the only kindles that even do 4g are the current gen luxe cellular/wifi versions of the Paperwhite and and the Oasis?
(Most people just get the wifi versions now, I think. Amazon has been charging a stupid high $ amount extra for the cellular ones).
If it’s game related I fix it.
Keep using them, just to irritate my teenage son.
<posted on iPhone 7, running iOS 9.2.1>
Most of the time put the stuff in a box, that I till box fills up & need the space as I still have way too many older things… most either need some TLC or go to that recycle shop in the sky.
It gets bad when the local Maker / Hacker space DON’T want your stuff either.
They’re sitting in the box until I get them to the recycle center … one of these days.
“Put them in the old, worthless electronics box, obviously”
And then someday
“Recycle them like an upstanding citizen of the world.”
I can’t throw out stuff that still works or might still work. Old phones, computers, chargers, cords, cordless chargers, speakers, stereo equipment, kitchen appliances. “We might need it some day!”
@00 I’m the same way…about most everything.
So, I won’t say that I have too much stuff…just that I have too little house! lol
@00 The junk man always laughs last.
I remember what I paid for some of these items (like an Adaptec 2940 ultra wide SCSI card) and I have a lot of trouble just pitching them. So, they sit around. I haven’t reached my storage threshold yet so they are still here.
Dang! I just looked up that card and they sell for over $200 on Ebay. I may be building my retirement.
Sell it on MyMeh.com
Not really my site…,
Maybe yours?
All I will say is a very large chunk of the population have inaccurate personal definitions of the terms ‘old’ and ‘useless’.
One person’s ‘old’ iPhone 6 Plus could easily be someone else’s badly needed upgrade at an affordable price. A laptop that is several generations old could become an email machine for someone less fortunate. Many older electronics have eminent value to many people, but literal TONS of it gets recycled or worse, landfilled before people who need it get the chance to use it. One of the things I do is take old cell phones that are otherwise unusable to the general population and destined for recycling, clean them up, and give them away to people who need a way to dial 911. I also re-home loads of discarded electronics, which nets me a lucrative side income.
@PooltoyWolf That’s great! I winder if anyone near me is doing that.
@Kyeh I just do it on my own heh, I’m not part of anything larger.
@PooltoyWolf Yes, that’s what I figured. I wish I knew someone local doing that.
@PooltoyWolf
People who wipe old cell phones can give them to homeless charities. If someone can, it helps to add in a charger cable, a charging brick for auto/wall, and possibly donate $ to the charity to cover the cost of a cheap prepaid cell service.
The homeless often can’t get social/medical/housing/mental health services without a phone. And it’s nearly impossible to look for a job if someone has no access to the internet.
@f00l This, absolutely. Even an old, basic smartphone without a SIM card and service can access the whole of the Internet wherever there is free WiFi.
@Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @fool cell phones are an especially easy one. For homeless or any womens shelter. When you leave your house with nothing and might be at risk just being able to call 911 is something.
@fool @Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @unksol
Old phones won’t work for much longer with the 5G push to shutdown the 3G networks to reclaim the bandwidth.
AT&T and Cricket are only whitelisting 5G phones and even blocking 4G phones to force everyone to buy new phones.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol That had BETTER not be why my Cricket data suddenly slowed way, WAY down as of three days ago.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol Additionally, ALL phones, regardless of band, at least in the US, are legally required to be able to dial out to 911 if they can power on, as far as I remember.
@fool @Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @unksol
Not if the towers don’t handle those signals/frequencies any more.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @PooltoyWolf ugh. I forgot about them shutting down the 3g network for some reason which is weird cause I was just making sure mine was configured correctly on my MVNO. That is a problem. Not just for donations. They absolutely won’t work on AT&T and it’s not like the people relying on them will have been told since they don’t have an active carrier.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol Yeah, that’s bad…
@fool @Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @unksol
4G and LTE are fine (for a while longer), but AT&T (and Cricket by extension) are forcing people to buy new 5G phones because they won’t whitelist any non-5G BYOD phones.
I moved 5 lines off Cricket to Metro (which works just fine with 4G/LTE and 5G/VoLTE BYOD phones like my three 3-year old Nokia 6.1 phones). Metro threw in 2 free brand new Nokia N100 phones to boot. The plans are more expensive (to get the free phones - nothing is really free), but I changed them to the cheapest plan available $25/mo after the first month. Which happens to be what I was paying at Cricket.
I’ll probably move to full on T-Mobile prepaid because I can get prepaid cards on sale from Target, and Metro prepaid cards are only sold exclusively at Walmart, which almost never has them on sale or part of any 5% cash back category.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol How would this behavior manifest itself on a 4G BYOD phone? My Galaxy S9+ was working just fine ever since we bought a Cricket SIM to replace the one in my stolen S8+, up until three days ago, when I started experiencing very slow 4G data speeds. Almost as if it wasn’t working at all. WiFi is fine. I took the phone to a Cricket store today and the woman at the counter said she turned off a data warning on my phone, which I had set myself, which she claimed would limit my speeds. I didn’t think this could happen, at least on my older phones, because all it did was to notify me once I’d reached whatever data usage amount I’d set it to notify me of. So far, after the store visit, data seems to be working better again.
@fool @Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @unksol
AT&T (and Cricket) whitelisted the S9 on their 4G/LTE services a while back. Samsung is the biggest Android mobile manufacturer on the planet. They’re not going to piss off that many people by cutting them off. Folks like me that have a better made Nokia 6.1 but when Nokia doesn’t pay AT&T to get on the BYOD whitelist, they get left off. Especially after Nokia cut an exclusive deal with T-Mobile/Metro to launch the new Nokia X100 (competes with the Samsung A52 or OnePlus Nord 200).
https://piunikaweb.com/2020/08/27/samsung-galaxy-s9-s9-volte-enabled-on-unlocked-cricket-wireless/
The Cricket rep probably also setup your VoLTE settings while they were troubleshooting your phone.
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol The phone never left my sight while at the front counter, and unless she could have set it up in about 20 seconds, I doubt things were changed. I do know WiFi calling has been available since I bought the phone in mid-February.
@fool @Kyeh @PooltoyWolf @unksol
The article looked like it had links to the settings to check if VoLTE was setup and turn it on if not.
It could be that AT&T or Cricket pushed an OTA update to your phone. Especially if you bought the phone from AT&T or Cricket (it has their proprietary defects, back doors, and bloatware baked into the Android firmware on your phone, on top of the Samsung customizations).
@fool @Kyeh @mike808 @unksol This is a used unlocked handset bought from a swap meet; the device was sold for Verizon (per the Samsung box) but he had been most recently using it on T-Mobile.
@PooltoyWolf
How to check:
Open Settings --> Connections --> Mobile Networks.
Toggle VoLTE Calls to ON.
@mike808 The VoLTE option does not appear there.
@PooltoyWolf
Sorry. Just like YouTube, there is no “unstar” counter. LOL.
Did you try the “search” feature of the Settings to find any settings related to “VoLTE”?
The interwebs says the S9 does VoLTE, so Shirley it’s in there somewhere.
@mike808
@mike808
@PooltoyWolf
Make sure your Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus is updated to Android 7.0 (Nougat) or above.
@mike808 It’s running Android 10! That’s definitely not the issue, haha
@PooltoyWolf Uh, call Samsung support?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@mike808 @PooltoyWolf
Maybe take the phone to your local friend who is the biggest geel or android fiend.
Or take it to a T-Mobile store than has in-house repair (not all of them do, call CS to find out which ones and then make an appt.)
They should be able to answer any q’s about settings, phone functionality, and what that phone is capable of on their network.
@f00l @mike808 Technically it’s a Verizon phone I think, as that’s whose logo is on the corner of its retail box. It must either be factory unlocked or someone unlocked it before I got it, because the previous owner used it on T-Mobile, and it had T-Mobile’s splash screen on it until I inserted my Cricket SIM card, at which point the splash screen changed to an AT&T one.
@f00l @PooltoyWolf
Carriers won’t provide technical support for BYOD devices.
You might have some luck finding specs based on the exact model number.
It could be that your phone doesn’t do VoLTE on the same specific frequencies that AT&T (and Cricket by extension) has enabled it on. Because Verizon and T-Mobile might have added it to their towers’ primary frequencies and they’re different than AT&T’s.
@f00l @mike808 @PooltoyWolf well. AT&T shutdown 3G at least two weeks ago I think? so it supports volte if it works. Since it had WiFi calling it should.
You could try dialing
##4636##
And seeing if it’s on but my byod unlocked to redpocket on att shows non configured but. It still works and they say all gsmn are enabled by default so I’m not to stressed about what the phone says since it’s still working.
@f00l @PooltoyWolf @unksol
They only shut down 3G. 4G services are working fine. That’s why it was mostly bullshit scare tactics to get people to buy new phones.
@f00l @mike808 @unksol I still can’t figure out why my 4G data is so cripplingly slow. Cricket store couldn’t help me.
@f00l @mike808 @PooltoyWolf technically it shouldn’t have changed. But I barely use my cell data so.
I’m getting 40 Mbps down 7 Mbps up using testmy.net. been a while since I tested/I don’t use cellar data. That is way faster than my land line internet. And way faster than my cell data used to be. Idk
@f00l @mike808 @PooltoyWolf yes that’s true but when some phones showed 4g they were doing calls over 3g. Then some phones show 4g volte. It’s weird. Especially when you have an unlocked phone on a MNVO.
Mine doesn’t show what you want to see but it’s still functional so. I imagine that’s just a failure on provisioning. Cause. Layers of junk. I don’t care if it works
@unksol VoLTE is a feature only turned on by the carrier (or MVNO). It is a 4G extension (LTE) that is part of 5G. 5G is really a collection of capabilities, not all of them have to be turned on. It’s like “internet” isn’t just http (web). It’s RPC, FTP, SMTP, IPsec, etc.
So your phone might be making regular 4G calls, just not VoLTE calls. Or it could be doing VoLTE behind the scenes. It just depends on the carrier (and on which frequencies they support VoLTE), your phone (which might only support VoLTE on other frequencies) — and the tower provisioning you’re connected to (with yet a different configuration of supported frequencies), which might not be AT&T/Cricket and you’re really “roaming”, which would not be doing VoLTE which counts as data, not voice traffic. Even though both are digital.
@mike808 yes… But what we are talking about being shut down is
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/tech/att-will-shut-down-its-3g-network-tuesday-what-you-need-to-know/3566014/#:~:text=AT%26T is slated to pull,will no longer get service.
@unksol AT&T/Cricket also whitelist devices. If your S9+ ain’t on their list, you need a new carrier or new phones. That’s why I
leftfired Cricket. My Nokia 6.1 literally would display “VoLTE” for a while if I power cycled my phone until AT&T/Cricket would check the IMEI and disable the feature on their side, going back to 4G. Then they started intercepting calls to play a recording telling me my phone wasn’t compatible with their network and to buy a new phone.Since it was their choice to not whitelist a phone capable of VoLTE, I chose to switch to Metro (T-Mobile’s MVNO) and get new Nokia X100 phones for free during their Black Friday sale.
I will probably switch to regular T-Mobile prepaid soon. i like the X100 so far. A few quirks, but 3 years Android One and 2 upgrades was better than 1 year on the Samsung A52 and Nord N200 or the One Plus I was looking at.
@unksol The main quirk with the Nokia X100 is the dedicated “Google Assistant” button on the left side (thumb rest). Thankfully it can be disabled, and was. Shame it can’t be reassigned to some other function. I love that HMD doesn’t load up the phone with bloatware or T-Mobile/Metro crapware. It’s as close to stock Android as you can get that isn’t a Pixel. And the Zeiss camera lenses ain’t slouches.
@mike808 @PooltoyWolf might be relative. My fully unlocked, fully VoLTE phone that I tested and worked when they said it was shutdown no longer works. I get pings for voice mails and can’t call it. Even though it’s the same hardware as the att version, because it’s unlocked, they blocked it even though they support the exact same one. Same bands. Everything. And it’s the same network.
I have to go by a shit $40 phone from Walmart to get calls I tested at the shutdown. To replace my much much better unlocked device. That fully supports their “5g” bands and protocol.
So att is intentionally blocking 911 capable phones
@mike808 @unksol I am still having serious 4G data issues on Cricket with my Galaxy S9+. I verified the exact model number is on AT&T’s list of approved devices, and the IMEI is valid on Cricket’s website. I can make and receive voice calls and send and receive text messages just fine, but 4G data for anything is slow as molasses, to the point things like Twitter are literally unusable. On WiFi everything works fine.
A woman behind the counter at a Cricket store downloaded a network switching app to my phone, and I can sometimes get my data to work briefly by rapidly switching network types in the app, but other than that, being away from WiFi is almost like not having a data plan at all. I am really hoping this problem works itself out soon…I just bought this phone in February.
@mike808 @PooltoyWolf idk on data speeds. Maybe an underserved spot and the switch over is overwhelming it? Would not surprise me.
I almost never used data or the phone. but I’m definitely annoyed they basically black listed my phone that I intentionally bought to avoid their BS. And spent good money on. And fully supports wifi calling and volte. And tested they were still up at the deadline. Then weeks later I start getting voicemails that don’t ring and I can’t call. From my boss. Ugh
@mike808 also yes att is BS but I have red pocket for like $99 a year I don’t use it much. The lg v40 unlocked should also support Verizon without att fuckery and can also be crossflashed. But not a good time to have your phone go out due to lies/bs. They could just switch it
@mike808 @PooltoyWolf I mean. I’ve never had it wanted twitter I’d consider that a blessing.
@mike808 @unksol No place I have been to so far is any better, and I went to a wedding in Titusville earlier this month.
@mike808 @unksol I’m a very active Twitter user and am on it every day. My username here comes from my Twitter. Us furries kinda use it a lot.
@PooltoyWolf @unksol
I couldn’t be happier switching from Cricket to Metro (T-Mobile’s MVNO). T-Mobile has a new $15/mo prepaid plan that I’m probably going to switch to. No problems with volte on my Nokia 6.1 that AT&T/Cricket chose not to whitelist out of pure greed So fuck 'em.
I don’t like Metro’s $4 fee to pay your bill in-store vs online auto-pay. But that’s how the franchise stores make their money. And on “hidden mandatory” accessory bundling. i.e. they will waive a metro fee because they swap it for an overpriced accessory. Because they make commission on the accessory sale and don’t on the metro fee. What a dumb incentive model from corporate. Try to go through a corporate store, but the salespeople won’t cut you slack on any fine print.
/image jeremy anyways meme
@mike808 @PooltoyWolf @unksol
I know several people who’ve left Att / Cricket / RedPocket recently over this.
One of my friends found a really cheap, mostly “call-text, little data” plan from T-Mobile, but I don’t know the specifics. I think it might be that $15 plan mentioned above.
This person told me: any phone that used to work on the ATT network, but that stopped working for calls when ATT shut down both 3G and enforced allowing VoLTE connections only for whitelisted devices (but said phone is good for LTE), ought to work fine on T-Mobile or a T-Mobile based-MNVO.
@f00l @PooltoyWolf @unksol
Can confirm. My Nokia 6.1 would indicate VoLTE in the display and then AT&T/Cricket would actually disable it. Switched to Metro and no problems. Metro upgraded me to the new X100 for free (Had to get the 2 lines $90/mo unlimited plan to start, and downgraded to $25/mo plans). Phones unlock automatically after 6 months.
@f00l @mike808 @PooltoyWolf mine supposedly supports Verizon bands and I can probably switch to a different mvno. Just can’t test that because I can’t afford to have my phone offline or number switched/being ported at the moment.
Yet the cheapest Walmart phone works… Whatever. I hate that thing but it rings for a few weeks
@f00l @PooltoyWolf @unksol
Do you qualify for the government-mandated low-cost programs the carriers were require to offer as part of the 5G spectrum deals? Or is that too much socialism/big government for you?
That’s also why all the “base” plans got bumped in price, btw. Because carriers lie to claim they can’t survive on net profit margins (pre-dividend/cashpiling) of less than 20% to 30% with year-over-year increases. Greedy fuckers.
@f00l @mike808 @PooltoyWolf
That is a real issue but no. I could get a more expensive plan but I use my phone so little. I’m just a cheap bastard. I check Slickdeals
I bought a nice unlocked phone 2 years ago . That supports all Carriers then I chose red pocket as my mvno. What they should have done in my opinion is send out warning that ATT has blocked you. They have your IMEI. They know. But instead a blanket 3g is dead and all volte GSMA phones will work. Despite knowing there is an att whitelist. I don’t use my phone much but I’m critical for work so…
@unksol
T-Mobile has a $10/mo prepaid plan.
The BIG catch is that prepaid does NOT include taxes and fees. Unlike the MVNOs prepaid plans. So be careful.
https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans/connect
And my state, county, and local cities all have “use tax” referendums coming up. And they’re pitching it as a “help out little local guy compete” deal. It’s a tax increase, so they’re changing the subject by pretending there is confusion that it is a double-tax and dumb-splaining that it isn’t this imaginary thing they made up to cover their lies.
They’re really trying a tax grab on the mobile carriers (ATT, TMo, Verizon, & their MVNOs), cable (Charter, Comcast, Warner, etc), streaming (Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+, Hulu, GoogleTV, Roku, Amazon Video, etc) and delivery (Grub Hub, Shipt, Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc) and e-commerce (Amazon, eBay, all .com e-stores) companies - and there aren’t and never will be any “local” competitors to the Nevada, North Dakota, and Delaware companies for any of that.
Trebuchet!
/giphy Trebuchet
Ebay!
It’s how I support myself.
@punkynpye What great deals do you have for us?
[(cough) Seller name (cough) for us to check out?]
Sell them on Craigslist
They go in the old tablet box or the old phone box. For some reason the old cameras ended up with the phones. I have no idea why I am compelled to save these things and they’re surely a fire hazard.
if someone needs it I give it to them, eventually it gets tossed.
My city has a good recycling program. Most is curbside except electronics which is done several times a month in select church parking lots. The only thing I don’t like is that they charge to take old TV’s. Which many don’t want to pay and then they end up in a landfill.
@ironcheftoni Thirty bucks here for a TV. I was shocked.
If they’re well and truly useless, beyond repair or refurbishing, then they get used for target practice and then chucked in the dumpster.
@Pony while I have 2 decades past put a 386 or 486 down. I don’t recommend it. Picking up the pieces is a pain.
I hopecycle them. As in I hope they get recycled someday, by someone.
My PC towers have become permanent bookends…
@el1c1a
Great idea but even at MY house… I don’t havethat many books!
I gather that current my old kindle e-readers (2g and 3g) are dead unless they have a wifi chip, or can be used w a computer and USB cable?
I have a few old kindles in storage. I was so fond of them that I kept them each time I upgraded, except for a few I gave to people I liked, way back when.
I think the only kindles that even do 4g are the current gen luxe cellular/wifi versions of the Paperwhite and and the Oasis?
(Most people just get the wifi versions now, I think. Amazon has been charging a stupid high $ amount extra for the cellular ones).