5G: your phone and cell plan in 2022 and beyond

FORANE

FORANE

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FORANE
My android cell phone lost the ability to make or receive calls this weekend. It still received data and texts work fine. It is a Oneplus 6T android and has been a great phone. 8gb ram, 128gb rom, it's been plenty fast, I would like to keep using it. I went to the AT&T store. They put a new sim card in it, but that didn't help. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. After searching online, I discovered that if I turn off 4g under the sim settings, the phone works again. Problem is data is slower under 2g and 3g. Another problem is I read 2g, 3g, 4g are scheduled to be shut down this year by AT&T. So, it looks like my current phone is soon to be a wifi only device. I do not know if my phones issues are internal to my phone or due to AT&T changes. It's time to get another phone, and possibly another cell provider.

I suspect many of us will encounter cell phone obsolescence related to 5G rollout and shutdown of 3G, 4G networks this year.

I need to start looking for another phone and possibly another cell service provider.
Would like unlimited cell, sms, data, hotspot.
Data consumption is typically 10gb or less, occasionally as high as 20gb.
It appears there are many 5G networks and a phone must be matched to carrier.
Would a Oneplus 10 pro work with mint mobile?
Is mint mobile good, bad?
 
I don't even have 4G LTE in my area yet.
5G will probably be 5 years off.
So maybe my phone won't work when I travel to cities now. An intermittent brick, nice.
 
I know 3G networks will be shutting down in the near future, but I haven't seen anything regarding 4G. Given how new and limited 5G coverage is I doubt 4G will be leaving anytime soon.
 
I bought a used Samsung Note 10+ 5G a year or two ago. Thing is lightning fast and obviously 5G compliant. I'd look into some of the used cell phone sites like Swappa and find a top-tier phone for lower price. They're all pretty well controlled for cracks and scratches before they're allowed to sell on the site. Mine was like new, less than 2 years old, and less than half the cost of new.
 
Mxfarm said:
is that why your a general aviation guy? ;)
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Interesting question. In all reality, I am an aviation guy. While I am a GA pilot, I was an airline mechanic for a very large portion of my working career. But as far as technology goes, I am no Luddite but I am not an early adopter either. I just think that if you buy a product that the product should remain viable for more than a few years and not be done away with just because technology moves forward.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Interesting question. In all reality, I am an aviation guy. While I am a GA pilot, I was an airline mechanic for a very large portion of my working career. But as far as technology goes, I am no Luddite but I am not an early adopter either. I just think that if you buy a product that the product should remain viable for more than a few years and not be done away with just because technology moves forward.
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Frequency bands are a shared resource, and your cohorts have out-voted you. :)
 
My 2016 BMW uses 3G for connecting to the internet for news, weather and other odd stuff. With 3G shutdown, those functions vanished. No way to update. No intention to sell the car as it is slightly more valuable than a cell phone.

Not a big deal since I seldom used those functions anyway and the Nav system and phone connection aren’t affected. Another example of improvements resulting in less useful things that worked fine before being “improved”.
 
X3 Skier said:
My 2016 BMW uses 3G for connecting to the internet for news, weather and other odd stuff. With 3G shutdown, those functions vanished. No way to update. No intention to sell the car as it is slightly more valuable than a cell phone.

Not a big deal since I seldom used those functions anyway and the Nav system and phone connection aren’t affected. Another example of improvements resulting in less useful things that worked fine before being “improved”.
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My 2017 Audi has AT&T’s 3G as well. Audi USA notified me that they’d replace the device with an LTE version.
 
X3 Skier said:
My 2016 BMW uses 3G for connecting to the internet for news, weather and other odd stuff. With 3G shutdown, those functions vanished. No way to update. No intention to sell the car as it is slightly more valuable than a cell phone.

Not a big deal since I seldom used those functions anyway and the Nav system and phone connection aren’t affected. Another example of improvements resulting in less useful things that worked fine before being “improved”.
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I've been curious about that on my newer Ford. The remote start and some other features are only available through a remote app, and I've wondered if the either the app or the data connection would ever be sundowned leaving the vehicle missing a lot of options.
 
A very popular fleet telematics provider also uses AT&T 3G for its services. Imagine the frustration of upgrading several thousand vehicles with LTE service. I wonder how much tax $$ that will cost us in the end?
 
My guess is your phone is not really 4G(as in LTE). "G"s have a lot or marketing and confusion built in. And there are many different 4Gs out there. There is 4G(a few actual standards) and 4GLTE. LTE is the true 4G and is not getting shut down any time soon. 3G is being shut down everywhere to make room for 5G. I'm guessing some of those early non LTE 4Gs are also becoming non-functional due to 3G shut down.

You need a new phone.
 
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X3 Skier said:
My 2016 BMW uses 3G for connecting to the internet for news, weather and other odd stuff. With 3G shutdown, those functions vanished. No way to update. No intention to sell the car as it is slightly more valuable than a cell phone.

Not a big deal since I seldom used those functions anyway and the Nav system and phone connection aren’t affected. Another example of improvements resulting in less useful things that worked fine before being “improved”.
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Not just odd stuff. There is much vehicle (and household IOT appliance!) connectivity these days.

I lost the functionality of OnStar's automatic 911 airbag depoyment notification service after a previous spectrum reallocation.

This was on two vehicles that GM decided not to offer an upgrade path for, and this feature was a major factor on making those purchases based on where I was living at the time. Today the connectivity is even more embedded.

I can see automakers shutting down (or corrupting) signficiant functionality on not-too-old vehicles and driving customers to purchase to new product, like today's cell phone business model.
 
kaiser said:
My 2017 Audi has AT&T’s 3G as well. Audi USA notified me that they’d replace the device with an LTE version.
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I have a 2018 Q3 that has the AT&T 3G system as well. I didn't get anything about an LTE replacement.

I was already steamed about losing the Google Earth display on the nav system last year. Audi claimed it was due to a Google update incompatible with the car's system.
 
I went through this a year ago with a home security system. They were discontinuing support for 3G signals to the central monitoring station, so customers were sent a new circuit board that supported 4G. It was a do-it-yourself proposition to open up the base station and switch the boards, and no extra charge for the subscribers.
 
Loss of stuff in cars worries me not. When I first started driving, automatic transmissions were a rarity. Now you can hardly find a manual tranny in a new car.

So if the Internet connectivity, Nav Systems, Apple CarPlay etc disappeared tomorrow BFD.

Cheers
 
kaiser said:
My 2017 Audi has AT&T’s 3G as well. Audi USA notified me that they’d replace the device with an LTE version.
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It’s nice that Audi designed the car so that the modem can be replaced.

The designers of my 2014 car (different make) were not so thoughtful.
 
NoHeat said:
It’s nice that Audi designed the car so that the modem can be replaced.

The designers of my 2014 car (different make) were not so thoughtful.
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I haven’t done the service yet, so we’ll see how big of a kerfuffle it’s going to be. I’m still skeptical. I’ll try to come back here and PIREP when I get it done. Should be within the next month or so.
 
X3 Skier said:
Loss of stuff in cars worries me not. When I first started driving, automatic transmissions were a rarity. Now you can hardly find a manual tranny in a new car.

So if the Internet connectivity, Nav Systems, Apple CarPlay etc disappeared tomorrow BFD.

Cheers
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now, where did I put that paper road atlas?
 
X3 Skier said:
Loss of stuff in cars worries me not. When I first started driving, automatic transmissions were a rarity. Now you can hardly find a manual tranny in a new car.

So if the Internet connectivity, Nav Systems, Apple CarPlay etc disappeared tomorrow BFD.

Cheers
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I sort of agree with you. While my car has certain connectivity, I have never used those services beyond free trial period. As such I really do not care(actually I like it as it's less data they get from me). Unfortunately, many/most new cars not only have many things connected to internet but also rely on internet to have some pretty basic functionalities(and often make you pay for them beyond purchase price). At the very least you pay for some of this stuff and then it stops working a year later is rather annoying.

The lesson here is any technology that is not on board of your car(and relying on internet traffic means it's not on board) can be assumed not to work at some future(or require expensive update). It can be 10 years, it can be 1 year. Don't spend too much money on it.
 
genna said:
The lesson here is any technology that is not on board of your car(and relying on internet traffic means it's not on board) can be assumed not to work at some future(or require expensive update). It can be 10 years, it can be 1 year. Don't spend too much money on it.
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And that's why Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is a big deal. That sort of decoupling is really handy. Doesn't help for when you want connectivity when you are not in the car, but oh well.
 
SkyDog58 said:
I hate forced obsolescence. It’s amazing how long old fashioned land lines have worked.
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It often seems like technology progresses for progress's sake only. "Ya, but the new widget has this, that and whatever." Is that new widget necessary or useful, or is it just new? It's like a company having meetings for meeting's sake, because someone determined that scheduled meetings were necessary. If nothing particularly useful happens in these meetings, what's the use?
 
asicer said:
And that's why Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is a big deal. That sort of decoupling is really handy. Doesn't help for when you want connectivity when you are not in the car, but oh well.
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Yup. Android Auto is precisely why I don't care about any in-car NAV services or updates. Google/Waze/etc. are always as up-to-date as it gets with real time traffic and search functionality, voice-activated at that. It all shows up just fine on my vehicle displays without even pulling my phone out of my pocket. While my Cadillac is new enough to not be affected by the 3G-cellular stuff, I wouldn't notice if OnStar or the other cell-based services went offline. Some of the newer vehicles have their remote start/phone apps tied to needing that cell signal as there isn't even a button on the key fob anymore. Foolish designs (forcing people to pay for a monthly app subscription), and one that specifically helped me rule out a vehicle model (2018+ Genesis G80) from purchase consideration.
 
asicer said:
And that's why Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is a big deal. That sort of decoupling is really handy. Doesn't help for when you want connectivity when you are not in the car, but oh well.
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That's correct. But not without its own pitfalls. CarPlay are basically pass through technologies. Everything is on the phone. Car simply displays it and allows interaction. Problem is that you rely on Apple to not change its mind or change its technology. Now, they probably won't for a long time, but eventually they may. You're also completely relying on what Apple decides to allow in CarPlay

My phone suddenly stopped working with my car(music control, pre CarPlay) with recent iPhone update. I know it's different, but there is still a risk regardless what Apple says
 
genna said:
That's correct. But not without its own pitfalls. CarPlay are basically pass through technologies. Everything is on the phone. Car simply displays it and allows interaction. Problem is that you rely on Apple to not change its mind or change its technology. Now, they probably won't for a long time, but eventually they may. You're also completely relying on what Apple decides to allow in CarPlay

My phone suddenly stopped working with my car(music control, pre CarPlay) with recent iPhone update. I know it's different, but there is still a risk regardless what Apple says
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Yup, eventually the operating system won't be backwards compatible with newer features and Android Auto/Apple CarPlay will stop working. Hopefully there will be a 3rd party solution for that. I feel the same way about SmartTV hardware/apps which are DoA the moment they leave the factory. Most are pretty limited in what apps they have, and have very little chance of ongoing updates/tech support. I want my TV to be JUST a monitor. Leave the apps/streaming stuff to a dedicated box that can be swapped out/updated separately (Amazon Fire/Roku/Apple TV/etc).
 
genna said:
My guess is your phone is not really 4G(as in LTE). "G"s have a lot or marketing and confusion built in. And there are many different 4Gs out there. There is 4G(a few actual standards) and 4GLTE. LTE is the true 4G and is not getting shut down any time soon. 3G is being shut down everywhere to make room for 5G. I'm guessing some of those early non LTE 4Gs are also becoming non-functional due to 3G shut down.

You need a new phone.
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I'm not sure believe OP's assessment. His phone (Oneplus 6T) is barely 3 years old. There's no way it's not supported anymore. It's either a misunderstanding, or a provider problem.
 
genna said:
LTE is the true 4G and is not getting shut down any time soon.
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Bullhockey. LTE is *NOT* 4G. It is however what most US carriers lie and call 4G. True 4G was passed over once LTE was deployed in favor of just jumping to 5G.

It is true that none of the existing carriers have stated end of life for LTE. However, you can expect that LTE based phones will get worse performance/coverage as more of the spectrum is given over to support 5G users.

ATT pulled the plug on the 3G technologies a few weeks ago. Since this caught a bunch of users (including the Onstar radios) napping, they've got a roaming agreement with T-Mobile to allow 3G ATT phones to use their network until July, when T-Mobile is scheduled to shut down their 3G network.

Verizon is scheduled to pull the plug on 3G in December.

US Cellular is shutting down their 3G (though no official end date is set).
 
jrcox19 said:
I'm not sure believe OP's assessment. His phone (Oneplus 6T) is barely 3 years old. There's no way it's not supported anymore. It's either a misunderstanding, or a provider problem.
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Yes, my phone exact model number is on the AT&T list of phones still supported. Yet, it no longer makes or receives calls when on 4g.
 
flyingron said:
Bullhockey. LTE is *NOT* 4G. It is however what most US carriers lie and call 4G. True 4G was passed over once LTE was deployed in favor of just jumping to 5G.
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Are you sure you aren't confusing HSPA+ with LTE?
 
I got hit with this, too. My old LG phone, that I love, on ATT via H20, stopped doing anything except text. Bought another new phone, unlocked, that wouldn't activate on ATT for anything but voice, because ATT doesn't choose to support that model.

So part of the problem is that 3G is going away, with AT&T leading the way on turning it off. The second part of the problem is that AT&T is being selective about which particular model phones they support. Which is ridiculous, and I believe trying to roll-back the requirement that carriers support unlocked phones. (It's not just the Unihertz that doesn't work, I have a Blu that doesn't work AT&T but does T-mobile, also. Both will work text, just not voice...it's not the bands)

Anyway, I switched over to T-mobile, which seems to be fine so far. Now I just need to find a phone that's a little bit bigger than the Unihertz, but not some silly 2.5 x 5.5" mini-tablet sized thing.

phones.jpg

I hate upgrades just for the sake of upgrades, too. We don't need mobile 8k cat videos.
 
People need to quit referring to them as cell phones. That puts it in the wrong mindset for too many people. It's a highly portable computer with a phone app. ;) Computer technology moves forward quickly and ditches old technology quickly too. Nature of the beast.

We walk around with more computing power and digital storage in our pocket/purse than NASA had on the ground during the Apollo years. All of their computing on the ground. It's more power than high-end workstations in the 90's. We have instant access to people around the world, in text, email, voice and video. You can watch many of your favorite TV shows, sports and movies on these devices. So yes, they keep changing and improving. And that means the old stuff needs to go away to make more room for the new stuff.


So yes, as we move forward, we'll try to stay off your lawn. :p


:D
 
wayne said:
People need to quit referring to them as cell phones. That puts it in the wrong mindset for too many people. It's a highly portable computer with a phone app. ;) Computer technology moves forward quickly and ditches old technology quickly too. Nature of the beast.
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yup - computer tech advances.

But I'm currently using a laptop that is 3 years old... and expect to use it for at least another 5 to 7 years. It supplanted one that I bought in 2011 (which is still used for other purposes... that "old" one can still be used for my primary computer uses if necessary).

Old computer tech isn't ditched in just a couple of years.
 
The first commercial 3G network was introduced in 2001. 4G was first introduced in 2006, in Korea. LTE was introduced in 2009.

They're more than a couple of years old.

Definitely a bummer that embedded systems are no longer working, such as the data in the BMW. Of course, car manufacturers would really like people to buy new cars every few years, so I doubt they mind. ;)
 
Bob Noel said:
yup - computer tech advances.

But I'm currently using a laptop that is 3 years old... and expect to use it for at least another 5 to 7 years. It supplanted one that I bought in 2011 (which is still used for other purposes... that "old" one can still be used for my primary computer uses if necessary).

Old computer tech isn't ditched in just a couple of years.
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I also think we've largely reached the point of diminishing returns for cell phones and most home computers. I mean, sure there's quantum computing and all that sort of stuff on the horizon, but I can't imagine having a snappier phone or home computer. All of my most recent stuff processes apps and basic software without noticeable lag. Upgrading to the latest cell phone for better tech is less of a desire when they're just adding a 4th camera lens and such for new features. I fully expect my home PC (recent Dell XPS) to last another 8+ years before the hardware specs start becoming an issue for whatever version of Windows is out at the time.
 
wayne said:
The first commercial 3G network was introduced in 2001. 4G was first introduced in 2006, in Korea. LTE was introduced in 2009.
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Wimax and UMTS aren't 4G either.
 
wayne said:
People need to quit referring to them as cell phones. That puts it in the wrong mindset for too many people. It's a highly portable computer with a phone app. ;) Computer technology moves forward quickly and ditches old technology quickly too. Nature of the beast.

We walk around with more computing power and digital storage in our pocket/purse than NASA had on the ground during the Apollo years. All of their computing on the ground. It's more power than high-end workstations in the 90's. We have instant access to people around the world, in text, email, voice and video. You can watch many of your favorite TV shows, sports and movies on these devices. So yes, they keep changing and improving. And that means the old stuff needs to go away to make more room for the new stuff.


So yes, as we move forward, we'll try to stay off your lawn. :p


:D
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:) NASA went to the moon. We've got nothing to show for phones, except being phones. People aren't using their phones for complex analysis of fluid dynamics to design airfoils. At best, they're watching cat videos with them, at worst, sending videos of themselves. None of this requires high bandwidth or processing. Just because we developed Inconel doesn't mean we should be making paper clips out of it.

I was around when PC's first came out, and was convinced they'd revolutionize everything. I was wrong. Back then, the best thing they were for most people was a toy. The same is true now. For 90+% of the world that uses them, they make great game platforms. And the phones are just phones.

And yeah, I do wish everyone would get off my lawn...
 
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