T-Mobile Delays Shutdown of Sprint's CDMA Network (axios.com) 33
T-Mobile has said that it will extend by three months its planned shutdown of Sprint's old CDMA network. It now plans to shutter the network at the end of March, rather than Jan. 1, 2022. From a report: The move follows complaints by Dish Network that shutting down the network will hurt millions of its customers who own devices that still access the older network. In a statement, T-Mobile says it needs to shut down the older network to create more bandwidth for 5G, but said extending support for three months won't materially affect its plans. T-Mobile added it has done its part to transition the former Sprint customers on its network.
Read that headline too fast (Score:2)
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How many trans people still use CDMA because they can't afford GSM?
Zero people, Anonymous Coward. Trans or otherwise. There is no cost-savings for individuals using CDMA.
The only exception is corporate vehicle-tracking & monitoring - Many of those rugged telemetry modules are CDMA, so there is a cost to swap them all out for their LTE equivalents.
Re: Think of the trans (Score:2)
There would be cost saving in the sense that they can continue using their old phone instead of having to buy a new one.
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There would be cost saving in the sense that they can continue using their old phone instead of having to buy a new one.
I suppose, but a brand-new GSM dumbphone is twenty bucks.
https://www.amazon.com/BLU-GSM... [amazon.com]
Presumably a reconditioned one on eBay is even cheaper.
At this point I have to assume a CDMA flip phone from 2005 likely has a battery life of about an hour, with 3 minutes of talk time. Why you wouldn't upgrade is a mystery.
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You're saying this on a website where people complain about EOL on 14 year old operating systems because that media server/toaster in their living room is still serving up SD content and browning bread nicely.
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It's not like a server with SCSI drives running Windows 2000 that's plugged into the wall.
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Sure, but the key difference here is an ancient CDMA phone - Of which there are likely a miniscule number still active on T-Mobile's network - Would likely have so little battery life left as to be useful, along with a "9" key that probably sticks.
I had (have) a Kyocera Hydro VIBE from 2015 that was on Ting (Sprint) until last month when I bought a Pixel 5a on Ting (T-Mobile) -- my Ting service is about $15/month. The phone still worked fine and the battery was starting to act up a little, but still lasted all day for my use. I replaced it because original replacement batteries are impossible to find and third-party ones are half the Wh, it stopped getting any updates from the Play store (apps and Play itself), the looming Sprint network shutdown, a
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My first two smartphones were the original Hydro and its successor, the Hydro Edge. The first one was buggy as hell, but I loved the Edge. It did what I needed it to do, and like the original, you could throw it against a brick wall and it would be fine -- no case or screen protector needed. And so tiny. Everything is too freaking big now.
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Everything is too freaking big now.
I think some of that may be because of bigger batteries, but they (vendors/user?) still want the phones to be super thin (for some reason). Personally, I don't really care as long as it fits in my front jeans pocket. The Pixel 5a does (barely) and I specifically excluded other phones 'cause they wouldn't. Though a more driving consideration for getting a Pixel was that I liked getting OS/security updates directly from Google (like Apple does) instead of through the carrier.
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I wouldn't call it minuscule, there are still about 10 to 20 million Sprint CDMA phones on the legacy network that we are working to get switched. I'm one of them since my Pixel 4XL isn't supported I have to wait for my Pixel 6 Pro to arrive next month.
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Really? Assuming there isn't a carrier lock problem (refusing to accept a SIM from any other U.S. carrier), I'd have expected any recent smartphone to support at least most of T-Mobile's bands — certainly enough to work just fine. And your phone was built a good four years later than my iPhone 6s, which had no problems.
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My son just had to replace his perfectly good iPhone 5s (built for the Sprint CDMA network and not capable of functioning on the T-mobile GSM network) because of the T-mobile takeover. There is a price to progress, progress is good, but the cost is real to the people who have to dump perfectly good phones and buy new(er) ones. Its not just ancient phones that only supported CDMA.
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GSM is 3G do not expect that to be available for much longer, think 2022 sometime for shutoff.
At this point ant phone you buy should be at least 4G LTE.
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You mean GSM is 2G. The Sprint GSM network is 2g/3g/4g lte and is only going away this fast so we can re-use the spectrum.
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Sprint has NEVER been "GSM", except in the most minimal sense of having phones capable of using LTE for data only.
Sprint started out with IS-95 CDMA, then migrated to CDMA2000-1xRTT. During THIS era, a Sprint cell tower was typically serviced by a single T-1 line, each of whose circuits could be used for voice OR (possibly aggregated) data.
A couple of years later (early 2000s), Sprint deployed EVDO. At this point, most Sprint towers were fed by TWO T-1 lines... one was used for circuit-switched voice and 1x
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You really need to lay off the crack pipe.
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At a guess all Verizon customers since they use CDMA.
Look Dish, just send your 2G customers new phones (Score:4, Interesting)
Just ditched my CDMA phone. Goddammitsomuch. (Score:3)
I loved my LG G8. I had a Sprint version of that phone. I got a Galaxy S20 Ultra to replace it after getting WEEKLY messages from T-mobile that I needed to replace my phone.
The LG had an instant-access rear fingerprint reader that had gesture support. It had a headphone jack and an SD card. I used all that stuff. The newest flagship phones have none of those things, but since switching, I'm missing my proper fingerprint reader more than anything. The one in the S20 takes about a second to operate, and that's if I actually manage to find it on the screen with my first thumb press. I usually don't.
I really have had buyer's remorse about giving up the phone I actually liked, even if the new one has double the RAM and 5G support that doesn't seem to do anything for me anyway.
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I'm still using some super old Motorola Photon Q's that I've had since 2014 or so. I don't use them for my daily stuff, they're more used as placeholders for some phone numbers I need to keep but don't(yet) have a good phone to use with them. When they announced the upgrade I was panicking because even if I bought used phones at $100 each, I'd still not have $$$ for Xmas and shit. Yes, that means I have a fuck ton of phone numbers I barely use. At least this will let me spread the spending out somewhat and
T-Mobile's transition from Sprint is a hot mess (Score:3)
Don't let T-Mobile fool you. The real reason they won't shut down CDMA is because they sent out a bunch of SIM cards to Sprint users of 4G/3G/2G phones, and they don't work because T-Mobile's network is 5G only. I received a SIM for my old 4G phone, the website said I was eligible, the phone rep said it would work, and it wouldn't because it's not a 5G phone. I put it in. No data. I had to spend hours with Sprint support getting my old SIM reactivated. Seriously. They are sending 5G cards to 4G phone users right now, unless they finally realized how dumb that is.
After that, I went to the store to switch to T-Mobile from Sprint and get 5G phones. I received what they call the "Sprint Select" offer. It's a really good offer, with a free third line and a significant discount on new 5G phones.
Here's the situation at the store: They have TWO people working there. Wait times are terrible. Other people were there trying to transition to T-Mobile off of Sprint (we need to get new accounts) and they were being rejected because it wasn't their turn in the rollout yet (they weren't "Sprint Select"). Another guy came in who had thrown out his old SIM card when he put in those broken SIMs I mentioned, and complained that the new one didn't work. He was screwed. He left, announcing that he was done with T-Mobile.
Personally, I was ready to switch, but they didn't have 5G phones for me and so they couldn't make good on their "really good offer." I waited 2 hours (remember, they're short staffed) for them to tell me that I couldn't upgrade because there were no phones for me. I was in Janesville, Wisconsin. Not a huge city, but definitely big enough to warrant more than two people. They usually have four people on.
That's when I left them. I'm happily on a new carrier. T-Mobile got too big for it's britches, too fast, and they cannot handle absorbing Sprint customers rn.
The whole thing is a hot mess and they need to keep Sprint users' 4G/3G/2G phones active until they can fix it. The chip supply problem doesn't help - I'm guessing that's why they were out of 5G phones - but they've got a bunch of 4G users who they will and can not accommodate on their bleeding edge network, and they don't know what to do but punt.
A cautionary tale for anyone trying to scale up their operation while deprecating perfectly good, if aging, technology at the same time. I'm sure they'll be fine without Sprint's customers.
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The real reason they won't shut down CDMA is because they sent out a bunch of SIM cards to Sprint users of 4G/3G/2G phones, and they don't work because T-Mobile's network is 5G only. I received a SIM for my old 4G phone, the website said I was eligible, the phone rep said it would work, and it wouldn't because it's not a 5G phone. I put it in. No data.
I'm not sure that last part is accurate, at least in my area. I tried switching my Pixel 5a from 5G to LTE and data works fine. Are you sure it's not because your phone doesn't support something else like the data frequency band or VoLTE (obviously not a "data" issue), etc... and T-Mobile just got the compatibility wrong? For reference, my carrier is Ting using T-Mobile.
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This is why /. gets dumber every day. Just about everything is wrong in that scree.
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Nope patently false.
Your more than welcome to convert phones one at a time if you want it's just easier if you do them all at the same time.
My wife has the only phone of ours that's been converted, mine isn't on the allowed list and my son is being lazy.
I ordered my replacement Pixel 6 Pro online there won't be any issues swapping it out.
I'm aDC Eng for T-Mobile I know how the system works.
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T-Mobile bought a hot mess to begin with. I've been through all the carriers basically over the years with the exception of T-Mobile. At one point I was on Nextel, and I loved their service. Great, reliable signal almost everywhere I went. They had crummy data speeds and they didn't jump on the smartphone bandwagon fast enough, so I ended up switching back to AT&T/Cingular for a while. Eventually that got too expensive so I switched over to Sprint and got a great plan and Android phones. They were