ATT said my 4G Pixel will stop working when they shut down 3G Feb. 2022, but there's an offer lol

[J Dubbs]

So I imagine a lot of you heard about AT&T's debacle quite a while back, about sending out all the texts and emails etc talking about all the 4G phones they were going to be shutting down when they stopped their 3G services, and how they had a special offer for you to sell you another 4G phone that would magically work on their 4G network, unlike the 4G phone you already had that works fine lol. Funny guys....

Whatever it takes to sell phones...lie, cheat, manipulate... I guess it's all good in their eyes

They took so much heat over this originally, they had to retract their statements, and silence all the talk about the "so called" cut off date. But like any huge greedy tech giant they're patiently waiting... knowing they'll win in the end :-\

So all you folks out there with older phones be prepared to have them shut off Feb. 1st of next year. Unless we make another big enough stink to get them to reconsider trying to shut off older 4G phones to force us to upgrade.

For me it's not about the phone, but about the manipulation.....

 

[joeldf]

AT&T's list of phones that will continue to work after the 3G cutoff includes a bunch of Pixels. Which one do you actually have, and is it on this list?

 

[joeldf]

BTW, it's not about the 4G itself. It's about whether the phone supports AT&T's implementation of VoLTE. On phones that don't support it, calls and SMS are run over the 3G network - the phone drops from LTE to 3G, and since AT&T calls the HSPA+ portion of 3G "4G" without the LTE modifier, your phone may just say "4G" during calls instead of "4G LTE" or "LTE" (however the Pixel displays the network).

Once 3G is shut off, those phones that don't support VoLTE (or HD Voice as AT&T calls it) simply won't work. Yes, technically the data will work, but without call capability, you just have a tablet.

What AT&T is starting to do to many people now, is deactivating the SIM in unsupported phones. Mostly if someone swaps a SIM from a supported phone to a soon to be unsupported phone.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

They falsely relabeled their 3G network as 4G years ago when they improved speeds. Then 4G LTE came along as different technology that was even faster.

So technically early 4G devices from AT&T aren't compatible with the network once 3G is shut off because they are in reality 3G phones in the eyes of their competitors. They lack the hardware required for 4G LTE.

Either way shouldn't apply to the Pixel.

 

[swebb]

BTW, it's not about the 4G itself. It's about whether the phone supports AT&T's implementation of VoLTE. On phones that don't support it, calls and SMS are run over the 3G network - the phone drops from LTE to 3G, and since AT&T calls the HSPA+ portion of 3G "4G" without the LTE modifier, your phone may just say "4G" during calls instead of "4G LTE" or "LTE" (however the Pixel displays the network).

Once 3G is shut off, those phones that don't support VoLTE (or HD Voice as AT&T calls it) simply won't work. Yes, technically the data will work, but without call capability, you just have a tablet.

What AT&T is starting to do to many people now, is deactivating the SIM in unsupported phones. Mostly if someone swaps a SIM from a supported phone to a soon to be unsupported phone.

Yeah, this explains it. If I remember correctly, AT&T had compatibility issues with their VOLTE that other carriers didn't. Limited the BYOD options.

 

[J Dubbs]

BTW, it's not about the 4G itself. It's about whether the phone supports AT&T's implementation of VoLTE. On phones that don't support it, calls and SMS are run over the 3G network - the phone drops from LTE to 3G, and since AT&T calls the HSPA+ portion of 3G "4G" without the LTE modifier, your phone may just say "4G" during calls instead of "4G LTE" or "LTE" (however the Pixel displays the network).

Once 3G is shut off, those phones that don't support VoLTE (or HD Voice as AT&T calls it) simply won't work. Yes, technically the data will work, but without call capability, you just have a tablet.

What AT&T is starting to do to many people now, is deactivating the SIM in unsupported phones. Mostly if someone swaps a SIM from a supported phone to a soon to be unsupported phone.

Thanks for the break down Joel...it looks like my pixel 1 is the only pixel they're killing. Maybe their reasons aren't as nefarious as I thought lol.

 

[joeldf]

Thanks for the break down Joel...it looks like my pixel 1 is the only pixel they're killing. Maybe their reasons aren't as nefarious as I thought lol.

Well...

Maybe just nefarious in other ways...

Many phones that AT&T won't support actually have VoLTE capability, or were added to them at some point a while back. I had (still have, just no longer in regular service) the BlackBerry Z10 from 2013. BlackBerry added IMS to the OS for all BB10 phones in late 2013 with the release of OS 10.2. IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is the open standard that allowed voice and multimedia over IP networks. In many parts of the world, all these phones got VoLTE with no problem. Along the way, AT&T kind of went their own way, and used a standard that wasn't completely compatible with the "open-standard". Basically, OEMs have to pay AT&T to use their standard, and not everyone did, or chose to let some older models go. AT&T only began directly selling the Pixel starting with the 4 line a couple of years ago, but they easily supported the Pixel 3 (maybe even the 2) before that. It was one of the few non-carrier phones (besides any iPhone) that AT&T supported with full advanced calling features at the time.

So, really, I see it as more of a money grab from the OEMs. As usual, the customers get caught in the cross-fire along the way.