Had to go to town to get a new 5g cell phone.

[Texaswitchy]

Received the message on phone.

Got a nice one free.

Anyway the message said get a new phone by March 22 or no cellphone service.


Anyone else get a message like this.

[iemanja]

1. That doesn't sound right.

Did you receive the notice from your cell phone carrier?

[Texaswitchy]

2. Yes.

Several but I didn't have time to go get the new phone until today.

Still getting used to the new phone.

Much better then the old one.

[Mosby]

3. 3g is ending this year

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/tech/3g-network-shut-down/index.html

[Texaswitchy]

4. My phone was 4g.

Low end phone.

Time to get a new one anyway.

5g cell towers are everywhere.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Depending on the carrier,

4G/VoLTE capable phones are just fine. VoLTE certificaion is by carrier. AT&T is most restrictive (certified fewer phones) and T-Mobile is the least, as near as I can tell.

[Celerity]

15. They are nowhere close to shutting down 4G and only having 5G service available. Anywhere.

Someone gave you some bad info.

When Will 4G LTE Be Phased Out? (Not for a Long Time!)

https://www.digi.com/blog/post/2g-3g-4g-lte-network-shutdown-updates

June 08, 2021

Like anything else, 4G will become obsolete one day. However, that day is far enough in the future that IoT deployments today and in the foreseeable future will be deployed on 4G networks. In fact, not only will it be at least a decade or more before 4G has been fully eclipsed by 5G, but 4G LTE is a more cost-effective choice – and offers plenty of bandwidth – for most IoT applications. 4G LTE, which stands for Long Term Evolution, has a long track ahead.

Meanwhile, 5G is a revolutionary new technology and very exciting, but at this time, it is only advised for early adopters. As with all new technology, testing and full rollout involve some bumps in the road, and important incremental development.

[Best_man23]

23. I can attest 5G is not everywhere

I live just outside Fredericksburg, VA and while the historic downtown area has 5G, the area around the house does not. I have to tie my cellphone through the home router to get decent internet connectivity and phone service.

I think the reason for that is we live in the flight path of a small regional airport and the Marine airbase at Quantico, and I heard some stories about 5G messing with aircraft avionics.

[Mosby]

27. There are at least 3 types of 5g.

The good one is wide band or UC.

I get 5G UC around most of phx. Download speeds of 650mb per second or so. The upload speeds are throttled.

[Ms. Toad]

5. I didn't get a message . . . but on Monday my phone turned into a brick.

I now have a new one.

Sad thing is that on another network, my phone would be just fine. AT&T is poopy, and has refused to certify phones which are 4G/VoLTTE capable.

[Texaswitchy]

7. My new phone is fast.

Bigger phone and better camera

A really good camera.

My old phone would have been a brick also.

[rog]

10. AT&T sent me a free 4G phone that works just fine.

I am using their $25/mo prepaid service ... was using a Blackberry 3G phone I got for $30 from Ebay. They sent me a free 4G phone several months ago. It's a cheap phone, but it works. Camera is not great, but that does not interest me, so it's all good. I am using this with no data ... no gaming, so power is not an issue. Unfortunately all the phones now are 3x larger than my trusty (pocketable) Blackberry. The old phone had a physical QWERTY keyboard, too, so a great tool for texting. I miss that the most.

Also, when you get an Android phone, Google wants to get their hooks into every aspect of your life, so it was a major hassle to set up and get 'un-hooked'.

[GoCubsGo]

22. I went through that with the 2G to 3G upgrade.

I had an LG with a keyboard, and was sent a crappy, little LG that was only useful for making calls. Which was fine as far as my needs go, although a camera would have been nice. My prepaid provider gave me a large discount for an upgrade from 3G. I bit the bullet and got a low/mid-grade 4G Android phone. Not being able to pocket it is a pain, as was removing all the bloatware that came with it. But, it's a hell of a lot easier to turn off than the old phone.

[rog]

26. The Google thing would not be so bad, but ...

... if you allow your phone to sync with Google, which is the default, it CHANGES THE SETTINGS ON YOUR OTHER DEVICES, combines your phone contacts and your gmail contacts, and just generally makes a mess. I didn't realize that at first ... fortunately I was able to wipe the phone and start over. Google expects you to do all your computer tasks on your phone.

[alphafemale]

8. Updates on this Chrome tablet are ending in June.

But it will still function....more or less.

I guess.

These are not all that expensive, though.

[masked_marauder]

9. don't worry

i don't know if you had any hesitation about 5g, but i have lived under a 5g tower for well over a year now and haven't grown a third eye or lost any digits yet.

[Texaswitchy]

11. They are easy to spot.

Time marches on.

I really needed a new phone

The battery was going.


I had a choice of 6 phones to pick from.

Took forever to pick one.

[left-of-center2012]

12. My 4G Motorola phone works just fine

I use consumer Cellular and they use the towers by either AT&t or Sprint

[abqtommy]

13. Last October I got a message that my provider was ending support for our 3G phones.

they offered an inexpensive 4G replacement and they're working well.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I was just at the nearby T-Mobile retail store this past Wednesday

finally doing what would be a full migration from Sprint (that I had for over 20 years) to T-Mobile. The Sprint/T-Mobile zombie unit had been sending dunning notices about one old spare phone that I had that DOES have 4G LTE that they seemed clueless about (Sprint's CDMA version, although the phone was an unlocked one and included the GSM option) - an old Samsung S4 that would purportedly "no longer work". The same for my old but still being used just fine workhorse Sprint 4G "LTE Spark" hotspot.

So the "3G shutoff" thing got a who cares? reaction from me. Before I moved to where I am now and had originally bought that phone, I literally lived in an apartment directly under a Sprint 4G LTE tower that was on the roof of my building and was line-of-sight-to another Sprint tower, so the 4G was always a solid 5 bars. I do know T-Mobile wants Sprint's frequencies and bandwidth for 5G expansion. Where I live now, I am in a tiny T-Mobile 5G coverage hole where that coverage appears all around me but is weak here and even their 4G is spotty (and I'm not even at the bottom of a hill but am actually the opposite, near the top of one and still near those Sprint towers). So coverage sucks and I pretty much have to set my iPhone 12 Pro to 4G only (the "auto 5G" thing is dodgy), after having 20 years of solid Sprint coverage.

They were annoying as hell with the texts and the snail mails about replacing it and getting a "free" phone. I did one better (for me) - I dropped the damn line that phone was on, bought my own new unlocked 5G phone from Amazon (delivered Tuesday) to update my Note 9 (which is a 4G), had them order (to be purchased by me and not leased) a replacement 5G standalone hotspot, got new SIMs put in my phones (my iPhone that I bought 2 years ago from T-Mobile that I had them put on their network back in 2020 as part of moving to them, apparently had a mutant T-Mobile SIM, and no I don't need a "free" iPhone 13 if I already have a 12 Pro), and completely re-did my plan from the Sprint/T-Mobile hybrid Frankenstein one so that I can now save $120/month with one of their "55+" plans.

[anarch]

16. yeah, AT&T shut down their 3G network last month

everybody is going to have to do so; they need the radio bandwidth

[Chainfire]

17. I guess that my flip phone days are numbered.

I remember my first "mobile" phone. It was a 20 foot cord so that I could take it into my bedroom to talk to my girlfriend.

[hunter]

21. There are 4GLTE flip phones.

My carrier gave me one for free with a $35 gift certificate when they quit supporting my old 3G phone.

[LAS14]

29. Verizon has a $100 deal on a flip phone that costs $100. So free!!

[AntivaxHunters]

18. I really wish Democratic Underground had an app....

[Raftergirl]

19. I didn't get any message but

Verizon is doing away with all Device Dollars in June and I had $200 of them. So traded in my IPhone 6 (got $300 for it) and bought the IPhone 13Pro last week. So in total I only paid it $600.

[highplainsdem]

20. With most carriers, 4G LTE -- with phones and plans significantly cheaper than 5G -- should work

just as well as 5G. And the tech sites I check have been saying 4G LTE should be supported for at least several more years, longer than the life of most phones.

[Texaswitchy]

24. My phone needed to be replaced.

Bad battery and the charge port was not charging well.

I do like the type C charge port.

[wishstar]

25. 4G's that do not support HD Voice (non-VolTE) are defunct this year as well as all of the 3G's

I have a 3G CDMA Tracfone that uses Verizon and doesn't have a SIM card. According to Tracfone/Verizon it will still work through Dec 31st but other cellphones with Tracfone that use sim cards and aren't on Verizon are nonfunctioning by end of this month March. Verizon has notified that 4G's that don't support HD Voice (nonVolTE) are also defunct by end of year. Other carriers besides Verizon are discontinuing service coverage either this month or at least prior to Dec 31 2022.

Good you already got new phone that you like. I dread having to choose and get new Tracfones for self and spouse later this year and have to activate and transfer our unused minutes etc.

[Texaswitchy]

30. It was difficult.

Six phones to pick from.

All high end.

What made big difference was the gorilla glass.

[LAS14]

28. Some time ago I got an e-mail from Verizon saying that certain phones...

... would no longer work after Dec 31. I didn't know if my flip phone qualified so I went to the Verizon store. Yes, I'd have to get a new phone. But they had a deal. They'd contribute $100 to a new phone. And the new phone that was like mine cost $100. It was currently out of stock, but I have almost a year to catch it in stock.