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| USA 3G sunset - swapping SIM could create headache |
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| tooki:
--- Quote from: Rick Law on July 21, 2021, 07:46:29 pm ---As to carrier-lock on phones, most US carriers are still locking phones, but they hardly offer the discounts they used to anymore. --- End quote --- Still?!? :o --- Quote from: Rick Law on July 21, 2021, 07:46:29 pm ---With "HD voice" implementation differing from carrier to carrier, an unlocked phone would need to support most major carriers' implementation, otherwise the phone wont work. That makes shopping for unlocked phone a bit more complicated: not just the right frequencies support, now one more factor that must be compatible. --- End quote --- You're still confounding things. Again, "HD Voice" is not a generic descriptor, but the name of a specific standard. (Wiki:Wideband audio says: 'In cellular communication, "HD Voice" specifically refers to AMR-WB (G.722.2) in VoLTE. It is a trademark of GSMA, who runs a certification program around the logo.') There are no carrier-specific implementations. What is happening is the carriers beginning to require HD Voice support in the handsets. The differences in cutoff dates (and sloppiness in maintaining lists of devices that support it) is what's probably making you think it's carrier-specific. |
| Rick Law:
--- Quote from: tooki on July 26, 2021, 07:09:24 pm --- --- Quote from: Rick Law on July 21, 2021, 07:46:29 pm ---As to carrier-lock on phones, most US carriers are still locking phones, but they hardly offer the discounts they used to anymore. --- End quote --- Still?!? :o --- End quote --- Yeah, AT&T and T-Mobile phones are not interchangeable unless you get the carrier unlocked kind. Verizon is of course an island by itself. The discount they offer is little to none, but the locking is still there. The "discount" these days is installment - you can pay $X for Y months which adds up to pretty much the same as buying the phone outright. --- Quote from: tooki on July 26, 2021, 07:09:24 pm ---... You're still confounding things. Again, "HD Voice" is not a generic descriptor, but the name of a specific standard. (Wiki:Wideband audio says: 'In cellular communication, "HD Voice" specifically refers to AMR-WB (G.722.2) in VoLTE. It is a trademark of GSMA, who runs a certification program around the logo.') There are no carrier-specific implementations. What is happening is the carriers beginning to require HD Voice support in the handsets. The differences in cutoff dates (and sloppiness in maintaining lists of devices that support it) is what's probably making you think it's carrier-specific. --- End quote --- I probably am using the wrong descriptor. To me, it doesn't matter what they call it - their voice implementation is different causing incompatibility that prevents even unlocked phone to work across carriers is the issue, at least as reported in magazine/web-articles. Granted, there are higher end phones (Apple, Samsung, etc.) that will work across carriers. I am referring to the generic economic carrier-unlocked phones. It is just a damn phone. As long as someone can call me, and I can call someone, I am happy with it. I could do that easily with 2G. Get on ebay or whatever, order an unlocked phone, insert my SIM in it and off I go. After days of research, I gave up the hunt - I'm waiting for a flip-phone shipment from AT&T, and separate flip-phone for T-Mobile is also en-route. I may yet get them unlocked to try, but right now I am just testing coverage and decide which carrier I want to go with. Now that I am not doing international business travel anymore, lacking the ability to use a local SIM is not a critical issue for me anymore. Having experienced at home I had only T-Mobile, and at work I had only AT&T/Cingular; I know they both have grown a lot since but I still like to test their coverage within the area I frequent prior to deciding which one I want to go with. |
| AntiProtonBoy:
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on July 20, 2021, 11:12:17 am --- --- Quote from: SteveyG on July 20, 2021, 09:04:38 am ---What's with this recent use of the term "sunset" ??? Strange one. --- End quote --- I have been hearing this word used in this sense for about twenty years. It is just one more way of saying a cold hard truth in a soft way so as to not hurt the feelings of whomever is on the other side of the conversation. :-// --- End quote --- I think industry just love to use wanky catch phrases like that, just like "the chickens have come home to roost". |
| retiredfeline:
Sunset clause is a phrase that has been in legal use for decades, and chickens coming home to roost is even older, from the time of Chaucer. Not all terms are invented by marketing. If there is a phrase circulating that captures the concept succinctly then people will adopt it. |
| ThermallyFrigid:
--- Quote from: Rick Law on July 21, 2021, 12:06:01 am ---In my opinion, eSIM rather missed the point of having a SIM at all. Before this 4G era, the SIM is the portable "personality card" for your phone. Inserting that card into a phone and that phone instantly becomes your phone. Twice I dropped my phone in water. I just wiped the SIM clean, put it in another phone and off I go - another phone with my phone number and contact list. eSIM (non-portable) would remove that portability. Decades ago (early 2G era) after my first business trip to Europe, I got off Verizon (CDMA, no SIM so it was eSIM of that era) and migrated to AT&T (2nd line T-Mobile) for the flexibility of GSM SIM-portability. Subsequent trips I have my unlocked GSM phone. I can use any GSM carrier's SIM on the same phone. While overseas, I can also use a local-SIM and make local calls rather than via my USA-carrier. Same physical phone with many personalities suitable for the occasion. That said, 4G/LTE (to be precise, VoLTE, aka HD-Voice) will make cross-carrier portability difficult. Unconfirmed but as I understand it: VoLTE on AT&T and T-Mobile are not the same. So "carrier unlocked phone" may no longer ensure it will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile anymore. --- End quote --- I was told that...... The ability to track you and every use of the phone has become a priority far more important than user convenience. The Chinese people have absolutely zero expectation of privacy so there it's a non issue. Was that incorrect? |
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