Help I Lost the Ability to Place and Receive Callss

[petecal]

Well yesterday I lost the ability to place calls and receive calls. I am guessing that I got hit by the 3G shutdown.
But the service I have, H2O, notified me a few weeks ago that this could happen and a woman took me through a process and said once I restart my phone, I will be fine.

H2O uses (used) AT&T.
It is a Sony Model G8441.
The specs say it is 4G LTE.
Thinking H2O screwed up I called Consumer Cellular. When I gave her the IMEI she said it was not VOLTE so she couldn't provide service. She said all phones will have to support VOLTE going forward.

Is this true?

(1) I have found that I can use google voice and my google number to place and receive calls using this phone.
(2) Calls to my real number go to voicemail and voicemail sends my phone a notification.
(3) I can use my google voice app to call voicemail and get the message.
(4) I seem to get and can send text messages.

Does anybody know if these abilities will continue going forward?
Do any of the above require WIFI to operate?

I really like this small phone. It fits in my shirt pocket. I would hate to have to go to a big one.

 

[ocnbrze]

yep it is true. most providers will be shutting down older networks:

https://www.phonearena.com/news/t-m...-2g-3g-4g-lte-network-shut-down-date_id134159

 

[petecal]

yep it is true. most providers will be shutting down older networks:

https://www.phonearena.com/news/t-m...-2g-3g-4g-lte-network-shut-down-date_id134159

So H2O was full of it when they said it would work. I knew that 3G was going away. This is the first time I heard about 4G LTE.

So now I hope I maintain the functionality I have while I look for a new phone. But my phone lists "GSM / HSPA / LTE" and I am finding phones listing the same bands. Are they useless? Why are they still being sold?

 

[mikedt]

So H2O was full of it when they said it would work. I knew that 3G was going away. This is the first time I heard about 4G LTE.

So now I hope I maintain the functionality I have while I look for a new phone. But my phone lists "GSM / HSPA / LTE" and I am finding phones listing the same bands. Are they useless? Why are they still being sold?

You got a Sony Xperia ZX1(G8441)?
That phone originally came out in 2017. Very likely it was discontinued by Sony a while back. And if anyone is still selling them, they're either NOS or refurbished. AFAICT manufacturers generally expect phones be used for about 3-4 years, sometimes less.

 

[petecal]

You got a Sony Xperia ZX1(G8441)?
That phone originally came out in 2017. Very likely it was discontinued by Sony a while back. And if anyone is still selling them, they're either NOS or refurbished. AFAICT manufacturers generally expect phones be used for about 3-4 years, sometimes less.

I didn't check to see if my model phone is still being sold. But I have been looking for a replacement and I am seeing other brands and models that report GSM/HSPA/LTE just like this mine. Doesn't that mean they are OBE (over taken by events)?

Should I be looking only at phones with 5G even if we don't have 5G in this area.
There doesn't seem to be anything between GSM/HSPA/LTE and 5G is there?

 

[dezignstuff]

Well yesterday I lost the ability to place calls and receive calls.

I had the same problem. Suddenly I couldn't make calls. So I did a factory reset. I'm using a different phone - LG V60 thinq 5g on Consumer Cellular. Since this was an unlocked ATT phone, I had to re-enter the APN settings. After I did that, it worked fine for about a day, then it turned off again. Is there a more permanent setting?

Just for completeness, my problems came when I got a notification of a voicemail. I've found I can fix it by switching to the existing APN in the phone, called ATT NextGenPhone, where the APN Type setting is "default,fota,mms,supl"

After switching to this APN, it started working again... So I'm still not sure it's going to keep working, but it's encouraging. I didn't have to do a factory reset to get it running.

 

[Hadron]

So H2O was full of it when they said it would work. I knew that 3G was going away. This is the first time I heard about 4G LTE.

So now I hope I maintain the functionality I have while I look for a new phone. But my phone lists "GSM / HSPA / LTE" and I am finding phones listing the same bands. Are they useless? Why are they still being sold?

The problem is that there is a difference between LTE (4G data) and VoLTE (voice over LTE). Previously you could use 4G data and fall back to 3G for voice calls (or even 2G). But if your network no longer has the earlier technologies running then you need VoLTE support to make calls.

You can't tell by looking at what air interfaces the phone supports (GSM/HSDPA/LTE) whether it supports VoLTE as that's something that sits on top of LTE rather than a whole different technology. You have to check specifically whether it supports VoLTE.

You don't need 5G yet - 4G + VoLTE will outlast any phone you buy today. Admittedly I personally wouldn't buy a phone without 5G, but that's because I keep my phones 4-5 years and would not want to exclude myself from having 5G access for that long, not because I would expect 4G to be turned off on that timescale.

 

[petecal]

Great answer.
How can I identify a phone that has VoLTE?
Is it something that shows up in Settings, Preferred network?
Or, if the phone has 5G can I assume it will have 4G+VoLTE?
I have been looking at a lot of phones and have not seen the term VoLTE anywhere.

Note, in my original post I described how I am using the phone with a google number. I have been experimenting more and it seems I have full functionality. I can call, SMS, MMS , navigate, internet. That is mostly everything I need. I assume I will still need a cellphone plan.

 

[Hadron]

5G is nothing to do with VoLTE, so any correlation there will just be because 5G phones tend to be newer and hence more likely to have it anyway.

I'd suggest the simplest solution is probably to just type "<model name> volte" into your favourite search engine. It's one of these things that doesn't make headline spec sheets despite being increasingly important. With older handsets I'd be tempted to try to find out if they support your carrier's version of VoLTE too, just to be safe.

 

[kate]

H2O uses (used) AT&T.
How can I identify a phone that has VoLTE?

AT&T has 2 lists of phones that will work with VoLTE on their network that you can check before buying a phone. H2O likely supports all phones on these lists below.

AT&T HD Voice unlocked phones for VoLTE:
https://www.att.com/idpassets/image...Capabilities-Unlocked-Devices-ATT-Network.pdf

AT&T phones that work with VoLTE:
https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/wireless/Devices-Working-on-ATT-Network.pdf

AT&T check if your current phone works:
https://www.att.com/wireless/byod/

 

[petecal]

AT&T has 2 lists of phones that will work with VoLTE on their network that you can check before buying a phone. H2O likely supports all phones on these lists below.

AT&T HD Voice unlocked phones for VoLTE:
https://www.att.com/idpassets/image...Capabilities-Unlocked-Devices-ATT-Network.pdf

AT&T phones that work with VoLTE:
https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/wireless/Devices-Working-on-ATT-Network.pdf

AT&T check if your current phone works:
https://www.att.com/wireless/byod/

kate, thanks.
I checked the first two links and, assuming the number in () after the name of the device is the model number, my phone isn't on the list. I have been trying to get that third link to work all day. When I click Get started--> I get a page but then a "Oh oh! Something went wrong....." pops up with a number to call. The number goes to an infinite "your call is valuable....."

Tomorrow I will go to the T-Mobile store and see what they can tell me.

 

[petecal]

[snip]

I'd suggest the simplest solution is probably to just type "<model name> volte" into your favourite search engine.

[snip

I did that and got a lot of links. Some don't list my model, others seem to imply that it depends on the SIM card.
I can't get through to H2O via calls email or chat to see if this is true.

Holy crap, as I was typing this I remembered I had an old T-mobile SIM card.
(I live near Nashville and Xmas morning 2020 an idiot blew himself up along with half of second ave in Nashville. That knocked out my ATT service so I went to T-moble and signed up for a month of service. Att came back in a week or so and I went back to H2O).

So I just put that old SIM in my phone and low and behold, under T-Mobile network I now have a new setting. "Enable VoLTE". And it is enabled.

So VoLTE is dependent on the SIM (service provider).

So maybe I wait for H2O to fix their problem (like they thought they did a month ago). Just use my google number for now.

Or go to T-mobile tomorrow and see what they have for plans.