Service issues after upgrading. (Please help!)

[amandaflowers]

Okay, I need some guidance from you kind souls out there. Here's my situation: I live in NYC and have had MetroPCS for a few years. I started going to college in Cortland (four hours upstate) August of 2012. I had the Samsung Freeform II, I believe. Kept my phone, kept my service. Everything was fine. I decided I wanted a nicer phone, so I bought an LG Motion a little less than a year ago. These past few months, I started receiving texts about off-net service usage and was threatened with my service being cut off. I went to a Metro store and they told me that the CDMA technology in the phone was to blame and that if I bought a GSM compatible device, I'd have no problems and would be able to use my phone upstate. I know this has something to do with the T-Mobile merge, but I'm no cellphone aficionado. So, I looked around and found the LG Optimus F3 in Best Buy. I bought it and love it so far. It's great. Bigger, sleeker, and better battery life than the Motion by FAR. I returned to my campus two days ago and had service the first day. I noticed it said AT&T on my lock screen instead of MetroPCS and the 4GLTE icon had disappeared. I still could make and receive calls and text messages. After that day, though, I've had absolutely no service and can't connect to the available networks (AT&T & T-Mobile), regardless if they're CDMA or GSM. I've switched up my network settings and still no luck. I'll get a message like "Your SIM card does not allow connection to this network" or "try again later". I can't even use WiFi calling because my phone says I need to update my SIM card. I feel silly for buying this new phone and thinking my problems would be solved. I'm out $150, thankfully I didn't spend anymore than that. If someone could explain this all to me and possible steps to get my service back, I'd really appreciate it. I can't exactly afford an expensive plan through a major carrier but if that's my only option, I'll have to cave. Also, with my luck, the address I'll be living at next semester (moving off campus, YAY!) is not covered under Virgin Mobile so that's not an option. I hope I've provided enough info/context and haven't blabbed like a lunatic. Thanks in advance

 

[akmsr]

i am sorry that i do not have to much of an insight about your problem but i do not think that its a CDMA problem as that technology is here to stay for atleast another year (regardless of whatever the idiots of metropcs store said).
the problem is the off-net service uses. you were outside of what metropcs considers your home area. you can have call and text while roaming outside the home area but if i remember correctly data is not allowed. and if you do that for long period of times, you get the warnings etc. you could have called the customer service and changed your home area to your campus (only if you live there). freeform ii and motion are CDMA and uses metro's towers to provide the service.
with the GSM F3 you are using t-mobile's towers at NYC as metropcs is an MVNO of t-mobile and everything is fine. but at your college this phone can not use metro towers at all being gsm and all. so it attempts t-mobile towers, finding none it logs on to att's towers. the telecom's usually allow users from other networks to use their tower while roaming. unfortunately it looks like t-mobile does not allow their MVNO customers roam and use data.
thats my take, of course i could be wrong.
if you still have the motion and stay on metro, try changing the home area.....
become a t-mobile customer directly after inquiring about whether roaming is allowed and finding a plan that suits you (call,text,data)...
unlock the phone, try a att MVNO and a suitable plan ...
good luck.

 

[new optimus]

Okay, I need some guidance from you kind souls out there. Here's my situation: I live in NYC and have had MetroPCS for a few years. I started going to college in Cortland (four hours upstate) August of 2012. I had the Samsung Freeform II, I believe. Kept my phone, kept my service. Everything was fine. I decided I wanted a nicer phone, so I bought an LG Motion a little less than a year ago. These past few months, I started receiving texts about off-net service usage and was threatened with my service being cut off. I went to a Metro store and they told me that the CDMA technology in the phone was to blame and that if I bought a GSM compatible device, I'd have no problems and would be able to use my phone upstate. I know this has something to do with the T-Mobile merge, but I'm no cellphone aficionado. So, I looked around and found the LG Optimus F3 in Best Buy. I bought it and love it so far. It's great. Bigger, sleeker, and better battery life than the Motion by FAR. I returned to my campus two days ago and had service the first day. I noticed it said AT&T on my lock screen instead of MetroPCS and the 4GLTE icon had disappeared. I still could make and receive calls and text messages. After that day, though, I've had absolutely no service and can't connect to the available networks (AT&T & T-Mobile), regardless if they're CDMA or GSM. I've switched up my network settings and still no luck. I'll get a message like "Your SIM card does not allow connection to this network" or "try again later". I can't even use WiFi calling because my phone says I need to update my SIM card. I feel silly for buying this new phone and thinking my problems would be solved. I'm out $150, thankfully I didn't spend anymore than that. If someone could explain this all to me and possible steps to get my service back, I'd really appreciate it. I can't exactly afford an expensive plan through a major carrier but if that's my only option, I'll have to cave. Also, with my luck, the address I'll be living at next semester (moving off campus, YAY!) is not covered under Virgin Mobile so that's not an option. I hope I've provided enough info/context and haven't blabbed like a lunatic. Thanks in advance

i am sorry that i do not have to much of an insight about your problem but i do not think that its a CDMA problem as that technology is here to stay for atleast another year (regardless of whatever the idiots of metropcs store said).
the problem is the off-net service uses. you were outside of what metropcs considers your home area. you can have call and text while roaming outside the home area but if i remember correctly data is not allowed. and if you do that for long period of times, you get the warnings etc. you could have called the customer service and changed your home area to your campus (only if you live there). freeform ii and motion are CDMA and uses metro's towers to provide the service.
with the GSM F3 you are using t-mobile's towers at NYC as metropcs is an MVNO of t-mobile and everything is fine. but at your college this phone can not use metro towers at all being gsm and all. so it attempts t-mobile towers, finding none it logs on to att's towers. the telecom's usually allow users from other networks to use their tower while roaming. unfortunately it looks like t-mobile does not allow their MVNO customers roam and use data.
thats my take, of course i could be wrong.
if you still have the motion and stay on metro, try changing the home area.....
become a t-mobile customer directly after inquiring about whether roaming is allowed and finding a plan that suits you (call,text,data)...
unlock the phone, try a att MVNO and a suitable plan ...
good luck.

Great information. I would also look into another option especially if you do like your new phone.
Straight talk using att towers you will get the benefits of using att network with the smaller price $45 of straight talk.

 

[amandaflowers]

Great information. I would also look into another option especially if you do like your new phone.
Straight talk using att towers you will get the benefits of using att network with the smaller price $45 of straight talk.

Straight Talk actually sounds great. I'm willing to switch to that, I'm just wondering what sim card to buy from them. They sell AT&T and T-Mobile compatible cards, and also say you can bring your own unlocked GSM device. All I know is that I need a micro sim for my MetroPCS LG Optimus F3. Not sure whether it's AT&T or T-Mobile compatible, though. I checked my IMEI number through Straight Talk and my device is compatible, but they didn't specify. Also, should I bother trying to unlock my phone first and then switching? Argh, this is such a pain haha thanks for your help.

 

[akmsr]

if you are at SUNY cortland college, t-mobile has no service there. so t-mobile and metropcs will make you use traveltalk to provide service. that put you in trouble the first place.
i could not check straight talk's website as they are down but at&t has 4G service there even their prepaid go phone too. so after you make sure to check,straight talk with at&t compatible simcard looks to be only option.
you said you got the phone from best buy. if it is carrier unlocked that is fine but if it is metro or t-mobile branded it has to be unlocked. metro may not unlock it till 30 days. if you decide to go this route, call up customer service, explain the problem, lay the blame on the store misleading you, ask for the unlock code.

 

[new optimus]

I agree with akmsr.

You will need to unlock it to run att but that should not be a big problem. worst case solution check out one of the multitude of unlocking services online, they have a low fee, some as low as 3-5 dollars.

 

[akmsr]

I agree with akmsr.

You will need to unlock it to run att but that should not be a big problem. worst case solution check out one of the multitude of unlocking services online, they have a low fee, some as low as 3-5 dollars.

she is from NYC. every 3 blocks they have a cellphone store. it will take her all of 20 minutes to have it unlocked

 

[amandaflowers]

she is from NYC. every 3 blocks they have a cellphone store. it will take her all of 20 minutes to have it unlocked

Haha good point, but I'm upstate right now for the Spring semester. No crafty city folk here :/ I was told by Metro to email offnetwork@metropcs.com about my issue, but I'm not expecting any miracles. Hopefully they'll unlock my phone for me so I don't have to cough up more money.