I’m a little late to the party here, but I’ll throw in info from my experience:
I use PureTalk, also an AT&T MVNO. I bought their SIM, and installed it. SMS worked right away, and I later realized the voice didn’t work - that’s when I learned more than I needed to know about 4G networks and the shutdown of 3G. So I manually turned on the 4G like instructed. Voice DID work for send and receiving calls. At first, data didn’t work (neither did MMS), but then I found a second spot in the settings where the APN info had to also be entered for data. Once I set that, there was a huge string of MMS that showed up and data was a go.
In the settings, I had it set to 4G only (and still do), so I know it is going over that. Roaming was/is set to off. PureTalk’s APN was RESELLER (and they were specific about it being in all caps). That seems pretty generic, so not sure if any of the other MVNOs use that.
I guess in summation, at least one AT&T MVNO works.
The Straight Talk tech said to put the APN as RESELLER with all caps as well. I did that but it still did not work. I wonder if it has something to do with the sim card being used in my other phone, perhaps a new sim is needed. I had considered using PureTalk instead of Straight Talk, maybe that would be an option.
For sure, when I received my Librem 5, I shut down my existing phone (an iPhone), removed the SIM, and put the SIM in the Librem 5, and booted the Librem 5. All working.
The advantage there is that you are not trying to activate the SIM in a non-mainstream phone, for those semi-annoying mobile providers that check the IMEI, or make other discriminatory checks, but only on activation.
As mobile providers generally give no transparency about how things work, you may be better off with a new SIM or you may be worse off with a new SIM.
(For completeness, one definite downside of moving the SIM is that Apple continued to believe that the SIM was in an iPhone and therefore text messages sent from another iPhone did not work - but eventually, whether due to the passage of time or due to my flailing around, Apple got itself sorted out.)
Hi all,
Prior to receiving my L5, I prepared for an attempt to utilize Tracfone OR StraightTalk by getting super-cheap android phones set up with working service plans and SIMs. When I received my L5 I tried to simply swap working/activated SIM to the L5 … it did not work. I also tried activating according to many sets of instructions, to no avail. After alot of research, I believe I nailed it down to both Tracfone and StraightTalk using device whitelisting, i.e. they literally only accept whitelisted phone models.
I found that Ting does not do that - their compatibility goes by the model of transceiver (modem). I got my L5 to activate and work flawlessly with Ting, no difficulty whatsoever.
But that doesn’t explain why AweSIM is allowed on AT&T’s network.
I have a Truphone international SIM in my L5, and it runs alternately on AT&T or T-mobile depending on network status, I believe. But with an international SIM I would expect that AT&T isn’t very strict about the (“roaming”) device.
I also use Ting, but in my degooglized Android. Love Ting.
I used to use Ting, but had to switch since I moved to Alaska, and they do not operate up here (T-Mobile is not up here). I had a choice of AT&T or Verizon. I am guessing that Purism is allowed to alter the whitelist of devices/modems accepted on AT&T’s network, whereas Straight Talk either can’t or won’t alter the whitelist.
I suspect that this is the closest to what is happening, and that it is the WON’T case: i.e. AT&T is allowing MVNOs to have their own phone permissions, and Straight Talk is the one refusing. I suspect this since PureTalk works for me. I should note that I am using a PureTalk provided SIM.
Looks like Verizon just bought TracFone, Straight Talk and Walmart Family phone MVNOs. I refuse to use Verizon for their anti-customer policies. Time to switch away from Straight Talk.
Did you port a number over to PureTalk? I have another phone on Straight Talk that is an unlocked degoogled Pixel 3 XL that I want to move the number to PureTalk. I’m wondering how easy it will be to work with customer service at PureTalk to get my number ported.
Yes, I ported my number over from Verizon. I had grown tired of Verizon, much like you. I ordered a SIM from PureTalk the day I received my Librem, since I assumed my old Verizon one wouldn’t work. It came with some setup instructions. When it came in, I just ported the old number using the PureTalk website. I don’t recall ever having to talk with anyone about it.
I have already used the terminal to enable VoLTE on the modem but calls immediately end without a dial tone.
Other problems I have noticed but don’t really matter if the voice issue isn’t resolved. I cannot update anything from the Purism store, it says "the following packages have unmet dependencies: " but there is nothing after that. Also, is there not a way to show just the background without any window being open? It seems like there always has to be a window open or the app tray, but there is an option to change backgrounds. Why allow changing the background if you can never see the background? The display timeout/locking is doesn’t work as expected either, if I have screen lock enabled with a 30min timer, it still locks right after the screen blanks.
This device seems to be very unfinished in the development cycle.
I have been using it as my personal cell phone for a month and a half with a SIMple plan, and while calls are working for me, I agree that there is much to be developed/matured. I’m using a beta device that’s marketed as end-user ready.
I just got a response from tech support saying that my phone’s firmware on the modem does not support VoLTE. I am going to ship the phone back to purism and they will replace the modem with one that works. I’m going to see if they will reinstall/reflash the phone for me to see if that resolves some of the other software issues I was seeing.
Thanks to everyone in here that was giving me suggestions and responses.
They offered to ship me a modem for me to replace, but I think I would rather have them do that and reflash the phone so I know I have the latest software update out of the box.
I remember when I first had mine, it had the same issue with the update. I had to run the first update manually through the terminal, instead of through the GUI. After doing that once, the GUI always worked:
