First, I think I am still a customer of Shaw. Since Rogers bought out Shaw and tossed Shaw customers and services to the nethervoids, It would be interesting to know if Rogers will support VoLTE on any of the DuOps cells?
I wonder if they’re targeting privacy phones. Stop or hinder privacy by blocking service to privacy phones. 
~s
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They obviously have to.
1_ In the minds of the general public, including businesses, there are “only” Google and Apple devices.
2_ If a phone company only provides VoLTE as a means of making calls, to exclude Google and Apple would mean to have no customers.
Doubtful, since phones running privacy-focused AOSP OSes, such as /e/OS, iodéOS, GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, etc., are not barred from service… as long as the devices are VoLTE-capable. (I’m making this sweeping statement based on what I’ve read from users in the /e/OS and iodéOS community forums.) EDIT: one reference
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I don’t think there are any conspiracies here, it’s economics. The broader the platform offering on the network, the more training required for front line staff for troubleshooting and more potential customer issues to resolve. When as a carrier to send billions to Samsung or Apple, you have some leverage to get things done, but for the small number of fringe devices, it isn’t worth it to them to have too many devices to troubleshoot with a customer. I know in our company uptime and all kinds of customer satisfaction metrics are huge so if you end up having lots of complaints for this or that then it’s a target. Fringe devices open them up to risk those metrics. We’re just a small company compared to the big carriers, so multiply the numbers and it can really cause a problem for their front line staff.
I don’t like it, but that’s just the reality. Just port your number to a SIP provider and get a data only SIM on your L5 and you’re away to the races. That’s what I’m going to do.
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With those other privacy phones, they are using already certified hardware, so really they don’t care what OS you are running, it’s the modem they care about and they have been certified. They are knowns. The L5 isn’t, and well there aren’t enough of us to warrant them going through the certification process for it. At least that’s what I surmise.
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Or get JMPchat/XMPP fully functional (if it’s not already… I’m unaware of the status) in order to have calls, SMS, and MMS. Combined with a roaming data SIM, one could completely ditch the usual account with the network provider. That is what I’ve done, although I’m using a degoogled Android, not the L5 (yet). Advantages: low cost, no need for VoLTE, no whitelisting to worry about, more options for roaming on other/better networks, as well as use of my regular phone number when overseas (with a paygo data SIM that roams internationally). Also, automatic syncing of the JMP chats across multiple devices.
Exactly.
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There is a disadvantage to ditching the usual mobile carrier SIM/eSIM, though. JMP/XMPP can’t call U.S. emergency services at the 911 number. The device itself can still call 911, but emergency services can’t see your XMPP phone number, in case they need to call you back. That’s why I also keep a $3/month paygo SIM from a regular carrier in a spare phone; I don’t use the number for anything, really. (And I could use the second SIM slot on my main phone instead of the separate phone, for more convenience.)
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I did a test with a new DN on JMP and it works great on the L5, only thing is that Contacts don’t work right with VoIP accounts, so hopefully that gets resolved at some point. So when the time comes I’m just going to port to them as they offer SIP service, so you can completely replace it all with that, like you said.
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Do you mean voip only contacts?
I have all of my regular contacts saved with just the phone number and if I turn on ‘Use for phone calls’, when I click ‘call’ it just calls. and then I can click on that recent call when using my physical SIM and it will still call.
Does anything I just said make sense?
Edit: It does not work for texting though
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Hmm…I’ll have to play with that again. I did have some weird stuff going on with my contacts and then loaded the flatpak version of contacts and that weirdness went away.
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IMO: I don’t believe in SM conspiracies per se. In business, yes, there are many conspiracies. Conspiracies are not for crazy people. Companies conspire all the time.
Conspiracies via Via SM, those are by people that need teen drama in their lives, and more they see anarchy approaching, the bigger the change they think is coming.
The DuOps don’t need to conspire - they’ve already won.
Conspiracies became a label for anything MSM didn’t agree with - all thanks to MSM.
~s
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IMO: Not to everyone that ins’t a phone geek. I still say that Purism should consider selling L5s to people that don’t want to know what is obvious or not. and aren’t forced in to learning way more than a DuOp requires. I know the ads sell to anyone, but that is considering everyone knows Linux, and their new L5 inside out.
Rogers is not a friendly company. When they bought Shaw, they turned their backs on Shaw customers. We don’t have a choice of carriers now.
Just say’n s’all,
~s
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That would change if the US carriers were allowed to compete in Canada. We pay some of the highest communications bills in the world.
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I seem to remember when pre-covid, a american Telcom looked at buying a slot when the feds open up more bandwidth, but common sense hit and they declined to bid.
I spoke to one of the agents and ask why they declined and he put it quite simple:
California has a population of 39.43 million (2024). Canada has a population of 40.1 million (2023). (I’m using available stats available today but back then, the numbers were still near par).
We just don’t have enough people ($$$$) to make it interesting enough for the US telecoms ti invest in.
The cost of being a telecom in Canada verses US is higher than US. Hence, the highest rates. But I agree, if the US telecoms came in we’d probably have 2 - 3 years of more services at better rates.
But people in US complain about their telecoms too. Also, a new arrival would most likely ape the Rogers takeover of Shaw.
First thing Rogers did was cut services.
I doubt we’ll see any rescuers of Canada’s highest Internet rates anytime soon. We’ll see the rates increase - because they can.
~s
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There is probably some truth to that, but a US carrier would co-locate on existing towers and just pay rent to be on them, so they wouldn’t really have to bear the capital cost of putting a cell tower together which is quite expensive. But the reason they are not here is because of the Telecommunications Act which prohibits foreign providers from offering service in Canada.
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I will check that out because it seems to me it was telecom that met with govt and govt was interested in hearing from them about setting up in Canada by buying in to Ottawas bandwidth bidding. HOWEVER, you are correct. But,
The Canadian government, specifically Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISEDC), regularly sells spectrum (bandwidth) to telecom companies through auction or bidding processes.
and
The restrictions on inward FDI effectively mean that foreign-owned telecommunications companies must either enter the Canadian market as resellers (i.e., non-facilities-based carriers) or be content with having a relatively small share of the Canadian market and likely operating below efficient scale. Consequently, efficient foreign-owned telecommunications companies are unlikely to enter and compete in Canada’s telecommunications sector, which is essentially the goal of the regulation.
Too, I think that the smarmy way out telecoms operate is just to rake in bigger dollars, not make privacy easy.
~s
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