No, really, it’s deja-vu all over again.
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If nobody can stop the crapocracy from doing this, then Purism should start selling Librem 5 upgrade kits to replace the modem and any needed antennas with 5G. I already traveled overseas with my liberty phone by replacing its modem with an overseas one. Why can’t I replace it with a 5G one? Point of this device is to be more good like that.
(My cell service is a reseller who probably resells T-Mobile, so this might affect me)
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Wow, more eWaste incoming… one of these things that make me angry as European while I’m not even affected.
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You can, albeit unofficially.
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Purism is still actively conducting modem compatibility tests, including several 5G options. There are a couple primary contenders (@jonathon.hall may be able to elaborate after returning from travel).
Some modem options may not require substantial mechanical design changes, which is an important consideration because the injection mold process is extremely expensive (often >$100k). Other 5G modem options have proved functional but are physically larger and require modification of the internal frame and removal of the rear-facing camera. One minor known issue is that most modem alternatives have antenna connectors in different locations, which will make the engravings on the internal frame incorrect; it is inadvisable but possible to shave the injection mold to remove these markings for future batches.
Electrical requirements are being considered as well, of course, as the WWAN modem is directly powered by the battery, hence why the battery should never be charged in excess of 4.2V.
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I cancelled my (T-Mobile) plan via Mint Mobile several years ago when they shut down the 3G network that my dumbphone depended on. Just went Wi-Fi only at that point.
I’ll pass on the beam-forming 5G super duper cancer enhancer service.
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Well, “sayings that rhyme kick Satan’s behind.”
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What is the point of all if this newer and faster phone and internet service on our cell phones? I am happy with things the way they are now. If you increased the bandwidth a thousand times what it is now, I wouldn’t notice the change. Elon Musk and Starlink will cover everything on the planet outside of the cities. What more do we anticipate needing, and why do we need it?
Perhaps if Purism would fix the SIP feature in the Gnome dialer, then no one with a Librem 5 will need LTE. Any data will do, for voice calling. Purism should start their own anonymous SIP server.
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The 24x7 multimedia surveillance takes a lot of bandwidth, don’t you know? 
At the end of the day though the question doesn’t matter. If T-Mobile says they are shutting down 4G then they are going to shut it down no matter what you, I or Purism might prefer.
Sure but if you want to do voice calling when out of range of an accessible WiFi then you are going to need 4G / 5G / 6G / …
It is not clear that Purism is looking at all at any modem that has LEO satellite support (on any constellation), although that would be nice. 
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It’s nothing for end-users, it’s something to keep up speed. If they don’t increase bandwidth, it will decrease over time by more and more usage, especially if they want to create there smart city horror concepts where devices ring to cell-towers (instead of W-LAN). I mean, at some point people don’t need more bandwidth to play youtube on phone etc and 1ms latency is no requirement you need to get videos streamed (and not even for these ugly gatcha-games). They want it for smart cities.
Is is an issue for itself. Do you really want to give the global communication power to an (sorry) dick that do not care about others than himself? And even if it would be the nicest guy on earth, it’s still a single point of failure. What happens the nicest guy dies and someone else takes place? In fact, that would be a direct road to dystopia of 1984 and alike.
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This is interesting and good to hear. I concur that finding a match (that one) was tricky. Not many options out there that match all the criteria. I was at one point also trying to figure out if I should remove the camera 
For the markings, I’d suggest using a sticker, which is cheaper than doing a new mold (could have different for any model).
The good news could be that, based just on the specs, newer modems seem to be potentially less power hungry. Also, since the antennas are what they are, the L5 (at least with 8202 and later models) wont’ be using those short range wavelengths that seem to cause concern about 5G - that hardware aspect is hard to change.
If at any point you’d have time, it would be interesting to read a blog post about those tests and the path to find alternative modem - much more so than the AI generated posts.
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Creating value for shareholders.
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Agree on the ‘smart city’ motivations for increased bandwidth. IMHO, most products the industry labels as ‘smart’ you can simply substitute the word ‘slave’ for and have a more accurate description.
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Having a mobile phone that is totally reliant on data and a SIP server somewhere to make calls doesn’t strike me as the most reliable communications device.
The part that I don’t understand is how the 4G LTE networks are going to be phased out when the bands used by them are necessary for the higher FR2 (Frequency Range 2) bands to get a fix on your location and activate beam-forming links.
Are those lower frequencies going to be rolled into the ‘5G’ standard as per each carriers implementation?
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No, no, it is smart. They just never said for whom. It’s smart for companies to are owning these devices. But I guess “slave” is a term people do not misinterpret. Slavephone, slavecity, slavecar. 
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The problem is that more and more people think the internet is something called “YouTube.”
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That, too, of course.
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Yeah, or “FaceBook.”
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I’d called them (T-Mobile) and they said that they don’t plan on leaving 4G until post-2026. But if they recieve notification that this is the case they will send emails and other correspondence otherwise.
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The link in the OP says that
LTE will be maintained on the network until 2035
but it does note that, as spectrum is progressively reallocated from 4G to 5G, performance on 4G may decline.
From the link in the OP, the real problem is the exception process that will apply from Jan 1, 2026 for new activations. We have no way of knowing whether the exception process will be tick-and-flick or hard-ass or somewhere in between. So I guess if you have a Librem 5 that you are thinking of activating onto their network, better to do it this year.
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