February Network Changes and ETF for BYOP

AT&T has been no contract since 2015. What that means is there's no such thing as early termination fees anymore. When you buy your own phone and bring your own phone to AT&T the only thing you have to pay is your monthly service charge, in full, including last month, no proration.  

Any phone that you bought an activated in the past two months should not have been allowed on the network at all if it's not whitelisted. I don't know how Best Buy or AT&T  was able to activate the phone, or why Best Buy had a phone that isn't compatible and whitelisted. (best buy has compatibility information on its unlocked phones) It seems very unlikely.   Have you checked the list? 

Unlocked phones that will work on AT&T now that 3-g is going away

The whitelist is total BS.

I have had the same thing happen to me. More than likely your phone is compatible. I have an unlocked Poco X3 NFC that is not a US phone. It meets and surpasses all the requirements for AT&T technology but is not on the AT&T whitelist.  I bought the phone because it covers all frequencies is Volte - HD Voice-enabled and works well in Canada and Mexico. It is fully manufacturer unlocked and I can put whatever software I want on it.

I prepay a year ahead of time. I keep getting cut off and redirected to the call center to "upgrade" to some crappy "free" $49 value phone and being told my phone is not on their list. This is the second time in a few months. I really do not appreciate those tactics. I would rather receive 100 spam emails a day telling me my phone will stop working in 2022 because it is not compatible then cutting my service off and redirecting to a call center mothership that has the kill switch. Scare tactics are not the way to gain consumer trust. The poor call center person was so shell-shocked. She was so appreciative that I was not grumpy towards her and told me I made her day. After all, it is not the messenger's fault of a terrible company tactic.

I am not quite sure what brainchild at AT&T came up with corralling people into certain manufacturers and having a very small whitelist.  I totally get and understand the technology which some phones do not have, but AT&T is choosing not to provision my phone and many others that are compatible to place on their sacred white list. They are also forcing manufacturers to make walled-in garden phones for the US and forcing consumers to choose from a small list of phones.  Bad move in this informational and connected society we live in. 

No problem, my prepay is done in January 2022 and I'll just simply move to another carrier.  It really is that simple. Psychologically, AT&T is honestly pushing me to look at other companies that just provide service and not force you to buy a phone based on the AT&T Whitelist. When I went to the Google Fi site in regards to my phone I am told "This phone hasn't been fully tested, but most features should work. ". In other words, they do not care what phone you have. It either works or doesn't. They just provide the service. Until the bean counters at AT&T start realizing they are losing customers things will not change - maybe. CEO Stankey and the board are quite antiquated and out of touch with what consumers want. If AT&T whitelists more phones or better yet stop with the white list shenanigans,  I may come back to the mothership. AT&T has always been hard-headed in regards to what the consumer wants. 

I own AT&T stock and it is bad decisions like this, that have lost AT&T customers and their stock has taken a beating for it. AT&T needs to get on the ball, listen to their customer's needs, and add more compatible phones to their white list. They did not listen to their customers in regards to the AT&T universe debacle. Look where that got them. Millions of customers lost.

It's also sad I see a lot of disinformation being spread by the techno-nerds and fanboys in these forums and elsewhere about FCC requirements and certain phones which are not "certified" (whitelisted) cannot work with AT&T technology. Um, no this is totally untrue. The bottom line is money and AT&T still has not learned how to make it with their antiquated management style. They are still ticking off and aggravating consumers with their our way or the highway mentality. The last 5 years of stock price does not lie. 

Oh it's true almost any phone released in the past 2 years would work on Att.  But Att has a certification process and some of the junk Chinese and Indian brand phones don't want to pay for that certification.  It's more about support calls than anything else.  There are some diamonds in the ruff that are great phones from that region but some are not.

@artemis1

AT&T has been publishing its whitelist since March 2020, 9 months before your last 1 year purchase.

But way back before 2020 the skuttle butt was well published that phones that didnt use AT&T VoLTE, but instead dropped to H/H+, which almost always happens with non US phones.  I've owned a few.   But even my oneplus 5t didn't have VoLTE, so I sold it off in 2019. 

   As for Poco, that brand historically didnt even have compatible LTE bands for AT&T.  If fact the x3 pro does not have all required LTE bands for AT&T.  Primary bands are 12/17.  And without band 14, AT&T will not certify any new phone.   

     Xiaomi is a no-no, many of them have most, except band 14.  But the sub-brand Poco has always skimped on bands, and should not be allowed activation. 

Yep, I totally understand. Xiaomi is the biggest phone manufacturer in the world. AT&T appears to be going out of the way and shooting themselves in the foot to not use them.

With BYOP I do not expect support. I am only paying for service and AT&T is choosing to blacklist my compatible phone. It is so obvious what AT&T is doing and this is why I brought up that I own stock in the company. As a shareholder, I see that these tactics are antiquated, deceptive, and not the way to gain consumers. It only ticks off consumers like me. This is the type of thing that made them lose millions of customers with their TV service. 

To AT&T - It is not my problem in regards to your certifications and internal politics other than I will just be an educated consumer who will find other providers that do not care what phone I bring to the table and they will just provide service without blacklisting phones.  It is sad that AT&T is intentionally blocking phones when they flip the kill switch because of internal policies.

formerlyknownas - you are being an apologist for bad AT&T policy. ;) It should not matter regardless. The phone either works or does not. Why does AT&T even care if my phone is "certified"? Whey should they care if I buy a junk phone? They should not be intentionally hitting the kill switch on phones that are not on their "whitelist". They are either in the business to provide service or not. It is they that are choosing not. 

Xiaomi wants to pony up the missing bands, and ask to go through certification, they can do so. 

But missing three critical bands for AT&T is a no-go for e911.

E911 is an FCC requirement.  In the past these Brands been able to fall back on the 3-g network to make phone calls. That's no longer an option.

When February rolls around, your phone would no longer be capable of making or receiving phone calls anyway. 

Complain to the manufacturer 

Ooh now you are speaking my language. Legal jargon...lol.

Again, you are being an AT&T apologist for their policy and now spreading disinformation. 

Here is the law - "The FCC also requires wireless telephone carriers to provide 911 and E911 capability...".

Nowhere does it say that carriers are forced to demand that consumers carry phones with such capabilities. If that were the case, all carriers would be doing what AT&T is doing. The service provider only needs to have the "capability" to satisfy the requirement. Not reign over the manufacturer. 

Um, no I don't need to complain to the manufacturer they are not providing the service. The phone has usable bands and would still work past February if AT&T didn't blacklist it. Again, you are spreading more FUD.  This is a null argument. AT&T is simply choosing not to provide service to this phone and others that they blacklisted. No worries, it's 'murica" and we still have choices. I'll just simply switch carriers. I choose not to play in the AT&T walled-in garden ;) 

E911 phase 1 requires 911 calls show a phone number, phase 2 requires location services. 

If a phone is not capable of voice calls over the LTE network their only alternative would be to use a virtual number which is voice over data. The problem is a virtual number cannot provide a phone number or location services as required. 

So carriers won't allow such devices as 'phones' because they cannot act as a phone.

There have been many people who have asked if such devices would be allowed on the network as a tablet, and on the cheaper tablet plan.  AT&T isn't answering that one. 

"So carriers won't allow such devices as 'phones' because they cannot act as a phone." 

Not true. Not all carriers are blacklisting phones like AT&T is. You are muddying the waters between service and hardware.  It is not the carrier's place to dictate to the manufacturer or the consumer in regards to using e911. Either the phone works or does not. AT&T is intentionally flipping the kill switch on certain phones if it is not on their "whitelist". That is their policy. 

Don't get me wrong, AT&T has provided me with exceptional service until now. This is just a bad decision on their part to have a whitelist of phones that meet their so-called "certification" and throw the kill switch on every other phone. The law has nothing to do with that. Again, they only have to provide the service. 

It's now a consumer trust issue. 

@artemis1

Verizon has ALWAYS excluded phones, especially without band 13, it's strictly a no, so nothing ever got on their Network that wasn't allowed.  And both Verizon and t-mo have or will be kicking phones off the network. 

If T-Mobile will allow your phone, go there.