AT&T pulling the plug on 3G - No more prepaid roaming soon?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › AT&T pulling the plug on 3G - No more prepaid roaming soon?

ztytian

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#293880 19-Feb-2022 12:58

From 22nd Feb, while roaming in the USA you will need to use T-Mobile if you want to make or receive calls, as AT&T are turning off their old 3G network.

This means roamers on AT&T can use text and data but won't be able to make or receive voice calls until we launch 4G voice roaming with AT&T.

Until then, manually select T-Mobile in your mobile phone's settings if you need voice calling while you roam.

If you have issues please call your Service Provider.

Got this message from Spark this morning. Spark used to allow 4G roaming on prepaid but I believe that changed a couple years back. While at the moment T-Mobile 3G is still a tenable option this will inevitably cease to work as T-Mobile decommissions their 3G network later this year. This is not limited to roaming in the US alone as carriers all over the globe are starting to decommission their 3G network.

Would Spark allow prepaid users to roam on 4G and implement VoLTE roaming, or would prepaid users be stuck with VoWiFi soon?

Sparking of which, has there been any updates on the VoWiFi front? It appears that DNS records have been added for the IMS servers somewhat recently but the appropriate configs are yet to be pushed to mobile devices. I understand there was reports that a public test is scheduled sometime this year, have there been any updates since?

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#2871504 20-Feb-2022 08:48

That is a bold move by AT&T there will be millions of devices on the AT&T network both 3G phones and 4G phones with no VoLTE support out there.

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

ztytian

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#2871505 20-Feb-2022 08:54

nztim: That is a bold move by AT&T there will be millions of devices on the AT&T network both 3G phones and 4G phones with no VoLTE support out there.

All US carriers are decommissioning 3G by the end of this year. AT&T had quite a tight control over what device they allow on their network. They haven’t allowed non compliant phones for quite a while and a couple months back there was a free upgrade program for non-VoLTE phones.

I mean all US carriers have had VoLTE for close to a decade now. NZ is really late to the game.

Linux

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#2871510 20-Feb-2022 09:33

Same thing needs to happen in New Zealand

nztim

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#2871513 20-Feb-2022 09:40

Linux: Same thing needs to happen in New Zealand

The problem here is there are millions of data loggers on Vodafones 2G network including the power meter on the side of my house

This will cost millions replace

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Linux

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#2871516 20-Feb-2022 09:58

nztim:
Linux: Same thing needs to happen in New Zealand

The problem here is there are millions of data loggers on Vodafones 2G network including the power meter on the side of my house

This will cost millions replace

That is not a problem leave 2G going for GPRS only and have no hand over the 4G / 5G network

quickymart

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#2871519 20-Feb-2022 10:02

Still a few places that can't get decent 4G but get okay/usable 3G...or are there?

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Linux

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#2871520 20-Feb-2022 10:03

quickymart:
Still a few places that can't get decent 4G but get okay/usable 3G...or are there?

That is cause the power on 4G is turned down

MaxineN

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#2871523 20-Feb-2022 10:17

quickymart:

Still a few places that can't get decent 4G but get okay/usable 3G...or are there?

Back at my old address in the Rei by Ross Park where I used to live 4G was absolutely out of the question. 3G barely worked in the house, didn't matter who the carrier was(although with Vodafone you could actually complete calls in the house). If you wanted to make calls or even use data you had to go up the drive way.

2d's VoWiFi whilst not the most stable, was absolutely the best solution I had at the time(also partially why I stayed with them for so damn long).

Here is 1 example of the many examples I've experienced.

The other example is from Yaldhurst on SH73 to West Melton. Absolutely nothing works until you get to Curraghs Road, 4G, 3G and 2G all simply do not work regardless of carrier. Also anywhere around SH75. It's 2G with a small mix of 3G all the way to Halswell.

Also got a mate in New Plymouth and they work in the city. Barely any 4G(On Voda) and the moment they step into their Warehouse it's 3G all the way(no cell boosters here).

Wishful thinking we can turn off the 3G in the near future without fixing some of the deadzone issues we have(I am all for turning it off but there's a lot of work that needs to be done first).

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

nztim

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#2871539 20-Feb-2022 10:57

VoWIFi has meant I can finally get calls at home - we get about 1 bar of signal on a good day

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andyb

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#2873277 23-Feb-2022 14:04

ztytian:

"Would Spark allow prepaid users to roam on 4G"

Hi there - we enabled all prepaid roamers in the US to be able to roam on 4G late last week, and are working our way through the rest of the base.

The message sent to roamers suggests that VoLTE Roaming is being worked on. :-)

Cheers

Andrew Bluck

Manager of Roaming - Spark NZ

andyb

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#2873299 23-Feb-2022 14:54

nztim:
Linux: Same thing needs to happen in New Zealand

The problem here is there are millions of data loggers on Vodafones 2G network including the power meter on the side of my house

This will cost millions replace

This upgrade is already underway here in NZ.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

ajw

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#2873391 23-Feb-2022 17:18

Followed by Tmobile in March this year and Verizon December of this year.

ztytian

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#2873393 23-Feb-2022 17:21

andyb:
ztytian:

"Would Spark allow prepaid users to roam on 4G"

Hi there - we enabled all prepaid roamers in the US to be able to roam on 4G late last week, and are working our way through the rest of the base.

The message sent to roamers suggests that VoLTE Roaming is being worked on. :-)

Cheers

Andrew Bluck

Manager of Roaming - Spark NZ

That’s indeed great news! After a couple days of no services I’m now indeed back on ATT 4G (TMo coverage here is rather non-existent).

KiwiSurfer

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#2873535 23-Feb-2022 21:17

quickymart:

Still a few places that can't get decent 4G but get okay/usable 3G...or are there?

Very rare now to find places where 4G is poor and 3G is good. Most typical is poor 4G areas are even worse for 3G. I've noticed that 4G works well under adverse conditions where the 3G fallback is usually totally unusable. Which is fairly impressive since as @Linux mentioned 4G power is actually deliberately tuned down to ensure (in theory) that it doesn't provide a better service than 3G. It annoying at heck when I find myself in the awkward margin between 3G/4G and my phone oscillates between a perfectly good 4G signal and a useless 3G signal. I've seen this on all 3 carriers across a variety of phones both Apple and Android. I'd prefer the carriers just run 4G at a decent power and turn off the useless 3G fallback in low signal areas (or even just get rid of 3G altogether).

mdav056

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#2873543 23-Feb-2022 21:42

Sitting at home now, in St Heliers, Auckland, and I have no 4G and 1-2 bars (oscillates) of 3G...

gml

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