Tello Plans to Convert to GSM

Isamorph wrote: The below PPPN article about Tello seems premature since nothing on the Tello website has changed and BYOD GSM phones are rejected on the Tello checker, and PPPN shouldn't have totally relied on the chat info supplied by a reddit poster without confirmation from Tello. Maybe tomorrow new lines will be T mobile only.

www.prepaidphonenews.com/2020/12/existing-tello-subscribers-may-now-buy.html

And the transcript itself was clearly unclear.

golan wrote:

Isamorph wrote: The below PPPN article about Tello seems premature since nothing on the Tello website has changed and BYOD GSM phones are rejected on the Tello checker, and PPPN shouldn't have totally relied on the chat info supplied by a reddit poster without confirmation from Tello. Maybe tomorrow new lines will be T mobile only.

www.prepaidphonenews.com/2020/12/existing-tello-subscribers-may-now-buy.html

And the transcript itself was clearly unclear.

Yes, and lies according to the Reddit poster who gave the original chat info:

“pleasantmuscle41
1h
So it was all lies.Lol”

This was posted after another redditer called Tello CS and received information that showed the info from the reported chat was false, let alone not clear. (See the Reddit comments)

FWIW, I was just looking at the blog section on the Tello website, and it seems to have been reworded and changed some since I last looked. The last post below dispels the rumors recently propagated on reddit and PPP

From: Tello Blog

"Maria Dima says:
December 8, 2020 at 9:55 am
Drako,

I’m not sure who’s spreading these rumours (but they’ll definitely go on the naughty list), so thanks a lot for passing the ball to us.
At Tello, it’s business as usual. Since the GSM network is not live yet, our CDMA SIMs are still available for people in need and can be ordered from us.

All this limbo talk and going through one side to another (CDMA to GSM) makes me think of the “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” – sorry, but Netflix saved 2020 for me. All jokes aside, there’s nothing dark going on at Tello, just a lot of work to make the migration happen as soon as possible and learning as we go. Of course, one of the biggest lessons was that sometimes, no matter how well you plan things, some things are just not up to you.

Sorry I have no updated ETA and thanks for all the patience."

Thanks for sharing that, Isamorph!
One of our Tello lines has an older Android Sprint-only phone on it. I think I'm going to swap it out to a multi-carrier phone while I know it's still possible. Although I expect Tello to still allow CDMA swaps until they're ready to discontinue the network, at some point I think I saw that their intention was to ship new SIMs first to users who had GSM-capable phones already on board.

Yes, swapping in a both GSM/CDMA compatible phone is likely the best way to ensure a smooth transition to T-mobile/Tello.

"If you intend to buy a new phone in the near future, we recommend that you ensure that it is both GSM and CDMA compatible and that it was released no earlier than 2018. To best use the new network, your phone needs to have, as minimum requirements LTE frequency bands 2, 4, 12 + VoLTE and when talking about an ideal connection: bands 2, 4, 12, 66, 71 + VoLTE. Key takeaway: Regardless of the phone brand you fancy, always go for a device that supports voice over 4G (VoLTE), which will help make the most of the newly expanded network."

blog.tello.com/news/tello-and-the-telecom-giants-merger/

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for following us, we do appreciate your attention.
Our transition to GSM is not yet final, we're still working on some final glitches until the new network will be up and running.

You'll be the first to know when the GSM network is live.

Thank you once again for your interest in Tello!

Frasier1 wrote: And with Truphone ALL incoming calls and texts are FREE. Outgoing are 9 cents a min/text P.S. Outgoing can be as low as 1 cent a min with a cleaver workaround.


What is that clever workaround?
 

joseph wrote:

Frasier1 wrote: And with Truphone ALL incoming calls and texts are FREE. Outgoing are 9 cents a min/text P.S. Outgoing can be as low as 1 cent a min with a cleaver workaround.

What is that clever workaround?

I think the workaround is described here:

www.nthcircle.com/forum/other-services/69-truphone?start=70#47221