Well, they blew through another deadline for shutting off 3g. I think this is the 4th or 5th "deadline".
The Gusto 2 lives on to talk another day (year? decade?) 
I think I'm going to keep it alive until the end to see if an upgrade offer EVER comes.
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No complaints about the delays here...our very reliable Twigby service depends upon them & the 3G works just fine.
Mixed bag for me. I was hoping to see whether or not 3G shutoff would help make my Umidigi A3S work flawlessly on Xfinity. On the other hand, the 2 iPhone 6's that I have purposely kept on IOS 10.1.1 and 9.3.1 will continue to work on Xfinity.
This
.I think I'm not surprised by this delay, since I was expecting it to be a total mess if they in fact shut down 3G at this point. My relief has nothing to do with VoLTE-- it has to do with texting.
I'm not an expert on this by any means, and have only learned a little by experimenting, reading, and thinking about it-- so I could be wrong about a lot of this!
Dumping 3G may not be as simple as only allowing VoLTE capable phones on the network-- it also requires that lines be provisioned for CDMA-less service. Even with VoLTE, it appears that sms falls back by default to 3G unless CDMA-less provisioning exists on the line. It's not clear to me how many existing phones are, or are not, capable of CDMA-less operation, but it doesn't seem to be something that has happened automatically as an update to line provisioning, and it seems that many MVNOs don't understand it, or can't/won't enable it on request.
From recent reports I've seen elsewhere, it seems like Verizon is becoming more strict about not allowing SIM-swapping on MVNOs-- something that they've largely ignored even though it's never been officially allowed. I suspect that this may be tied in to that CDMA-less provisioning issue, since any change in provisioning doesn't happen if a SIM is swapped into a different phone. (My personal experience is in moving a SIM from a non-CDMA-less phone to a CDMA-less phone, and not being able to get texting to work.)
I guess a lot of Verizon customers rely on 3G devices. Is there any chance AT&T blinks too? Now that Verizon has blinked, it makes it more possible that AT&T blinks too, right? Does T-Mobile have any 3G shutdowns planned?
T-Mobile will proceed. In my opinion, they've done the best job of transitioning to a full LTE solution.
In my opinion, Verizon has bungled this at every stage. AT&T is obviously just starting to do anything so that customers can predict what will work & what won't work (and it's not encouraging so far.)
Regardless of how badly they've handled it, both AT&T and Verizon will proceed despite previous, and possibly future, delays. It's in their financial interest to do so.
Remember the $5/month unlimited 3g flashed MiFis that went away, way back when?
I had had a Galaxy Note 2 flashed to 3g and it's still plugging along with unlimited data for $5/month.
It survived the MiFi genocide probably because I occasionally make calls and send text messages with it, just to show some typical phone usage.
I'm going to keep paying my $5/mo and ride this wave for as long as it goes.
New 3g EOL announced - Dec. 31 2022.
"The date will not be extended again."
So, are we taking side bets for an extension?
I'm still of the opinion that Verizon hosed themselves in this process by considering VoLTE, but not considering CDMA-less provisioning.
Obviously, I'm completely out of my depth in forming this opinion. It's based only on my experience that without CDMA-less, sms texting doesn't seem to work at all (without CDMA). If the transition to RCS chat, or something similar, had moved forward faster, this wouldn't be an issue. (But for me personally, I still prefer old-school sms for it's robust performance.) There seems to be a plethora of devices in the wild capable of VoLTE, without being capable of CDMA-less.
"THE DATE WILL NOT BE EXTENDED AGAIN"
What? You don't believe them?
Dunno. They've given themselves almost 2 years this time. I suppose they are hoping most of the 3g only devices (or their owners) die and they can tell the few remaining in late '22 that their degrading service is because of their device.
I can't believe I'm going to get almost 2 more years of unlimited $5/month 3g internet.
Honest to God, it's my most reliable cellular internet connection.
More reliable than my postpaid T-Mobile, Visible and AT&T.
My still-Sprint-based "unlimited" Boost phone is my second most reliable connection, ever since a bajillion people transitioned over to the T-Mobile network. And it's still grandfathered at the $25 price, so I guess I'll keep it alive.
May actually be happening.
Page Plus non 4g phone got a text from 611-611:
"We apologize for any inconvenience, but we will be interrupting your phone service to deliver this critical service message: Starting December 31, 2022 the underlying network will begin shutting down and you will not be able make or receive calls, including emergency calls or calls to 911. We are providing a FREE DEVICE so you can continue your service. Please call 1-866-667-6437 immediately to speak with a representative."
Wonder what they'll offer a pay go account that only loads $10 every 4 months?
If anyone has any info. / scoop on what Verizon/TF has been doing re this outreach campaign I'd appreciate hearing about it.
Maybe I'll get a refurbished iPhone SE out of them!
I still have one Xfinity Mobile SIM that was ordered around 11 months ago that works on 3G voice and data, for now. It will also work on LTE data, but for iPhones, the IOS has to be 10.3 or above. It works fine on an iPhone 5s and a 5c.
However, my more recently ordered Xfinity Mobile SIMs seem to not be able to get 3G/voice data; they only work on 4G or 5G. Interestingly, if I put a newer Xfinity Mobile SIM into an iPhone 5s with any IOS, it will work on data only, and it won't work at all on an iPhone 5c.
Well, the phone that got the P+ text is an iPhone 4s (on 8.1.3 I believe) so while it does have a SIM card slot there isn't one in it. The phone is unlocked and has had AT&T SIM in it, not sure if a T-mo based SIM was ever tried.
I think at one time you (bingyee) shared your knowledge re what network it would be most compatible with once it was no longer able to work on VZW network but I no longer recall what you said.
So after reading this I decided to test a T-Mobile SIM in my iPhone 4s originally issued by Verizon. It is running IOS 7.0.4. It does pick up a 2G Edge signal and calls/text work. However, I could not get any data. The latter is something different from the last time I tested that phone on T-Mobile around August.
T-Mobile must have toggled off the data on their 2G network at some point recently.
Verizon 3G CDMA is dead. Long live 4G LTE and 5G!
Seriously, it still worked on Jan 2, but not yesterday.
As for IOS devices that can access LTE but don't have VOLTE capability, I have noticed that the iPhone 5s operating IOS as low as 10.3.2 can work as a data-only device on Verizon and Xfinity. Furthermore, an iPhone SE 1st gen running IOS 11.4.1 can make and receive calls via wifi when the LTE setting is set to data only.
edit 1/5: iPhone 5s running IOS 9.0.2 works on data. So does my iPhone 5c running IOS 8.4. My iPhone 5s running IOS 8.2 does not work but I think the issue is the LTE antenna - this phone always worked better on 3G only with LTE shut off.
Last day calls / text worked for me was Dec. 30.
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