I’ve gotten the texts that say “AT&T is shutting down our 3G network and your phone will be toast when we do,” blahblahblah. I’ve researched this and apparently my BlackBerry (unlocked and bought by me at amazon) is fine and will continue to work.
But just now I got a text that says AT&T is sending me a new free cell phone to replace this one! And if I don’t activate it within 30 days, they will activate it automatically and my current phone will be disabled except for being able to call 911 and 611 (AT&T connection). WTF??
Are they deliberately trying to lose me as a customer?? I’m on hold right now waiting for an AT&T CSR and I hope I get someone who has a clue about this.
I also have AT&T U-verse internet (but no-- I just have a Roku), AND my phone and U-verse are NOT bundled together. When I got the phone before this one (also a BlackBerry purchased from amazon), I asked the rep at the store if it would be a good idea to bundle the phone with my internet, and she said, “I wouldn’t.” Hehe. Good advice.
Who else is getting these messages? What phone company should I move to?
Looks like you have the best deal that’s out there right now:
“Of all the carriers, AT&T has made things the most clear to understand. Not only has it provided a cutoff date, but the list it made is extremely helpful. That’s more than we can say for Verizon or T-Mobile, which have repeatedly delayed 3G network shutdowns.”
I finally got through to an AT&T CSR. She was absolutely darling (and I made a point of charming the socks off of her). She blocked the new phone and blocked an activation down the road. We had a very nice chat.
So if anyone else encounters this, you do not have to accept the unsolicited phone. But you should take action immediately.
There’s a thread on Reddit about this and people have received these phones and want to know how to send them back.
Is there a reason you don’t want the phone? It sounds like a free phone. I’m not sure of the details, but it sounds like your BB phone won’t actually work after this transition, so you’ll have to use a new phone one way or another. Even if you wanted to buy a new phone, the ATT phone might be useful as a backup if you ever needed it.
Is it going to work for both calls and data? If the BB phone uses 3G for data, then that might not work after 3G is shutdown. I believe calls go over a different protocol and would continue to work.
AT&T was the first company I dealt with. I got into an argument over something with them and switched to Verizon. That was 15 ish years ago and I’ve been happy with Verizon ever since.
Thanks. I used to be with Sprint many years ago, but when I moved to this house in the city (from a remote location way out in the country), the coverage was counterintuitively spotty. I was in roaming in my own living room! Sprint gave me a signal-booster thing, but it didn’t help. That’s when I switched to AT&T.
This is my current, beloved phone:
Apparently, even though my hardware might be compatible with the AT&T network, they can block a phone you didn’t buy from them just 'cause they’re AT&T and they can. So I’m thinking I might switch anyway.
All phones are not equal. I don’t want a new phone even if it’s free. I want my phone.
If I had a phone with a real keyboard that I was happy with, I wouldn’t want to give it up, either.
I would hate it if I were told they would mail me a phone, as it would most likely be one I couldn’t easily root. Having full control over a device is quite important to me. (It’s why I don’t own a Switch or iPad.)
Her phone works with 4G. Doesn’t that mean 3G is irrelevant?
ETA: I love T-Mobile. I buy my own phones, and they just work. I’m on a grandfathered unlimited data plan from forever ago. The only issue is the coverage is less than Verizon, but it’s been steadily getting better. I left AT&T a long long time ago over crap exactly like this.
My mom (in her mid-90s) got the free at&t phone, and I drove over, set it up for her and charged it up. But it’s not receiving calls. There were NO instructions with it… anyone know if I should transfer her old SIM card to the new phone?
It came with a SIM already in it, and the instructions for that model online told me to enter her address book numbers manually.
I’m with Consumer Cellular, which uses the AT&T network. They notified me a few weeks back that my old phone would soon be incompatible with the network, so I bought a new one - another fairly basic cheapie. My granddaughter now uses my old phone as a mini-tablet and life goes on.
I miss my old phone, and not all that crazy about the new one, but since I mostly use it to text and occasionally make calls. I can deal…
I just stopped by the T-Mobile store to see what would be involved in switching from AT&T to them. I asked the guy there about the following that I posted here:
And he said AT&T can’t do that. But I’ll bet they can. I don’t think he understood me. What do you think, @FairyChatMom?
You mean my conversation with the AT&T CSR today? She blocked the new, unsolicited phone from being sent. And she blocked activation of that phone (which presumably could still have happened even if I were not in possession of that phone). We didn’t address whether my BlackBerry would still work on the AT&T network in the future. I’d be surprised if she knew anything about that.
Perhaps it’s I who misunderstood you. I inferred that the reason that the agent marked your new phone to not automatically activate was that you had agreed that the old phone would continue working and they wouldn’t deactivate it. Otherwise, I’m unclear on why the agent would block the new phone - that just risks leaving you with zero working phones.
Okay. I told her I didn’t want the new phone so she blocked the process of sending it. I have put that awkwardly…
I said, “I don’t want the new phone as I believe my old phone will work on the new network.”
She said, “I’ll put a block on it.” Meaning she would block the order to send the new phone. And also block any order to activate the new phone. This was not about blocking service now or in the future.
NOW, after reading here and other places and talking to the T-Mobile guy, I’m not sure whether AT&T can or would block SERVICE to my old phone (bought from amazon) once they get their new network in place. Some sources I read said that AT&T will block service to phones they didn’t sell.
Communication is challenging. But we are up to it!
They absolutely can. Phones come with what’s called an IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity, in case you’re interested), which uniquely identifies your phone (not the subscriber or the SIM, which can change, but the phone itself.) If your phone were stolen (or lost), and you reported that, the networks would kick it off by using that number. This happens all the time - carriers can and do block specific phones.
Part of the IMEI is a TAC - Type Allocation Code - which tells the carrier the make/model of the phone, as well as some other stuff I believe, such as where it was manufactured. So AT&T likely identified your phone type by its TAC, erroneously categorized it as no-longer-going-to-work, and may very well drop it after the service cutoff. Or maybe not - it’s impossible to say without knowing the internal goings-on at AT&T.
Anyway, sorry I misunderstood you earlier. If you think AT&T miscategorized your existing phone, you should talk to them about that specifically. You could wait until after the cutover to see if it’s a problem (saving yourself the time if there’s no problem), or do it now (in case losing phone service would be a major inconvenience.)
