How much longer will they work with companies moving to 5G? I know my older 3 G cell quit working (with Verizon) and was forced to buy a New one only 2 to 3 years ago. They should have mailed out a notice, but these phone companies do what they want.
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Is 5g even available anywhere? They have been talking about it for years. I don't even think they are close with it yet. Probably another couple years before it's nationwide. I could be wrong though.Comment -
They are spending a TON of money advertizing they NOW have 5G on the tube. AT&T almost nightly with the same commercial. But hope you are right it's not widespread enough to stop the older phone from working YET. But they're all in business to make money and there's not much worse than only hearing every other word of a conversation. And to add insult when I had my older 3 G phone and called Verizon about the problem, It was ....oh by the way, you need a new phone because of our network. No alarm to them!Comment -
The thing to remember is that 4G will not be going away anytime soon, regardless of how fast the 5G network grows. The plan is for existing 4G LTE networks to be used by carriers well into 2030. 5G networks are not being designed to replace 4G, rather they are designed to work in conjunction with 4G networks.Comment -
Yep... 4G isn't going anywhere for a long long long time. No need to upgrade your cell phone at all.Comment -
Thanks .
If the government paid for the welfare phones, that would be even more incentive for the phone companies to hurry up and make the 5G the only game in town. But it looks like to me (with info from pologq) that maybe they are forced to keep the 4G phones around for another 10 years. I had a talk with consumer cellular rep. last night and he seemed to think it would be more than 5 years but less than 10 years. I'm old fashioned about a phone, but technology marches on.Comment -
There was a whole section in the WSJ on it this week. If that helps.Comment -
B.g. I haven't seen the section on the WSJ. I don't want to sound like a socialist, but it's fairly simple to me. Electricity is my favorite example. I live in Virginia and love Dominion Energy that provides my electricity. They do a great job and price is very very fair. Phone companies compete, but you and I both know, they play "games", that often are not fair. It's up to the buyer to figure out THE PUZZLING MAZE FOR A PHONE PLAN. It should not be this way, unless you think a phone is a luxury.Comment -
Many phones still support what was known as 2g and 3g. It depends on the antenna you have. All of these signals run on a spectrum - if your phone antenna accepts the spectrum that is broadcast, then it will work. I have a flip phone I can pop a sim card into and it will work.
When you buy a phone check the spectrum of signals it operates on and the spectrums that your carrier broadcasts on.
Most carriers officially launched their 5G networks in September/October in major cities.Comment -
There was absolutely NO way for me to know that my older LG (Verizon) flip phone would quit working because of their Network. They sold me the phone and I had it for many years. When they said it was no longer supported on their network, I HAD to get another phone. I bought another LG flip phone -LG EXALT from them for a small price of $184. Neither one have an external antenna. These companies do what they want. There was no-one to tell me that I should have bought a phone with an antenna from Verizon. I don't even know if they offer one. It's a ZOO in the phone world!Comment -
The carrier probably had to sell the spectrum they were operating the 3g signal on in your network. This is unlikely to happen these days because most phones operate on multiple spectrums.
this is a good illustration of why you should actually match your phone to the carrier
Here you can see that buying a Google Pixel 4a is not a great choice if you are on a CDMA network like Sprint but works well on GSM networks like T Mobile.
Here is the phone you purchased https://www.deviceranks.com/en/phone/9106/lg-exalt-lte
if you scroll down you can see that this phone is not compatible with Sprint/Boost, Verizon, US Cellular and only checks a few of the boxes for the other main carriers as far as antenna and signal frequency.
Hope that makes sense.Comment -
Thanks I guess, above my head for the figures. You know Verizon has what I call secondary stores, maybe that's not the correct term. But they are in some ways like a Verizon 7-11 or whatever. You can walk right in, whereas the VERIZON big brick stores seem more official. I want to check prices when I can. It's sad I don't feel trust in Verizon at all.Comment
