Sailfish in the USA

General
#87

There’s a few things to unpack that make this far more complicated than it should be.

The simple stuff for the 2x GSM networks in the US:

  1. AT&T have this pdf of supported devices

  2. T-Mobile doesn’t have anything as comprehensive, I guess in part as they’re still to fully combine Sprint. However, this link allows you to check the IMEI of your phone and flags any phone that doesn’t support VoLTE:

Despite buying my Sailfish licence from the UK, this will affect me as I’m now in a US resident, so this will affect me as my XA2 won’t work as a phone in around 9-15 months time, regardless of the SIM inserted. T-Mobile flat don’t support my XA2, see the following screenshot.

XA2 IMEI
XA2 IMEI2143×1173 213 KB

Interestingly my old Nokia 830 is apparently supported on AT&T after this change, despite being a launched more than 3 years earlier. I guess that’s due to the XA2 not being a contract option on T-Mobile, or for that matter available at retail in the US (only the Xperia 1 & 5 are available on Amazon, the 10 II is the International version).

Where it gets messy is that the supported LTE bands are very different to Europe in the US. As Sony don’t sell phones that support Sailfish X in the US, importing one is the only option but that doesn’t necessarily help as the Xperia 10 series supports some different LTE bands to the network. The XA2 Dual-Sim I have supports 1-5,7-8,20,38, and AT&T has widespread use of bands 12&17 so if I’m in an area of the US where only band 17 is available, the phone won’t work at all.

The point is that I understand why Jolla don’t support Sailfish X sales in the US, as the phones that support it aren’t available to buy in the US without importing, and doing so doesn’t mean LTE will work. Thta doesn’t mean I’d like to see VoLTE support soon but I understand why it’s not a priority.

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VoLTE support in SailfishOS?
#88

In addition, a historical pain point has been group MMS. I am yet to find a good solution for this.

Some providers have web access/apps that can get around this issue. See my recent posts for example.

I use Google Fi, which has web access to sms/mms. If I get an sms, Sailfish messages handles it via the Messages application. If I get an MMS, the Messages application tells me that it couldn’t download the MMS, but I have 2 different workarounds via the web access to retrieve and/or send.

VoLTE is a growing concern for me though.

#89

And SFOS did not implement VoLTE 'cause this protocol is only used in US and NOT in EU, Asia, Russia, etc?

It is only a matter of time. Jolla should have started implementing VoLTE a decade ago as it is superior in every way and the clear path ISPs were going to take worldwide.

Bandwidth is cheap and VoLTE can squeeze much more out of much less when compared to a traditional voice call. It is also far more cost effective to maintain 1 network instead of 3, and be able to reallocate the frequencies from 2/3G into 4G which can handle both voice and data.

If Jolla chooses to act like it doesn’t exist, it will kill the company eventually. 5G will be utilizing native data calls as well (currently it uses VoLTE to support voice since you can have concurrent 5G and LTE connections)

2 Likes
#90

Agreed. Here in the UK 2G/3G masts, frequencies, etc are already being re-purposed towards 4G/5G, so although the final 3G switch off date is fluid (sometime around end of 2022/23 … maybe) and 2G will remain around for longer to service legacy technologies that still use it (Smart meters, pagers, etc) the 2G signal is becoming weaker and more patchy across much of the country and 3G is disappearing completely in some places. This will make non-VoLTE phones much harder to use as in some places there will be no 3G and a much weaker or patchy 2G signal to fall back on. This situation will naturally drive users towards VoLTE capable phones - which of course is what the network providers want. Its actually quite a good way of getting people to move towards VoLTE of their own accord rather than generating negative publicity by forcing them to move due to a hard cliff-edge switch off.

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#91

I think this may be of use: GitHub - KhushrajRathod/VoLTE-Fix: Fixes Qualcomm VoLTE on all GSI Treble Roms

1 Like
#92
  • SFOS is officially coming to the US in early 2022 (and other markets)
  • VoLTE is in the works “… hoping to release support on some devices in early 2022”
    (edit: apparently VoLTE will come to the Xperia 10II first)

For details: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sailfish-community-news-21st-october-2021

6 Likes
#93

That’s great news. I suppose I can reinstall sailfish on my Xperia now.

#94

Before entering new markets, Jolla should sort out the biggest issues they have withe the OS! The CONNECTIVITY! Sailfish OS is not usable at the Moment!! Since 4.1 it is pain in the a**!! It can even be dangerous to use it as daily driver! In this state of the OS this project will fail! A lot of additional work for nothing! Please Jolla wake up! Solve these problems first before adding net functionalitys, and then you are ready! Don’t show potential, show a WORKING OS!!!

2 Likes
#95

I agree Jolla need to sort out some of the functionality, however I don’t see the expansion into other markets as being a barrier to fixing these issues. In fact it may aid in the improvement of the OS. They will have a larger customer base which will bring more income but also bring more pressure to bear to fix the issues.

I think the US market will be less forgiving in this regard to the European market. The acceptance of Sailfish into these new markets will be much better if the OS has less bugs and Jolla owe it to themselves to get the OS into the best shape possible.

1 Like
#96

What issues do you have specifically?

The perennial BT problems are obviously an issue, but this is not unique to SFOS devices

#97

I don’t know. If by this expansion they just mean removing the stupid geo IP block from their web site not much will probably change.

#98

US Linuxites will be a bit more critical, yes, but as a Linux user for the past few years, I’ve learned to live with these trials and tribulations. Linux is about options, and Sailfish provides users with a cohesive, clean and great-looking OS and interface that none of the other Linux phones on the market can or have offered yet.

The ciritical points could be from the staunch open-source crowds, who will point out Silica’s closed-source nature, despite the rest of the OS being open. They might argue that Sailfish X is not a suitable way of offering the product, especially with such a limited array of supported devices, which are already difficult to purchase in the US even when they’re available, although the same can be said of Purism’s Librem 5, which comes with their exclusive PureOS. They might argue that the lack of Flatpak and Appimage support makes software support all but nonexistent, but that would just be ignorant of the fact that we do still have a terminal, and beyond that, software still needs to be ported to aarch64 if they’re coming from a desktop.

At this point, the worst particulars are going to be the things people need to be usable. Mobile network support with VoLTE and 5G will be integral, improved network juggling between wi-fi and mobile, and the web browser issue, which is definitely improving with each release, but is still always behind by several leagues.

I expect the most we’ll see is basic software improvements combined with the removal of Jolla Store geo-blocking and the introduction of USD pricing. Jolla is already supporting every version of the devices they release SFX for. My XA2 is an H3123, US model with all the bells and whistles that come with that, it works just fine under a T-Mobile MVNO, I can download apps from the Jolla Store, I get software updates likes everyone else, and I’m typing this message up on my XA2 in the native browser right now with a Logitech K480 bluetooth keyboard. SFOS is matured, but it still has a long way to go.

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#99

Holy sh*t! I haven’t been using Sailfish OS for the last several months now due to it being borderline unworkable with my previous job (we used a lot of MMS to communicate) and the looming death spell. Decided to check the blog and forums today on a whim. I’m so excited!

US Linuxites will be a bit more critical, yes, but as a Linux user for the past few years, I’ve learned to live with these trials and tribulations. Linux is about options, and Sailfish provides users with a cohesive, clean and great-looking OS and interface that none of the other Linux phones on the market can or have offered yet.

It doesn’t even need to wow Linux users IMO. I use Windows on basically everything and I had a Windows Phone during the WP8 days. It’s just better to use than the other mobile OSes.

1 Like
#100

Any solutions to the MMS problem? The inability to download images, iPhone messages, and group texts without multiple resets is kinda getting old….

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#101

Make sure you have the correct MMS settings. Search the forum, it will offer some hints. It doesn’t work out of the box, but mine works perfectly fine once configured correctly for my specific network.

#102

I do have the correct MMS settings. I have checked them several times. The problems I’m having are identical to @808 's and @WedgeStratos described in this thread. Fails to download, have to toggle off wifi and in and out of airplane mode several times, sometimes reset the phone, and still sometimes I just can’t get an MMS. In a world where I’m often cc’d on group texts and iPhones default simple messages to MMS formats, this is a lot of missed messages…
Not complaining, just wondering where we’re at with a fix.
I’m on TMobile, but happy to switch if that solves the problem.
Also doing a deep dive on VoLTE stuff.

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#103

Have you tried canceling it and restarting the download. That used to work for me when mine was working wonky (since resolved). And I had to have wifi off for it to work.

I also found multiple settings for T-mobile (now on AT&T reseller), and tinkering with those also helped.

#104

US user here. Putting it out there incase it’s not known by others. Slapping a data only SIM from TMobile, Mint, RedPocket or USMobile combined with S1P or Grandstream Wave (android) works pretty well. SMS/MMS work with Granstream Wave. I’ve made several improvements to make S1P more reliable and feature complete (daemon from boot, ring/answer over lockscreen, SMS, proper contacts), but without the sources it’s impossible for me to implement SSL. If anyone wants to get after unmaintained to release it, I’d be happy to share my changes. The VoIP provider I’ve been using with good results is voip.ms (https://voip.ms/en/invite/MzMwNzMz if you want to use my referral code). Using this approach on 2 x XA2 Ultra (non-technical family) and 10 II (personal/development).

3 Likes
#105

@svalmont I’m happy to hear more about the multiple TMobile settings you tried, in case I’m missing anything. I typically cancel and restart download, or go airplane mode and reconnect, or reset entirely.

Hi @hackman238 and welcome! Yes, many of the users above are also working with data-only SIMs and SIP apps too. I’d prefer to do that only as a last resort … maybe come July 22…

#106

I put my solution in the forum when I found it. More or less, I looked up multiple sites what the settings were and tried different ones until it ended up working out. I don’t have T-mobile anymore, so I can’t just look up my settings for you.