Sailfish in the USA

General
#242

I’m going to add my two cents here. Through a quick scroll I didn’t find it, but maybe it was mentioned before, in which case I apologise.

I am presently in the USA. At home, I use an Italian Iliad sim card without any problems.

I bought a prepaid Ultramobile sim card here, which works well for my needs (data and texts; haven’t called yet, but it even registered on VoLTE once, I think).

BUT, if I put them in together, the Iliad card gets “deregistered”, and doesn’t connect anymore, while the Ultra keeps working as before.

The only idea I came up with is that maybe there’s some sort of conflict. Iliad uses AT&T’s network, while Ultra (Walmart’s MVNO) uses T-Mobile. When I try to select SIM1 (Iliad’s) network manually, only T-Mobile shows up.
If I insert only Iliad’s card, AT&T networks show up.

So, maybe two different carriers cannot work in the same phone?

20230910_001
20230910_0011080×2520 48.8 KB

Android Mobile Data Connectivity Broken
#243

Here in the USA, only T-Mobile and MVNOs which use the T-Mobile network can register with IMS and enable calls using VoLTE. SMS, MMS and data also work on these networks. SMS, MMS and data work with AT&T and any MVNO that uses AT&T. Keep in mind, both T-Mobile and AT&T maintain white lists for phones. MVNOs are permitted to use their own device whitelists for the most part. Puremobile (AT&T GSM-A) works great for data, SMS and MMS. US Mobile (on the white T-Mobile GSM-T SIM) works great with the Xperia 10 ii and 10 iii for data, SMS, MMS and calling. The Xperia 10 iii has very limited service outside of major metropolitan areas due to lacking support for most GSM-T bands used for service coverage in suburban, rural and indoor locations.

4 Likes
Paid subscription to updates
#244

The Xperia 10 iii has very limited service outside of major metropolitan areas due to lacking support for most GSM-T bands used for service coverage in suburban, rural and indoor locations.

I’m visiting near Austin, TX, and indeed, X10III is often sitting in 2.5G mode, unable to upgrade to 4G.

Do y’all know what the situation is for upcoming X10IV or V devices - are those also missing critical US bands?

EDIT not ideal, maybe 5G helps if support ever arrives on SFOS

Android 13 and SailfishOS on xperia 10 III
#245

unfortunately, Xperia 10 III, IV, and V will all work exactly the same on SFOS, as they all have the same LTE channels. (however, if/when SFOS supports 5G, IV and V should work better than III since they add n41)

in particular, all are missing B2=1900MHz which is the most important one for T-Mobile, and also the B66 extension of B4.

3 Likes
#246

The 10iii and 10iv both have problems on T-Mobile in areas served by B2 and B12, which is mostly suburban. Lack of B66 and B71 reduce rural coverage dramatically as well. Inside loop 1604 in San Antonio coverage is acceptable with B5. Outside that and you’ll have trouble. The 10ii coverage, on the other hand, is very good lacking only the B71 band. I’m working on VoLTE now for the 1 ii, but it’s a big lift for a side project.

2 Likes
#247

I’m visiting near Austin, TX, and indeed, X10III is often sitting in 2.5G mode, unable to upgrade to 4G.

Any thoughts on what might be going on with this?

Reboot, and now I also discovered, systemctl restart ofono immediately gets me back on 4G.

Toggling flight mode or SIM slot - doesn’t help, phone reconnects radio on 2.5G

This is on T-Mobile, and I’m roaming from EU.

I just installed Ofono Logger to get a closer look maybe, but not sure what I’m looking for.

#248

It’s not you. What hackman328 and teleshoes wrote is pretty much it. The phone’s 4G frequency bands are a sub-optimal fit for US use. (Actually, it’s sub-optimal for use in much of North America when you click through all the country/carrier options on kimovil.com.) So your Xperia 10 iii will end up in 2G mode roaming on T-Mobile, the only carrier left in the US that supports that technology anymore. :frowning:

Worse yet, T-Mo has been letting 2G service degrade while promising multiple times to shut it down completely. The last missed deadline was just last week on April 2. Why they’ve blinked at pulling the plug multiple times is anyone’s guess, but the big money is on embedded wireless device customers begging them to keep the service alive until they’ve switched out all their old hardware – ATMs, burglar alarms, lo-jack, scales that phone home your weight so you can get depressed watching the trend on your phone . . .

#249

So your Xperia 10 iii will end up in 2G mode roaming on T-Mobile, the only carrier left in the US that supports that technology anymore.

I’m not sure this explains why restarting ofono helps get back on 4G right away, esp. vs flight mode or sim slot toggle.

Why isn’t the phone able to upgrade an online connection automatically, like ofono restart does?

1 Like
#250

an excellent question. i have to restart ofono all the time to restore LTE connection after being somewhere that its spotty.

edit: pasted wrong quote

#251

Yeah, exactly what I’m seeing. @rainemak do you know if there’s already a bug report open for something that looks similar enough? It feels like a subtle ofono bug. I’m not finding anything matching on Forum.

#252

I have noticed that this happens to me when I’m in T-Mobile area that still has 2G service and spotty 4G. It drops to 2G GSM when the 4G bands are spotty and never seems to want to go back until theres no trace of 2G services to select. A flip into and out of airplane also seems to resolve this. I think a sensible solution would be to add a cellular preference for 4G/LTE only preventing the selection of 2G in areas where it still exists.

#253

I can confirm this behavior. It’s been like this since I started using 10iii when SF became available. Living in downtown Denver CO, I have excellent coverage of 4G. Although that, it often drops down to 2G and I have to restart. Often I have to restart a several times before getting back 4G. This happens almost on a daily basis. Peculiar is that if I leave it at 2G it never ever goes back up to 4G although that’s preferred in the settings.
Another peculiarity is that I never can send mms although I’ve tried all kind of settings, but that’s another story.

2 Likes
#254

Does anyone know where the code resides related to network preference? I can take a swing at hacking in a 4G/LTE only option if someone knows where I can start looking.

1 Like
#255

You mean other than GitHub - sailfishos/ofono: Sailfish OS fork of https://01.org/ofono or?

I see @piggz has filed multiple ofono update PRs… maybe he has some ideas what might be going here with 10III needlessly getting stuck on 2G until ofono restart?

#256

It used to be possible to force LTE when jolla C launched (calls would go to voicemail instantly), then they changed it and that mode is no longer available, you’d need patched ofono, something like [rilmodem] Added more network modes · CODeRUS/ofono@925b9ab · GitHub then call it through dbus, or just add the extra options in settings

#257

that would be way worse. you can get texts and calls on 2G (actually GPRS, where i live), and the 4G coverage in the USA is spotty.
literally the only solution is to switch to 4G when its available, and 2G when it’s not, which is what ofono is supposed to do.

also, i may have different symptoms than everyone is describing. when i enter areas with bad LTE coverage, the phone switches to GPRS, and sometimes stays there, and sometimes switches back. however, it often says 4G, except i have no connection at all, completely stalled, in sfos+aliendalvik. i cannot receive calls or texts, or use the internet off wifi. toggling airplane mode will not fix it, but restarting ofono does.

this happens so frequently that i:

  1. have a timerd command that restarts ofono every hour if the phone is locked
  2. have a sf-button-monitor shortcut for it (triple-press camera/assistant button), and i routinely press it to make sure i didn’t miss any texts. with #1 in place, it is usually enough, but it STILL occasionally happens.

this happens on 10II and 10III, and it used to happen on X, XA2, and XZ2c (community) before T-Mobile killed 3G.