fyi, this is old plans is still available over the phone or at stores.

yes, im aware... but it's no longer as simple to pick a plan when you have 3+ versions to pick from

VoLTE is actually voice+SMS over an IP connection. All Wi-Fi calling does is take that exact same traffic, and route it via the Wi-Fi interface instead. For privacy and authentication reasons, when the traffic goes out the Wi-Fi interface, it's automatically encapsulated in IPsec.

For a cell carrier, once they've made the switch to support VoLTE on their backend (which is a fairly significant level of effort), the addition of Wi-Fi calling is a much smaller lift.

I'm looking for a dual-SIM phone and a feature I cannot compromise on is the special band. As long as I see LTE band 12 or B/12 in the specs, can I assume that it will work with Tmo band 12?

Remember seeing an article a few days ago about Tmo requiring phone makers to register their phones with them to ensure they can do Volte or something along those lines.

Would LTE band 17 also be OK?

for your highlighted item, "maybe"?.... some manufacturers advertise band 12, but eventually disabled them... so be careful of those


explanation of what tmobile wants & why:
why: Phone has LTE data support on band 12, no VoLTE support. It connects to LTE data only, but has no voice signal (since no VoLTE, and it couldn't connect to 3G)

Since it has a signal, it'll continue to stay on band 12 data and not search for other signal(eg att which allows emergency calls). If user has to call 911, phone doesn't have voice signal and rejects 911 call (no VoLTE). it knows it has LTE signal, so it doesn't disconnect from LTE to search for att's signal

att doesn't really have this problem because they have 700mhz LTE AND 850mhz 3G, low frequency for both LTE and voice.... if phone can connect to 700mhz LTE, it can connect to 850mhz 3G for voice




tmobile wants:requests that manufacturers disable band 12 if they don't support VoLTE. some manufacturers go through VoLTe certification process, and therefore can enable VoLTE and band 12 data.

some manufacturers disregard tmobile's request (it's just a request/demand, not a legal demand from FCC) and allow data on band 12 without VoLTE (with the 911 voice issue)

no, must be band 12.... 17 won't work on tmobile's "special band"

Isn't it a serious problem if 911 calls don't work? By "problem" I mean potential serious legal consequences for T-Mobile (not to mention someone dying or not getting help in a timely manner). I would think they'd block connections on B12 altogether unless the IMEI corresponds to a phone that's been certified.

I'm guessing that blocking B12 is more complicated (would the RRU/tower know which antenna is connected to which port, and route the proper IMEI whitelist only to those antennas?)

there aren't that many band 12-only phones... since mostly north america uses it, 3rd-party band-12-only phones are rare, but now you have AT&T using band 12 too

I was in a building in the middle-of-nowhere Maryland/Delaware. I was getting 135 down and 30 up. Highest speeds I've ever seen.

IME, tmobile is fine in urban area, not so much in rural. It was pretty bad during my trip to Madison WI

The LG V30 is on sale at T-Mobile and per the description it is the world's first 600Mhz phone. Anyone know if this would best for range issues.

It'll be pretty useless if T-mobile hasn't built a 600 MHz network in the area.

Anyway to check that?

Try this: Spectrum Gateway: T-Mobile 600 MHz deployment map

It was the first, and certainly is a great phone - I enjoy mine, but they do have multiple other models supporting band 71 as well now.

Do you think they are better than the V30? Tough to pass on the BOGO offer.