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Best carriers in 2023
Picking the right carrier ensures you have the coverage your need with plenty of speed for your phone.
If you've ever been to a cell phone store, you know how overbearing and confusing all the pricing and plans can get with add-ons, accessories bundles, and multi-year payment plans for phones. When it comes down to it, you mostly need a plan with enough data for your monthly usage and compatibility with the phone you want. You also want to make sure you're on the right network, so you have the kind of coverage that works for your needs. For example, if you want the best 5G speeds in a suburban environment, T-Mobile is the way to go. If you live in the country, however, you'll likely see more consistent results with AT&T or Verizon.
How to enable and use eSIM
As physical SIM cards begin to slowly disappear, many are starting to convert to eSIM. Here's a walkthrough on getting an eSIM on your smartphone.
The popularity of eSIMs (or embedded SIM cards) has skyrocketed ever since Apple replaced the physical SIM slot on the iPhone with the iPhone 14 series in North America. Of course, they've been around for years and have shipped on millions of smartphones, but it's finally safe to say that they've hit the mainstream.
Boost Mobile switches up mobile plans again, introduces $25/mo "Unlimited" option
Boost Mobile is updating its list of mobile plans again, with a new option to pay for a year of "Unlimited" data for $25/mo.
Boost Mobile has been a popular Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) for years in the United States, first using Nextel's network, then switching to Sprint in 2005. More recently in 2020, Boost was sold to Dish, as a concession to allow T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint to move forward. Boost has been updating its plans and service options since then, and now the company is switching up its offerings again.
T-Mobile removing DIGITs promo placed in error from 200k accounts
T-Mobile is removing a Proxy by DIGITs promotion from approximately 200k customer accounts. The promotion was added in error.
If you have a free Proxy by DIGITs line with T-Mobile, you'll want to keep an eye out on your bill.
Here's when T-Mobile will shut down Sprint's 3G and 4G networks
T-Mobile has disclosed timelines about its planned shut down of Sprint's LTE and 3G networks. Read on.
T-Mobile has announced it will be shutting down Sprint’s 3G and 4G networks as soon as next year, as it continues to migrate Sprint’s existing customer base to its own network. About 33% of Sprint’s legacy customers have already been shifted to T-Mobile's network, with the Un-carrier aiming to complete the full transition by 2022.
Carriers agree to start sharing vertical location data for 911 calls
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have agreed to start sharing vertical location data for 911 calls in the U.S. within the next seven days.
Calling 9-1-1 in the United States (and many other countries) sends the caller's location to emergency services, so the dispatcher can send assistance as quickly as possible. However, the location data isn't perfect — most notably, it doesn't include the caller's vertical location, an important factor in taller buildings. The three major carriers in the US have now agreed to start providing vertical location data for 911 calls, though it might be a while before the data can be used by emergency services.
AT&T's data-only 5G plan for tablets and laptops just got cheaper
AT&T has dropped prices on its DataConnect plans, making them a better option for LTE and 5G-enabled tablets and laptops.
Mobile network plans that only offer cellular data, without the usual phone number and messaging services, started becoming more popular a few years ago. They're still not incredibly common, but they can be a cheaper method of adding LTE or 5G to a tablet or PC. AT&T is one carrier that has offered data-only plans for a while, and now the company is updating them with higher data caps and lower monthly bills.
AT&T enables Dynamic Spectrum Sharing in some areas to boost 5G speeds, starting with the Galaxy S20, LG V60, and Note 10+
AT&T is enabling Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in parts of North Texas to boost 5G speeds on supported devices like the Galaxy S20, LG V60, and Note 10+.
As the 5G race heats up in the U.S., AT&T just became the first carrier to launch Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in some markets.
[Update 3: Supreme Court declines relief] India stares at a carrier monopoly with Reliance Jio as Airtel and Vodafone Idea face uncertain future
The Indian telecom sector is staring at a future with a Reliance Jio monopoly, as Airtel and Vodafone Idea have been handed a massive debt by the Court.
India has the world's lowest call and data tariffs in the world right now, riding on the back of mega telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. But that hasn't always been the case in the country, as a lot of it can be traced back to a few key defining moments in the telecom sector's history. There is a good chance that the country is headed towards one more such moment, one that might turn a hyper-competitive market into a carrier monopoly with Reliance Jio at the helm.
Years old Android issue will finally be fixed with a National Roaming toggle
Sony is authoring commits in Android to add support for national roaming, which automatically disables roaming when you leave a country's border. This will fix an Android issue which has existed for years. The fix will likely be added in Android P.
Android is a feature-rich mobile operating system, but that doesn't mean that it's free from issues. On the contrary, some issues in the OS that were discovered years ago still haven't been fixed, while new issues crop up in newer versions. One such issue that has been known for a long time is the lack of support for national roaming.
The Need for Better Internet on Our Phones
Read about the consequences of the greed of american carriers, and how they bring down the service and technology of all americans.
Mobile internet is an essential part of smartphones nowadays… well, for 75% of us. Despite living in a place where my fastest network reaches 5 megabit download speeds, on very intermittent 3G, it certainly is an essential part for my usage, to the point where even with my third-world network, I simply cannot fathom how there’s still a fourth of users who aren’t on data plans. It’d be interesting to see if that subset of smartphone users shares a large chunk with the subset of budget or low-range smartphones, which admittedly see little gain from having data plans - particularly in third world countries with slow 2G and 3G networks. But with apps such as Whatsapp dominating the Latin American markets (my experience here closely reflects this statement), a lot of budget users still have data plans, even the 20 MB data capped package plans (yes, that’s a thing here) are widely adopted by the poorest of smartphone users.
