Today I became aware that I am no longer able to send/receive calls on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 here at home. However if I drive to the grocery store, I am able to make/receive calls just fine. This has sent me on a path today to investigate this issue and to determine what exactly is going on.
Here at home we have 6 phones that are all on Cricket Wireless. Two of the phones, a Cricket S10 and S9, are working perfectly and are able to make/receive phone calls with no problems. However all of our BYOD phones (2 A50's, Note 8 and an S9+) are all unable to make/receive calls here at home.
I've done all the normal steps such as rebooting and checking settings, and even went so far as to purchase a new SIM card for the Note 8, but it all came back to the same results. After spending hours on a chat with a support person, swapping SIM cards around between phones and stuff, we came up with the following conclusion:
Phones that are not sold or supported by Cricket will drop down to a 2G/H/H+ type connection to make or receive phone calls. Phones that are sold or supported by Cricket will stay on LTE/LTE+ while making or receiving phone calls. So why is this important?
AT&T is currently turning off the 2G/H/H+ network around the US to open more bandwidth for 5G networks. Turns out the AT&T cell tower just down the street from me just had their 2G/H/H+ network disabled last week and now boom, I can't make/receive calls while at home. I can get data and text/sms messages, but no calls will come in nor can I make any calls at all.
Just to clarify, this is AT&T screwing Cricket, not Cricket screwing us. Cricket is stuck in the middle.
So what's the solution?
The right solution is for Cricket to update their backend system to allow BYOD phones the ability to use the LTE network to make/receive calls. Otherwise the only other solutions is either purchase a Cricket supported device or to switch networks and pay a whole lot more money per month.
I will try to update this thread as more information comes in, but I thought I'd share my thoughts and investigation work with everyone.
Making/Receiving Calls on a BYOD may not work - blame AT&T
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Let us know what you find out.
you've got to be kidding me. Not the OP, just the universe has to be kidding me, Just activated a cricket sim on my byod, and cant get reception at my house - but with a tester ATT sim last week (paying $2 for a day to test out) it was great.
I'll be cancelling in the morning and asking for my money back. this is ridiculous.
I am in this boat as we speak. This sucks!
wow
Same here with my galaxy note 8. I'll be switching providers.
Your only options are to get a phone from cricket or switch service providers. I chose to switch providers personally.
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I dont think thats the case. if that was there be a disclaimer about it when you punch in your info to see if phone is compatible with cricket. It is legit false advertising to say a phone is compatible then it not be. Not only that but you can force 4 g in connection settings and still doesn't reach towers. Something else is going on once i switched i was able to make and recive calls again but after a few months it went dead again. That leads me to think the problem lies elsewhere.
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