AT&T. 3G Shutdown

[Dean Hoffman]

A new report says this might turn some burglar alarms into junk. February 22.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Turning a lot of stuff to junk. Many cars have connected services for things like remote starting, directions, etc. They will stop working too. Even as late as the 2019 model year.

[Snag]

We bought our very first smart phone today ... because our old flip phone will quit working next Tuesday . It will see the same duty as the old one , staying in the car console unless we take a trip or have an emergency . Speaking of cell phones , do I get charged for minutes if I'm connected through my wifi at home ? This is a pay-as you- go , not a contract unit .

[hubops]

If it's like mine - google pixel 3a - there's a ticky box buried in the myriad of menus to enable/disable data. I also spent some time dis-abling all the updates and synchronizing and unwanted apps etc My pre-paid "plan" costs me $ 100. per year but the data rate is stupid high - so I'll just enable it if I need to <~ never>

Talking about cellular data - wifi is no problem. John T.

[Dean Hoffman]

Yes, if this is right.

There are 4G flip phones available that will work for the foreseeable future. The one thing I like about the smart phone is I can plug it into my pickup's system and it will give me turn by turn directions to anywhere. It's been a long time since I've needed a map.

[hubops]

Sorry - I was just thinking about data - I have no idea how voice calls through wifi work.. voip ? John T.

[Ed Pawlowski]

WiFi will give you a lot of benefits using the phone for other than calling. Some do have a WiFi calling but I'm not sure how your provider works. It is good where you have no cell service.

[Ed Pawlowski]

But if you plug it in you get it on the big screen in the car, not the tiny phone screen. Easier to see.

[Jim Joyce]

In many cases you can do the same via Bluetooth, meaning no cable is required.

[hubops]

Mine is $ .15 per mbyte < ! > ... when I first activated cellular data I rang-up $ 5. in the first hour or so - without doing anything ! .. just the background crap that I missed when I was disabling all the crap .. perhaps google phones are worse than others .. dunno. The camera is pretty good, though. John T.

[trader_4]

Good question. From what I see, it varies by carrier and what kind of plan you have. So you need to check with them, particularly with a pay-as-you go kind of plan. Could also try using it for a few wifi calls and see what happens.

[Snag]

That's why I asked , we have no OTA signals of any kind - except a couple of FM radio stations - down here in The Holler . This is new territory for me , my last phone ten years or so ago was a flip phone . I think it was internet capable but it sure wasn't WiFi capable .

[invalid unparseable]

I got my first smart phone a few months ago when Tracfone told me that my old flipper was going to be obsolete. Not sure about call minutes which I have thousands accumulated but when set to wifi there is no data charge.

Yesterday visiting doctor I used their wifi and did not even have to sign in as I had used it a couple of months ago and phone recognized it. When I got back home I noticed I was signed into home wifi.

[trader_4]

Just to be clear, if you use your new phone on wifi for data, eg web browsing, streaming video or music, that does not count toward your cell phone plan. If you make phone calls using wifi calling that's provided by your cell phone carrier, ie by using the regular dialer with wifi calling turned on and wifi connected, minutes may or may not count, it depends on the carrier and plan. You can also get wifi calling via other routes, eg Ooma, that have phone apps that you use. Those calls look like data traffic, so they go like web browsing, streaming music, etc, ie they don't count toward cell data or minutes, as long as the phone is using wifi.

You can enable or disable cell phone data in your settings. You can enable or disable wifi in your data settings. You can enable or disable wifi calling in the settings too, typically you have to enable it on the phone and online with the carrier for it to work.

[hubops]

Seems like you should disable cellular data so that when you take the phone out & about and it picks up a signal it wont run up data charges through background processes like system and app updates and synchronizing & such .. On my service I can disable cellular data when I log into my account - online on my laptop ; and my phone has a ticky box to disable cellular data as well .. in the phone settings separate from my service provider option. Sorry - can't advise on wifi phone calls - never done it. John T.

[Dean Hoffman]

Texting on a smart phone is much easier. Texts are nice because the recipient can reply whenever. I use US Mobile which piggybacks off of Verizon. It keeps texts and calls separate. My phone has separate tones for calls and texts. I bought a cell phone holster for mine and put it on backwards to protect the screen. My phone doesn't get used much.

[invalid unparseable]

I do not use phone that much either.

For protection I found a protector that fits my phone like a glove and even though there is a transparent screen cover you can use the phone with the cover on.

Thinking about the wifi usage, Google sez:

Using WiFi To Call from Your Cell Phone

Go to ?Settings? Tap ?Cellular? Tap ?WiFi? Switch the WiFi Calling slider to ON. Choose ?Enable? to turn on WiFi Calling.

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

Most cell providers do not make a distinction between tower and wifi connections for billing purposes.

[invalid unparseable]

It would appear to me that you do not need a cell phone provider if all you use the phone for is wifi. After all a cell phone is just a tablet computer with a phone ap.

[hubops]

What phone number do I dial - to call into your phone app ? ... if you don't have a cell phone account ? John T.