Tello Customers-Sprint/T-Mobile Merger

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I was reading the blog on the Tello website since I was planning to buy a new phone in the Black Friday sales and I want to make sure it's compatible for the new service. What I've been able to find is that they expect Tello customers to be on GSM service by the end of this year if we want to make the jump and we will need a new sim card which is not available yet. Sprint CDMA service will continue for a while and we will get at least three months notice when the service will be ending sometime in 2021. They say plans and pricing will stay the same, not sure if I believe that but I want to. There is no GSM compatability checker yet. Many of the phones that are currently used on Tello will work but if you want a 5G experience a new 2020 5G phone is recommended
To best use the new network, your phone needs to have, as minimum requirements LTE frequency bands 2, 4, 12 + VoLTE and when talking about an ideal connection: bands 2, 4, 12, 66, 71 + VoLTE. Key takeaway: Regardless of the phone brand you fancy, always go for a device that supports voice over 4G (VoLTE), which will help make the most of the newly expanded network.

https://blog.tello.com/news/tello-and-the-t-mobile- sprint-merger/

 

[teetee]

As long as you have a global unlocked smartphone that support both CDMA/GSM with in the last 3 years it will be fine. After Jan 2021 any GSM global unlocked phone released in last 3yrs would be fine for T-Mobile.

Phones that won't work:
Older phones that may have 4G LTE but does not support VoLTE ( most phones 2016 and older)
Ultra cheap phones
International version phones
Locked-to-non-t-mobile phones (not sure those which are locked to boost/virgin mobile that was fine to be activate on Tello before the vendor fixed the blacklist in 2018 - likely won't work unless t-mobile grandfathers all existing sprint/Tello customer's phones in service.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I checked the Tello website this morning and they have finally posted an update at link below. Basically any new customers are now being added to the GSM network and existing customers are staying on CDMA for now which seems really unfair to me since I already bought a new phone for the new service. I figured I'd give it a try so I went to my account and clicked on my phone then bring a new phone, entered the IMEI number and it let me order a new GSM sim for it at no charge. It does initially charge $5 for shipping but you can change that to first class mail which is free. Expected delivery date 1/21, will post when up and running. I know there is a few other members on this site that have also bought new phones in anticipation of the upgrade.
https://tello.com/new-gsm-network

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Got my new sim yesterday and am now up and running on the new network. I activated it and the migration started. After 10 minutes or so, no message so I called customer service, he checked and had me reset my phone, enter a code and I think reboot it and that was it. Everything is working fine and overall it was a very smooth transition. My old phone is now also confirmed to work on the new network so it should be easy to sell.

 

[teetee]

Great. Thanks for sharing. Switching phones is a pain now that many of my 2FA registries for work have been tied to my moto g5 plus. Glad to know transitioning to T-Mobile gsm network seems to be smooth.

 

[gauss]

I checked the Tello website this morning and they have finally posted an update at link below. Basically any new customers are now being added to the GSM network and existing customers are staying on CDMA for now which seems really unfair to me since I already bought a new phone for the new service. I figured I'd give it a try so I went to my account and clicked on my phone then bring a new phone, entered the IMEI number and it let me order a new GSM sim for it at no charge. It does initially charge $5 for shipping but you can change that to first class mail which is free. Expected delivery date 1/21, will post when up and running. I know there is a few other members on this site that have also bought new phones in anticipation of the upgrade.
https://tello.com/new-gsm-network

Excellent news -- Thank you for the update.

I have a couple of questions (well I guess only 1 actually)

1) Can you confirm if your existing balance of Data GB did indeed roll over from your original setup to the new SIM?

I ask because I have upwards of 10GB on my account that I would prefer not to loose.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

That was my number one concern as well.
Yes, my 7.7 GB rolled over along with my referral dollars.

 

[teetee]

It makes me wonder if all that is changed in our Tello account profile is the sim number.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

In case anyone wonders, I forgot to mention my $11 PAYG balance also transferred over. Since I have a monthly plan that will never expire under Tello current rules, I originally added $20 over a year ago.

 

[gauss]

Can't activate new Tello GSM SIM on another Tello account

FWIW- I ordered a SIM from one of my two Tello accounts (I maintain 1 account for myself and one for DW). When I tried to activate the SIM, which was ordered from my DW's account, it was blocked from activation on my primary account. My motivation here is that I found out DW is not yet ready to switch over to the new GSM network until AFTER I ordered the SIM. As such, the first SIM will have to remain unused for a bit.

I went ahead and ordered the 2nd SIM today from my primary account and will try to activate it on my primary account when I receive it.

So this is basically a PSA for everyone to realize that the SIM you order when logged into your Tello account will, in general , be locked to the account from which the order was placed. Note that I did not investigate the possibility of having customer service release the lock.

Clear as mud - right?

-gauss

 

[teetee]

FWIW- I ordered a SIM from one of my two Tello accounts (I maintain 1 account for myself and one for DW). When I tried to activate the SIM, which was ordered from my DW's account, it was blocked from activation on my primary account. My motivation here is that I found out DW is not yet ready to switch over to the new GSM network until AFTER I ordered the SIM. As such, the first SIM will have to remain unused for a bit.

I went ahead and ordered the 2nd SIM today from my primary account and will try to activate it on my primary account when I receive it.

So this is basically a PSA for everyone to realize that the SIM you order when logged into your Tello account will, in general , be locked to the account from which the order was placed. Note that I did not investigate the possibility of having customer service release the lock.

Clear as mud - right?

-gauss

You ordered the sim card from Tello for new line activation but got blocked? Network transition or not that sounds like an issue their support team should be able to solve.

I could be wrong but for network transition the users don't have to order anything. The new sim will just show up in the mailbox when my time is right like what the banks do with credit card that is about to expire. Is that right?