• calhoon2005
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    7 months ago

    So tech question Tuesday… You know this 3g turn off thing? My MIL has a Moto G8 plus (which the specs say supports LTE), but Optus keep sending her emails through her account saying that it will not be supported going forward … They list her phone specifically as one that will not be supported…so VoLTE is a different spec than LTE?

    • AJ Sadauskas@aus.social
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      7 months ago

      @calhoon2005 @Seagoon_ Sort of.

      Basically, when the first 4G and 4G LTE networks were first being rolled out, the technology to make voice calls over 4G networks wasn’t quite ready yet. So the earliest 4G phones dropped back to 3G for calls, but used faster 4G networks for internet and data.

      Eventually, the telcos rolled out a technology upgrade that allowed calls to be made on 4G LTE mobile networks, called VoLTE (voice over LTE).

      But it only worked on newer 4G/4G LTE phones that supported VoLTE for calls. Older models still dropped back to 3G for voice calls

      Sounds to me like your MIL has an older 4G LTE phone that still falls back to 3G for calls, instead of making them over the 4G LTE network.

      If that’s the case, she’ll no longer be able to make calls with that phone once Optus 3G shuts down.

      Time for an upgrade.

      • just_kitten
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        7 months ago

        Ah fuck. TIL. I figured “my phone does LTE! It’ll be fine” but now I’m worried. Ffs, I just want to get the most out of my phone I paid good coin for 7 years ago, I even went to the extent of lineage onto it to extend its life - hate this constant need to upgrade

    • dumblederp
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      7 months ago

      I reckon they’re just saying to buy a new phone. VoLTE is Voice over LTE. You can get a phone from the supermarket for under $100 so I’d just see what happens and let her know she might need to upgrade.

    • TinyBreak
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      7 months ago

      Depends. I brought an old Lumia 650 last week (trying to detox the smart phone thing a bit) and despite supporting 4g it falls back to 3g for calls. Supposedly it CAN support VoLTE, but the profiles are tricky and its a largely abandoned OS. Wouldnt expect that from Android, if she makes a call what do the icons say on the phone?

      I’d be more concerned on a near 5 year old device about security updates if shes doing any sort of social media or internet banking on it.