So AT&T is throwing a lot of phones off its network this February. Two of my four are among them. I got a text or two talking about free smartphones to replace these two devices, but tonight I received first-class mail about it with details.
A little net research reveals that the free phone is the AT&T Radiant Core. To be kind, its features and specifications are modest.
I don’t want these. You probably don’t either. You need to call 800-880-8581 and opt out. If you don’t, this happens:
You should receive your free cell phones in the next few weeks. Once you get them, just set them up using the simple instructions in the box. If you don’t activate your new cell phones, we will automatically activate them in approximately 30 days. Once your new cell phones are activated, your current cell phones will only be able to call 911 and 611 until February 2022 when we sunset our 3G network.
Got that? If you receive these phones, your current phones are going to stop working in another month or so even if you do nothing (and likely well before February 2022).
Wow. I’ve been a happy AT&T mobile customer since it was BellSouth Mobility, and I expect I’ll still be one this time next year. But this seems awfully heavy-handed.
So, by opting out, what I’ve done is restore where I thought I was anyway. All of my phones will work until February, when two of them will quit. I’ll need to have replacements for them by then. (Here’s a handy list of phones that will still work with AT&T after the change.) And click here for a list of what phones have 5G, HD Voice, or Wi-Fi Calling capabilities on AT&T after the change.
Update October 6, 2021: Shipped Anyway?
So I got email this morning telling me I have a phone coming anyway. The email describes the coming device as the “Emblem Solutions LLC V340U,” which seems to be the AT&T Fusion Z. Again, it’s lowball and you almost certainly don’t want it. Logging into my AT&T account told me another one was due to arrive next month.
I called again to cancel, and the (pleasant, capable) customer service representative told me that my account had a “do not automatically activate” flag set on it, but not a “do not ship” flag. So when you call, you might want to use that particular language to ensure this doesn’t happen.
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So I got a call I didn’t recognize on my cell today, and when I answered a recorded voice said it wa…
Thanks for this. My phone will work according to the list. I called the number, and eventually the rep did look up the phone on the list (apparently I hadn’t identified it on my account previously) and confirmed it would work. BUT… they still ship the phone anyway, even after I asked her for it to not be shipped.
My phone is on the list to be supported but because it was purchased unlocked even though pointing to ATT they shut it down. Unlocked phones not supported and no work around.
You know, I got waist-deep into solving this problem and this little voice said “why are you messing with this, Bo? Just change carriers!”
I never really considered that because until this rabid clown show, my experience as an AT&T customer has been stellar. But I hope lots of influential someones at AT&T are taking note of just how chaotic and disruptive this has been. I imagine there’s an awful lot of goodwill out there that’s been squandered.
How do I opt out. Apparently the phone they are sending me is not the one I was told they were sending when I called the AT&T rep.
Dude, I have no idea. I got the letter, called to opt out, and then received a phone anyway. Then I called to make sure I didn’t get a second phone, and I got a second phone anyway. I pulled the SIMs right the hell out right when I got them so AT&T didn’t “help” me by activating them and killing my real phones.
This continues to be a horrendously-managed debacle.
Oh, and I just got a text the other day pestering me to activate them. Clueless.
I called. I cancelled. I got rid of the phone. Last week they said “You previously cancelled, but now we’re uncancelling you. Please upgrade your phone before we do it for you again in two weeks.” Now I’m on hold to cancel AGAIN. And I already confirmed with them that my phone is 4G compatible. Even if it wasn’t, I’d buy a much better phone.
Wow. They’ve handled this so poorly.
Sorry. Good luck. I’m holding my breath a bit, but I think we’re good.
Our phones are 4G and ATT deactivated them anyway. I had called ATT before purchasing the phones in August 2021(when we bought them) that they would work once they converted to the new system and ATT assured us that they would work so we bought them and low and behold they disabled them stating that the phones won’t work because they are 3G yet the phones are NOT 3G, they are 4G!!! ATT said well, they aren’t on our list so they won’t work. So being 4G is not the requirement? They must be phones that ATT prefers and has on their “SPECIAL” list for them to work.
Our children had identical phones–or so we thought. They are the same manufacturer and model, but one is a later revision. There is absolutely no difference whatsoever in the user experience; the phones look and operate identically in every way. The later one works on the new network. The earlier one doesn’t.