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No, they can't be connected to AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile in the US. Both of them have shut down their 3G networks so phones that don't support VoLTE won't work
by mdasen 4y ago
No, they can't be connected to AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile in the US. Both of them have shut down their 3G networks so phones that don't support VoLTE won't work (and it seems like carriers don't want to take on the liability of letting someone have a data-only "phone" on their network that can't make calls in case of emergency).
In this case, it's not quite BS from AT&T. They wanted to use the spectrum they had been using for 3G to make their LTE network better and certain old LTE devices couldn't do voice-over-LTE (the 3G network would handle voice communication). One could argue that they could have kept the 3G network alive longer (Verizon and T-Mobile shut 3G down in 2022), but at some point old devices stop being able to talk on modern networks. At some point, there's a balance between keeping old networks alive and being able to reuse that spectrum for more efficient networks that serve the vast majority of your customers.
Many countries still have working 3G networks that the iPhone 5S can connect to and they can still be used as WiFi devices in the US (oh, and I'm sure there are some regional carriers in the US that still support 3G).
- gok 4y agoiPhone 5 and 5s are LTE devices though...
- sgerenser 4y agoDo they support Voice over LTE though?
- technothrasher 4y agoThe hardware supports it, but Apple only supports it on iPhone 6 and newer. So, the short answer is no.
- oneplane 4y agoIt's often not a matter of technical feasibility, but "is it on the list". Ideally things that could technically do it should be "on the list" but in reality it's probably a janky business process that decides what gets in and what doesn't.
- haimez 4y agoI don’t think anyone should be shocked that Apple isn’t currently prioritizing adding new features to iPhone 5’s over functionality for newer and forthcoming devices.
- soulofmischief 4y agoThe problem is the frequency at which they expect people to upgrade. Phones are extremely wasteful.
- kstrauser 4y agoSaid in the context of Apple supporting a 10 year old phone.
- soulofmischief 4y agoIt's rare enough that we are here discussing a news article about it.
- oneplane 4y agoIt's not about Apple or technical feasibility, it's about someone at the telco having an arbitrary list.
- davchana 4y agoMy Honor phone supported the LTE voice over, but ATT techs forced me to buy a phone from their own list.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agoits funny how usa still has that archaic system. India had that in the past but since 2008-09 at least we have this system where you buy your phone from the market and use whatever sim card you like. everyone has the same plans for the same price so its a matter of preference/ network quality, etc etc. i find this funny that w
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- HWR_14 4y agoApple supports it on the 5S line if the carrier allows them. AT&T never allowed them.
- HWR_14 4y ago> it's not quite BS from AT&T Except it's more BS than you think. The iPhone 5S supports VoLTE technically. But AT&T blocked that feature on those phones.
- FatActor 4y agoAw man, really? I still have my 5. I was hoping some day it would be a fun retro computer experience. Eh, the Lion battery will probably be dead in a decade anyway.
- joecool1029 4y ago> No, they can't be connected to AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile in the US. T-Mobile still has a 2G network operating in most of the country and the 5S supports voLTE so it can use both 2G and LTE for calls. It does not have any low band support, so indoor and rural coverage will suck, but it will work. Even if it didn't have voLTE it would still work on T-Mobile on LTE data and if you were in a GSM market it would fall back to 2G to make calls. The stores won't activate it, but you can take an activated sim card and pop it in and they will not blacklist it. T-Mobile technically still has 3G broadcasting on their femtocells so that's another option for calls/data if you're around them.
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