3G Switch off: forced upgrade to a 'new' device
I have a brand new (less than 3 months old) mainstream phone from a leading manufacturer, which is ‘future proof’ in the short to medium term. This new Moto, only released December 2021, has 2100, 1800 and 800MHz capability, is provisioned for WiFi Calling/Vowifi (but doesn't work on Smarty) and is provisioned for 4G Calling/VoLTE (which I've just been told also won't work) ... Last week, Smarty contacted me giving 30 days notice "to upgrade to a new device to stay connected"! There’s no actual date for the switch off, only “mid-February”, so my phone could stop working on any random, unknown day, not coinciding with a billing period, leaving me out of pocket and out of data. To make matters worse, I have a Smarty Group plan with two identical phones, so that’s double the inconvenience. Smarty suggest getting a new phone and simply moving the sim across (there’s a cost of living crisis, right? I’m not in the game of shelling out a couple of hundred pounds every three months) or only using my handset in 3G areas (how far will I have to drive just to send a text message, haha). Actually, it’s in Smarty’s gift to certify more devices, saving pointless ££upgrades. Smarty Tech Support just need to force their settings to more devices. Two years on, the only Motorola fully supported (in their own words) for Wifi Calling on SMARTY is the G8 Power, even though others (such as my G31) are fully provisioned for Wi-Fi Calling. I wonder just how many Motos and other devices will now be deemed VoLTE incompatible re. the 3G switch off. SMARTY say that their friends at Three have a handy device tool which will show if your device is VoLTE compatible, but its not even an up to date list. After a time-wasting trawl through the list, only three Moto (release dates 2017 & 2018) out of 33 listed are compatible. Am I really supposed to 'upgrade' from a 2021 phone to a 2017 phone? I more than strongly suspect that the solution to my grief lies entirely with Smarty, as I have a dual sim phone. In the empty sim slot, VoWifi and VoLTE are switched on and raring to go. In the slot with the Smarty sim, all of a sudden they're greyed out. I messaged Smarty on social media with all the exact same information above and politely asking to be escalated to Tech Support. Below is all I got back (just platitudes) along with my reply and that’s the last I heard. Still at least I can rest easy in the knowledge that I won’t have any phone service, but I’ll be some kind of Smarty case study. The customer agent didn’t even ask me for my name and account details, to get back to me with an outcome. Smarty: “I understand your frustrations with the support for your device. The team are working on as many solutions as possible for the pending 3G switch off. I will raise this to the team as its great to get such insight into how this can effect customers on Moto devices -Nathan” Me: “Yes but I've had my 30 days notice of being abandoned by Smarty (a week ago), can’t afford to wait 3 more weeks and then wake up with no phone service one morning … Needs action not insight please. This is carrier-specific” Rant over, but I hope this is a useful 'heads up' for other users who will be affected. Or if anyone can help me out, please do. (Smarty would do well to look at the shambles last year that was BT Digital Voice - a similar switch off, on similar timescales, for similar reasons; this was abandoned as a complete fiasco, ill thought through from a customer experience point of view). Thanks Smarty, it was good while it lasted.
