topic @gardenman in Electronics

@gardenman

SouthernBee — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:44:08 GMT

I just talked with Tracfone. I told them that every time I signed in to my account had a message that I needed a 5 G phone by November. They have no idea how or why I received that message. They verified that my phone is 4G VoLTE which is next to 5 G and will be supported by Tracfone for several years. They verified that Tracfone not requesting anyone to upgrade to 5G. I hope my notes are correct and I kept repeating what he said. Sorry for any confusion or wrong information.

Re: @gardenman

gardenman — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 21:20:39 GMT

@SouthernBee

Yeah, 4G should be around for a few more years. I poked around the Tracfone site and also Verizon and couldn't find any mention of phasing out 4G. You should be good with your current phone

I'm upgrading to the 5G version of the Moto G Stylus simply due to the low cost of the phone on sale. My current service expires in September and my current phone is barely getting through the day on a battery charge. It might not be on sale again closer to when I "need" the phone, so I'm getting it now.

I'm waiting until I get the new phone to get a better case for it as Motorola has three different versions of the 5G Moto G Stylus. I believe the one I'm getting is the 2021 version. There's also a 2022 and 2023 version, so I'm waiting to get it before buying a better case. Cases come in just a day or two from Amazon, so once I get the phone, I'll get a better case for it.

The good news is any 5G phone should be good for many years. That's a newer service and is unlikely to be phased out soon. In an odd quirk, most cellular plans (not prepaid like Tracfone) drastically refuce your speed when you exceed a certain amount of data. Oddly enough, they claim to reduce it to 2G speed, but 2G service doesn't exist, so I'm not sure how they're doing that. I guess they keep using the 4G and 5G networks, but just throttle it back. Which is kind of tacky.

Re: @gardenman

SouthernBee — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 21:29:42 GMT

@gardenman : I purchased the Moto 5G Stylus yesterday. I will probably keep it because DH doesn't like his Samsung. The price was good with free shipping and easy pay.

Re: @gardenman

gardenman — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 12:48:45 GMT

Yeah, it's very hard to beat $99 for a phone and a year's service. Less than $10 a month gets me what I need in a phone. The phone alone retails for $139-$249 depending on where you buy it. Here you get the phone and a year's service for $99.