Electronics

[Travone]

I have an older Tracphone that works completely fine.  I can do everything I need to do on it.  I got it through QVC .  I got a text from Tracphone yesterday that said "Soon your phone will stop working due to network changes."  Then there was a link to learn more.  I clicked the link  and it doesn't tell me anymore information than was in the text.  It does however give me two other options:

1) a link to buy a new phone from QVC

2) a link to buy a new phone from Tracphone

No where on either the text or the link is there any date information as to when my phone will stop working....is it today, or is it 5 years from now.

I plan on trying to get in touch with someone at Tracphone today, but I wondered if anyone else has received this message and is it legitimate or a scam to sell more phones? 

A new phone is really not in my budget right now.

Thanks in advance.

[gardenman]

The telecom companies are phasing out their old data service and just leaving 4G and 5G services up and running. If your old phone isn't a 4G phone, then it will be obsolete when the older data services are phased out. The good news is you can often buy a new phone with a years service for less than it costs to keep the old phone activated.

[catter70]

I think I heard that they will no longer work by the end of the year. Maybe you can google it. I recently purchased the Tracfone TSV about 3 or 4 weeks ago as I new mine was outdated. They make eveything sound so easy when telling you about the set up, etc. I'm not a techy so I had to ask for my neighbors help with all that. I doubt that I'll ever use it for more than phone calls, but at least I know how to do that .I guess I'm not like a lot of people that are on their phones all the time.

[Still Raining]

If it is any comfort, it is not just Tracphone..

[gardenman]

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@Still Raining wrote:

If it is any comfort, it is not just Tracphone..

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Yeah, as the old networks get shut down every provider will require a change. We saw it when analog phones were phased out also. Phones have evolved a lot and gotten much less expensive, so it's not hard to change. You can buy a Tracfone through the shopping channels with a year's service for less than $60. The shopping channels even let you stretch out the payments if you desire.

[Travone]

Thanks All......I appreciate your help.  I did get in touch with tracphone.  They said we have at least until the beginning of 201 to upgrade our phones.

[Nuttmeg]

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@Travone wrote:

Thanks All......I appreciate your help.  I did get in touch with tracphone.  They said we have at least until the beginning of 201 to upgrade our phones.

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I am a Verizon wireless customer. I would start looking for phones soon. 

Verizon may decide to discontinue service a little earlier than expected. It will depend how fast this work goes changing over networks to 5G.

Gardenman  writes a very nice account of buying his new smartphone a Motorola G7.

You will find a few recent threads in this forum about new TSV's. 

Tracfone Reviewer's Blog is a site for all things. . .

[Nightowlz]

It's nice for those that can still buy the Tracfones. I had to buy an unlocked phone since all the Tracfones are CDMA which will not work in my area. I need GSM to use with AT&T. Have not found one of the Tracfone deals with GSM in well over 4 yrs.

I did not want to pay a lot of money for my phone since I basically use it for texts & grocery apps to pick up orders.

I bought the Nokia 2.3 for $129 which came out Dec 2019. It came with 2 years software updates plus 3 years of monthly security updates. I transferred my mins, text & data from my Tracfone.

At least it has 32gb instead of the 8gb you get with Tracfones. Now I can use the grocery apps. My Tracfone kept telling me I needed to delete apps to work but there was nothing left on my phone I could delete?

Had to buy a Tracfone BYOP GSM Sim-card kit to use with AT&T.

DH bought a more expensive Nokia but he uses it for everything. 

[x Hedge]

  @Travone 

No, it's not a scam just to sell more phones. It's really about no longer catering to obsolete technology. It effects all service providers, not just TracFone.

Just as cell towers across the country no longer accommodate outmoded 2nd Generation phones, soon those towers won't serve 3G phones either.

My 3G TracFone is expected to cease working in January 2021.  I already have a new 4G-LTE phone, and plan to activate it soon, just in case cell towers near me drop 3G service before the end of the year.

I read the 3Gs were to be phased out across the country in 2020, but they were able to extend 3G service another year to give customers more time to upgrade.  I don't absolutely count on continuing to get 3G service, as I'm already having trouble with calls & texts at times when cells towers are busiest.

The 2G phaseout didn't go smoothly because too many customers were unprepared.

Cell towers finished alloting space for 2G users a couple of years ago. It's my understanding a lot of 2G phone users were procrastinating on upgrading their phones, and were surprised to find themselves with no phone service at all. Plus, all their airtime and minutes disappeared, and long time phone numbers were lost as well. You can imagine the complaints!

Alter months of urging 2G customers to upgrade their phones, TracFone did what they could to repair customer relations as 2Gs were going dead here and there. In some instances TracFone was offering free basic cheap phones, just so customers could transfer their minutes et al to a phone that wouldn't go dead any day.

[noodleann]

I wondered whether this was legit, too, which is why I checked here. When I first read the message, I thought it was pretty soon to force an upgrade, given that I was forced to get my current phone by a similar change that would have rendered my flip phone defunct. So I was thinking, "Yeah, what you REALLY mean is '"Soon your phone will stop working due to the fact that we don't want to keep tripling your minutes.'" But I see I was wrong. It's nice that they have an app to port everything over to the new phone. Except the tripling feature.

Glad to know I have a few months to deal with it.