Check this out -> https://pixel.withgoogle.com/5G/

"Check your 5G availability. To see carriers with 5G networks that work with a Pixel 4a (5G) or later phone, choose a country or region below. Unlisted carriers’ 5G networks may or may not work with Pixel phones."

Apperantly here you can check if the stock Pixel OS is compatible with your 5G carrier plan in your country. It seems the unmodified OS is unlocked for 5G only for some carriers not all. I searched for my country and my carrier isn't listed, but my carrier supports VoLTE and VoWiFi for iOS without issues. My carrier knows that their customers with latest stock Pixel phone don't have 5G and they apperantly "work with Google" resolving the issue.

Does this have anything to do with GrapheneOS? I think not, right? 5G on GOS (and Pixel >= 5a) should work out of the box with any carrier who supports it even though official stock OS doesn't, right?

Why would Google even restrict 5G to some carriers? It makes no sense for me. It's idiotic. Maybe they have special 5G deals with the big carriers. This makes their phones not competitive even stock where everything "should work out of the box".

    decadentist You should expect equal compatibility with stock.

    This might change in the feature if overrides are added, but as things stand, the same thing as stock should apply.

        matchboxbananasynergy

        Thanks for your reply. So this "restriction" is baked into AOSP then? Surely this isn't a matter of hardware support or is it? Where is this restriction located? If it's in the OS why hasn't it or can't be removed in GOS?

        Do you have a assumption why Google might tie 5G to vetted carriers?

        I want to enjoy 5G :|

        • de0u replied to this.

            decadentist I want to enjoy 5G :|

            Personally, I have 5G disabled for now, because disabling it improved both battery life and network stability.

                de0u
                But things will be different on Pixel X. I'm planning to enjoy cheap 5G plans in the future :)

                  8 months later

                  I know now what the problem is. I have been told by an friend who works at one MVNO in my country. He told me that Google asks for $$$ so they can whitelist the MNC (or whatever it is called). Since MVNO usually have a different ID then the first party mobile network providers 5G won't work. And cheapskates MVNO won't pay the probably reaccu4ing license fees, cuz they need to be cheep.

                  But I don't fully trust this answer. The IDs could be easily put into AOSP and thus would evsntually also be included in vanilla Pixel OS? Maybe Google would block the pull request? Hmmm