benjib1980 Hi there. I reached out to the development team about this, and I think there's a potential fix.

It will include you installing Sandboxed Google Play in your owner profile. That is because Cellcom uses GSMA TS.43 provisioning.

From https://grapheneos.org/usage#carrier-functionality:

Android 12 introduced support for the GSMA TS.43 standard where provisioning for VoLTE, VoNR and Wi-Fi calling may be handled by Google Firebase. Currently it is very rare for carriers to be using Firebase to handle this. It is unlikely, but technically possible, that with such carriers you may be required to install sandboxed Google Play in order to obtain the former mentioned functionality where the carrier has not implemented fallback provisioning via SMS. Currently only US Cellular, Orange France, Cspire US, and Cellcom US are using this standard.

If this does indeed resolve this issue for you, please let us know so that I can mark this one as solved and help others in the future!

    a month later
    6 days later

    benjib1980 Same story as you except Pixel 7 Pro. Bought for Graphene but Calyx, Graphene and Lineage all don't work with Cellcom when it comes to texts and calls.

    SouperSoup Is this issue 2235?

    If so, maybe mention there the other OS's you tried... maybe try vanilla AOSP... if AOSP has this problem, maybe see if Google's AOSP issue tracker has a matching issue?

    If the problem is limited to a small number of smaller carriers, and the developers can't readily test, and it's an upstream problem... it might persist indefinitely.

      19 days later

      de0u Only works on the shipped OS. Only tried Graphene, Calyx and Lineage other than stock. I have moved carriers now.

        7 months later

        de0u
        Just wondering if anyone has tried GrapheneOS on any Cellcom phones recently? Still on Cellcom here and want to try again w/ my Pixel 8. You would think this is fixable..? Or does anyone have a link where I can ask a dev?

        • de0u replied to this.

          benjib1980 Still on Cellcom here and want to try again w/ my Pixel 8. You would think this is fixable..?

          It's possible that the last year of incremental changes to AOSP has included a fix to whatever was going wrong, or that the last year of incremental changes to the GrapheneOS compatibility layer for Google Play has delivered a fix.

          If it hasn't been fixed yet, in theory it should be fixable. But if zero GrapheneOS developers live in an area covered by a carrier using GSMA TS.43 (this seems plausible) then it might be fixable in theory but not in practice.

          If it works for some AOSP variant, that would be encouraging. Perhaps it's possible to check those user forums for information (which might be easier than installing multiple operating systems on your phone).

          Or does anyone have a link where I can ask a dev?

          https://grapheneos.org/contact#community-chat

            16 days later

            de0u As an update, I emailed the devs of GrapheneOS using their contact us form, I provided all the info, including links to this thread - and got a reply telling me to do a network reset, unfortunately :(

            • de0u replied to this.

              benjib1980 I think it might be productive for you to hunt around on the user forums of other AOSP variants to find out if any of those users are successfully accessing Cellcom or another GSMA TS.43 carrier. If it doesn't work for anybody, then maybe it doesn't work. If it does work for some AOSP variant but not GrapheneOS, that might be of interest to the GrapheneOS developers -- though, again, it is highly likely that zero of them live in an area served by a GSMA TS.43 carrier, so they may well be literally unable to help.

                de0u Ok, sounds good. What do you mean by AOSP variants? Sorry, I'm only familiar with Graphene and to a much smaller extent CalyxOS (I tried both when it stopped working). Once I know what you are talking about, I will definitely check it out and report back here if i find anything. Thanks again.

                • de0u replied to this.

                  benjib1980 What do you mean by AOSP variants? Sorry, I'm only familiar with Graphene and to a much smaller extent CalyxOS (I tried both when it stopped working). Once I know what you are talking about, I will definitely check it out and report back here if i find anything.

                  Here are some: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

                  Here are more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_custom_Android_distributions

                  There are lots and lots. The Eylenburg list is not a bad place to start.

                    5 days later

                    de0u You rock - thanks much. FYI I just tried LineageOS, no cell networks available.

                    • de0u replied to this.

                      benjib1980 I just tried LineageOS, no cell networks available.

                      Thanks for running that experiment! We now know more than we did before. If you are still inclined to spend "lab time", I can think of a variety of different things to try next.

                      1. Post on some AOSP-variant forums (maybe including the XDA forum) asking if anybody there has Cellcom working.
                      2. Swap LineageOS out for another AOSP variant.
                      3. Try pure AOSP from Google (not Google's stock Pixel OS). This would be more work, but if pure AOSP doens't work with Cellcom (a) that would explain why other AOSP variants don't, and (b) it would be possible to file an issue against AOSP.

                      At a high level:

                      1. If you can find some AOSP variant where Cellcom works, that could be filed in GrapheneOS issue 2235. Because the GrapheneOS developers would have a hard time debugging the problem without being in Cellcom's area, providing information about an AOSP variant working on Cellcom might not lead to a fix for GrapheneOS. But it might.
                      2. If pure AOSP doesn't work on Cellcom, filing an issue against AOSP is probably the thing to do. It may well be the case that zero AOSP developers are in areas served by Cellcom, so again a fix might not happen. But it might.

                      I guess in theory you could worm your way far enough into the Cellcom technical infrastructure to find somebody who could help debug the issue. But that seems unlikely unless your cousin's hairdresser's plumber's cousin is a VP at Cellcom or something like that.

                        de0u Ok - good news! Since i had to re-install something on my phone, I decided to try Graphene again - and it WORKED on my Cellcom phone. I tested calls, mobile data, messaging, MMS. All good since yesterday. I have a Pixel 8 and used the web installer for Graphene. Thanks for all the help!

                        • de0u replied to this.