AT&T claiming grapheneos devices aren't supported by their network

gorkensnonks

Hmm, it seems at&t is refusing to activate my Grapheneos phone while international roaming.

I had a pixel fold running Grapheneos and using my at&t sim card while overseas, and the inner screen cracked (dont buy pixel fold, the screens crack).

Since the inner screen cracked, I decided to go back to my old Pixel 7 pro, and put the AT&T sim back into it. Upon doing that, I got an sms from at&t saying the device is not supported. (It seems it's supported just enough for them to send you that SMS, and then nothing else works.)

I put the sim back into the Google fold that previously was working fine with that exact SIM a few days before, and the same thing happened. Can't use data or make calls, and there is an ! exclamation point by the cellular data symbol.

I called at&t and they were useless, kept trying to tell me to buy a new phone from them because my phone wasn't supported, even though I said it was the same pixel 7 pro and pixel fold that i have always used. She had me read the two IMEIs that were associated with the Pixel 7 Pro and she was saying the IMEIs were coming up in her system as unsupported. This is wrong, because both phones were purchased full price, carrier unlocked, from Google, and they both worked with the same SIM before. I have little faith that the individual I was speaking with knew what she was doing, even though I read out both IMEIs twice and she claimed to be checking them.

I put a Verizon sim into the pixel 7 pro and it worked fine. I put the at&t sim into a stock iphone and it worked fine there as well.

Then, I reverted the pixel fold to stock android and the at&t sim works again!

It seems I have a choice between (a) continuing to use grapheneos and switching to Verizon, or (b) revert to Stock OS :( and keep using AT&T. I travel internationally a lot so I need something that works overseas/roaming.

Any insights? Maybe AT&T thinks they are blocking unauthorized phone unlocking, somehow? Would they be able to get info on the phone's OS or environment during activation? (Both phones were purchased at full price carrier-unlocked from Google.)

Thanks
G

tl;dr:

All scenarios roaming overseas:
Stock OS Pixel fold - AT&T SIM works fine.
Stock OS iPhone - AT&T SIM works fine.
GrapheneOS pixel 7 pro - AT&T SIM previously worked, now AT&T sends SMS to device saying it cannot register the device bc is unsupported, and stops working. Verizon SIM works fine.
GrapheneOS pixel fold - AT&T SIM previously worked, now AT&T sends SMS to device saying it cannot register the device bc is unsupported, and stops working. Verizon SIM works fine.

Bismark

gorkensnonks
I have had the same experience as you. My tmobile esim was not provisioned and I panicked as I needed a working phone number to receive otp via sms, so i bought a prepaid att sim card. I received same msg as you, made a phone call and got a recorded msg about how my phone is not compatible. But the call did go through, and there where no more msgs latter about it. Bottom line is att is dumb, go with tmobile. I got my tmobile esim to work so into the bin with att. They have very cheap plans and calling over wifi works, however you have to have volte enable for it to work. 15 bucks a month prepaid is a very good deal in the States when it has calling over wifi when abroad.

spammerofspam

Is the carrier services app installed? Is it possible that there's some kind of handshake AT&T is expecting from the phone, and it's perhaps provided by carrier services?

treequell

I am not sure about the specifics of AT&T as a mobile carrier but I suggest having a read of https://grapheneos.org/usage#carrier-functionality

gorkensnonks

Carrier services wasn't installed, but I just installed it, had wi-fi on so it could access the internet, rebooted, and reset network settings, but still seeing the same behavior. :(

treequell

gorkensnonks have you tried manually configuring the APN?

sonicbackdrop

treequell Second this.

OP not sure if you've ever been to Howard Forums, but folks there are super knowledgeable about carrier services issues, were you to still need help.

gorkensnonks

Setting the APN settings manually didnt help.

I have a theory now about what has been going on. This is just a theory, but it's the best theory I have with the data at hand.

I suspect AT&T made a change sometime over the past few months to not activate SIMs on devices bought outside the US. The Pixel 7 pro was bought a year ago outside the US. It WAS working perfectly fine with the AT&T SIM card, though. I switched to a Pixel Fold purchased in the US over the summer. I moved the AT&T SIM into the Pixel fold and was using that happily until the internal screen cracked.

I think sometime during the time period I was using the Pixel fold, AT&T made this change.

After the screen crack, I switched back to the Pixel 7 Pro. When I put the SIM card in, of note - for a few seconds - I had internet connectivity by LTE and was actually able to load a web page in the browser, before the SMS came in that the device cant be activated, and the cellular signal indicator acquired an exclamation point ! to indicate an error.

Now what tripped me up in my analysis before was that I moved the SIM card back to the Pixel fold, running grapheneOS, and I again got the exclamation point and could not use cellular internet. I felt this confirmed that the issue was not limited to devices sold outside the US.

However now I think I experienced the ! during a period of time right after the SIM is detected, when AT&T is treating the SIM as though it were in whatever device it was in the last time AT&T did the IMEI check, which I theorize is not instantaneous, and so this was probably carrying over the rejection from the Pixel 7 pro.

I ejected the SIM and restored stock google OS, then put SIM back in, and it worked - I thought this confirmed that the issue was GrapheneOS.

However notably, after that, when I moved the SIM back into the Pixel 7 pro, I actually again got LTE with a normal 3 bars, and was able to load a web page in Vanadium. I thought I was good again, but a few seconds later the LTE symbol turned from bars into an exclamation point error message again and I could no longer get any cellular data.

So based on all these data it seems to me that when you immediately put the SIM in, it gets treated according to the last time AT&T checked the IMEI for that particular SIM, and the check is not instantaneous. So you get a brief window where you see what the conclusions were of the last device it was in.

The other conclusion is that AT&T may not be the way to go for me, as I travel overseas a lot and certainly may want to put the SIM into other phones or mifi devices or whatever, overseas. So that limitation isn't cool for me.

Thanks all for your help.

de0u

gorkensnonks I suspect AT&T made a change sometime over the past few months to not activate SIMs on devices bought outside the US.

That is an interesting hypothesis. If correct, that would mean that tourists and students visiting from outside the U.S. could not set up AT&T accounts with their foreign phones? That seems like it might be bad for business, and also become widely known.

Might it be that something has gone wrong with your individual SIM card? Will AT&T issue a replacement?

obfooescape

I have AT&T and was using GOS on my 7a, until I recently bought an 8 (also running GOS). Both phones were bought in the USA, unlocked, from a well known (I think national?) electronics store. I put the sim from the 7a into the 8 around 2 months ago and I have no issues with the service; however, I do have other issues which I plan on asking the community soon...