Dark Star - US Mobile

NancyM · July 31, 2024, 1:57am

I got an email that US Mobile will be making their Dark Star network available. Basically it sounds like it’s AT&T coverage, but kind of cool that USMobile has a choice of the big 3 carriers now. It also sounds like a customer can fairly easily switch carriers but keep their same plan and carrier. The name “Dark Star” does sound rather ominous… maybe a better name could be used?!?

US Mobile Unveils the Dark Star Network: Get Coverage on All Three Major Networks | WhistleOut

I’ve been doing well with their Verizon Warp 5G coverage. When Republic changed over, they had AT&T coverage which for me, wasn’t great.
But it’s interesting to see what US Mobile is doing and maybe if I were travelling and ATT coverage was better there, this would be a good option.

mwgardiner · July 31, 2024, 2:17am

“Lt. Pinback, it’s time to feed the alien.”

rolandh · July 31, 2024, 3:45pm

Hi @NancyM,

It’s been observed AT&T’s corporate logo bears a passing resemblance to a Star Wars death star. When first mentioning the addition of AT&T coverage, US Mobile referred to the new service as “Death Star”. I suspect AT&T and/or the owners of the Star Wars brand objected or would have objected if US Mobile went to market using Death Star. So, marketing came up with Dark Star.

Red Pocket has offered a choice of all 3 (4 when Sprint still existed) national networks for some time. Tracfone before its acquisition by Verizon did as well. So; US Mobile isn’t the first to offer a choice of all three networks but is one of the few to do so.

US Mobile also has a relatively new feature, it calls “Teleportal”. Teleportal indeed allows US Mobile customers to switch among the three national carriers while maintaining their current plan but not the carrier (unless by carrier one means US Mobile). US Mobile considers this to be an “internal” port. While to US Mobile it is internal because the customer is staying with US Mobile; to the upstream network partners, it’s the same as any other port among AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. In other words, an “internal” US Mobile port from “Warp” to “Dark Star” or “GSM” (apparently soon™ to be renamed “Light Speed”) is in reality the same as any other port from Verizon to AT&T or T-Mobile and vice versa with the caveats that come with any external port.

US Mobile’s marketing on Teleportal is unfortunately fuzzy making it sound, to some, as if it’s a sort of quasi network switching technolgy akin to Google Fi’s former proprietary network switching or DISH/Boost’s currently overhyped dynamic network switching.

Teleportal isn’t something I’d see myself using regularly. That said; if, for example, I had upcoming international travel and Dark Star or GSM offered better international roaming than Warp where I was traveling, I could see switching networks for the duration of the trip then switching back upon return. I supose the same might be applied to domestic travel as well.

Once available, I may set up a line with a minimalist plan on Dark Star. I do like having access to all three national networks as a sort of hurricane insurance. I’m good for T-Mobile and Verizon but currently lack an AT&T network option.

rolandh · July 31, 2024, 7:02pm

Apparently, there’s another early access window to sign up for Dark Star between 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM EDT today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/USMobile/comments/1egtgrc/yall_ready_yes_lets_go_3pm_today/

I think I’ll let this one pass also and just wait for public release.

rolandh · August 3, 2024, 5:59pm

I set up a test line on US Mobile Dark Star (AT&T network) on my iPhone. The experience is mixed.

Phone	Cell Calls	Cell SMS	Cell MMS	Cell Data	CCF¹	VVM²	Wi-Fi Calls³	WiFi MMS⁴
Apple iPhone Xr	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Google Pixel 6a	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

¹CCF = Conditional Call Forwarding
²VVM = Visual Voicemail
³Wi-Fi calls refers to calls where there is no cellular signal. If the phone is on Wi-Fi while cell service is also available, you will have normal cellular calling. To test Wi-Fi only, put the phone into airplane mode, then re-enable WiFi.
⁴Wi-Fi MMS refers to picture and group messages where there is no cellular signal. If the phone is on Wi-Fi while cell service is also available, you will have normal cellular texting. To test Wi-Fi only, put the phone into airplane mode, then re-enable WiFi.

Cell calls, SMS, MMS and data all work. WiFi calling works as well. Call forwarding, visual voicemail and MMS over WiFi do not. iMessage works.

The current workaround for lack of visual voicemail is using Apple’s live voicemail (analogous to Google’s transcription on Pixels). The downside is if the phone is off or out of service range live voicemail cannot intercept the call and it goes to AT&T’s carrier voicemail (which means dialing in).

Group messaging with a mix of Androids and iPhones is also a known issue, which USM says will be fixed with public release of iOS 18. iOS 18 will support RCS and, for the most part (so long as Androids party to the conversation are using an RCS capable messaging app), RCS supplants MMS but I very much doubt Apple will be offering any MMS fixes for iOS 18 or otherwise.

It appears USM still has work to do relative to the Apple carrier bundle. USM does not have a direct relationship with Apple, so Dark Star (and also Light Speed formerly GSM) use a generic Apple carrier bundle. Warp, like most Verizon network MVNOs, leverages Verizon’s Apple carrier bundle.

Additionally, USM’s CEO has stated they’re working on establishing a direct relationship with Apple. So, fixes for what doesn’t currently work may end up waiting for that.

Apple’s generic carrier bundle does have GSMA overlays (a means of establishing certain standardized settings for carriers belonging to the GSMA). Like providers using T-Mobile’s network, providers using AT&T’s network use a generic Apple carrier bundle. T-Mobile, however, seems to populate more GSMA overlays for its MVNOs. AT&T, apparently, less so. For example, Tello is a T-Mobile network MVNO using Apple’s generic carrier bundle. Call forwarding, visual voicemail and MMS over WiFi all work on Tello but do not work on USM Dark Star.

I will endeavor to run the same tests using my Pixel 6a sometime in the coming week. My Dark Star test line is on eSIM, so I’ll need to figure out how to transfer the eSIM via US Mobile’s account portal.

The experience using US Mobile Dark Star on a Pixel 6a is substantially better than the iPhone Xr experience. The obvious conclusion is that Apple’s generic (or what one might think of as the GSMA) bundle is not optimized for AT&T network service. It will likely take a cooperative effort among USM, AT&T and, possibly, Apple to change that. Alternatively, as USM’s CEO has mentioned, USM could establish a direct relationship with Apple obtaining its own Apple carrier bundle in the process.

rolandh · August 4, 2024, 5:16pm

Some not exactly impressive speed test results this morning for Dark Star:

The result was taken on an older iphone Xr but still…

As a comparison, here’s a result also from this morning in the same spot and taken on the same iPhone Xr. This one is Mobi’s beta: