Before dish shuttered the RW forums I recall there was a table showing testing results of various phones. I’ve tried searching here but haven’t found that original table - do we have a copy of it somewhere?
I’m frustrated with my current phone (Moto Z4) because:
it is only partially supported by RW (no wifi calls, and apparently lacking some bands used locally in my area by AT&T)
performance (my work uses microsoft intune and oh my god microsofts android apps are horribly poor performers requiring a more powerful device just to check email)
I have three options in mind:
1.install a LineageOS on my moto Z4 and hope the newer OS is allowed to work on RW (even without wifi calling), perhaps alleviating some of the performance issues with microsoft intune? this is a long shot, but the cheapest route (and from experience with the older Z3, there is no real return to stock firmware on the phone, so if it breaks RW compatibility it’s done for)
2. New phone: Google Pixel 6a. RW doesn’t sell this currently, so it would be straight from google. no idea whether it would support ALL of RW’s services/features though as apparently the answer isn’t technical in nature but rather up to the whims of AT&T?
3. New phone: Moto G 5G. RW sells a cut-rate version of this phone (64GB/4GB) for $210, but straight from motorola i can buy the full version (256GB/6GB) for $250. but i do wonder whether the vendor-supplied variant would be granted full access to AT&T services through RW just as i wonder about the pixel 6a?
As i think about my question and attempt to find my own answers I’m hit with the realization that there really isn’t much useful info on the RW site right now. Not for me, and not for anyone else. unless i’ve missed it somehow, users now have the option to buy an iphone or one of a very small number of devices direct from RW, else ponder how incomplete their service might be…
If we @rwusers could put together something like that original compatibility table it could lead to a device buying guide for all of us. So that’s what I’m hoping to motivate: a device buying guide for all to eventually use, and for me to use pretty darn soon
Before dish shuttered the RW forums I recall there was a table showing testing results of various phones. I’ve tried searching here but haven’t found that original table - do we have a copy of it somewhere?
We no, me yes. Those tables were among the old Community content I had backed up locally.
I haven’t yet uploaded the tables because, in part, I see this Community as focused on telecom technology more generally rather than focused on RW by DISH per se. Put another way, we share the common bond of being or having been RW members at some point but not all of us are necessarily still RW by DISH customers. I see the original RW and RW by DISH as two distinct entities. That’s not to say I’m opposed to publishing the tables here. It just hasn’t been a priority.
Of the three options, you list, I have personal experience with a Pixel 6a paired with a RW by DISH SIM. In my experience when paired with an RW by DISH 5.0 SIM, the Pixel 6a supports Cell calls, SMS, MMS and data. It also supports WiFi calling, MMS over WiFi, conditional call forwarding and visual voicemail using Google’s Phone app.
No results were reported for the Moto G 5G prior to RW by DISH’s turndown of our old Community.
that’s a great PDF to start with, but AT&T [apparently, or maybe i’m mistaken?] doesn’t allow MVNOs to do everything they would do for native users. for example, my moto z4 is in that list as supporting “HD Voice”, which is AT&T’s name for VoLTE. however AT&T remotely disables VoLTE on this phone… the option to enable it is removed from the settings app entirely [and i’m led to believe that it is therefore disabled].
i suppose the pdf is at least a negative indicator: if a phone is listed as not supporting something there, then it’s unlikely to somehow start working for RW users. but it’s not very convincing as a positive indicator for specific features.
[…] I have personal experience with a Pixel 6a paired with a RW by DISH SIM. In my experience when paired with an RW by DISH 5.0 SIM, the Pixel 6a supports […everything?..]
ok, that’s fantastic - and the pixel wasn’t bought through RW’s store, right?
thanks very much for sharing this
I believe the PDF is accurate for features available on Republic Wireless. The one thing that the PDF doesn’t address is the ability to setup call forwarding through the calling menu, or the ability to use feature codes. This is available on some, but not all unlocked phones. Ideally there would be an alternate way of doing this in the user portal, but Republic Wireless never built this functionality into the user portal. As I understand it, the Pixel 6a has the ability to set call forwarding in the calling menu. My Pixel 5a is, unfortunately, incapable of this.
The one thing that the PDF doesn’t address is the ability to setup call forwarding through the calling menu, or the ability to use feature codes.
This isn’t all AT&T’s PDF fails to address. It fails to address MMS over WiFi as well. Yes, MMS over WiFi is important only to a niche audience but, so too, is call forwarding.
For what it’s worth, both MMS over WiFi and call forwarding (conditional and unconditional) work with RW by DISH service on the Pixel 6a.
1.install a LineageOS on my moto Z4 and hope the newer OS is allowed to work on RW (even without wifi calling), perhaps alleviating some of the performance issues with microsoft intune? this is a long shot, but the cheapest route (and from experience with the older Z3, there is no real return to stock firmware on the phone, so if it breaks RW compatibility it’s done for)
My phone is a OnePlus 7 Pro running LineageOS 19.1. SIM1 is Mint/T-Mobile, SIM2 is RW/AT&T.
I don’t think the carriers can determine your OS. Both carriers have the model pf my phone correctly listed even though they were not told the model, I think this is done by the IMEI.
Mint/T-Mobile runs WiFi and cellular calling just fine. I’m not so sure about SMS/MMS via WiFi, but I don’t use messaging that heavily. RW/AT&T runs phone calls and SMS/MMS just fine via normal cellular process (VoLTE is working for both SIMs) and data by cellular data. WiFi data is not carrier affected. WiFi calling does not work on RW/AT&T.
So you should be able to put LineageOS on your phone, just don’t expect any difference in RW/AT&T behavior. My phone can do WiFi calling, AT&T just refuses to allow it. I did check that the WiFi calling toggle is ON for RW/AT&T.
@rolandh said:
… and visual voicemail using Google’s Phone app.
any tricks to make this work? i called support they they were absolutely useless in helping (they think the google phone app is some arbitrary app rather than the built-in phone app - couldn’t convince them otherwise)
my voicemail settings doesn’t show any option to enable (or disable) visual voicemail. same for my wife’s voicemail settings. we both had visual voicemail working on our older moto z4 phones, though the feature would disappear if we let the play store install updates to the phone app (so we had to keep an old version installed). the base version on the pixel is newer than what we reverted to on the z4’s…
at least through support we got the voicemail reset so we can access through the old-school press and hold “1” method now.
any tricks to make this work? i called support they they were absolutely useless in helping (they think the google phone app is some arbitrary app rather than the built-in phone app - couldn’t convince them otherwise)
I’m afraid I owe you an apology. Visual voicemail does work but not using Google’s Phone app with a 5.0 SIM. This is because DISH has decided to force use of their own separate DISH Visual Voicemail app. I don’t know if it’s still the case but for some reason some have been unable to install Dish’s app on their phone. For those unable to install DISH’s app, AT&T’s Visual Voicemail app typically works.
The other alternative is to use conditional call forwarding with a third party visual voicemail service such as Google Voice or YouMail.
we both had visual voicemail working on our older moto z4 phones, though the feature would disappear if we let the play store install updates to the phone app (so we had to keep an old version installed). the base version on the pixel is newer than what we reverted to on the z4’s…
With a 5.0 SIM? I ask that question because I haven’t see anyone successfully using a 5.0 SIM with visual voicemail in Google’s Phone app.
The uninstalling updates trick worked for some when using a legacy My Choice SIM prior to removal of RW’s proprietary WiFi-first technology. Ironically; now that RW’s proprietary technology has been removed from all legacy My Choice lines of service, legacy My Choice SIMs work perfectly fine with visual voicemail in Google’s Phone app.
I’m pointing the finger at DISH because, I have SIMs in the household from Mobi, MobileX and Tello (all of which work perfectly fine with visual voicemail in Google’s Phone app on my Pixel 6a as well).
Those tables were among the old Community content I had backed up locally.
That was the old RW.