Forum Discussion
2G free phone replacement
Hi, my family uses two 2G phones on the Gold Rewards legacy pay as you go plan. I saw the various posts that T-Mobile is shutting down its 2G network in April and also the announcement on the T-Mobile site here (https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/2g-retirement). Are we eligible for the free phone replacement even though we are using a legacy prepaid plan? We have been to several T-Mobile stores, but have been told that they cannot help us. We've also tried customer service, but they have also been unable to help us. Thank you for any information you can provide.
Thank you for your reply, HeavenM. I responded with a detailed message last night. When I clicked send, a message appeared that it was sent to the "moderator" for review. Are you the moderator? Did you receive my reply? Thank you again for yoru time.
Just between you and me, I think that T-Mobile would like to see those old Gold Reward prepaid accounts go away. I had one for years that I accidentally allowed to lapse a couple of years ago.
Benjamin123 wrote:
Unfortunately, that is the condensed version, HeavenM. It has taken a significant amount of time across multiple visits to multiple stores and several calls to the T-Mobile 800 customer service number. After four months, we are no further along than we were when we initially received the text at the start of October.
I have still not been able to get a screenshot of the phone, but here is the wording from the text message:
T-Mobile: Heads up! As we continue the work to advance our network, we will be retiring our 2G network on April 2, 2024. To continue to be able to use your T-Mobile service, including the ability to make 911 calls depending on your location you will need to replace your device. Get info here: t-mo.co/46rvrsl
Your message above is the first time that we have heard that we could lose our accounts. Given the age of the phones, are there any compatible phones even available? I am not an expert with technology, but, if I understand the instruction manuals that came with our phones, we will need to take the SIM cards out of our current phones and put them in new phones. However, do the old SIM cards that came with the T-Mobile phones that we purchased in 2007 and 2012 even fit in the phones currently sold?
As I mentioned above, we do not know why T-Mobile is treating us this way. Everything seems so difficult, it feels like T-Mobile just wants us to give up.
I want to thank you again for taking the time to respond. If you can give us some advice on how we can keep our T-Mobile accounts with our current T-Mobile plans and also what a compatible device would be for SIM cards from 2007 and 2012, I would be grateful for the assistance.
It is heartbreaking that you have had to work so hard at getting answers. I am doing my best to be fully transparent to help reduce any further effort on your side.
I don't know the make and model of your current phones, so I am not sure what size sim card your phones are using. Any phone currently sold on T-Mobile.com or in store is going to be compatible with the network updates. You're right about your current sim cards coming out of your current phones and possibly going into the new phones. If the sim card does not fit the phone you choose, then you would need to get a new one. If you get a phone that has an eSIM, then you could activate that rather than having to buy a new sim card.
Thank you again for your time, HeavenM. The makes and models of the phones are (i) a T-Mobile Nokia 6030 purchased in 2007 and (ii) T-Mobile 665 (manufactured by Alcatel) purchased in 2012.
Is this information enough to determine which phones currently sold would be compatible with the SIM cards that these phones use?
We appreciate your help in working through these questions.
