According to internal T-Mobile documents obtained and verified by Android Policethe company plans to drop support for mobile networks to 19 devices on January 29th, 2021. Affected devices include smartphones from Google, Samsung, Sony and more as well as older home security cameras and wireless routers.
Here is the full overview, as per T-Mobile internal list:
Phones:
- Google Nexus 9
- Huawei Mate 8
- Huawei P9
- HTC Desire 10 Lifestyle
- HTC Desire 650
- OnePlus 1
- Quanta Dragon IR7
- Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (both AT&T and Verizon models; The T-Mobile version of note 4 is not affected)
- Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
- Samsung Galaxy S5 Duos
- Sony Xperia Z3
- Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
- Sony Xperia Z3 Orion
- Sony D6616 Xperia Z3 Orion
- Soyea M02
- ZTE ZMax
Other devices:
- Mikrotikls SIA_R11e-LTE6 miniPCIe modem
- Netgear Arlo security camera system
The change affects T-Mobile, MetroPCS, and Sprint customers, but the effect depends on the carrier network your device originally uses. T-Mobile and MetroPCS devices will lose all network support from January 29, while Sprint devices will lose T-Mobile roaming connectivity but can still use Sprint’s older 3G network until it closes in 2023.
It is possible that there are several unsupported devices, but T-Mobile has not yet published a public announcement at the time of writing, so we can only exit the Android Police information. That said, T-Mobile will reportedly alert customers via SMS text from December 28, giving those still using these older products only a few weeks to upgrade.
The short notice is inconvenient, but we would recommend users to upgrade from one of the above smartphones, even though T-Mobile did not drop support. Not only are new phones faster and full of better features and cameras, they also receive regular security patches that older phones do not.
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If price is an issue, look for mid-range devices like the Pixel 4a and 5a or the Samsung Galaxy A51. As long as the phone is still supported by the manufacturer, it will be a big leap in performance and security and you can buy one for much less than a new flagship handset.