Pine64 Phone - Any Devs Who know How to Setup?... Any Early Adopters Here?
 

Greetings
I currently use Vonage for voice calls and have a very simple flip-phone mobile/emergencies/text. I'm quite happy with Vonage but although I've been pretty happy with the flip=phone, sometime this year I will be forced to replace it as the Network is going 5G and it doesn't "speak that language".

The Pine64 phone is a lot cheaper than Purism's Libre 5 (almost 5x) and besides the attraction of lesser cost, the main thing is that I have no need or desire for all that extra functionality. All I really care about is text and the ability to make and receive rare calls on the move.

I know a LOT about PCs, both hardware and software, but I know diddly about phone service including how one would setup a phone like Pine64 running Linux to work with any cell network. So I'm appealing to anyone who knows at least something as to how this can be accomplished. What is needed? What networks can be connected to? What providers possibly will even allow such a phone?

I pretty much welcome any commentary. Thank you in advance.

Just a point, there are 4G flip phones that will continue to function when the older 2G flip-phones cease. I just recently bought one (rugged 4G LTE flip phone) for my help desks on-call phone.

Thanks Timothy that's good to know but I am starting to get pretty excited by this Pine64 Braveheart phone. It has hardware switches for LTE, including GPS, WiFi/BT, Mic and Camera AND has a removable battery! It also supports storage expansion, has USB type c, a Display Port and a headphone jack besides running a pure FOSS Linux.

Honestly I don't think your flip phone will stop working, unless these things are handled differently in Virginia than in Europe.
But +1 for pinephone!
ALso it looks like Maemo Leste are planning to support it!

Since it also works in a Desktop environment, and because I have almost 12 months before the switch, I'm going to preview Sailfish and others first and thanks to you, ondoho, I'm adding Maemo Leste to the list of trials. Thanks :)

Duplicate

Unlike the Librem 5, the PinePhone is targeting geeks and creating the phone that we could only dream of.

As far as setting up the PinePhone with a wireless carrier, I'd think it would be easier than most name brands since those are often "locked" to a certain carrier. As far as I can see all you'd need to check is the wireless bands supported by the PinePhone and check your wireless carrier's bands to make sure they'll work. If they do, it should be as simple as getting a "Bring Your Own Phone" plan and popping the sim into your new phone. With most (unlocked)smartphones you can switch sim cards from one to the other and keep going, I've even switched a sim from a 2g "dumb" phone into a smartphone and it worked. Who knows yours might work like that as well.

Something that might help you is researching the cellular module for the RaspberryPi. Like this one: https://www.roundsolutions.com/en/ra...lular-adapter/

WOW! Thank you, MillJ. Raspberry Pi is getting more amazing all the time.

People are amazed about the low price of the Pinephone - but let me tell you something I know from experience: there will be signifant additional cost: shipping, taxes, maybe even customs... my estimate is the price will be 250-300$ in the end. Still a good offer though.

No, and no - I have no interest in it...