does the PinePhone work with Tello?
 

My provider is Tello, which now uses T-Mobile's network. My own research (digging through forum posts online) indicates that the PinePhone is said to work fine on the T-Mobile network, and at least one individual claims to successfully use Tello service on it. Can anyone here verify compatibility from experience?

The price of $150 is not bad at all, if not some huge bargain. Coincidentally, $150 is exactly what I paid for my current Samsung A10e.

I am using Tello successfully on my PinePhone at the moment. There was some speculation on a forum that T-Mobile will not stay compatible (some change in bands they offer?) and since Tello uses T-Mobile (at least on my SIM) maybe there will be problems in the future. However, for now Tello is a very inexpensive option for connection.

I've tried several GSM and Verizon based sims without much luck in my rural area. Still haven't got around to trying the T-Mobile network since it's pretty spotty through here. Both Ting and Mint Mobile claim to support the PinePhone's modem when I enter the imei, but say coverage will be poor in my area.
Just keep in mind that this is a vastly different phone! The A10 is quite fast and modern. The PinePhone can be quite sluggish and unreliable depending on the OS. Make double sure you understand that it's a development device currently and although lots of people daily drive theirs, it's not as easy for most people. I really like mine, and do not regret buying it, but then I'm also a developer.

The only approved way it to take the specific number off a phone and plug it into the Tmobile site to see if you can bring it byop.
At one time one/or more of the big name carriers was not allowing some fully unlocked high quality phones for some BS reasons.

I haven't had any problem putting a T-mobile/Mint or other sim card into odd devices as long as the frequencies matched local towers.
BHphoto sells a lot of international phones and usually lists bands they cover. From a very brief look at pinephone it seems it could support T-mobile if they really are not using Sprint towers.

I have a tello sim in my Pinephone, and as far as the Pinephone is capable of working, it works.

Understand that the Pinephone is a proof of concept developer device, not a daily driver. Pine calls it a Beta version; late alpha is probably more accurate. There are multiple distro/GUI options. Some like Mobian/Phosh are mostly usable, others like Manjaro/Plasma are simply rancid.

Core issues like the phone waking from sleep when receiving incoming calls, intermittent losses of connection to cell service requiring a reboot of the modem persist.

A few years ago I tried a BQ with Ubuntu Touch, that was much more of a finished product then than Pinephone is today. This isn't to criticize Pine for the current state of software development, just to make the reader aware that they aren't simply going to order one to use as a daily driver.

I think it's way more than a proof of concept device.

AFAIU it works very well as a mobile internet device (and has for some time), and more and more people report being happy with its telephony/messaging capabilities, too.

There's also a significant amount of serious developer interest; a handful of mature mobile Linux OS projects list the PinePhone as an officially supported device.

What's a BQ?

Whats a bq: http://www.devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/krillin

Different people have different ideas and needs. I would say that at a bare minimum, any phone (smart or not) must meet the following requirements:

1. Reliably make voice calls
2. Reliably receive voice calls
3. Reiably send SMS/MMS messages
4. Reliably receive SMS/MMS messages
5. Have a contacts manager to store phone numbers
6. Have a clock and functioning alarm

That is a pretty low bar. Items 2, 4, and 6 on the Pinephone need to be fixed before it can be considered a daily driver.