This is a cautionary tale regarding 3rd party providers of AT&T's cell phone network.
I recently switched DW and son's iPhones from AT&T to a much less expensive AT&T Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) called Redpocket. Everything about the network was good until we discovered that Redpocket doesn't support group texting on iPhones. There's some weird restrictions that AT&T (or maybe it's Apple?) puts on iPhones running on certain AT&T MVNOs. Without going into the sordid details, group texting only works properly if everyone on the group text is on an iPhone. If someone on the group text is on an Android, DW wouldn't receive the text. The matter is further complicated by the fact that some AT&T MVNO's do support group texting and some, like Redpocket, don't.
I looked into the AT&T MVNO's that supposedly do support group texting (including Cricket and Consumer Cellular) and their prices weren't much different then AT&T.
So now I'm looking at switching their unlocked phones to a non-AT&T MVNO like Tello, which uses the Sprint network.
Has anyone else had this experience and did switching their unlocked iPhone to a non-AT&T MVNO solve the group texting problem?
AT&T MVNOs and Group Texting
Re: AT&T MVNOs and Group Texting
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Re: AT&T MVNOs and Group Texting
Group texting or iMessage? iMessage is a fairly sticky feature of iOS. It isn’t the same as group texting, but is often used for the same purpose.
--Robert Sterbal |
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Re: AT&T MVNOs and Group Texting
That's a good point. It's only an issue when using the iOS messaging app. Group messaging would presumably work fine through a third party app. It's ultimately an issue with the way MMS group texts are received/sent by iPhones with certain AT&T MVNO networks.