128GB OnePlus 10 Pro 5G Smartphone (Black, T-Mobile Unlocked) Expired

It is, but the vendors can block bands and only support the bands they use and are required to leave open (911 band on all 3 carriers, etc).

A good example is the Samsung A54 5G from T-Mobile or MetroPCS and getting all the Verizon or AT&T bands turned on. You cant even get into the service menu any more. (Note this does not effect real unlocked phones, just OEM phones that are "unlocked" by just unlocking the SIM.

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsung/...on_screen/

Also getting T-Mobile MVNO phones to work with other T-Mobile MVNO companies are a joke too. No WiFi calling, HotSpot wont turn on when it's supposed to, etc.

There's so much misinformation on SD about what unlocking means after however many months until it's "unlocked". And people will research the general unlocked version of the phone, instead of the actual model number of the OEM version that's being offered. Even though the regular unlocked model supports certain bands, doesnt mean the T-Mobile/AT&T/Verizon model does.

Samsung has moved onto carrier profiles and as of OneUI4 carrier provisioning. What this means is that there is a baseband/firmware that supports all US carriers in this region, BUT the carrier in question needs to have a provisioning profile for Samsung. If you carrier does provisioning any APN settings will be fully disabled. As to certain features working w/ an MVNO that is the issue w/ the MVNO not Samsung if they do not support proper AAA and CP (carrier provisioning). TMO doesn't sell bulk to most small companies PWG is a reseller to them. So it highly depends upon whose AAA/provisioning system they are using and if they are tier 1 w/ TMO that is NOT the fault of Samsung. Apple has their own challenges but by the most part their carrier profiles are sorted if said MVNO is big enough.

There are a few conditions (Samsung calls it BYOP) where if you put in another carrier SIM/eSIM that was not native the carrier provisioning may not happen:

BYOD customization is not supported if:

Android for Work (AFW), Device Owner (DO), or Profile Owner (PO) mode is activated.
MAX Power saving mode is on.
The phone is not carrier unlocked.
The phone is a Galaxy S8+ running Cricket or MetroPCS.

With that said the 3 major US carriers (MNO) all have differing mid/wideband 5G and there may be certain models that do not support all these newer bands. That is a PHYSICAL limitation of the antenna array setup and FCC certification. If your phone supports said band, and the BYOP carrier provisioning happens then you will get the new carrier bands. There is not some conspiracy.

Now if your phone is network locked, then all bets are off. You need to get it network unlocked otherwise the new carrier provisioning will not update (with apps) even if say it is a Cricket model (ATT) and you go to another ATT MVNO. -- and you may be relegated to ancient 4G bands and a poor experience.

A good primer: https://technastic.com/samsung-csc-codes-list/

For OnePlus (not to hijack) these are the models supported on AT&T network (Cricket is more restrictive): https://www.att.com/scmsassets/su...etwork.pdf.

Att support shows: NE2215. support only.

Verizon does a good job 10 pro or newer to support (US-based only). Maybe it was 9 pro...

There is a OnePlus 12 event this month, maybe wait till 12 is available to buy and then get the 11 for cheap!