The Google Pixel series routinely ranks among the best phones in the market, largely due to the promise of timely software updates. While the company’s software support track record is decent, Pixel owners have routinely raised complaints about inadequate assistance on the hardware side or features that simply don’t work as they should. A new Reddit post is now highlighting an issue with older Pixels running on Qualcomm silicon — specifically, the Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a — affecting the ways they can access 5G.
As per self-described wireless computing veteran Christopher Price writes on Reddit, those Pixels have apparently lost the ability to connect to 5G Standalone networks with the March 2023 security update. As one individual among the many affected in the comments points out, losing 5G SA connectivity is particularly irritating for Pixel customers who went through the ordeal of upgrading their SIMs to support this improved access.
To oversimplify the major concepts, 5G Standalone uses a dedicated radio access network — the base stations through to the cell site antennae — to connect customers’ phones to the 5G backhaul. This is an improvement on 5G Non-Standalone that used 4G LTE’s radio access network (along with its older delivery and control functions) to link up to 5G internet.
One of the big perks 5G SA offers is VoNR (Voice over New Radio) — it’s like VoLTE, but it should deliver better quality calls with its newer protocols. Disabling 5G SA effectively means that phones won’t be able to use VoNR.
Price claims that T-Mobile prohibited the Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a from standalone access to its Ultra Capacity spectrum. It’s suggested that those device owners who were connected to the carrier’s low-band 5G through NSA means may be locked out of placing or receiving calls if their device was recognized as VoNR-capable — presumably, there is an exception where VoLTE is not allowed in this scenario.
Google may have deliberately waited until after a recent Pixel trade-in sale, which offered great financial incentives for people switching from an older Pixel to a more recent model, before pulling support. Crucially, newer Pixels running Google’s Tensor chip are still able to access 5G SA.
So if you’ve got a Qualcomm-based 5G SA-enabled Pixel device, don’t be too surprised when you intermittently see the ! icon in place of the network bars. Additionally, it seems like LineageOS builds released after March 22 also feature this possibly deliberate omission.
There aren’t a lot of solutions right now barring downgrading the firmware, which has its own challenges like potentially requesting a SIM unlock from T-Mobile if you’re in the US. Price speculates that VoNR and 5G SA could possibly be enabled by playing around with QPST (Qualcomm Product Support Tools) software, though this course of action is far from being recommended.
Then there’s the stray (if misguided) hope that Google may fix this with the next Pixel update, but as the Redditor rightly puts it, we’re not holding our breath for that to pan out.
