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A comment on Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable VoLTE anywhere. Parent comment

Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by Gigachad on Saturday October 11, 2025 @10:14PM (#45554557)
From what I remember the issue was that many models of phone would use 4g/5g for everything but emergency calls, which was done over 3G. So the government made the choice to block those phones from the network entirely rather than leave them seemingly working but unable to make emergency calls.
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Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by onceler on Saturday October 11, 2025 @10:58PM (#45554780)
Pretty much, but the govt didn't do any blocking directly. They just told the carriers, "Hey, you must not allow people to use devices on your networks that are unable to make emergency calls, or we'll apply serious penalties."

The carriers then responded, "I notice that there is no requirement that we allow any device that can make emergency calls. So we will only allow devices we also sell (and maybe a few other models, if they're popular enough that we can't get away with not allowing them). And if that means more people than necessary will have to buy new phones, we will happily sell them new phones."

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Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by oneshtein on Sunday October 12, 2025 @01:12AM (#45555436)
A phone company cannot test every phone in the world to block or whitelist it.
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Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by chillfox on Sunday October 12, 2025 @04:47AM (#45556540)
Pretty sure they have more than enough money to do that if it was a requirement.
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Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by jojobas on Sunday October 12, 2025 @07:44AM (#45557471)
They could have made a fake emergency number and say "dial this number by Day X or we'll blacklist your IMEI". They didn't do that.
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Re:Google blocks Android hack that let Pixel users enable Vo... by ThePowerOfFuet on Sunday October 12, 2025 @01:23PM (#45559975)
This is what type approval is for.
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