Several months ago, Spectrum Mobile began allowing customers to bring their own phone to the network. The feature was secretly launched in beta, in select markets, and in-store only. However, a mistake on Spectrum Mobile's website temporarily advertised BYOD as being available to everyone online. The mistake was quickly corrected and all mentions of BYOD support were removed from the Spectrum Mobile website. What was learned in the leak was that only iPhone models were supported. Specifically, only the iPhone SE, iPhone 6S and all newer models were supported with the exceptions being the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.
Last week, BestMVNO noted that Spectrum Mobile was again advertising support for BYOD on the Spectrum Mobile website. This time, the Verizon MVNO made it clear that the feature is only offered in stores. Support was added for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.
Today, I'm happy to report that select Android devices are now supported for BYOD.
ATT Model, Sprint, T-Mobile And Verizon Compatible Models
Spectrum Mobile is advertising that the following devices are now compatible with its network.
- Samsung Galaxy S8
- Samsung Galaxy S8+
- Samsung Galaxy S9
- Samsung Galaxy S9+
- Samsung Galaxy Note 9
If you have any of the above-mentioned devices purchased from a carrier other than Verizon it will need to be unlocked before it can be brought to Spectrum Mobile.
At this time, carrier branded Samsung Galaxy S10 models are not compatible. However, if you have a model that is either a Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, or S10e that was sold unlocked by Samsung, it is supported.
A lack of support for bring your own Android device is something that Spectrum Mobile customers have been complaining about ever since their BYOD program was launched. This should satisfy at least some of the MVNOs potential customer base. Hopefully, full support for Android devices comes soon.
More About Spectrum Mobile
Spectrum Mobile only offers two wireless phone plans, a By-The-Gig plan and an unlimited plan. The By-The-Gig plan bills subscribers $14 for every GB of data that they consume. The unlimited plan comes with 20GB of high-speed data for $45/month. After the high-speed data allotment gets consumed, data speeds may slow down. The unlimited plan also comes with 5GB of mobile hotspot data at LTE data speeds before slowing down to a maximum speed of 600Kbps. Both plans include unlimited talk and text and require you to be a Spectrum Internet subscriber in order to be able to sign up for them. Taxes and fees are not included in the price and cost extra.