Hundreds of phones won’t work on Rogers’ network without 3G

Rogers is on the verge of shutting down its 3G network for most users, and so far, there have been a myriad of problems.

Many people report getting stuck with a $75 charge after not knowing about the shutdown. Others have had their service suspended. Alongside that, hundreds of phones from manufacturers that Rogers doesn’t sell, like OnePlus, Sony, Asus and others, reportedly won’t work once the 3G service shuts down on July 31. It appears that even some standard phones, like Samsung from foreign countries, may also have problems.

We discovered that OnePlus phones would have issues with the 3G shutdown, but we didn’t anticipate there would be so many other phones that also lost support. At the moment, it’s hard to clarify which phones will work. OnePlus has told us that updates are currently rolling out for its newer phones (OnePlus 10 and newer) to provide voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) support, which should address issues with those devices working on Rogers’ post-3G network. That said, if you are a Rogers subscriber with a modern OnePlus phone who still can’t get on the network after updating, feel free to contact me at bradley@mobilesyrup.com.

Rogers has a website that will let you find out if your phone will work on its network after the 3G shutdown, but for many models, it just says “We couldn’t locate your device. We’re unable to certify that your device is compatible with the Rogers network.” When you search some phones, it clearly states that they’re incompatible, but from what has been gathered by a user on Reddit, and posted as a spreadsheet, it seems like most of the devices that Rogers has never sold are listed as “We couldn’t locate your device.”

Every Asus, OnePlus, Sony, Nubia & Xiaomi Phone that Rogers Canada deems to be “Compatible” & “Not Compatible” post 3G Shutdown (31 July 2025)
byu/JamesDwho inRogers

This spreadsheet comes from someone who lived in Australia when the country’s telecoms shut down their 3G networks. Since they’ve already experienced a similar situation, they’ve shared a large number of resources about how to deal with this problem. This spreadsheet has also been recently updated to show phone compatibility on Telus and Rogers. Telus seems to offer a little more compatibility, but neither seems to offer anything near ubiquitous support.

Why is 4G LTE support suddenly such a big deal?

When the 3G network shuts down in a couple of weeks, Rogers (Rogers, Fido, Chatr) subscribers must use VoLTE to make cell phone calls. This tech was launched in 2012 and lets you make higher-quality phone calls over the LTE network instead of 3G. Rogers launched support for VoLTE in 2015, and since then, most phones have moved over to the high-quality standard. However, there can be roadblocks with how support for VoLTE is authenticated at each carrier, or on each phone, which seems to be the core issue with the 3G network shutdown.

With 3G, there was one standard for calling, so every device needed to support that one standard to work. But it’s not that simple with VoLTE. There are some standards, but since there is more than one, there’s nothing that all the carriers and all the phone makers agree on.

This Reddit post from a few years ago and the presentation embedded above are handy resources if you want to explore the nitty-gritty of VoLTE roaming issues.

How can this be fixed?

Online comments show that switching to Bell (Bell, Virgin Plus, Lucky) or Telus (Telus, Koodo, Public) has fixed the issue for some users, but since both of those carriers are still supporting 3G for a bit longer, it might just be a temporary fix.

Rogers also told us that “Customers can migrate to our 4G LTE or 5G network without changing their plan, and we’re offering them a new, compatible device for $0 if needed.”

If you feel particularly tech-savvy, you can find guides online in forums or blogs teaching you how to use things like the dev settings and phone dialer codes like *#*#3642623344#*#* to force VoLTE support on your phone and with your carrier. However, even if you manage to get VoLTE working, there’s no guarantee it’ll work for everything. For example, not all VoLTE-capable devices can make emergency calls, such as 911, over 4G.

All of that said, this really should have been fixed well before Rogers started its 3G shutdown by having government bodies around the world mandate some kind of universal calling program for 4G and 5G. While people missing standard calls is annoying, not having access to 911 is very dangerous.