Not wrong, but if boost mobile will support it when most of their network is reliant on AT&T’s infrastructure, makes me think it has little to do with the hardware in the towers.
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iOS 26.3 Adds Privacy Setting to Limit Carrier Location Tracking
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macaddiict
macrumors 6502
Wireless networks are way more complicated than a home WiFi setup. I've worked on towers from TDMA (pre-data) to GSM to the more recent stuff.
Ever wonder why Verizon's postpaid network users lost access earlier this month, but Verizon's own Visible on the same network had no issues on the same "hardware in the towers"? Because there's something referred to as the "core" and it is usually a patchwork of new and 20+ years old technology and often has been owned by multiple parent companies and set up with a myriad of configs. Literally the ringtones on Verizon sound different when you call different subscriber numbers or have special ringtones if the line is being used, because the network hardware is so varied that as VZW bought up little regional carriers the network tech became a mismatch of vendors and configs and you can't even get those features on other Verizon lines. I'd bet Visible didn't go down alongside postpaid Verizon recently because it's network core did not have to deal with whatever edge case took down the patchwork postpaid core.
Boost Mobile has a "cloud based" (Amazon-hosted, supposedly) network core, with centralized API-like access to roll out new software based features.
This is a new approach vs. the way the big 3 have done things. Boost Mobile (pre 2024) was just an MVNO using other networks, like tracfone. Now, Boost Mobile has its own infrastructure and is not just a wireless calling card service using another network's tech stack.
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Where is this option supposed to be? The article says "Settings app, tapping on your cellular service, tapping on Mobile Data Options, and then toggling on Limit Precise Location." - but after I select either of my 2 cellular services under "SIMs", there is no "Mobile Data Options" category. Neither of my 2 services is on the list of approved networks, but I thought I'd at least see the option, disabled. I am running the latest 26.3 beta on an iPhone Air.
tennisproha
macrumors 68020
TJFDenver
macrumors regular
US Mobile is a virtual cell provider - i.e. they don't have their own cell towers and just lease capacity from real ones. So your question doesn't really makes sense: you should be asking if the real network operators US Mobile is using (e.g. Verizon and T-Mobile) will be able to support this feature.
The article suggests that the feature must be opted into, but I just applied the software update to 26.3 on my iPhone Air, using EE in the UK, and when I looked the "Limit Precise Location" toggle was on by default.
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