I recently bought the Nothing Phone 3a and I’ve run into a big challenge: carrier support in the U.S. I’ve been with Cricket for years, but the 3a isn’t compatible on their network because it isn’t on their whitelist. Based on my research, the phone itself is fully capable of running on their network — features like LTE and VoLTE would work — but activation is blocked. This issue also applies to other major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and Xfinity, while prepaid options like Metro and Boost do work.
Since the 3a is marketed as an affordable but high-performing alternative to expensive flagships, it would make a huge difference to expand compatibility with more carriers, especially widely used ones like AT&T and Cricket. These are the types of networks a lot of budget-conscious users rely on, and ensuring whitelist support would help Nothing grow adoption in the U.S. A potential solution would be working with these carriers to officially include the 3a and other Nothing devices on their whitelists, so customers can use the networks the hardware already supports.
