An old phone can still work in 2026, but age alone does not determine whether a carrier will activate it. A hand-me-down smartphone from several years ago may work perfectly, while an older 4G phone can fail because it lacks the right voice support or carrier compatibility.

Four checks matter most: the phone needs current network support, VoLTE, a compatible IMEI result, and an unlocked status. Software support matters too, especially if you’ll still use the phone for apps, payments, email, or other sensitive tasks.

T-Mobile’s current BYOD guidance recommends checking the IMEI, the phone’s unique device identifier, and unlock status before activation. Its compatibility tool can return fully compatible, partially compatible, incompatible, or blocked.

2G and 3G phones are effectively out

The major US networks have moved beyond the technologies many older phones were built around.

T-Mobile’s Network Evolution page says its 2G GSM network was retired on August 3, 2026. Its 3G UMTS network was retired in July 2022, following the shutdowns of Sprint’s 3G CDMA and LTE networks earlier that year.

AT&T phased out 3G in February 2022. Verizon completed the retirement of its 3G CDMA network at the end of 2022 and says 4G devices without VoLTE also lost calling, texting, and data service.

That means a 2G- or 3G-only phone is no longer a practical option on the major US networks. A 4G label alone is not enough either. The phone still needs VoLTE and carrier support.

Run these four checks before activating an old phone

Network support depends on the exact model. Phones sold for different carriers or countries can support different frequency bands, so an imported phone may connect to LTE while still missing bands needed for reliable US coverage.

VoLTE, or Voice over LTE, is just as important. A phone can support LTE data without supporting the carrier’s LTE voice service. Verizon’s shutdown guidance specifically says 4G non-VoLTE devices are no longer supported.

Run the IMEI through the destination carrier’s compatibility checker rather than relying only on the specifications. A fully compatible result is the safest sign that activation should work, while a partial or incompatible result deserves a closer look before buying a SIM or switching service.

The phone also needs to be unlocked if it is moving to another carrier. Unlock requirements vary, but carriers commonly require eligible devices to be paid off and in good standing.

Software longevity belongs in the decision too. Recent Samsung and Google phones now receive much longer software support windows, while older models may already have stopped receiving security updates.

A new SIM cannot fix an incompatible phone

Once the phone passes those checks, activation itself is usually straightforward.

A compatible device can use either a physical SIM or eSIM if the phone and carrier support it. Changing the SIM type cannot add missing LTE bands, VoLTE support, or carrier approval.

T-Mobile says many smartphones released since 2020 support eSIM, although availability varies by model and region. With eSIM, activation can often complete within minutes.

After activation, test voice calls, texts, and mobile data. If data or MMS does not work, check the APN settings. Some older and imported devices may require manual configuration.

If you’re transferring an existing phone number, keep the old service active until the port finishes. T-Mobile says number transfers can take from a few minutes to several hours.

A phone can connect and still be too old to use safely

Carrier compatibility is only one part of keeping an old phone useful.

Older devices may no longer receive security patches or current app versions. More than a billion older Android devices were estimated to be outside Google’s current security-update coverage earlier this year, making unsupported Android phones a separate concern from whether they can connect to a cellular network.

Apps can impose their own cutoffs too. WhatsApp, for example, is ending Android 5 support in September 2026.

Before putting an old phone back into regular use, check whether it still receives security updates and whether the apps you rely on still support its operating system.

If the phone supports the carrier’s LTE bands and VoLTE, passes the IMEI check, is unlocked when necessary, and still receives acceptable software support, it can remain perfectly usable in 2026. If one of those checks fails, a new SIM is unlikely to rescue it.

Also read: If replacement is unavoidable, our guide to the most repairable phones in 2026 compares current models by repairability, parts access, and software support.

A supposed expert institute publishing academic-looking research was actually part of a covert influence operation supported by ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.

The company said Tuesday it banned a cluster of accounts originating in Russia that were used to promote the International Burke Institute, a self-described Israel-based expert community. OpenAI’s investigation uncovered copied academic research, misleading author attributions and a “sovereignty index” that portrayed Russia favorably while criticizing Western governments.

The operation shows how generative AI can support more than mass-produced social posts. It can also help operators build the surrounding infrastructure — research, branding and coordinated accounts — needed to make an influence campaign look more legitimate.

A fake institution with real-looking research

The operation centered on the International Burke Institute, whose website was registered in February 2025 and presented itself as an Israel-based “expert community.”

OpenAI reviewed 36 articles published on the site between September 2025 and May 2026 and found that 34 appeared to have been copied from elsewhere, sometimes with incorrect authors. One article on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, for example, appeared to originate from Cambridge University Press but was attributed to a different academic.

The site also claimed connections to prominent figures including Francis Fukuyama and Noam Chomsky, according to OpenAI.

The institute’s most distinctive feature was its “sovereignty index,” which rated countries across political, economic, technological, information, cultural, cognitive and military measures. OpenAI said the index was used to praise Russia and attack Western governments.

Must-read security coverage

AI was the amplifier, not the whole operation

The ChatGPT accounts generated promotional posts and replies designed to push people toward IBI content. One operator also produced German-language material for a Telegram channel called “Lahme Ente,” which criticized Ukraine, the EU and Germany while advocating closer relations with Russia.

Another created logos for about a dozen Telegram channels focused on countries including Germany, the U.S., France, Poland and Türkiye and used ChatGPT to summarize their activity in Russian.

OpenAI said the campaign’s immediate reach was modest. Most posts received few views, while the associated Telegram channels generally had 10,000 to 20,000 followers each.

That limited reach does not make the operation insignificant. The more important development is the way AI was used as one component of a larger credibility-building system. OpenAI said, “The significance of the operation lies less in the audience it reached, however, than in the infrastructure it had built.”

That distinction matters for platforms, businesses and consumers. Generating a convincing post is increasingly easy; building an apparently independent institution around that content could also make coordinated messaging look more credible and therefore harder for users to recognize as part of an influence operation.

OpenAI said activity involving ChatGPT also gave investigators signals that helped connect parts of the wider campaign. That creates an unusual dynamic for influence operators: the same AI tools that make coordinated activity easier to scale can also leave patterns that platforms can use to uncover it.

More news: Microsoft Teams is rolling out a new policy that lets IT administrators automatically block detected external meeting bots, giving organizations more control over third-party AI assistants in sensitive calls.

Fashion startup Atorie announced Thursday a $9.5 million seed round with investors, including a16z speedrun, Night Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew.

Shoppers can visit the Atorie website and buy handbags or clothes made from the same material — and coming from the same factory — that manufacturers use in high-end goods. The items are reasonably priced, too, with an Italian leather handbag costing just a few hundred, compared to the thousands a brand like Prada or Louis Vuitton would sell it for.

The startup arrives at a time when dupe culture has become increasingly popular, while the luxury sector has faced backlash from consumers in the post-pandemic era due to swift price hikes. 

As a result, young consumers especially have sought cheaper, near-identical replications of these high-end goods; doing so has become almost a status symbol itself. 

On Atorie, the items sold are mostly not dupes, says co-founder and serial entrepreneur Redouane Ramdani.

“It’s the same material, same craftsmanship,” he said. “It’s coming from the same factories.” He doesn’t consider Atorie fast fashion either. “It’s slow,” he clarified.

Before Atorie, Ramdani built the creator platform Snipfeed, which was acquired in 2024. Having grown up in France with a family that worked in luxury manufacturing, the founder always had an idea in the back of his mind that he would one day do something in the industry he grew up loving as a kid.

By the time he sold Snipfeed, however, the luxury manufacturing industry was quite different. 

The biggest shift he noticed was that luxury factories were no longer just manufacturing goods. Traditionally, a brand like Ralph Lauren would bring its own designs and materials to a factory, which would then produce them. The problem was that brands had to commit to large minimum orders, which often pushed them to overproduce inventory. At the same time, a lot of these factories depend on working with a small number of large brand customers. If a brand pulled out at the last minute or not enough of that overproduced inventory sold, the factories faced financial and inventory risk. 

“What’s changing is that the best factories increasingly have their own design and product-development capabilities,” Ramdani told TechCrunch. “Instead of simply manufacturing someone else’s designs, they can develop products themselves, adapt them quickly, and produce in smaller batches.”

AI also helps these factories by pulling data that helps them identify which products are likely to sell out before committing to large production runs. 

“That reduces overproduction and allows factories to diversify beyond a handful of large customers,” he said.

These changes also gave Ramdani an idea, leading him to team up with Luis Angulo to launch the startup, which is now an AI-powered fashion brand that connects luxury manufacturers directly with consumers. 

He compared his company’s approach to the retailer Quince, which is known for selling high-quality, low-priced items.

“We are talking to a different generation who is coming back for things that are trendy but well-made,” he continued, adding that consumers are getting tired of pure fast fashion, especially because of the harmful impact it’s having on the environment.

AI, of course, is used. Ramdani sees AI agents changing the entire shopping experience, where, in the future, people just instruct AI agents to buy things for them.

Ramdani said the company uses AI to analyze fashion trends and test what colors might look good on a product. It also uses AI agents to estimate consumer demand and trains the agents to predict when a material might start running short so factories can stock up in time.

On the consumer side, the Atorie website offers an AI agent that can build an outfit based on whatever — or whoever — inspires the customer. Over time, Atorie uses AI to learn shoppers’ habits to suggest what to buy next. 

Ramdani said Atorie is already seeing an increase in sale referrals from platforms like ChatGPT and Claude. 

The company said its goal is to become an alternative to Zara and offer something “very high quality for a price point that’s very affordable.” The company ended last year with around $5 million in sales and is expected to reach an annualized run rate north of $55 million this year.

“We are growing super fast,” Ramdani said, adding that the team is working with over 40 factories across the world right now. 

The fresh capital will fund logistics, build more AI tools, and support production. The company also plans to release its own in-house line, like Amazon Essentials, and will work with creators and influencers to help them launch their own clothing lines quickly.