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I am testing the BG95-M3 with its corresponding evaluation board.

I live in Spain and I am using a Vodafone SIM card. I am able to connect to the GSM network with the default settings just by specifying the APN, user and password. Also I can connect to my server and send/receive data without problems.

My issue is that I am not able to connect to the LTE network. According to the default priority settings, the modem should connect to the LTE network if available but the problem is that it’s not even detecting that network. I get the following list by scanning the current networks:

AT+COPS=? +COPS: (1,“214 03”,“214 03”,“21403”,8),(1,“214 07”,“214 07”,“21407”,0),(1,“214 01”,“214 01”,“21401”,0),(1,“214 03”,“214 03”,“21403”,0),(0,1,2,3,4),(0,1,2)

As you can check, the only LTE network the modem can see is the one from “Orange” (214-03) but it can only see GSM networks for “Vodafone” (214-01) and “Movistar” (214-07).

(Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Codes_in_ITU_region_2xx_(Europe)#Spain_–_ES)

I have 2 iPhones with “Movistar” and “Vodafone” SIM cards, both connected through 4G so I am sure these networks are available. Why these ones are not detected by the modem?

Thank you for your help.

rocotocloc
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2 Answers2

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According to this website Orange, Movistar and Vodafone are using bands B3 and B7 in spain. The BG95-M3 does not support band B7 (source), but some iPhones are supporting band B7.

So maybe your iPhones connect via B7 which can not be used with the BG95-M3, you should be able to check this using the iPhones "Field test mode" dial (asterisk)3001#12345#(asterisk) to enter it.

MiSimon
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  • I just talked to my supplier and the problem is that this is a LPWA module that supports only LTE-M1 and NB2 networks, but not the rest of faster LTE networks. I'll check if it's worth it to use another different and more powerful module with support for these networks. Anyway thank you for pointing me in the right direction, I must wait 24 hours for the bounty but remind me if I forget. – rocotocloc Nov 16 '20 at 15:46
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BG95 is supporting LTE-CAT-M1 networks, not LTE (4G), so maybe you should ask vodafone in Spain about LTE Cat-M

I tested BG600L-M3 for LTE-Cat-M1, it is working only in some areas, and the first regestering to the netowrk take a while (1-2 minutes) to make sure of right AT commands look to AT+QCFG commands

Have a nice day.

Hasan-HTP
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