Hi,
I’m looking for LTE modem that has voice capability e.g. to the telecom it appears as if the sim card is plugged into a phone.
Why? Because my telco has all sorts of crazy limitations for extra-sim and tethering.
I can share my mobile data by using the mobile’s hotspot, but the coverage is poor and without proper modem & antenna I get very low bandwidth.
I’m open also to use smartphone with LTE that can use external antenna and can be told to isolate certain bands, but I doubt such phone exists.
How each LTE carrier enforces there policies isn’t universal – some use the modem/phone’s IMEI, which is essentially like a unique id for the modem/phone itself. So I’m afraid this “emulate a phone” approach may not be the best. In the US, the carrier generally allow you use a SIM in another device (assuming it has the right LTE bands to connect), but they still know it is not the device the account is associated with… So if even something works today, if the plan’s T&C don’t allow something, a carrier may decide later to enforce any terms/restrictions and cutoff/change/charge your service.
Basically you may have to try a few things if your carrier doesn’t have better hotspot plans… I’d recommend finding the APN from your phone, and use the SIM in a LTE device (e.g. one of Mikrotik LTE routers) and see what it does first… I don’t use T-Mobile, but there is configuration “hack” to lower the TTL to avoid a carrier’s “tethering detection” - no idea what your carrier but something to try. See “Avoiding tethering speed throttling” in https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/LTE
My sim isn’t locked to any phone. I can use it in the modem for data without problems. I have official sim “clone” (service by the telco) which I want to use for voice only, but when the master sim isn’t in voice device some features (like ringing) are disabled. It’s quite messy in terms of supported scenarios.
I know the TTL trick, thanks, but that’s not an issue in my case.
I’ve never done it, but on some of the modems you might be able to use “AT” commands to enable “phone support”. Obviously Mikrotik doesn’t wire up the need pins for audio, mic etc., but imagine all the GSM stuff still register like a phone – maybe that be enough. Most modem have this stuff disabled (and not all support GSM) – since you’d need hardware support to actually use it. But in your case, MAYBE, with a lot of work… e.g. finding a miniPCIe modem (like perhaps Sierra or older Telit), getting it work in a Mikrotik, then reading the AT manual for it to get it “register as a phone” using at-chat commands. But since you really aren’t sure what the carrier is looking for, that might be a dead end too.
To be honest, I can’t think of any maker of “hotspot” with external antennas, that exposes a “analog” phone jack from the cell network (and thus register also as phone).
yes, they are annoying on so many levels…but I’ve got no real choice as all employ the same tactics.
That’s hint in the right direction. Wiring the respective pins is not needed of course, I’d like to take the calls on the clone, this is what I’m paying for.
a) change IMEI to spoof other vendor
b) insert a SIM into normal phone and redirect all calls to your normal phone and you can use that sim at your router.
and you can use that sim at your router.