I have a location in rural New York that happens to have very good cell service provided by both AT&T and Verizon.
I see that MT has a whole line of very cool LTE/5G solutions, but I don’t see any confirmation they will work with American AT&T and/or Verizon service.
Does anyone know which models will work?
Do I need a sim card from one of those providers (or are they e-sim)?
Can I get one that supports LTE and 5G so that when the area has good 5G I’m all set?
Thank you!
List of LTE/5G products:
https://mikrotik.com/products/group/lte-5g-products
If you are located far away from a base station you probably need something like down below as well as a line of sight to the LTE cell tower to get a decent throughput:
https://mikrotik.com/product/lhg_lte18
https://mikrotik.com/product/atl18
https://mikrotik.com/product/lhgg_lte6_kit
https://mikrotik.com/product/lhg_lte_kit_us
https://mikrotik.com/product/lhg_lte6_kit
If you are reasonably close (ie less than 2 miles) to a 5G cell tower, check out any of these:
https://mikrotik.com/product/chateau_5g
https://mikrotik.com/product/chateau_5g_ax
https://mikrotik.com/product/chateaulte18_ax
https://mikrotik.com/product/chateau_lte6_us
Before purchasing anything, always check out with the network operator (AT&T/Verizon) if the bands available in your area are supported by the equipment. You also need a regular sim card as non of the equipment above supports esim.
Be very careful, when connecting Mikrotik to Verizon. They are very strict in their certification policy, which means, you need to make shure, that the Mikrotik equipment is certified from Verizon to be used on their mobile network.
See here: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/miktroik-and-verizon/164117/1
There is a cell tower 1/2 mile from the house.
I have no idea how to check with att or Verizon what bands are available.
Il pretty confident that calling their customer service will result in nothing but frustration.
Interesting point.
Can Mikrotik provide that info?
I support a large fleet of IoT devices, using Verizon. However, the fully certified routers and modems are not Mikrotik. But also from the Baltic states 
They should. But you can look online on Verizons pages, for certified devices, not being org Verizon products.
Regarding the Verizon IMEI certification policy,
First check out and try to register the IMEI online using www.verizon.com/articles/prepaid-and-cpo/what-to-know-when-buying-a-used-phone/
If that doesn’t work it might be possible to solve by copying the IMEI code from an old but approved Veroson cell, 4g router or similar device to the Mikrotik router.
Otherwise, just skip Verizon and go for At&t.
Very interesting.
I can pick up an oñd Verizon jetpack for $20 just to use the IMEI.
Will it work to register the account using one piece of hardware and then change hardware using the original sim? Verizon doesn’t manage the IMEI in use?
I am still stuck with confirming which bands are available.
Yes but they can’t be used online simultaneously.
Just call support and ask what LTE/5G bands are available in your area.
All correct re Verizon, see http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/miktroik-and-verizon/164117/1 You don’t have to swap IMEI on modem, but you do need a IMEI from CERTIFIED device to activate (that isn’t already active). Even an AT&T phone may work for Verizon to get a SIM car, since some manufactures don’t know what carrier may use there phones/hotspots they submit them to Verizon anyway.
AT&T will work fine with Mikrotik device, technically they require ODIS+LwM2M support, just not very draconian yet when activating a device & Mikrotik IMEI have generally worked for AT&T. But be aware that Quectel in the US models don’t support all of the carrier aggregation modes available.
Personally, I use the Telit LM960s in Mikrotik’s -R models instead – doesn’t help with Verizon (although the Telit 960s are certified by Verizon, just the device isn’t) – but the Telit’s supports all of AT&T’s CA modes and Mikrotik provides all the RSRP/etc and CA mode stats on the Telit modem, so they work pretty well. Only downside is they are expensive.
Take a look at cellmapper.net to see what cell towers are around you for the operator, bands & bandwidths that are supported. This is crowd sourced data so there are no guarantees your local tower will be there.
Then look at the path profile / surface elevation from your location to the tower using a tool such as the one here: https://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-elevationtool.html
I realise you’re close to a tower so you may not need to check the path if you can already see the tower but this might be helpful to others who find this thread.
I use a Quectel RM502Q-AE LTE / 5G modem although currently just for LTE in a MikroTik RBM33G RouterBoard. I believe versions of this modem are used in the Mikrotik Chateau and other products.
I’m short of time now but will look for the another surface elevation tool I’ve seen and a MikroTik table I’ve seen showing the different modem options tomorrow.
(I’m in the UK.)
Thanks again very much guys.
As per cellmapper, these are the cells on the very close:
MCC / MNC / Region 311 / 480 / 18957
Bands 4, 13Cell Identifier 19045132
System Subtype LTE
PCI 12 (4/0)
EARFCN 2325
Maximum Signal (RSRP) -84 dBm
Direction NW (309°)
First Seen Wed, Jul 29, 2020
Last Seen Sat, Aug 1, 2020
Uplink Frequency 1747.5 MHz
Downlink Frequency 2147.5 MHz
Frequency Band AWS-1 (B4 FDD)Cell Identifier 19045121
System Subtype LTE-A
PCI 12 (4/0)
Bandwidth 20 MHz
EARFCN 5230
Maximum Signal (RSRP) -79 dBm
Direction W (283°)
First Seen Mon, Apr 13, 2020
Last Seen Mon, Sep 19, 2022
Bandwidth* 10 MHz
Uplink Frequency 782 MHz
Downlink Frequency 751 MHz
Frequency Band Upper SMH block C (B13 FDD)
Is there a good chance that one of the MT devices will work with this Verizon service if I activate with an IMEI from another (decomissioned) Verizon device?
It should work. The key to have a working Verizon SIM, in the right form factor (2FF full-size vs 3FF micro). Most Verizon resellers would generally let you exchange a SIM card size if needed. On any of the Mikrotik LTE devices, you should just need to the APN profile to “vzwinternet” on the Mikrotik side for the LTE interface. Only other thing about Verizon is they drop the connection if traffic goes to the LTE interface that doesn’t match the assigned IP, so the firewall needs to block “invalid” packets to LTE (which the default firewall does automatically).
I wrote a post of the US bands vs Mikrotik modems a while back, perhaps now incomplete but may help still:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/where-does-one-buy-the-sim-cards/156377/1
If you set on Verizon, you can also check out visible.com - which is owned by Verizon . But you can use the visible site to check a IMEI online, since they use the same database of “real” Verizon.
And if you use Mikrotik’s built-in modems (which are Quectels), your stuck (AFAIK) with the https://mikrotik.com/product/chateau_lte6_us which supports Band 13 and Band 4.
Will the SXT LTE6 kit-US work?
I’d prefer an outdoor unit with directional antenna.
Thanks
It depends on what speed you are looking for. If you are okay with approx 150-200 Mbps downstream and 35-40 Mbps upstream, it will probably do. However, since you live that close to the cell tower you might get 3-4 times more using another model if 5G is supported in your area.
I certainly could be missing it on the website, but I don’t see a 5G model that is outdoor and uses Verizon’s bands.
There isn’t one, SXT LTE6-US and Chateau LTE6-US. Both are “Category 6” and 2x2 MIMO. I’d say 150-200 Mb/s down seems awful high expectation in most US markets for them, regardless of AT&T or Verizon.
Since even the US models aren’t certified for Verizon, and if I’d recommend the wAPacR and putting in your own modem if maximizing speed - still have to do same IMEI “trick”. I can’t commend on the SXT-LTE6-US, but the Chateau LTE6-US does work, but it just doesn’t have 4x4 MIMO. Of there devices, the wAPacR are good one - they allow you to wire up an extranal antenna. But putting together a wAPacR with 3rd party modem & pigtails+antenna is more work however.
Alternatively, you get a Verizon 5G hotspot with external antennas that go outside, and then use an Mikrotik with USB like the hAPax3 to get the same 5G+outside+Band13 outcome too.
There is no standard “US-config”, it’s like claiming you won’t be able to get a decent throughput if you’re located within the EU.
It all depends on stuff like how close you are to the cell tower, possible line of sight to use upper bands, if the base station is utilizing a fiber attached backhaul, base station load eg concurrent connections (due to crowed areas), available bands, LTE category or 5G fronthaul and the ability to perform carrier aggregation and like, antenna sectors placements and coverage (ie layers as both vertical and horizontal displacements), etc, etc.
To get basic information before buying new equipment just call and ask support. It is also possible to retrieve some useful information using a normal smartphone:
https://www.weboost.com/blog/how-to-access-iphone-field-test-mode
https://www.ubersignal.com/field-test-mode
https://stelladoradus.com/blog/finding-my-mobile-frequency-on-my-iphone-or-android-phone-fieldtest-mode/
And BTW, bring a reasonably modern smartphone equipped with 5g and try to locate a spot somewhere close to home where you can see the cell tower. Then run a speed test to get an idea of what throughput you can expect with a fixed installation.
If you don’t have the ability to gather basic information about what your MNO has to offer in terms of LTE/5G, bands etc or lack the technical understanding to make a decision on what equipment is suitable, I’d buy it directly from any of the available network providers with a money-back guarantee if it doesn’t work according to your expectations.