Community discussions

MikroTik App
 
ppetrovic
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2022 7:26 pm

North America 4G/LTE

Tue Feb 08, 2022 7:35 pm

Hi,

I came from Europe to America and having problems to figure out how mobile internet works here.
Have Chateau LTE12 that supports all the bands. Have AT&T, Verizon and Mint SIM cards but cant get service to work. Its always problem because carrier does not have Mikrotik IMEI in their database.

AT&T and Mint wont even connect to network and Verizon connects but there is no traffic.

Can somebody please recommend me working solution? Already spent a lot of money and nothing works.

Why is even Mikrotik sold here with US bands if none carrier supports it?

Thanks
Best regards
Petar
 
jaytcsd
Member
Member
Posts: 332
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:50 am
Location: Pittsboro IN
Contact:

Re: North America 4G/LTE

Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:51 am

Welcome to the USA.
I just bought a Verizon sim and found out they don't like the IMEI from my LTAP mini but a T mobile sim works.
I have a Verizon account and was hoping to use my LTAP to replace a 5 year old mifi that died. I paid about $20 for the T mobile sim and 2 gigs of data just to test the LTAP.

Just before I hit submit I decided to take the sim from my current Verizon mifi and test it in the LTAP, it's working fine.
I have a 174.xxx.xxx.xxx IP and about 2 meg down, winbox says I'm at -73 dBm on a 3G site.
 
User avatar
w32pamela
Member Candidate
Member Candidate
Posts: 212
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:22 pm

Re: North America 4G/LTE

Tue Mar 01, 2022 4:43 pm

I suspect that your problem with the Chateau LTE12 IMEI not being in the various US cell carriers databases is because your device does not have FCC certification. If you want to use your device in the North American market you would need to figure out how to replace the cell modem with one that has FCC certification. You probably use your Chateau with something like the Alcatel LinkKey - IK41UC. This is a very inexpensive USB modem for the North American market. It is basically plug and play in most Mikrotik devices. It is usually available new for under $30 on ebay.

@Petar - If your LtAP has an EU certified modem in it then no FCC certification may be the same problem you are experiencing since the IMEI runs with the modem not the Mikrotik router/ap.
 
User avatar
Amm0
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 3253
Joined: Sun May 01, 2016 7:12 pm
Location: California

Re: North America 4G/LTE

Tue Mar 01, 2022 6:14 pm

I can't speak the FCC certs, but likely not the issue. I think there are a couple of things going on first...

I'm in the US despite using a lot of Mikrotik's LTE devices, the Chateau LTE12 isn't one – it doesn't not have "all the bands" and in fact worse bands than the LTE6 for US. LTE12 supports:
1 (2100MHz) / 3 (1800MHz) / 5 (850MHz) / 7 (2600MHz) / 8 (900 MHz) / 20 (800MHz) / 28 (700MHz)



I think AT&T can be explained by the lack of Band 12, etc. AT&T says:
2 (1900 MHz) / 5 (850 MHz) / 12[17/29] (700 MHz) / 4[66] (1700 MHz /2100 MHz) / 30 (2300 MHz)

So no overlapping band support, no AT&T coverage.


Verizon different story. They "white list" IMEIs based on submissions from manufacturers of Verizon Certified Devices. Verizon has it's own certification beyond FCC, and if the IMEI isn't in there list of certified devices, there systems can't activate it. Now they don't check the IMEI when use "swap sim" – why Verizon works when you do that. Since Mikrotik did not complete the Verizon's Certification, they're not certified, and Verizon then doesn't activate them as a device. (And without Band 13 support, Verizon will NOT certify a device, so it's not just Mikrotik not paying/filling out paperwork)

But again even with Verizon, you'd run in a lack of band support. Verizon LTE supports:
2 (1900 Mhz), 4 (1700/2100 Mhz), 5 (850 Mhz), 13(700 Mhz), 66 (1700 Mhz)



AT&T and other generally allow any modem to connect or be activated. Although AT&T does have newer requirements for device to register their IMEI using lwm2m which the LTE12 probably doesn't do – but still imagine it connect without doing that.

Now if you have the R11e-LTE6 modem, the band support is slightly better actually for US but still missing a lot of bands for US.

But you need Band 5 support with Chateau LTE12 in US. https://cellmapper.net let's you lookup the bands supported in your area (not exact but you can compare the bands with that of the LTE12 bands).

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], lmeira, petardo and 32 guests