MiFi with Quectel EC25-E not working in Portugal

I tried with shipping firmware, beta 3 firmware ( from jan 29 2019 ) and it doesn’t connect to the internet. Tried two sim cards from different operators, one from Vodafone the other from NOS, both without pin code.

They both work perfectly on a tplink mr6400 with no manual setup needed. they simply work.
I tried two different mifi devices ( I ordered two from amazon for a project )

I also tried building my own build from openwrt master and no luck.

on the commandline, logread command allways gives me:
Mon Feb 4 22:09:08 2019 daemon.notice netifd: wwan0 (1347): Network registration failed
Mon Feb 4 22:09:08 2019 daemon.notice netifd: wwan0 (1691): Stopping network wwan0
Mon Feb 4 22:09:08 2019 daemon.notice netifd: wwan0 (1691): Command failed: Permission denied
Mon Feb 4 22:09:08 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘wwan0’ is now down

on the latest gl.inet build error is:

Tue Jan 29 11:57:43 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is now down
Tue Jan 29 11:57:43 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is setting up now
Tue Jan 29 11:57:46 2019 daemon.notice pppd[20971]: pppd 2.4.7 started by root, uid 0
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: abort on (BUSY)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: abort on (ERROR)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: report (CONNECT)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: timeout set to 10 seconds
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: send (AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”,“”^M)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: timeout set to 30 seconds
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: expect (OK)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”,“”^M^M
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: ERROR
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: – failed
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 local2.info chat[20999]: Failed (ERROR)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:47 2019 daemon.err pppd[20971]: Connect script failed
Tue Jan 29 11:57:48 2019 daemon.info pppd[20971]: Exit.
Tue Jan 29 11:57:48 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is now down
Tue Jan 29 11:57:48 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is setting up now
Tue Jan 29 11:57:51 2019 daemon.notice pppd[21172]: pppd 2.4.7 started by root, uid 0
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: abort on (BUSY)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: abort on (ERROR)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: report (CONNECT)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: timeout set to 10 seconds
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: send (AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”,“”^M)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: timeout set to 30 seconds
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: expect (OK)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”,“”^M^M
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: ERROR
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: – failed
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 local2.info chat[21215]: Failed (ERROR)
Tue Jan 29 11:57:52 2019 daemon.err pppd[21172]: Connect script failed
Tue Jan 29 11:57:53 2019 daemon.info pppd[21172]: Exit.
Tue Jan 29 11:57:54 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is now down
Tue Jan 29 11:57:54 2019 daemon.notice netifd: Interface ‘modem_1_1_2’ is setting up now
Tue Jan 29 11:57:56 2019 user.notice root: modem delay dial,120s

output of:
root@GL-MIFI:~# uqmi -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --network-scan
{
“network_info”: [
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 1,
“description”: “voda P”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 6,
“description”: “MEO”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 1,
“description”: “voda P”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“description”: “NOS”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“description”: “NOS”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 6,
“description”: “MEO”,
“status”: [
“available”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“description”: “NOS”,
“status”: [
“current_serving”,
“roaming”,
“not_forbidden”,
“not_preferred”
]
}
],
“radio_access_technology”: [
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 1,
“radio”: “gsm”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 6,
“radio”: “gsm”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 1,
“radio”: “umts”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“radio”: “lte”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“radio”: “gsm”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 6,
“radio”: “umts”
},
{
“mcc”: 268,
“mnc”: 3,
“radio”: “umts”
}
]

network is Voda P, meaning 268 1

uqmi -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --set-plmn --mcc 268 --mnc 1

does nothing. does not register with network.

uqmi -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --get-serving-system
{
“registration”: “searching”,
“plmn_mcc”: 268,
“plmn_mnc”: 3,
“plmn_description”: “”,
“roaming”: true
}

Dump questions:

Is the SIM card inserted in the correct direction? Conner should face outside.

SIM does not support hotplug and play. Did you power off mifi then power on again? Reboot from UI does not solve the problem.

if you read my post you will have an answer to the first question.

regarding the second question, yes, I powered off the mifi device every time I switched cards, actually every time I tried something new.

I read again but I don’t have the answer to my first question. Can you pls specify?

the card is inserted correctly.

you were right.
it wasn’t. thanks for your help

So now you can insert the card correctly and it connects?

Sorry, to jump in, but I have similar problem, also MIFI, EC25-E, German SIM, but org openwrt.
Which reports, that no SIM detected. ALthough it works in other device, also on EC25.
Just to confirm:
When facing the MIFI, cut corner of SIM to be on left side ?

Check the photo from me.