Usa cdma2000 / wcdma? gl-ar300m

Hello,

 

I have a Huawei E3372H that shows up in the UI under 3g modems as USB0. Really excited to use it with a battery pack as a openvpn mobile WiFi unit.

My question is, The only options whether I choose AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile etc. on the Gli 3g modem menu is WCDMA and CDMA2000. Does anyone know of any sim cards that work with these network standards in USA? West Coast?

 

I use VOIP only right now so I don’t have a sim to test. I don’t want to buy a sim that isn’t compatible. I also don’t want to buy a sim that is too slow.

 

I would appreciate advice from Anybody using their mini routers with a USB modem. Experience with certain providers etc. Is CDMA GSM compatible? Maybe I’m overthinking this.

 

thanks in advance. Really love the compatibility so far and ease of use uploading .ovpn files. Airvpn, IVPN, PIA and earthvpn all perform flawlessly

Way back tested Huawei USB sticks with my original AT&T sim cards. These were grandfathered 25 year old accounts with unlimited this and that. Got slammed by AT&T a couple of years ago and went to using T-Mobile sim cards. IE: always purchased unlocked cell phones here.

I have read that in Canada many most folks do not have any issues using Huawei modems with their telco providers.

The T-Mobile SIM cards work fine in my cell phones at 3G and 4G (LTE) speeds. Tested Huawei stick and all I got was 3 G speeds.

I am thinking most of the cell phone telco’s in the US want you to utilize only their sold hardware.

What works fine is the wireless only T-Mobile labeled unlocked ZTE mini modem. It is only a WLAN connection and the USB port on it doesn’t provide internet access. AND T-Mobile wants you to pay for an internet only device.

For my home internet/telephone/sms failover today using the old Ericcson W25 hard wired connected to my home telephone lines, PFSense firewall failover and use telnet/ssh for SMS on it using a T-Mobile SIM card. Works fine at 3G speeds. IE: voip lines failover over to it just fine. Kodi streaming is OK.

Just recently T-Mobile had disabled LTE WLAN sharing speeds and downgraded it to 3G speeds for wireless tethering on their network.

So relating to AT&T and T-Mobile I would go with T-Mobile and purchase one of their USB sticks (unlocked or a T-Mobile one).

T-Mobile is changing the rules though. AT&T is on my S-List today so will not try to do any business with them. I might even switch to DISH now that AT&T owns DirecTV. (IE: been a DirecTV subscriber since the beginning). Here primary internet ISP connectivity is Comcast. (AT&T is also there). Another home had Verizon FIOS and Comcast cable. I went to Verizon FIOS and it worked fine for me until Frontier took over. (what a joke that has been).

Hey Petey,

 

Thank you for your response. also, thanks for all of your posts on this forum I have learned a lot from your detailed responses. Very helpful. If I was the Owner of GLi you would be sponsored!

Anyway I would be stoked to get anything better than standard 2g speed especially since I’ll be behind TCP openvpn.

Man,If I could get unlimited 3g speed working I would scrap my current ISP and plug my Libreelec pi right into the AR300M. I even have a antenna extender that hooks into the huawei dongle for reception boost… That was my original plan but I just never got around to trying it.

I will check out T-Mobile. So it sounds like CDMA2000 and WCDMA (the only options listed when I click T-Mobile in the WAN settings UI) should work fine with a T-Mobile sim card? Just want to double check because it just doesn’t look like normal APN settings you would see on android for example.

 

thanks again Petey your guidance is appreciated so much

-xt

I will check out T-Mobile. So it sounds like CDMA2000 and WCDMA (the only options listed when I click T-Mobile in the WAN settings UI) should work fine with a T-Mobile sim card? Just want to double check because it just doesn’t look like normal APN settings you would see on android for example.

APN names are all the same. There are also non T-Mobile APN’s which I have tried locally. I see them when searching to connect here.

Here base firewall is PFSense with multiple interfaces. This allows for testing the LTE and 3G network. I have tested the T-Mobile network from two homes and filed formal complaints with T-Mobile about their willy nilly footprint. One location near the tower utilized by T-Mobile (not really that close) I get 16-20 Mbps LTE and around 4-6 Mbps 3G connectivity. I was going to mounting a directional Yagi antenna to see if I would get an improvement. IE: my ISP connection is around 100Mbps these days (ridiculously priced at around $70 a la carte pricing per month).

There are only two APN settings that I have tried as they are documented on the T-Mobile web site.

1 - <span style=“font-weight: bold; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;”>APN:</span> fast.t-mobile.com

2 - another generic one that is named.

The tower locations used to be a secret when you would ask. That said the towers have to be registered with the FCC and you can do a google search relating to licensing of use of said towers. I do have software on my old mobile phone (3G) which does triangulation of signal strength.

Another issue I see is that you have to keep tickling the 3G or LTE connection when tethering or using an LTE (wireless) or 3G modem.

I did do a quickie test while traveling to a hotel for weekend thing. I took a tabletop touchscreen which is a monitor for my home stuff and connected it via an IPSec VPN connection to home on the wireless T-Mobile tether. It stayed up just fine.

I would like to be able to test the newest combo Huawei that is sold in Canada. (It is an LTE modem with internet and phone connections). It works in Canada on the T-Mobile cellular service. These modems are less than $100 USD here from China.

BTW here utilize Kodi on Intel mini PC’s running Ubuntu 16.04 / 64 bit. Works much nicer than the RPi-2 or 3. Faster than the RPi is the Pine64 with 2Gb but the video sucks on it. Another small PC for Ubuntu Kodi I use is the Xi5A which you can now purchase for some $60. I have redone my RPi’s now as little slave automation machines. One does irrigation, another one does Z-Wave and 1-wire temperature stuff.