3G/HSPA/LTE Modems

JohannesPaulsen

JohannesPaulsen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Messages
113
Generic 3G modems

Jola said:
OK, the seller insists that the modem is OK, however it performs very poorly.

My advice is to stay away from the Sierra Aircard 307, this is just junk that is being dumped onto our market.

You can buy better modems for R350 - so stay well away !!!
Click to expand...

I received my Aircard 307 yesterday (Friday afternoon), installed the latest dashboard (Aircard Watcher build 2849) and been online for nearly 18 hours and it works extremely well. Qualcomm is a very reputable chip maker. My signal strenght is about -75 dBm.
I still think your 307 is faulty. Did you try an external antenna? When I get 3 bars or less I also get disconnections on my E220/E230/Victory301 two of them/K3770. I have a MTN data contract (My wife), Vodacom MyMeg 600 (for my son), Vodacom 2GB+2GB (me) and 8ta 10GB promo 5 (my other son for online gaming). 8ta is by far the best. And my 307 is the best.
 
Jola

Jola

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
20,124
JohannesPaulsen said:


I received my Aircard 307 yesterday (Friday afternoon), installed the latest dashboard (Aircard Watcher build 2849) and been online for nearly 18 hours and it works extremely well. Qualcomm is a very reputable chip maker. My signal strenght is about -75 dBm.
I still think your 307 is faulty. Did you try an external antenna? When I get 3 bars or less I also get disconnections on my E220/E230/Victory301 two of them/K3770. I have a MTN data contract (My wife), Vodacom MyMeg 600 (for my son), Vodacom 2GB+2GB (me) and 8ta 10GB promo 5 (my other son for online gaming). 8ta is by far the best. And my 307 is the best.
Click to expand...

I sent it back to the seller, let's see what happens.

I did back to back comparisons with an E1820, and the E1820 beat the 307 hands down, no disconnections from the E1820.

But -75dBm is a very good signal, it could be that the Sierra 307 just cannot handle an average signal - mine is -89dBm - doesn't seem the bother the E1820, though.
 
Last edited:
JohannesPaulsen

JohannesPaulsen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Messages
113
Generic 3G modems

Jola said:
I sent it back to the seller, let's see what happens.

I did back to back comparisons with an E1820, and the E1820 beat the 307 hands down, no disconnections from the E1820.

But -75dBm is a very good signal, it could be that the Sierra 307 just cannot handle an average signal - mine is -89dBm - doesn't seem the bother the E1820, though.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I also had a E367 modem with a MTN 2GB promo, but cancelled that contract within 10 days (CPA) due to bad customer service. We get a 4 bar signal with MTN in our area and the E367 did not like that very much either. It consistantly was 30% slower than my Victory301 or my wife's E230 MTN dongle. The E367 is 21.6 Mbps and the Victory301/E230 are 7.2 Mbps. The MTN tower is also 7.2 Mbps. The E367 however does have an external antenna connector, but I did not try it out.
 
Jola

Jola

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
20,124
JohannesPaulsen said:
I forgot to mention that I also had a E367 modem with a MTN 2GB promo, but cancelled that contract within 10 days (CPA) due to bad customer service. We get a 4 bar signal with MTN in our area and the E367 did not like that very much either. It consistantly was 30% slower than my Victory301 or my wife's E230 MTN dongle. The E367 is 21.6 Mbps and the Victory301/E230 are 7.2 Mbps. The MTN tower is also 7.2 Mbps. The E367 however does have an external antenna connector, but I did not try it out.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will check out the E367. My brother-in-law has one that he got in an MTN promo, but he doesn't use it - maybe I can do a deal with him.
 
R

robertwj

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
272
H+900 Cell C Modem

Has anyone tried out the H+900?

What is the Speed & signal compared to the E1820?
 
R

Reelix

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
597
James Sneedon said:
I then had to do something quickly at home with the pc using the E220 and noticed that my data on a Vodacom SIM in this modem was used up and didn't feel like being raped by their out of bundle rates... (been burnt before) decided to just put my Cell-C SIM into this modem and live with slow speeds... much to my surprise the light went blue indicating WCDMA and then when I opened the internet it went light blue indicating HSPA.
Click to expand...

Waaait a minute...

Can someone please explain what he did?

I've already been told the E220 can NOT get 3G on CellC since it's not compatible with the network (My green light validating that point), and now this guy's saying its possible?

Can anyone kindly inform me how he managed to get this working, as his post isn't exactly concise (And I am unable to find his mentioned software)

Modem: Huawei E220
Firmware: 11.117.10.03.99
 
ginggs

ginggs

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Super Moderator
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
12,151
Reelix said:
Can someone please explain what he did?

I've already been told the E220 can NOT get 3G on CellC since it's not compatible with the network (My green light validating that point), and now this guy's saying its possible?
Click to expand...
Cell-C have recently been rolling out 3G on the 2100MHz band, see here.

If you are close to one of those towers you can establish a 3G connection if you have an older modem that doesn't support UMTS 900.
 
R

Reelix

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
597
ginggs said:
Cell-C have recently been rolling out 3G on the 2100MHz band, see here.

If you are close to one of those towers you can establish a 3G connection if you have an older modem that doesn't support UMTS 900.
Click to expand...

Aaah awesome! Thanks! :D

Is there a list anywhere showing which towers do, and which don't?

40416 does.
23233 does not
 
1geoff99

1geoff99

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2010
Messages
373
Jola said:
OK, the seller insists that the modem is OK, however it performs very poorly.

My advice is to stay away from the Sierra Aircard 307, this is just junk that is being dumped onto our market.

You can buy better modems for R350 - so stay well away !!!
Click to expand...

I've just bought a 3rd Sierra Aircard 307 for a client. I'm currently testing it in my TP-Link 3420 router. Been running for about 22 hours now without any disconnections. Current signal strength is about -85dBm (45%) and speeds are great.

I am using a Uniterm high gain antenna. It appears that my tower transmits on both 2100 MHz and 900 MHz. Signal strength is about 50% when I connect at 2100 MHz and over 90% when I connect at 900 MHz.

My requirement is for a cost-effective generic 21.6 Mbps modem that works on both 900 MHz and 2100 Mhz bands, has a proper external antenna connector and is compatible with the TP-Link routers. The Sierra Aircard 307 satisfies my requirements and is not 'junk'.
 
Last edited:
Jola

Jola

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
20,124
1geoff99 said:
I've just bought a 3rd Sierra Aircard 307 for a client. I'm currently testing it in my TP-Link 3420 router. Been running for about 22 hours now without any disconnections. Current signal strength is about -85dBm (45%) and speeds are great.

I am using a Uniterm high gain antenna. It appears that my tower transmits on both 2100 MHz and 900 MHz. Signal strength is about 50% when I connect at 2100 MHz and over 90% when I connect at 900 MHz.

My requirement is for a cost-effective generic 21.6 Mbps modem that works on both 900 MHz and 2100 Mhz bands, has a proper external antenna connector and is compatible with the TP-Link routers. The Sierra Aircard 307 satisfies my requirements and is not 'junk'.
Click to expand...

Well then we will have to agree to disagree.

I still think that the Sierra Aircard 307 is junk, and that with my 38% signal (UMTS 900MHz) it is not usable.

Under the same conditions the Huawei E1820 performs like a star.
 
P

porn$tar

Honorary Master
Joined
Jun 13, 2006
Messages
10,417
E220 flashed with firmware version 11.313.02.00.01 and MDMA dashboard. Getting speeds of 4mbps
 
ginggs

ginggs

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Super Moderator
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
12,151
sajunky said:
USSD broke, problem with with sending commands like *101#
Click to expand...
Yup, USSD responses that require further action from the user, e.g. menus like *147# , come back as junk. Even Huawei's own Mobile Partner software is unable to decode the responses. I'm sticking with the 11.117.10.02.00 firmware for the E220, it has the most features and no problems that I know of, see here.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top