3G/HSPA/LTE Modems

[Reelix]

You are in UMTS2100 area, so firmware flashing shouild not matter.

Supporting UMTS 2100:

40416 does
40766 does
23233 does not

You seem'd to know from the ID that his area supported it - Mind explaining how?

- Edit -

Max DL speed of about 25kb/s, and all international pages time out about 40% of the time before the first refresh

 

[ginggs]

You seem'd to know from the ID that his area supported it - Mind explaining?

From the last digit of the cell ID. Cell-C seem to be using 1, 2 and 3 for the 900MHz sectors and 4, 5 and 6 for the 2100MHz sectors.
See here.

 

[Reelix]

From the last digit of the cell ID. Cell-C seem to be using 1, 2 and 3 for the 900MHz sectors and 4, 5 and 6 for the 2100MHz sectors.

Aaah, awesome - Thanks

Don't suppose you have a map of where each tower is? The simple 3G map is useless for this purpose, since you don't know which band the 3G is on

Possibly a list of all the 2100MHz 3G Towers?

 

[veggie_mane]

I see the Vodafone K3765 on the list in the first post, but it is not on the Cell C website list of compatible modems.

Does this modem definitely work? Looking at buying one off gumtree..

EDIT : The Cell C website does actually list it but only the ZTE version. Does the Huawei one work as well?

 

[ginggs]

I see the Vodafone K3765 on the list in the first post, but it is not on the Cell C website list of compatible modems.

Does this modem definitely work? Looking at buying one off gumtree..

EDIT : The Cell C website does actually list it but only the ZTE version. Does the Huawei one work as well?

Yes.

I've just tested a Vodafone K3765-HV (Huawei) and it works fine on Cell-C's UMTS 900 network.
It seems to be an updated version of the E160, its reported hardware version is CD25TCPV while the E160 and K3565 hardware versions are both CD25TCPU.

 

[veggie_mane]

thanks alot!

 

[AirWolf]

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.

Good to know.

Though from their tv adverts, you'd think they wouldn't touch 2100MHz with a barge pole.

 

[Prevashin]

will the sierra wireless usb 307 work?

 

[Jola]

will the sierra wireless usb 307 work?

I found that the 307 only works reliably with a very strong signal.

But it does work with Cell C on 900 MHz UMTS.

 

[James Sneedon]

Okay, I see that my E220 and E172 modems no longer give me the higher speed in the same areas that they worked for about 3 weeks and both have now fallen back to EDGE speeds... it is almost as if Cell C switched towers on supporting 2100 and have now switched them off again as I have fallen back on my ZTE K4505-Z modem that supports 900 to get any speed in these same areas... what is going on? Maybe somebody from Cell C can give us an answer as to why 2100 support comes and goes in some areas?

 

[James Sneedon]

Spoke too soon... Just put the sim back into my E172 in Rosebank and it is flying again showing HSPA connection... I guess the 2100 is back again in this area...

 

[Jola]

OK, I have now managed to get a K4605, and it is indeed fast. And the antenna connection definitely works, it makes an immediate difference.

I am using it on Cell C, with MDMA. However, MDMA cannot detect the device name properly, nor the Signal Strength. Ginggs ???

Also, the TP-Link MR3420 does not work.

I have tried to flash the unit to an E372, but the E372 firmware install on the MTN site will not complete.

Any ideas ?

Edit : Now for something interesting. I connected the K4605 to my ancient Huawei D100T 3G router - interestingly, it does work, but only slowly, even with an amber light on the modem - clearly there is some incompatibility !

 

[ajax]

You're going to have to do add the modem yourself.

 

[ginggs]

I am using it on Cell C, with MDMA. However, MDMA cannot detect the device name properly, nor the Signal Strength. Ginggs ???

Are you using 1.0.0.31 Beta?

Also, the TP-Link MR3420 does not work.

Speak to Uniterm support, and there's a procedure to create a custom .bin file for your modem.

 

[Jola]

You're going to have to do add the modem yourself.

I spent a few hours trying that, it doesn't work - I get an error when I tell it to create the BIN file.

 

[Jola]

Are you using 1.0.0.31 Beta?

No, I will try that.

Speak to Uniterm support, and there's a procedure to create a custom .bin file for your modem.

Doesn't work, software bugs.

 

[Jola]

OK, the Beta more or less works, so I am using the K4605 with Cell C on a PC.

However, I still want to use the modem with a TL MR3420 modem, and there is no K4605 support.

So I want to convert the K4605 to an Huawei E372, apparently they are firmware compatible.

But the E372 firmware that I have requires an update wizard password in order to complete the flash procedure.

Any ideas of where I could get that ?

 

[ginggs]

Doesn't work, software bugs.

Have you tried emailing support@dbg.co.za ?

 

[Jola]

Have you tried emailing support@dbg.co.za ?

Yes, doesn't look as if that will go anywhere. Will try to contact TP-Link directly.

 

[1geoff99]

Huawei E353

Does anyone have experience with the Huawei E353 modem?

Does it work on both 900 MHz and 2100 MHz WCDMA bands?

Does it have a properly functioning external antenna connector?

Does it work with the TP-Link MR3420?