New Boron LTE using 3rd Party SIM

Connectivity Cellular
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Continuing the discussion from Boron with 3rd Party SIM - How to set Particle SIM:

So, I just got a new Boron LTE for testing in light (or the lack of) from the 3G Sunset. Unfortunately, I was unable to claim/connect to the cloud using my Google Fi SIM. From the posts, I knew it could be tricky to get it working but after reading @rickkas7 post linked here, I was hopeful to make it work for tests.

As you can guess, no luck so far! Rickkas mentions that he was using Device OS 0.9.0 for his test, but unfortunately, I was unable to compile Device OS 0.9.0 (I keep getting some git error, I guess some references are missing?).

Have any of you been able to claim a Boron LTE using 3rd party SI (Running on T-Mobile(US) network) recently?

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There are two reasons you won’t be able the use T-Mobile in the United States with a 3rd-party SIM in the Boron LTE:

  • I’m pretty sure T-Mobile has only launched LTE NB-IoT (Cat NB1) in the United States, and the Boron LTE does not support NB1 (1), it only supports LTE Cat M1.
  • Even if you got it to work, it would eventually stop working because T-Mobile requires device certification to use their network. The manufacturer has to undergo certification and then register all device IMEIs with the carrier. Since Particle does not support T-Mobile or NB-IoT, we are not planning to do this at this time.

(1) Technically the SARA-R410M-02B does support LTE Cat NB1. However, because the lower data rate adversely affects OTA firmware flash and enabling NB1 causes difficulties connecting to some networks with this model of modem, we’ve disabled it in software. While you could turn it back on, it’s not supported, some features like OTA may not work on NB1 networks, and no compatibility testing is done on NB1, so it may not work in the future.

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Tnx for the fast reply Rickas!

That was my first guess when I looked at your post, being an old version of Device OS I thought supported was probably dropped along the way.

I do have a question regarding both technologies'. Normally the trade-off for speed in these cases is a better range. Is that the case for Cat NB1 and Cat M1? If so, why not support both?