There’s a difference in bands covered and Broadmobi is a Chinese company while Gemalto is a Dutch(?) company. The Broadmobi modems are made in China and the Gemalto modems are made in Germany. Those are the main differences as far as I know, but for a more detailed discussion see
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When I preordered my phone, the tech specs of the preordered product were: “Gemalto PLS8 3G/4G modem w/ single SIM on replacable M.2 card”. There was no hint, that I have to pay a higher price later on. Can you clarify your statement, does it only apply to new orders?
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Even right now on the modem details page there’s no representation that the PLS8 will cost more. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to retroactively change this?
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My assumption here is that your pre-order was for the L5 as a consumer’s device, which in this case falls under Evergreen batch. They just gave this option for enthusiasts who are willing to deal with some shortcomings. It’s pretty much “take it or leave it”, until the phone is ready.
Now, If they fail to deliver on the specs for those who choose Evergreen, then we are dealing with false advertisement and all.
Though, it looks like another fail in communication on their part - while announcing shipments recently. I don’t know what’s up with that.
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Or it means two things:
- Gemalto Modem will be availible at later stages like Evergreen
- If you order after pre-ordering via regular buying and choose a modem, like you can currently choose things (e.g. ram) when ordering a librem 13 or librem 15, the price will be higher with the Gemalto modem
?
honestly I don’t agree to have the broadmobi modem.
For a long time it was known that the modem would be the gemalto and also in this topic https://forums.puri.sm/t/ambivalence-of-librem-5-being-made-in-china/4995 ed in questo topic https://forums.puri.sm/t/chosing-the-right-modem-pls8-vs-bm818/6530/7 after several days (June) Nicole Faerber says it will be the Gemalto.
I am a supporter of the gigantic work that society is doing and I could also understand that they ask me for another 50 euros for the modem because they had made a mistake in making the “estimate” (and in the laws of large numbers, if everyone wants the Gemalto, I can understand the economic difficulty of the company) but I would be really disappointed to have a Chinese and non-European modem, precisely because of the security problems involved.
Greetings.
P.S. https://www.avnet.com/shop/emea/products/gemalto-m2m/pls8-e-rel-40-3074457345634964930/?aka_re=1
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PLS8 will be an option, it just won’t be already available for Birch, as, unlike Broadmobi ones, we have to produce M.2 cards with those modules ourselves.
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For Cinterion® PLS8-E R4 (L30960-N3400-A400) future (for L5) was looking good as EOL was not planned to be declared before 2021. And hopefully the same was planned for Cinterion® PLS8-US R4 (L30960-N3410-A400 or L30960-N3415-A400 version with customer IMEI). But still this recently published information is not easy to digest/translate: “das Distributionsgeschäft mit Cinterion®-Modulen (des Herstellers Gemalto N.V.) wurde zum 14.06.19 eingestellt” if Purism have been interested to order mentioned modules over there, just guessing and not confirming anything and if PLS8 modules order was already placed there before June 14 I don’t know either. What I do know is that I am not helping much with this off-post and hope that @antpanlinux will get better answer from Purism because to me it looks like that situation (in favor of G5) on the market changed by/for Gemalto, a Thales Company, without Purism awareness (if they didn’t ensured purchase with contract).
P.S. Maybe is Cinterion® PCI Modem Card mPLS8-E or mPLS8-US variant interesting for testing on L5 dev kit anyway.
Can I ask you when did you placed your pre order? I need to know what to expect and there’s no way for me to find out when I should receive my phone. Purism is too busy to give me that peace of information. I’ve placed my order in January this year.
I would say Bacth Dogwood at the earliest, though maybe Chestnut.
And here is the original schedule:
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I think you still have time till next year. I ordered in 2017 and didn’t receive an Birch Mail yet.
Then definitely I’ll buy a phone to install UT on it and wait. If I am confortable with it I would push my preference to L5v2 whenever it happens. Thanks!
If somebody ordered in 2019, you think they might have a chance to be in batch C? Really? I’d be willing to bet money that this implies not earlier than batch E 
.
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I’m wondering how to interpret this part of the Birch email:
Note: This is an early batch that might have hardware problems and has a limited warranty. If you agree to this batch, you are accepting that risk and understand that you will not be able to exchange it for a later batch when they come out. If your phone is dead on arrival, or has other unexpected issues, you can return it within 14 days of receipt. (This helps to avoid a situation where someone exchanges their phone for a new batch, every time one is released.)
What does a limited warranty mean? Is there still a year-long warranty, but Purism won’t exchange the phone if it has overheating problems or some of the phone’s functionality will never work (even with software updates)?
Birch definitely isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s probably better for me that I didn’t order early, because I would be really torn whether to accept one of the first batches or not.
It means - we don’t really think you should use this phone, but if you really insist, have at it. Keep in mind, we are not responible fit whatever happens after the 2 week window 
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@Kyle_Rankin I’d appreciate it if you came back to this thread to clarify the point you made. This is the first time it was mentioned that one option of the two choices you have provided will cost more. Please ensure your reply is fully supported by your company, as it sounds like you are changing the rules of the game, while we are playing.
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I am afraid this email is going to bring many problems of trust to this project.
Actually it shouldn’t reduce the trust further, because we have long known that very little of the phone is functional. So no news here.
We also knew for quite some time about serious thermal issues, which might render the phone borderline useless.
They just want to avoid any law suits, that’s all.
What’s interesting is that they expect phones to be dead on arrival. This does not instill much trust in their quality management.
And I’d be interested if it is even possible to return anything to US from europe within 14 days. Or will they only ship to US-customers first?
What is the reason/background for this in my opinion daring statement?
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There was a quote from the shipping E-Mail saying:
From my point of view this is very unusual wording. Someone found a dead phone likely enough to write this statement.
This is like a car dealer saying: “If your engine dies on the first ignition you can return the car.”
While it is certainly a very nice offer, it’s still odd mentioning something so specific and so disastrous.