Byzantium L5. I have a data only plan from US Mobile. I turned off wifi. I put the SIM card into the L5, mobile connection is set to be on, the physical switch for it is on. In settings under the category of mobile, under “Network” I turned on “Mobile Data”. But then there is a setting called “Access points” I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing with that setting.
What are “access points” in the L5 mobile settings? How do I find out what I should be entering?
As it is now, when I’m on mobile connection only (no wifi), I have no internet access at all. Even though I show the cell network signal as being at full bars. Yes, I’m lost.
The Access Point tells your phone how to talk with your carrier - you’ll need one if you want to use a SIM card with data.
I don’t own a Librem5 so not sure if it auto-populates this or not, from your example I would say that you need to check your carriers website and input the settings you find there.
Thanks to both of you. The articles were informative, now I have an idea what an APN is all about. Before I was thinking it was something unique to the Librem.
I created a US Mobile APN entry using the info from the US Mobile site, but sadly I still cannot access the internet via a cellular connection.
Ideally there should be good defaults, coming from this package:
If defaults are not good for you, which seems to be the case, then if you want to make it work for everyone in the future you can contribute changes there, adding updated info about your provider. That way, you help everyone who is using that provider.
I expected this. Anyway, icon for Advanced Network Configuration you’ll find under non-Mobile Friendly Apps (not Librem 5 screen adjusted) but I believe you’ll have success after several attempts to connect your data only SIM card to that network.
Did you find a specific APN for their data-only SIM? Because that would likely be a different APN setting from the one they use for the regular talk/text/data SIM.
You might want to contact US Mobile and ask for the data SIM APN settings, or see if you can find it somewhere in their help pages.
Another option you might try is to temporarily move the SIM to a different device and jot down the APN settings that it automatically loads. Then enter the same settings on the L5.
Note that it might be risky to put the data-only SIM in a phone; the carrier could temporarily disable the SIM or send you a nasty-gram. It all depends on how vigilant and how serious they are. If you’re very quick about it, they might not notice or care.
I did find the APN, but entering that into the Librem 5 did not help.
So, I did contact the carrier, US Mobile. In a different post I’ve shared part of their response, here is a more complete selection of what they told me:
"I have checked the device details and Unfortunately, this device [IMEI number redacted] is not compatible with our SUPER LTE network. However, you can use it on our GSM LTE network , given the device is unlocked but unfortunately, the coverage is not very great.
The Compatibility criteria for Super LTE Sim card is that the device must be unlocked, It must have Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz) and Band 13 ( 800/750 MHz) along with HD Voice.
The Compatibility criteria for GSM LTE Sim card is that the device must be unlocked, It must have Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz) and Band 12 (700 MHz) along with HD Voice/VoLTE feature"
What I had (used on an android device) was their Super LTE sim card - the one that they say will not work on the Librem 5. In a subsequent email they said they are sending me a complimentary GSM LTE sim card to try out in the Librem 5, using my existing plan with US Mobile. Should get that later this week they said.
My existing plan with US Mobile is a data only plan - a plan that they knowingly and happily provide. Screenshot of my plan is attached to this post. But, since I’m testing this new card they’re sending me on the Librem 5, they kindly added a one time small number of phone calls to my plan so I can then also test phone calls on the Librem with that new sim card.
Sounds like Super LTE runs on Verizon, and GSM LTE runs on T-mobile.
Seems strange that they’re using a regular talk/text/data SIM on a data-only plan, but maybe it’s just how they operate, avoiding charges for what you don’t use.
[As an aside, US Mobile has a really cheap international data roaming option, but it’s only for eSIM devices, which are still few and far between. You can purchase a 30-day 1Gb roaming package for European countries for only $5…and you don’t even have to be a monthly customer of US Mobile! https://www.usmobile.com/international-roaming-phone-plans]
I was pretty darn happy with US Mobile’s data only plan on my android device (using the Super LTE sim card [Verizon network?]). I rely on jmp.chat for my texting and phone calls, so that worked great for me. 2GB per month (at $10) was more than sufficient. The only problem: I had the sense that US Mobile’s services are throttled by Verizon. There were too many times when I’d have no signal, and people right next to me who were Verizon customers, or other Verizon MVNO customers, had perfectly fine signal strength. For the android device I switched to a different Verizon MVNO - hence why I have this spare US Mobile Super LTE sim card lying around to test in the Librem 5 - and that MVNO told me when I was signing up that they have a contract with Verizon - which I assume they need to pay more for this - that they will not be throttled. And, with this new Verizon MVNO I’ve never had the signal problem like I had with US Mobile. Perhaps US Mobile won’t have this problem with T-Mobile. And, the most important factor to keep in mind about all this: I don’t know what I’m talking about, I am NOT an expert in this stuff, so I could be completely wrong in my theory about what was happening.
Throttling does happen with some, if not all MVNOs, when there is network congestion, so you’re probably right. I’ve read that Verizon is typically more congested than others, maybe due to their very large (?) customer base.
The MVNO “Visible” is actually owned by Verizon, so their customers might escape the throttling.
I just tested my L5’s (modem’s) IMEI using T-mobile’s compatibility check, and it’s approved, so your GSM LTE SIM from US Mobile should work (with the possible exception of 3G calls, as we discussed earlier).
Apparently T-mobile knows the L5’s modem is VoLTE-capable under normal circumstances… even if VoLTE is not yet working out-of-the-box in the L5.
EDIT1: And the IMEI does fail with Verizon’s checker.
EDIT2: For info, AT&T no longer provides an IMEI checker; they use a “whitelist” of approved VoLTE-capable devices. But Cricket, which is owned by AT&T, does still have an IMEI checker, which returns “Apologies! This BM818 is not compatible with the Cricket Network due to network changes.”
@amosbatto, Would you like to add this latest info about the BM818-A1 IMEI-check results to the FAQ page?
