Wow that’s a very interresting development.
I took a quick peek at the quicktel website.
https://www.quectel.com/product/lte-a-em060k-series
Good find 
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I wonder if I would have better luck getting VoLTE to work with this guy, but I’m super gun shy to change anything on my phone now…lol.
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Odds are high that Purism will write another blog article about “shipping new Quectel cellular cards with Librem 5” sometime in the near future, so you can wait until other Librem 5 users have confirmed VoLTE works for them first before manually upgrading the cellular module yourself.
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VoLTE works for me shortly.
After a reboot I need to activate it again.
I was in Luxembourg last weekend and had to activate VoLTE. It work directly, but as mentioned,
the setting did not stick after a reboot.
In my home country/area, VoLTE is not available, so I’m not using it.
I wonder if the bug @Dos has discoverd in the current modem is the reason for (maybe) switching to another brand.
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With the caveat that that confirmation has to come from someone using the same Mobile Network Operator (and hence by definition in the same country).
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On the new Quectel modem mentioned?
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Nope, my experience is with the current modem.
Purism needs to confirm it (a new modem) first and thus is talking about the Quectel modem purely speculation.
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I’d like to point out that the commit mentioned came from upstream: USB: serial: option: support Quectel EM060K sub-models - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree. New hardware support gets committed upstream all the time.
As many of you know I am more focused on our laptops and computers than the Librem 5 (though I do use a Librem 5), so I don’t know anything specific about this modem or how the telephony stack would relate to it, I just wanted to point out that this came from upstream in the context of speculation going on here.
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The important part comes from shopping4purisms link. It’s an all-rounder modem that can be used worldwide and has quick GNSS fixes (at least it advertises this) for all common techniques. Fun fact, because you say you’re more interested in laptops: they expect companies using this module in their laptops and PCs and nearly any professional and consumer technology … except phones. 
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My guess would be that it does not support voice calls. (Now here I go speculating 
) But the absence of any indication of voice support from the information I can see, combined with the fact that they recommend it for everything except phones, would be consistent with that.
edit: Although it does say “Voice: Optional” for this modem on page 14 of the brochure, so maybe 
Oh I’m interested in tons of things, including the phone, the laptops and computers just keep me plenty busy as it is, others have much more background in the L5 modem stack 
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I think it has more to do with the fact, that smartphones do not use m.2 cards and bind modems directly on SoC.
Instead, an SoC contains multiple processing parts, memory, modems, and other essential bits and pieces manufactured together in a single chip that’s soldered onto the circuit board.
So there is just no need for m.2 modems.
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For the dummies in the room, can you speculate as to whether this modem would work for the Librem 5 or not?
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I doubt that this feature will actually work in the Librem 5 and if it did work then this would be (very) bad thing.
Yes, it does. And the model that it supersedes (?) says something similar: “Digital Audio and VoLTE (Voice over LTE) (Optional)”.
But this is why Purism would need to be spending the time, effort and dollars in investigating the viability of this module if it is going to make the Librem 5 better overall. (For sure, global support in a single module will be more convenient for Purism, lead to fewer customer questions, and directly benefit a minority (?) of Purism customers. However I would be more interested in more subtle things, like VoLTE support on some networks, and responsiveness of vendor in addressing firmware issues.)
The very first question for Purism (or someone else) is whether the module even physically fits. It should do, based on the published specifications, but there’s nothing like actually verifying that.
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It does based on this thread:
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Why and what’s the difference to the other modems?
My thought was “people have problems to get GPS fixes fast enough, but this modem may could be better for this purpose”. But I could be very wrong since I have no deeper knowledge here.
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In order for the feature to work with the abovementioned modem, the GNSS antenna would have to be connected to the modem, rather than connected to the Teseo GNSS module. But, OK, let’s say you are determined to compromise your privacy, so you hack around inside the phone to adjust the antenna connection …
Access to the Teseo GNSS module is controlled. No part of the system can get your fairly accurate GNSS location unless open source software permits it. No part of the system means: neither of the M.2 modules and no application.
The modem runs blackbox firmware and can do whatever it likes with the GNSS location if you connect it up. The modem can directly transmit the location via the mobile network (either using the call interface or using the data interface). The modem could in theory even make it available to software on the phone (via a covert channel).
Edit: The current design also permits offline navigation, where both M.2 modules are off but the camera and mic are on - so you can passively receive your location but without transmitting anything.
None that I am aware of. The design considerations would be the same. You must prevent those cellular modems that have built-in GNSS capability from using that capability.
Edit: PS The Broadmobi BM818 also has GNSS capability but in the current design that capability is not being used (and I am happy about that).
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Here was the important part I missed before. That explains everything, thanks.
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Now we can start dreaming that EM06 will be upgraded to EM12 or even EM16 models (same size, faster data dl speeds). Unfortunately their 5g modems (RM5XXX) are one extra centimeter longer, as well as the Fibocom FM650, which also got support in that update (hmm… maybe someone might want to remove camera module and part of the chassis to try to force it… [not advisable]). It would be cool to upgrade to a 5G linux phone some day 
Speaking of hope, I’m hoping some day there will also be support for SIM8202G (5g, fits, not sure about all other aspects). But as a side note, all the modem conversation should be moved to modem thread from this kernel update thread…
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Those are very good observations and very important for the privacy aspect of using such modem.
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Maybe someone own modem with firmware EM060KGLAAR01A09M2G or lower?
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