Librem 5 - LTE Bands support for US

jinglersend · June 10, 2019, 5:02am

Here is a quote from a support technician

His original quote links to

which says

The Librem 5 is an open network phone, not locked to any particular network.

The modem featured in Librem 5 is Gemalto’s PLS8. Two variants are used, PLS8-E and PLS8-US. Here’s the detailed list of bands supported:

Standard Frequency PLS8-E PLS8-US

GSM GSM 850MHz

EGSM 900MHz

DCS 1800MHz

PCS 1900MHz

WCDMA BAND1

BAND2

BAND3

BAND4

BAND5

BAND8

LTE-FDD LTE-FDD B1

LTE-FDD B2

LTE-FDD B3

LTE-FDD B4

LTE-FDD B5

LTE-FDD B7

LTE-FDD B8

LTE-FDD B17

LTE-FDD B20

Using frequencycheck.com, you can find your carrier under your country to see which bands are supported by them. However, keep in mind that not all of these bands may be available in your area.

To find out which LTE bands are available from cell towers in your area, you can look at cellmapper.net. Additionally, if you call your carrier they may tell you which LTE bands are available in your area but they also may not divulge this information.

If you require an LTE band that is not supported by either of the modems, then LTE will not be available to you.

But keep in mind that this may not be the only two modems used:

Table source for anyone who’s interested. I just did an inspect on the FAQ entry, copied the HTML, and manually add in <td></td>:

<table id="tablepress-34" class="tablepress tablepress-id-34">
<thead>
<tr class="row-1 odd">
	<th class="column-1">Standard</th><th class="column-2">Frequency</th><th class="column-3">PLS8-E</th><th class="column-4">PLS8-US</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="row-hover">
<tr class="row-2 even">
	<td rowspan="4" class="column-1">GSM</td><td class="column-2">GSM 850MHz</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-3 odd">
<td></td>
	<td class="column-2">EGSM 900MHz</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-4 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">DCS 1800MHz</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-5 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">PCS 1900MHz</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-6 even">
	<td class="column-1"></td><td class="column-2"></td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-7 odd">
	<td rowspan="6" class="column-1">WCDMA</td><td class="column-2">BAND1</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-8 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">BAND2</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-9 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">BAND3</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-10 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">BAND4</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-11 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">BAND5</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-12 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">BAND8</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-13 odd">
	<td class="column-1"></td><td class="column-2"></td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-14 even">
	<td rowspan="9" class="column-1">LTE-FDD</td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B1</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-15 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B2</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-16 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B3</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-17 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B4</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-18 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B5</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-19 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B7</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-20 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B8</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-21 odd">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B17</td><td class="column-3"></td><td class="column-4"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-22 even">
	<td></td><td class="column-2">LTE-FDD B20</td><td class="column-3"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="✔" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/2714.svg"></td><td class="column-4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Standard	Frequency	PLS8-E
GSM	GSM 850MHz
		EGSM 900MHz
		DCS 1800MHz
		PCS 1900MHz

WCDMA	BAND1
		BAND2
		BAND3
		BAND4
		BAND5
		BAND8

LTE-FDD	LTE-FDD B1
		LTE-FDD B2
		LTE-FDD B3
		LTE-FDD B4
		LTE-FDD B5
		LTE-FDD B7
		LTE-FDD B8
		LTE-FDD B17
		LTE-FDD B20