Modem and frequency comparison for Europe

I was asked to open a thread on the subject of modems and frequencies in Europe and to present the table (from the video).

In the table I have entered all the modems that Purism offers for the Librem5 and listed them with the frequencies of the individual countries (providers).

As [PDF] Download: https://www.cais.de/librem5_modems_freq_overview.pdf

I hope this helps :slight_smile:

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NIce table! Have you considered ordering the countries alphabetically?

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A good point! I changed it - thanks for your feedback

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Are we playing “spot the missing”?

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Hi All!

I am currently in Europe, having a librem5 with BM818-A1 (North America) modem.
I have reception (4G). Anyhow, whatever setting I have, there is still an orange exclamation mark.

This is my current setting:

  • Mobile Data: on
  • Data Roaming: on
  • Network Mode: 2G, 3G, 4G (Preferred)
  • Network: Automatic

But what is most frustrating: I don’t get any call or text trough.
The same SIM card works perfectly well with my old android.

What is the exact problem that I cannot call / text / reach anyone?
Would a European modem (BM818-E1) solve the problem?

Thanks, Fagus

The A1 (North America) and E1 (Europe) modems cover different bands, which makes the A1 not optimal for coverage on European carriers.

Input the European country on this site:
https://www.frequencycheck.com/

Then see how its bands align (or likely don’t align) with this table:

Also keep in mind that some carriers in Europe may have already shut down 3G, making 4G (and 2G) coverage especially critical.

In my opinion, the lack of availability of a more universal, international modem is a serious weakness of the L5 right now.

P.S. Since VoLTE is not enabled by default on the A1, that may result in lack of connection for calls, depending on whether there is still a 3G signal around. (The modem has to drop to 3G or 2G for calls if there is no VoLTE-capability.) It’s possible to enable VoLTE on this modem, but it might not be reliable right now.

If there is still a 3G network at your location(s), you might try setting the mode to 2G/3G only to see if that enables calls.