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LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

rv7charlie
Aspirant

LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

Couldn't get the model # to show up in the Model field...

 

Just bought an LB1120 to use with AT&T LTE 'unlimited' service. Inserted the ATT sim card & got an immediate connection with 4 bars, but in 3G. APN says 'AT&T Mobile' & 'Broadband'. Dashboard shows AT&T with an 'H'. I read a couple of threads here dealing with the same issue with other providers, but didn't see anything about AT&T. 

 

Are there settings I can change in the modem to get a 4G (LTE) connection, or do I need to contact AT&T? 

 

Thanks,

 

Charlie

Message 1 of 4

Accepted Solutions
rv7charlie
Aspirant

Re: LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

OK, problem is apparently solved; I'll detail the experience here in case others have similar 'issues'.

My Netgear support experience has been very positive (thanks, Agnes!).

My ATT support experience has varied widely. Some support personnel have struggled to find the issue; unwilling to give up. Others were polite but unhelpful. This included a 20+ mile trip back to the ATT store, where they were polite, but did nothing but pull up my account & tell me that their data was correct. Fortunately, I finally got someone on the phone who went through the troubleshooting steps methodically, and didn't quit until he'd exhausted every angle available to him. 1st, he didn't assume that since ATT didn't sell the device, they had no obligation to support the customer. It did require help from me that I suspect not many customers could have provided. In addition to the LB1120, I had in my possession an ATT branded LTE hotspot. Once we determined that the hotspot (Sierra 754S) was truly an LTE capable device, and I told him that the hotspot wouldn't connect in LTE using the same sim card, he got serious with troubleshooting. He completely deleted & re-entered my account's setup data in their system, pushed an update to the ATT hotspot, and we still had the same problem. He could look into the hotspot & see that it wasn't returning the correct info to establish an LTE connection. At that point, he recommended trying a new sim card. He made me an appointment back at the store, with a note that I should get a new sim card for troubleshooting purposes. I made the 20+ mile drive back to the store, saw an agent at the appointed time, and he handed me a new sim. Inserted it in the ATT hotspot (no way to check the LB1120 in the store, since it only has an ethernet port), and immediately got 'LTE' in the connection icon on its display. Came home, inserted the new sim in the LB1120, and it immediately connected in LTE. In the 3-4 hours of use last night, and an hour of use this morning, it has not dropped the connection as it was doing every 15-30 minutes with the original sim in 3G.

 

So after 'provisioning' the LB1120 in ATT's database as an LTE device (1st, and minor, issue), the entire problem came down to a bad sim card and ATT's initial inability/unwillingness to diagnose the problem. My troubleshooting was complicated by the fact that the ATT hotspot I was using as a cross check will display '4G' on its screen when it connects in HSDPA. I didn't discover that this wasn't LTE until I downloaded a copy of its manual & discovered that it would show '4Glte' when actually connected to LTE, and the early ATT techs didn't know that, either. *But*, they could have seen that it wasn't connecting in LTE if they'd bothered to look, because the guy that finally swatted the bug told me that he could see that it wasn't in LTE.

 

Now that it's working, my speeds seem to vary between ~6 & 11Mb/sec both down and up, with up sometimes slightly faster than down.

 

Hopefully, this will help the next 'victim'....

 

Charlie

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Message 4 of 4

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DarrenM
Sr. NETGEAR Moderator

Re: LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

Hello rv7carlie

 

You may want to contact ATT and ask what the best settings are for there 4g service.

 

DarrenM

Message 2 of 4
rv7charlie
Aspirant

Re: LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

Actually, been there, done that. 1st couple of conversations, they said that my IMEI wasn't configured in their system to be a 4G hotspot, & that they would push it to their 'back office' to get it configured correctly in their system. Most recent chat session with them boiled down to, 'Not an ATT authorized device; up yours'.

 

Since my 1st message, I've had the following issues: The 1st device I received actually 'died on the table' while I was on a conference call with Netgear support & ATT support. It went from working in 3G to no usable connection, with the power light green and the 1st, 3rd and 5th signal strength lights on, and the LAN light on. Returned it to Amazon & had another overnighted to me. This one connects in 3G also, but will randomly stop passing data for minutes at a time, even though the config page shows 'connected' and I have good signal strength (often 4-5 bars). when it's working, I'm seeing download speeds I could live with (varies between 6Mb/sec and 10Mb/sec), but upload varies from 200kb/sec to 1Mb/sec. At all times, the connection box on the modem's control page shows an 'H', and the mobile details tab shows 3G HSDPA. Tower is <2 miles away in a rural area, verified by ATT tech support. Netgear is escalating the issue to their top level (topnotch effort from them so far) and will try to contact ATT's next level. ATT's support: widely variable.

 

So....Has anyone else monitoring this forum been able to use an LB1120 with ATT and get LTE service?

Message 3 of 4
rv7charlie
Aspirant

Re: LB1120 cellular modem AT&T can only get 3G

OK, problem is apparently solved; I'll detail the experience here in case others have similar 'issues'.

My Netgear support experience has been very positive (thanks, Agnes!).

My ATT support experience has varied widely. Some support personnel have struggled to find the issue; unwilling to give up. Others were polite but unhelpful. This included a 20+ mile trip back to the ATT store, where they were polite, but did nothing but pull up my account & tell me that their data was correct. Fortunately, I finally got someone on the phone who went through the troubleshooting steps methodically, and didn't quit until he'd exhausted every angle available to him. 1st, he didn't assume that since ATT didn't sell the device, they had no obligation to support the customer. It did require help from me that I suspect not many customers could have provided. In addition to the LB1120, I had in my possession an ATT branded LTE hotspot. Once we determined that the hotspot (Sierra 754S) was truly an LTE capable device, and I told him that the hotspot wouldn't connect in LTE using the same sim card, he got serious with troubleshooting. He completely deleted & re-entered my account's setup data in their system, pushed an update to the ATT hotspot, and we still had the same problem. He could look into the hotspot & see that it wasn't returning the correct info to establish an LTE connection. At that point, he recommended trying a new sim card. He made me an appointment back at the store, with a note that I should get a new sim card for troubleshooting purposes. I made the 20+ mile drive back to the store, saw an agent at the appointed time, and he handed me a new sim. Inserted it in the ATT hotspot (no way to check the LB1120 in the store, since it only has an ethernet port), and immediately got 'LTE' in the connection icon on its display. Came home, inserted the new sim in the LB1120, and it immediately connected in LTE. In the 3-4 hours of use last night, and an hour of use this morning, it has not dropped the connection as it was doing every 15-30 minutes with the original sim in 3G.

 

So after 'provisioning' the LB1120 in ATT's database as an LTE device (1st, and minor, issue), the entire problem came down to a bad sim card and ATT's initial inability/unwillingness to diagnose the problem. My troubleshooting was complicated by the fact that the ATT hotspot I was using as a cross check will display '4G' on its screen when it connects in HSDPA. I didn't discover that this wasn't LTE until I downloaded a copy of its manual & discovered that it would show '4Glte' when actually connected to LTE, and the early ATT techs didn't know that, either. *But*, they could have seen that it wasn't connecting in LTE if they'd bothered to look, because the guy that finally swatted the bug told me that he could see that it wasn't in LTE.

 

Now that it's working, my speeds seem to vary between ~6 & 11Mb/sec both down and up, with up sometimes slightly faster than down.

 

Hopefully, this will help the next 'victim'....

 

Charlie

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