Re: Can I unlock the AT&T M6 Pro hotspot and use with T-Mobile?

hummous · ‎2022-11-12

thx

JohnPeng · ‎2022-11-13

You can ask AT&T for the unlock code. But it is not recommended since AT&T M6 doesn't support T-Mobile bands. You can try our retail SKU MR6150-100NAS. It has both AT&T and T-Mobile band supports and it is unlocked.

Thanks

hummous · ‎2022-11-13

Hi, thanks for the reply. What are the T-Mobile bands? I'm just confused since the iPhone 14 has the same Qualcomm X65 modem, and it has all T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon bands.

JohnPeng · ‎2022-11-13

On AT&T M6, we didn't enable T-Mo bands. Also AT&T and T-Mo have different CA, EN-DC support as well. If they are not set based on the network capability, the device performance will be significantly impacted.

Thanks

hummous · ‎2022-11-13

Does Netgear have to pay the FCC or Qualcomm for each band you enable on the modem or something? Will it at least work on T-Mobile 4G, but not 5G? I checked the band support on the M6 Pro and LTE bands 2, 4, 5, and 66 are supported. Those are used by both AT&T and T-Mobile for 4G LTE.

hummous · ‎2022-11-15

So the MR6150 is artificially a higher price? The MR6500 is artificially limited?

adamjj · ‎2023-03-12

This is a big issue for me. Both units have the exact same modem internally. It is a matter of sending a different cellular firmware to the modem, which could even be done OTA. It seems as if Netgear just wants us to buy new devices, without enabling the capability on the devices in the first place. I am having huge issues with AT&T. For example, LTE or as ATT calls it 5Ge does not work when using the default ATT APN nrbroadband, but when using APN "broadband" it works fine. Except it will not connect to mmWave or High band on "broadband" apn. This is on the AT&T business wireless broadband 100mbps plan. i have troubleshooted with ATT for 6 months, and we finally realized that the default LTE APN would have to change, which is what the device seems to do on its own. The mobile broadband disconnects and reconnects constantly when trying to attach to a 5G tower. Its as if the Carrier aggregation is not working for 5G NSA or for LTE. or 5G SA. These are all very big issues. I am on the latest ATT FW release, and still having these issues. I own six of these MR6500 devices, and all 6 behave the same way. ATT only solution is to replace device under warranty, which won't fix anything because netgear is still making the same crappy firmware. I am in a big Sub6 and mmWave market, in Atlanta. I am getting about 120 down and 35 up on my MR1100 and it stays connected on a zoom call, all day. With the MR6500 it experiences regular signal drops and session termination. Session termination only occurs when the entire connection is lost. This usually would only happen when there is not a secondary 5G band or Secondary LTE band to use with CA. These modems support up to 7x CA, yet it doesnt appear netgear is using it at all. At this point, it would almost be easier to remove the x65 M2 chip from the modem and place in a USB converter and use it that way, with a custom flashed modem firmware, actually fixing this modem.

JohnPeng · ‎2023-03-12

@adamjj wrote:

This is a big issue for me. Both units have the exact same modem internally. It is a matter of sending a different cellular firmware to the modem, which could even be done OTA. It seems as if Netgear just wants us to buy new devices, without enabling the capability on the devices in the first place. I am having huge issues with AT&T. For example, LTE or as ATT calls it 5Ge does not work when using the default ATT APN broadband, but when using APN "broadband" it works fine. Except it will not connect to mmWave or High band on "broadband" apn. This is on the AT&T business wireless broadband 100mbps plan. i have troubleshooted with ATT for 6 months, and we finally realized that the default LTE APN would have to change, which is what the device seems to do on its own. The mobile broadband disconnects and reconnects constantly when trying to attach to a 5G tower. Its as if the Carrier aggregation is not working for 5G NSA or for LTE. or 5G SA. These are all very big issues. I am on the latest ATT FW release, and still having these issues. I own six of these MR6500 devices, and all 6 behave the same way. ATT only solution is to replace device under warranty, which won't fix anything because netgear is still making the same crappy firmware. I am in a big Sub6 and mmWave market, in Atlanta. I am getting about 120 down and 35 up on my MR1100 and it stays connected on a zoom call, all day. With the MR6500 it experiences regular signal drops and session termination. Session termination only occurs when the entire connection is lost. This usually would only happen when there is not a secondary 5G band or Secondary LTE band to use with CA. These modems support up to 7x CA, yet it doesnt appear netgear is using it at all. At this point, it would almost be easier to remove the x65 M2 chip from the modem and place in a USB converter and use it that way, with a custom flashed modem firmware, actually fixing this modem.

This is your AT&T subscription issue. For using 5G, you need to get the new AT&T SIM with 5G subscription. Then the device will set the APN as nrbroadband. The device can't enable what is limited by the carrier subscriptions.

Thanks

John

JohnPeng · ‎2023-03-12

@hummous wrote:

Does Netgear have to pay the FCC or Qualcomm for each band you enable on the modem or something? Will it at least work on T-Mobile 4G, but not 5G? I checked the band support on the M6 Pro and LTE bands 2, 4, 5, and 66 are supported. Those are used by both AT&T and T-Mobile for 4G LTE.

You can unlock AT&T M6 to use on T-Mobile and it will work.

Thanks

adamjj · ‎2023-03-13

@JohnPeng John, can you advise the correct sim card? The sim cards are the ones that came inside of the MR6500 when purchased on the Business Wireless Broadband 100mbps 5G plan. Is there a specific SKU or sim model number for AT&T? I have their advanced tech support team on the line, and they are advising that the sim card 6531C should work, but they are still unsure.

JohnPeng · ‎2023-03-13

@adamjj wrote:

@JohnPeng John, can you advise the correct sim card? The sim cards are the ones that came inside of the MR6500 when purchased on the Business Wireless Broadband 100mbps 5G plan. Is there a specific SKU or sim model number for AT&T? I have their advanced tech support team on the line, and they are advising that the sim card 6531C should work, but they are still unsure.

Just checked internally, 6531C should work. But it also depends what plan will be activated by AT&T. Please make sure activate a plan with 5G support and use nrbroadband as APN name. broadband APN is for LTE service as we know.

Thanks

John