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No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

robkayakmobile
Aspirant

No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

Purchased through Amazon Netgear seller.

 

With AT&T I am only able to connect with WCDMA (H and H+).

I have long discussions with AT&T still no resolution.

Using cellmapper.com I located two dedicated ATT cell towers.

Tower 1
Bands 2,12,14

and...

Tower 2
Bands
2,12,14,30,66

The device was set at Cellular --> LTE All

At each tower... I turned off the device, and turned back on.

I drove around the towers to be sure to get any possible cell locked in.

 

No LTE 4G...

 

I even replaced the SIM, which was the "only" solution that I have found to resolve the issue.

 

As a test that the device could get a real LTE (not H and H+)...

I got a pre paid data only from T-Mobile...

Immediately it connected to LTE,

 

Why can I not connect to AT&T "real" LTE ??

 

The Nighthawk M1 is the same as sold at AT&T store/website....

The only difference between "their" device and the Amazon Netgear device would be some firmware blocking me access to there LTE network ?

 

Are these Amazon Negear Nighthawks not compatible with AT&T 4G LTE ?

 

I have had the unit for a month... tried everything I know.

Model: MR1100|Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router
Message 1 of 8
krverso
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

I'm experiencing the same issue with the same/similar setup. I have a 100GB pre-paid plan with an unlocked M1 router. Tried adjusting the APN settings several times with no luck. I've taken this thing across the country in a road trip in the past month, and the best I've gotten was 3G for a couple seconds, but mostly it's H+.

 

Just now went into an ATT store and they told that my device doesn't support the bands for ATT's network, but I want to call BS. 

 

According to this, my router supports Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 20, 29, 30, 46 and 66.

 

According to this, ATT's LTE network is composed of Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 17, 29, 30, and 66. 

 

Sounds like tons of overlap, with the single exception of b17. Even if most of ATT's network is b17, I should have connected to another band at some point. I also came from the NY/NJ area where they supposedly deployed b66, but I haven't seen it connect to LTE once. It makes me wonder if my ATT is just blocking my device. 

Message 2 of 8
robkayakmobile
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

Yes I feel your pain... I have mine for a month now.

I am total "mobile".... I got this setup so when I am in remote locations that have described themselves as only ATT.. I wanted a fallback as I have Verizon Jetpack, Verizon Phone with 30gb data, T-mobile phone with 30gb data.

 

And the 100gb prepaid ATT seems like a good deal...

The ATT site states basically upto 5g access..

 

Yes our device supports all those bands for ATT.

If you know how to Telnet into the device it looks something like this.. which shows you all the bands we have...

--------------------

AT!BAND=?

Index, Name, GW Band Mask L Band Mask L ext Band Mask
00, All Bands, 0000000004C00000 000020003000285F 0000000000000002
01, WCDMA All, 0000000004C00000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
02, LTE All, 0000000000000000 000000030000285F 0000000000000002

0000200000000000 - B46
0000000020000000 - B30
0000000010000000 - B29
0000000000002000 - B14
0000000000000800 - B12
0000000000000040 - B7
0000000000000010 - B5
0000000000000008 - B4
0000000000000004 - B3
0000000000000002 - B2
0000000000000001 - B1
0000000000000002 - B66
0000000004000000 - B5 (850)
0000000000800000 - B2 (1900)
0000000000400000 - B1 (2100)

----------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------

 

Now again if you Telnet to the device... when you set in Admin...

Cellular --> LTE ALL...

it will show you something like this....

-----------------------------------------------------------

AT!GSTATUS?
!GSTATUS:
Current Time: 566 Mode: ONLINE
System mode: LTE PS state: Not attached
EMM state: Deregistered Attach Needed
RRC state: RRC Idle
IMS reg state: No Srv

PCC:
LTE band: B12

=============================

 

Note the LTE band: B12  and

EMM state: Deregistered Attach Needed

 

This showing that we are "blocked" from LTE

 

ALL bands in the EMM state: will be "Deregistered"

 

I am in extensive conversations with ATT over the last day or so...

It is clear they are blocking our devices from 4G... with our only access to WCDMA.

 

ATT sells the same device... I guess locked.

 

They have briefly mentioned that BYOD (bring your own device)

is not supported.

But they are on the other hand saying to me that they are working on the situation.

With on Amazon plus 4000 reviews... and on Amazon saying 4G LTE good on ATT and T-Mobile...

 

Well, need I say more.

 

Yesterday, as an experiment... I went to T-Mobile and got a prepaid 2G data plan SIM for $10 (actually $20 with SIM and activation.. big deal... worth the "test".

 

I have a Verizon Jetpack, Verizon Phone, and T-Mobile phone.

I go to remote areas, and city areas.   I have done extensive research on cell towers etc.

And I understand the limitations getting connectivity.

 

Well... T-mobile kinda sucks exactly at my "country" location here.

Verizon great.

 

Sooooo... putting that "test" T-mobile data SIM into the Nighthawk M1

I immediately got LTE... and in the "city" 20 minutes away along the "main" road

I got 40mps down.  Same as my T-Mobile phone.

 

With the Telnet info I showed above.. and my "test" with the T-mobile prepaid...

It is clear to me ATT is blocking access to true LTE and 4G for our devices most likely bought on Amazon and not the ATT Store.

 

I figure we have two issues here:

1.)  Another misleading representation on Amazon .

2.)  ATT not accepting our bring your own device (BYOD) and blocking our access to only buy throught their store.

 

There is no mention on ATT website about BYOD and these hotspots.

There is no (ATT website) verify your IMEI compatibilty for the hotspot.

T-Mobile website you can easily verify your IMEI compatibily... and as demonstrated no problems with our device.

 

I have a support ticket here on Netgear.. about this situation with pretty much everything I have communicated to ATT (more specific than here).

Support on Netgear is painfully slow.

 

On ATT.   We don't get true LTE.. 4G.

We only get WCDMA (H and H+ and 3G)

The connection we get, WCDMA is late version 3G max 10mps down.

Which was the first "interpretation" of LTE.

By today's standards it is not true LTE .

Old and going to be phased out by ATT next year which means out $300 device will be useless.

 

After doing much research... The only single solution (dated 2019) I found was to get a new SIM, card ... well I got a new SIM and that didn't work either.

 

Go over to https://forums.att.com/

post a message  Netgear Nighthawk M1 no LTE 4G

it is a little confusing to select where to put the message to post it.. but

basically you will select..

 

-->Wireless Forum
-->Phones & Devices
-->Other Phones & Devices

 

this will keep all the attention to the problem in one place.

That way when people have our problem they can chime in and "vote" on how this sucks.

 

Learn about the situation...

and maybe "vote" to get it resolved by our complaints.

 

Here is another link from a post I have on ATT...

my other "post" has been marked private because it shows extensive data to the issue.

https://forums.att.com/conversations/other-phones-devices/is-my-sim-card-4g-compatible-netgear-night...

 

I can't imagine we are the only people with this problem... there just haven't been enough complaints.

 

Post back here if you do post on

Message 3 of 8
krverso
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

UPDATE! Connected to ATT LTE! 

 

After being outright rejected by one associate at an ATT store, we left and came back in a couple hours and had another associate actually try to troubleshoot.

After talking about replacing the sim, he took a look at the sim info and it turns out the IMEI was completely wrong. He suspects that when we originally went into store to grab the prepaid sim, they set up my account device with a default IMEI that was for ATT-specific devices. However my Nighthawk M1 is unlocked, so he had to update the IMEI on the account device to match the IMEI of my actual device. Now it's fixed! I now have LTE on my M1 and over 95GB left to use in like a week. 

 

Highly recommend checking out a store to get this checked, if you haven't already. Keep us posted on the updates! I'm sure there are others reading who need a similar fix. 

 

Message 4 of 8
krverso
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

Found your post on the ATT forums, liked, and commented. 

 

Hope you get this resolved soon!!

Message 5 of 8
robkayakmobile
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

Thanks brother (or lady)....

No resolve yet... I am in southern Maryland just hunkering down making sure we survive the tail end of Storm Ida.

Annapolis Maryland just had a tornado go through.

Luckily the tail end of the storm isn't hitting us here hard.

 

I put in a note about your experience... just tossing the SIM at you and sending you down the

road and the resolution...

To my contact at ATT... not the tech support but he will get directly to them.

 

So if I don't hear back by ATT Store opening tomorrow.. I will be up there

to try your resolution.

 

Super happy you got it fixed... sure does sound identical to my situation.

Good thing about the internet is we get to help each other and learn

so many things going down the road... even if they are painfull and frustrating.

Best regards and thanks for the update.

Rob the Kayak Fisherman... on the road...

Message 6 of 8
robkayakmobile
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

So I went to the ATT store today.. and the employee said the IMEI was correct.

BUT.... when I looked at my IMEI on my account it was missing a digit.

So it has been incorrect for a month, including on getting the second replacement SIM.

 

All is correct, I now get true LTE (not H and H+) and my speeds are 30mps to 50mps which great.

 

Thanks for your input... who knows how long I would have been banging out a solution.

Best regards.

Rob.

Message 7 of 8
-ReVolt-
Aspirant

Re: No LTE 4G Netgear Nighthawk M1 ATT Prepaid

i want to thank all you guys for this info and share how i go mine working. i recently purchased the Netgear MR1100 (model MR1100-2A1NAS).i tired all the various things you have shared here and this is how i got mine working with Cricket Wireless SIM i pulled from my phone.

forgive me i did a bunch of things, one being i changed the Band region to "WCDMA All" then back to "LTE All" and thats when things started working. my final settings below and things i did.

 

i made a new APN network (found this info for Cricket on the internet), if i changed these back to the default factory setting it stopped working. within "Settings" then "Network" from the mobile app. 

APN name - internet

APN - ndo

Authentication - None

PDP - IPv4

PDP Roaming - IPv4

 

Network Mode - Auto

 

Band Region - LTE All

 

the current Radio Band is "LTE B14"

 

 

 

Message 8 of 8
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