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Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

kenshin305
Tutor

Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Hello,

 

I recently purchased the MR5200 here in America. I'm with AT&T and can only get it to connect to 4G+ when adding the following APN settings:

 

APN Name: ATT Broadband

APN: phone

PDP: IPV4V6

PDP Roaming: IPV4

Authentication: None

Username: (blank)

Password: (blank)

 

It will NOT connect to 5G. Does anyone know the proper APN settings to have this connect to AT&T's 5G network? I talked to Netgear's phone support and they did not know what to do. They said they would escalate my case to a manager and call me back, which hasn't happened. Netgear makes the AT&T locked MR5100, so I assumed they would know how to get this unlocked MR5200 to work with AT&T 5G as well.

 

I am in a 5G area here in Florida, and I got a new 5G sim card from AT&T just for this device. I also placed the MR5200 by the window. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Message 1 of 8
supper-hero
Tutor

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Also having the same issue, but unable to connect to anything except the 3G network on T-Mobile in a confirmed 5G coverage zone near DC. I have contacted T-Mobile and they confirmed the IMEI number is marked as "compatible" with their network, and they have created a support ticket for it. If I try to connect to even the "LTE All" band, it searches forever, same with "LTE and 5GNR". Enabling "Data Roaming" and restarting has no effect.

Message 2 of 8
kenshin305
Tutor

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Interesting you're having the same problem even though T-Mobile says your IMEI number is compatible.

 

I'm wondering if my device might be band locked from AT&T's 5G network. Not sure why since Netgear advertises it as an unlocked 5G device that works best on AT&T and T-Mobile.

 

Hopefully someone can help us soon.

Message 3 of 8
supper-hero
Tutor

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Also, for clarity, when I try to select "Manual" for the "Network Selection Mode", I am unable to find any carrier at all when selecting either the "LTE All" or "LTE and NR5G" bands (but it works fine on "WCDMA All" for me). Hoping that T-Mobile engineers will be able to clarify this for me in the next few days and if so will post on here.

Message 4 of 8
supper-hero
Tutor

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Hello again!

 

So I have bad news and good news:

  1. The device I purchased (from Canada) claims to support at least the B5 4G frequency band as per the telnet interface. This is reported in the user manual (https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/MR5100/MR5100_MR5200_UM_EN.pdf) and on the knowledge base article on supported bands (https://kb.netgear.com/000062411/What-cellular-bands-does-my-Nighthawk-5G-Mobile-Hotspot-Pro-support...). T-Mobile uses at least this B5 frequency for 4G (https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network); however, I was unable to get this device to ever connect to the 4G or 5G bands.
  2. I purchased another US device from the netgear site at https://www.netgear.com/home/mobile-wifi/hotspots/mr5200/, and this one immediately worked with both 4G and 5G!

So it seems the marketing page for the US device (https://www.netgear.com/home/mobile-wifi/hotspots/mr5200/) *is* actually up to date on supported frequency bands, and that the user manual and knowledge base article on supported frequencies are incorrect. In feedback re my call with netgear just now I asked for the user manual and knowledge base article to please be edited with an up-to-date listing of which frequencies are supported by the MR5200 device, and whether the supported frequencies differ across region of origin or manufacturing date (not sure which is to blame here, but the knowledge base article is a full year out of date).

 

This works out fine for me because I am able to return my initially-purchased (and pretty expensive) netgear device to amazon canada, but I really hope this information is updated soon so further US customers aren't stuck with an expensive brick before buying the US version.

Message 5 of 8
jzz15
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Same problem

My MR5200 can support china unicom and china telecom 5G in China, and works fine,

 

but these days, i can only use 4G+ on  my MR5200, but my iphone12 Pro can use 5G.

My MR5200 system version is 12.03.09.00

Message 6 of 8
architectbarb
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

Hello.  Just went through this with ATT for hours.  The answer:  Select "Broadband" from the upper left corner of the "Settings" screen and then in the APN settings, select "nrbroadband".  This allowed me to get 5g on my ATT prepaid plan.  Finally figured this out myself after several hours in Netgear and ATT chat yesterday and another hour at the ATT store today.  Neither Netgear nor ATT knew how to set the APN.  Good luck!

Message 7 of 8
KenHi
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk M5 MR5200 Only 4G+ NOT 5G on AT&T

I was able to get the MR5200 hotspot to connect to AT&T by adding this APN

 

APN Name: ATT NRBroadband

APN: nrbroadband

Authentication: None

PDP: IPV4V6

PDP Roaming: IPV4V6

 

 

Message 8 of 8
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