Nighthak M5100C - LTE carrier aggregation specification

[ecofri]

I finally got Nighthawk M5 router - MR5100C.

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/mobile/MR5100C.pdf

I tried to use this router in South Korea SKTelecom 5G NSA / LTE network.

SKTelecom has 5G NSA network working on n78 & LTE network working on B1, B3, B5, B7.

However, M5 shows poor performance showing 30~70Mbps of download speed, while iPhone shows 100~300Mbps of download speed.

It seems that LTE carrier aggregation does not work.

I tried to use AT commands in order to force the device using specific LTE bands (1+3+5+7), but it does not work.

What is official LTE-CA specification of this device?

Please let me know that which LTE bands can be aggregated.

[ecofri]

I also noticed that LTE-CA only works with LTE B5+7 combination.

No other combination works on the network which have LTE B1, B3, B5, B7.

[schumaku]

In my understanding, all the MR5100 model variants are customized for certain carrieres band plans and not intended to be used or serve all fancy features to the edge:

• MR5100 Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro for AT&T (including 5GNR Sub 6GHz (N)SA)
• MR5100-1TLAUS Nighthawk 5G Mobile Router for Telstra (Australia, including 5GNR Sub 6GHz (N)SA)
• MR5100C Bell 5G (including 5GNR Sub 6GHz (N)SA)

[ecofri]

I know that MR5100C is variant model for Canada Bell users.

I bought this device just because european MR5200 model dose not support LTE B5, which is critical for wide cellular coverage.

Is there any way to enable full spectrum of LTE carrier aggregation?

I was able to specify LTE bands by AT command, but it seems there is no way to specify band combinations.

Currently I can use only B5+7 combination of LTE-CA, it seems because Bell network has LTE B2,4,5,7.

It's so crucial to limit functiononality of such good device. 

What about traveler from Canada? This device is carrier-unlocked device and should perform well on worldwide network.

[schumaku]

---

@ecofri wrote:

I bought this device just because european MR5200 model dose not support LTE B5, which is critical for wide cellular coverage.

---

There is no B5 usage in Europe for LTE - so it's not crucial for this market.

---

@ecofri wrote:

Is there any way to enable full spectrum of LTE carrier aggregation?

I was able to specify LTE bands by AT command, but it seems there is no way to specify band combinations.

---

No idea, I`m not Netgear.

---

@ecofri wrote:

What about traveler from Canada? This device is carrier-unlocked device and should perform well on worldwide network.

---

Look, most mobile phone makers are offering and selling regional variants in the different markets. Most have a subset of band support for offering telephony and some basic or essential IP/Internet coverage while travelling. Background to all this are the chipset makers where the product vendors must license bands and capabilities for hard $$$$.

One of my earlier Google phones is an US import device, it even refuses to use the WiFi channels 12 and 13 - even if the device knows exactly it's located in the heart of Switzerland - thanks to the FCC regulatory stating it's not allowed to have software controls for these channels. Travelling now with a worldwide or European phone to the US does just apply a location based channel filter for the 2.4 GHz band. 

Similar, on a business travel to Taiwan not so long ago, we found that some friends could not make use a SIM form popular local provider because of the Taiwan manufactured German Telekom branded HTC mobile devices did not had any data-band in common. Only basic GSM telephony was possible. 

Lots of oddities in this market - travellers are happy if the can use telephony and some Internet.