-76 dBm is about as good as you could hope for. I wouldn't bother with a booster if you weren't in the -95+ range. They're not cheap. If I could get my parents signal to -85 consistently I'd cheer my success and move on to another project.

Sim is installed and working, but only 3G. Currently maxing at about 11/1 Mbps. Only fix I see is calling AT&T and telling them the Sim is not pulling LTE. Not much troubleshooting related to it. Sitting in my living room with no antenna, it's RSSI and RSCP are both -74. Putting both antennas on only takes it to -71 to -72. When using just one antenna it gets down to about -67 and I was able to 14 down on one test.

If I can get the LTE issue solved, I think I'll be pleased.

tfunk02 said:

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This has been my daily usage.

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Is that usage chart through your modem dashboard?

Also, did you have any issues getting LTE when you activated? I'm trying to figure out why this modem would have issues of only being 3G. Seems strange you would have to call AT&T and have them provision the IMEI number to receive LTE for devices such as this. None of the video reviews mentioned having to do this.

Yes, Cradlepoint is enterprise level, so there's A LOT of info on their dashboard.

You were able to put the AT&T LTE APN into the modem and it still only pulls 3G? Strange... The only thing I found with google was someone that had a bad sim card. At least Amazon has a good return policy if the modem isn't working correctly.

I used the APN OTR told me. Which is just OTR Mobile and Broadband. The default was ATT Mobile 7 and Broadband.

An advanced OTR tech is supposed to call me this afternoon to see if they have a solution. I would try it in my phone, but I don't have a sim adapter so I don't feel like breaking the nano sim out at this point.

My Cradlepoint is on the Broadband AT&T APN. Wish I could help more...

Supposedly the sim was not correct and they are sending me a new sim. Unfortunately I doubt they overnight it so I will have to wait until next week to test.

Had the same issue with my parents. The APN is the same as AT&T's as far as I can tell so it should have worked with the AT&T hotspot they have, but it still had major issues (high latency and low data throughout). The Netgear LB1120 said that it was only connecting on 3G.

My new sim will be here tomorrow so I'll test it tomorrow night. I still don't know how the first wouldn't have LTE capability when it's a prominent part of their features on the homepage. All sim cards should have the capability whether your hotspot does or not.

If any of you live in B/CS you can borrow my NightHawk that I bought through OTR. It's just sitting in a drawer until I get around to selling it.

After about a week of using it I realized that in the settings my service said HSPA+ instead of LTE. After some testing, I found that if I set my AT&T First net phone next to my modem, my phone was getting 30-50 mbps while my OTR service was getting about 5-10 mbps. I talked to OTR and they are sending a replacement Sim.

Sounds like they might have a bad batch of Sim cards.

Got my replacement today and my signal has gone from 4-5 bars to 3. Got 40 Mbps down one time, but others have been 22-32. RSRP is now -100, down to -93 with the occasional 4 bars, but not sustainable yet. Not sure how to fix the signal without getting a yagi antenna or something similar. The antenna I got is too heavy for the TS9 connection and if I put two of them, the second degrades the signal. Don't understand how an iPhone can get 90 Mbps, but this only averages 30.

And as I finished typing that, now I am sitting at 5 bars and RSRP of -89, but the last test only tested at 28, with upload getting 25, which is the best it's been. Other uploads were 8-18.

FirstNet is using Band 14, also if not it is subject to a higher Access Class so I would expect it to get some better throughput than a regular device on a different band.

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Don't understand how an iPhone can get 90 Mbps, but this only averages 30.

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What iPhone are you on? That Netgear LB1120 is a Cat 4 with no carrier aggregation. My guess is that the older tech is why.

Here's a good explanation:


For antennas, this is the one they recommend frequently on the RV site:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DN3J03O/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_wS2OCb80RFJVB

iPhone 6 and 6S

Yeah, both of those have carrier aggregation. The 6 is a Cat 4, but can do the carrier aggregation unlike the Netgears Cat 4 modem. The 6s is a Cat 6.

I thought carrier aggregation wouldn't be helpful for me since I knew the tower wasn't sending over 150 Mbps. Question is, can I find a good Cat 4 modem with aggregation under $200?

The max speeds are just lab speeds, and not real world speeds. It would be nice if that were true. That's why I said it takes a lot of tryouts before you find what works best.

I'll sell my used refurbish Cat 16 NightHawk for $120 plus shipping or pickup. I got it from OTR. If you don't like it send it back within a month. As long as all shipping is on you, I'd be fine with that.

I think I'll pass since it will be an always in use connection and likely to run into the same overheating issues you had. If it was for travel purposes, I might would try it.

If you can bump your price up, I'd go with this...

https://ltefix.com/shop/routers/cradlepoint-cba850lp6-na-cat6-att-verizon-t-mobile-sprint-refurbished/#comment-9284

Things were fine Monday and Tuesday, but last night and today, I'm getting 1-2 Mbps in current location, whereas my Cricket service is getting 6-7 in current location. At home, my speeds were lucky to be 3-4 Mbps, but the jitter was anywhere from 450ms - 1,000ms. At home when testing, I could see my speed being throttled, so there shouldn't be anything wrong with the cell service at the house.

Now my question is, is it the modem, or is OTR throttling, even though everything they say is unthrottled and unlimited? Thinking about that Cradlepoint modem, but if this is OTR causing this (or AT&T coming down on OTR users), then there's probably no point to the Cradlepoint.

Have you noticed any issues yesterday and today? I know they some type of update issue over the weekend that affected my activation on Monday and was posted to their website that everything was resolved as of Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

I would think it's the modem. My service hasn't slowed down any, still getting 5-10Mbps. My replacement SIM should be in tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a good speed boost with LTE working.

Try checking your modem/router settings. My modem has a setting where I can put a data usage cap by day, week or month. I would hope that if AT&T drops the hammer on OTR, they would at least notify their customers.

I haven't had any issues since I got the CradlePoint. My speeds are constantly around 40 down and 12 up with a ping average of 40ms and a jitter average of 8ms.

7 to 8 on Cricket is the max Cricket does, so I'd actually expect you to have higher speeds with AT&T.

Quote:

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High-speed data access allows a customer to experience download speeds up to a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible 4G LTE devices

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https://www.cricketwireless.com/legal-info/mobile-broadband-information.html

tfunk02 said:

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I haven't had any issues since I got the CradlePoint. My speeds are constantly around 40 down and 12 up with a ping average of 40ms and a jitter average of 8ms.

7 to 8 on Cricket is the max Cricket does, so I'd actually expect you to have higher speeds with AT&T.

Quote:

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High-speed data access allows a customer to experience download speeds up to a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible 4G LTE devices

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https://www.cricketwireless.com/legal-info/mobile-broadband-information.html

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Yeah, I knew that if my Cricket speeds were almost at the throttled speed, something was wrong. Although instead of seeing it be throttled from the capable speeds like normal, it was struggling and may never have even reached the 8 Mbps limit.

I did notice though that the modem was connecting to Band 4 and 12 or 17 yesterday morning instead of the normal Band 2. I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. When I got home and tested again last night, I was maxing at 40-50 Mbps on most tests and even got 70 on one (on Band 2 again). That was hardwired and when switching to wireless, it dropped to 35-40 max, but consistent with what I had seen previously.

I'm thinking of getting the Cradlepoint you linked now. With carrier aggregation, maybe it will help me get close to the 100 Mbps I would be happy with, and then maybe on wi-fi I can still pull 60-70Mbps. If this were just strictly for internet, I would probably keep what I have. But since I am going to try to move to streaming, I probably should have something a little better.

Anybody want a Netgear LB1120?

So what is the NetCloud service from Cradlepoint? Is that an extra paid subscription service or something available to anyone with a Cradlepoint modem/router?

Seems like an enterprise management service, not a consumer level subscription service. Basically allows you to manage devices remotely so that your clients don't have to.

EDIT: It's a paid service.

Yeah, you get 1 year free with the Cradlepoint. At least the new ones. It's not worth it for us since we aren't enterprise level, but it's a nice interface.

My main tower went to crap for the 1st time since we've been here. Phones and Cradlepoint were getting no data. Had to turn on the SureCall4Home booster and point it at another tower. Now we are only getting 5-8Mbps. Hope our regular tower is getting upgrades or something fixed soon.

Did it just stop today? Do you think it was anything weather related?

khkman22 said:

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Did it just stop today? Do you think it was anything weather related?

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Started before the weather on Friday. I haven't checked today, but the new tower is giving better ping speeds (25ms vs 40ms). It's just slower at about 18 up and down.

Mine was going pretty slow Friday and Saturday, but I think that probably had more to do with Chilifest being just a few miles from the house than anything. Now that its over, I'm getting speeds of 15 Mbps to 30 Mbps with the replacement SIM card they sent me.

I have watched a couple things live on FS1 and the quality looked pretty good. ESPN quality for live tv looks 2nd rate comparatively. I then watched some shows on History that were not live that looked better than ESPN, but a little worse or maybe the same as FS1. Do you notice ESPN looking bad?

I've got it mounted in my attic for now, but would prefer to move it somewhere in the house to keep the environment more regulated. But the places that are ideal from a connection standpoint have the worst signal. I'm consistently over 30 Mbps now and sometimes 40+ in the attic location.

ESPN app has always been terrible for me... even when I had gigabit internet in Houston. I watch with YouTubeTV and it looks great. When things are going like normal I can watch anything 1080P, and normally can watch UHD but it can sometimes be spotty.

So just curious, but how far away from the nearest tower are you guys? I gather that can affect the speeds you get.

About .3-.4 miles. A lot of trees between me and the tower though.

My parents are 7 or so miles from the nearest tower. They get up to 20 mb/s, but they have a cell booster (which strips them of MIMO, which will reduce their maximum speeds). Still trying to get OTR working. Not sure if adding a second Yagi antenna and direct connecting to the modem would be superior to the booster. I'll figure that out. Based upon what I've researched a dual yagi antenna angled at opposite 45 degree angles is the best you can hope for if you have the outdoor signal you have. Their outdoor signal is pretty poor (-110 db).

They should still be able to stream 1080p video no problem, which is good enough for them for the time being. They don't have a 4K TV and even if they did I don't think they'd want it. My dad had a brain tumor ~10 years ago that makes bright lights hard to look at which is part of the HDR spec. I just want to give them options to remove their landline and satellite TV.