Looking for a cheap 5G modem for OpenWRT

[isthiscre@iv]

Hello, I am new here so I'm sorry if I make any mistakes when posting.
What is the cheapest 5G modem for use in Europe (on my phone I get NSA band 1, LTE band 1,3,7 signal) that I can use with OpenWRT (for example with ModemManager)?
I have read about the T99W175 modem, but as far as I understand, no one from this forum has gotten 5G to work on them, and it might have carrier specific firmware? (not sure about this one, but it worries me as I am not in the US, and my carrier is Vodafone).

My budget is ideally around 50 euros per modem (I want to maybe get 2), but even after searching for a while, the cheapest modem that I found costs 58 euros, so I guess that I just want the cheapest possible option.

Are there any other modems apart from the T99W175 that are very cheap and work properly on OpenWRT? Or does T99W175 work properly already? I have also found these modems that sort of fit my budget (all of them are under 80 euros apart from the last one), but they are mostly Chinese versions, and I am not sure if I can successfully use any of them with OpenWRT:

• Quectel RM500U-CN (cheapest one, so I hope that I can use it)

• Fibocom FM650-CN

• SIMCom SIM8200EA-M2 (maybe shady seller, but I can try to buy it)

• Fibocom FM350-GL

• Quectel RG200U-CN

• SIMCom SIM8210C-M2 (most expensive one, so I would like to avoid it)

[Hikaru_]

T99W175 does work properly. you probably just need a newer kernel. There's a PR open for Linux 6.1 on openwrt that should be able to help.

As for the other ones, where did you find those modems below 80 eur? I'd be really curious since I'm looking for some.

[isthiscre@iv]

T99W175 does work properly. you probably just need a newer kernel. There's a PR open for Linux 6.1 on openwrt that should be able to help.

Then I will order a Lenovo T99W175.00 ^^

As for the other ones, where did you find those modems below 80 eur? I'd be really curious since I'm looking for some.

Taobao. It's quite hard to order from there internationally, but you can if you try hard enough) Sellers are quite friendly too.
I hope that me mentioning this won't make prices go up... But I doubt it, as it's the Chinese market.

[Hikaru_]

T99W175 does work properly. you probably just need a newer kernel. There's a PR open for Linux 6.1 on openwrt that should be able to help.

Then I will order a Lenovo T99W175.00 ^^

As for the other ones, where did you find those modems below 80 eur? I'd be really curious since I'm looking for some.

Taobao. It's quite hard to order from there internationally, but you can if you try hard enough) Sellers are quite friendly too.
I hope that me mentioning this won't make prices go up... But I doubt it, as it's the Chinese market.

No worries about ordering from taobao. I order there a lot
Do you have links to some? I can't seem to find those under 80 eur

[isthiscre@iv]

T99W175 does work properly. you probably just need a newer kernel. There's a PR open for Linux 6.1 on openwrt that should be able to help.

Then I will order a Lenovo T99W175.00 ^^

As for the other ones, where did you find those modems below 80 eur? I'd be really curious since I'm looking for some.

Taobao. It's quite hard to order from there internationally, but you can if you try hard enough) Sellers are quite friendly too.
I hope that me mentioning this won't make prices go up... But I doubt it, as it's the Chinese market.

No worries about ordering from taobao. I order there a lot
Do you have links to some? I can't seem to find those under 80 eur

Sure!

Quectel RM500U-CN
[¥430 | 58EUR] https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... t=7#detail
[¥445 | 60EUR] https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... t=7#detail

Quectel RG200U-CN
[¥565 | 76EUR] https://detail.tmall.com/item_o.htm?spm ... 5137368734

Fibocom FM650-CN
[¥480 | 65EUR] https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... t=7#detail

Fibocom FM350-GL
[¥550 | 74EUR] https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... t=7#detail

SIMCom SIM8210C-M2
[¥680 | 92EUR (yes, not under 80 but close, sort of)] https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1 ... 4841779604

[blackjmyntrn]

I guess my thought is, why go cheap? thats like putting cheap tires on a bmw m5 competition... personally, I save and purchase the right equipment once... learned my lesson many moons ago have to fiddle extensively with "cheap" purchases.

[Hikaru_]

I guess my thought is, why go cheap? thats like putting cheap tires on a bmw m5 competition... personally, I save and purchase the right equipment once... learned my lesson many moons ago have to fiddle extensively with "cheap" purchases.

Since some of us cant afford 400 usd 5g modules
My cheap Lenovo T99W175 has been working great. I spent less than 100 usd on a working 5G router with an IPQ4019 SoC. Only thing that sucks is it doesnt have USSD support but found out I didnt need it anyways.

[samaeqe0]

I guess my thought is, why go cheap? thats like putting cheap tires on a bmw m5 competition... personally, I save and purchase the right equipment once... learned my lesson many moons ago have to fiddle extensively with "cheap" purchases.

Since some of us cant afford 400 usd 5g modules
My cheap Lenovo T99W175 has been working great. I spent less than 100 usd on a working 5G router with an IPQ4019 SoC. Only thing that sucks is it doesnt have USSD support but found out I didnt need it anyways.

What router did you choose for the T99W175? Are there openwrt builds for it?

[KingGGs]

I guess my thought is, why go cheap? thats like putting cheap tires on a bmw m5 competition... personally, I save and purchase the right equipment once... learned my lesson many moons ago have to fiddle extensively with "cheap" purchases.

Since some of us cant afford 400 usd 5g modules
My cheap Lenovo T99W175 has been working great. I spent less than 100 usd on a working 5G router with an IPQ4019 SoC. Only thing that sucks is it doesnt have USSD support but found out I didnt need it anyways.

Hello are you still using the T99W175 with OPENWRT OR ROOTER(golden orb)?

If so do you mind doing a step by step on how you got it working? I have a T99W175 from my laptop that I’d like to put it to use. Thank you

[Hikaru_]

What router did you choose for the T99W175? Are there openwrt builds for it?

P&W R619AC which I've modified to enable the PCIe lines. Along with an mPCIe adapter that has the PCIe lanes connected.
It's officially supported by OpenWrt but back then I had to patch the kernel to support the module. Now you can probably just build it from snapshot si
nce it was updated to 6.1

[Hikaru_]

Hello are you still using the T99W175 with OPENWRT OR ROOTER(golden orb)?

If so do you mind doing a step by step on how you got it working? I have a T99W175 from my laptop that I’d like to put it to use. Thank you

I never actually used it daily as it was more of a fun experiment for me. It just sits in the corner right now. I've never used ROOTer btw so I can't comment on that.

You need a router with PCIe lanes which almost all of them don't. OpenWrt on devices with 6.1 kernel should support it now. Just install the MHI PCI driver then ModemManager. Should work OOTB. luci-proto-modemmanager also now has a stats page so that's helpful.