Wireless Joint

Hello all,

In some post in the past there as been an issue with someone using to old of a tablet/ipad to get this service with and not getting a LTE SIM card. This concerned me when ordering my first one. So the goal for me was to get the cheapest Tablet possible to get the IMEI # to get a LTE card. So Thought would start a post of devices people used to get one successfully.

So far was able to do it with these two tablets

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab A

gscheb wrote: Sun Jan 31, 2021 11:50 am Hello all,

In some post in the past there as been an issue with someone using to old of a tablet/ipad to get this service with and not getting a LTE SIM card. This concerned me when ordering my first one. So the goal for me was to get the cheapest Tablet possible to get the IMEI # to get a LTE card. So Thought would start a post of devices people used to get one successfully.

So far was able to do it with these two tablets

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab A

Update now 3 tablets
1. Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab A
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab E

Good work, gscheb

Having to buy a tablet nullifies one of the main purposes of buying an LTE router, to save money. I can type on a laptop keyboard much faster than on a touch screen so I have no reason to buy a tablet.

I believe gscheb is only posting what tablets will work with ATT's unlimited tablet plan. I would assume that almost any tablet that is capable of "4G/LTE" would work but its good to know model numbers of verified devices. I would hope that the 'main purposes' of buying an LTE router would be to obtain fast internet speeds in locations that have no other options rather than just trying to get cheapest internet. What other way do you know of to obtain an activated sim card for your LTE router other than a tablet sim? Other than limited expensive 'legit' business plans and 'phone' line accounts of course. Out of the various plans I have activated over the past few years, the cheapest way by far for me was buying a cheap busted LTE tablet for 15-20 bux on ebay and activating its IMEI on say ATT's unlimited tablet plan for $20/mo.

Thanks for explaining the logic. I never thought of buying a junk tablet for the IMEI number but that's a clever option. My main objective when purchasing my LTE router was to dump my local cable company who kept raising the cost of their data only plan and provided lousy service. I was also planning to use the router in my RV. I purchased a 'grandfathered' tablet plan from a reseller on eBay a couple years ago and it worked until a month ago when my wife's excessive daily video streaming caused the account to be red flagged and disabled. Now she's stuck watching free to air TV every day. I'll look for a suitable 4G/LTE tablet for sale locally or just buy another reseller's plan.

Visible will put up with allot of steaming for her.

I'm back with AT&T again for now. The wife's not happy about having to deal with her blog addiciton but that's life. If she gets us canned again I may try Visible. Thanks for the tip!

I activated the $20 + fees stand alone tablet plan using an iPad gen 4. It cost me $100 including tax on FleeBay. I put the SIM in a Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot (MR5000) and it worked but only on 4G. I put the SIM back in the iPad. I have to "repair" the IMEI and change the TTL on the Nighthawk, it can't hurt and may save my plan from a TOS violation and hot_spot throttling.

Earl_the_Pearl wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:25 pm I activated the $20 + fees stand alone tablet plan using an iPad gen 4. It cost me $100 including tax on FleeBay. I put the SIM in a Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot (MR5000) and it worked but only on 4G. I put the SIM back in the iPad. I have to "repair" the IMEI and change the TTL on the Nighthawk, it can't hurt and may save my plan from a TOS violation and hot_spot throttling.

Hello,
Are you saying that it has 4G Lte in both the ipad and Nighthawk? If so that is to be expected. If the device you used to get the card doesn't have 5G the card will not be provisioned with it. Honestly don't even know if 5G is part of the deal with unlimited ipad/tablet plans.
This is the reason started this thread. Some people where activating service on a older tablet that didn't have LTE only older 4G and 3G. So when they moved the sim they where stuck with slower speeds.
So was creating a list that I knew for sure got LTE provisioned sim cards.

gscheb wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 7:33 am Hello,
Are you saying that it has 4G Lte in both the ipad and Nighthawk? If so that is to be expected. If the device you used to get the card doesn't have 5G the card will not be provisioned with it. Honestly don't even know if 5G is part of the deal with unlimited ipad/tablet plans.
This is the reason started this thread. Some people where activating service on a older tablet that didn't have LTE only older 4G and 3G. So when they moved the sim they where stuck with slower speeds.
So was creating a list that I knew for sure got LTE provisioned sim cards.

It really doesn't matter what device you activate the service in. If both the new device AND the plan supports 5G then it should work on 5G (even with the magic, the modem will request a 5G channel regardless if it's available). As far as I know only Verizon charges extra for 5G at this time, best to check with your carrier and your plan. There are lots of variables which can affect 5G, such as the device, plan, location, signal, and the phase the moon (well, maybe not that last one lol).

BillA wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:49 am It really doesn't matter what device you activate the service in. If both the new device AND the plan supports 5G then it should work on 5G (even with the magic, the modem will request a 5G channel regardless if it's available). As far as I know only Verizon charges extra for 5G at this time, best to check with your carrier and your plan. There are lots of variables which can affect 5G, such as the device, plan, location, signal, and the phase the moon (well, maybe not that last one lol).

In the past there where people not getting LTE on their modem because of the the type of tablet they got service with. Why I started this to help people to know which ones had LTE.

I did not get a 5G SIM, there very few 5G iPads and they cost a mint. I got speeds up to 175 mb/s in the M5100 on 4G but I can't get 5G.

I was a bit surprised at no 5G, I have a Verizon and Sprint 4G SIMs that I use in 5G hot-spots and get 5G with both. The sub 6 5G is no better, and at times worse, than 4G LTE.

This is the SIM AT&T sent me. (SIM VAR AFF2 UICCG), it came on an orange card. Do they still make non LTE SIMs, were there ever 4G SIMs that couldn't receive LTE?

UICCG is good for 3G, 4G and LTE. If I set the APR to nrbroadband on the M5100 I can't connect.

Earl_the_Pearl wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:20 pm This is the SIM AT&T sent me. (SIM VAR AFF2 UICCG), it came on an orange card. Do they still make non LTE SIMs, were there ever 4G SIMs that couldn't receive LTE?

Yes according to past post people reported. Happened because of the type of tablet they connected with.
https://www.wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php? ... =10#p16220

This is probably a good topic for anyone thinking about which device to purchase for AT&T:

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2993