Wireless Joint

Hi all. This is my first time posting in this forum. Thanks to this group of people, I’ve been successfully preparing for my family and I’s future full-time RV adventure.

I currently run an ATT post-paid tablet sim in the EM7565 in the WG3265-P in an antenna/enclosure. It’s working great so far.

My plan for redundancy while on the road is to purchase a second modem and run a T-Mobile tablet sim in the USB3.0 adapter hooked up to the router and using a second external Omni-antenna (to prevent having to aim two separate panels and since I’m primarily looking for lower frequency bands in this scenario so not necessarily the “optimal” signal).

Since I will be in the boonies most of the time, B71 might be useful to leverage since it is such a low frequency. However, I know the CAT7 modem is not as advanced as a CAT12 or higher. While I’m not necessarily looking for speed as much as reliability, redundancy, and load balancing capabilities, is the EM7411 worth it for B71 in this scenario if I can afford to go with another, more powerful modem?

I only need min. 5dl/1.5ul minimum for working from home, so the low bandwidth on B71 isn’t a big deal, esp since I’ll be running the ATT sim simultaneously.

I’ve done some searching for TMO towers in areas I would like to visit and noticed several with access to other bands than just B71, but wasn’t sure about how easy it would be to get a quality signal from these higher frequency bands in the middle of nowhere.

Any thoughts or experience working with this kind of setup? Thanks in advance.

Hey! Welcome to the forum!

I would jump right in and say, yes I think it's worth it. If you compare it to the other options out that support B71, the MC7411 support uplink CA and is already testing to be a reliable modem.

If you have the money to get a Telit LM960A18, and the 4 antennas with it, or a 5G modem like the Quectel RM5xx modems, then your really just asking yourself do you want the power of the 4x4 MIMO and higher end modem chip, or not? Right?

As far as Tmob goes, I think B71 is more geared towards their lower 5G band. Fairly rural area here but looking at cellmapper all of the tmob towers near here like to latch on to 2/12/66 for their 4G signal and i've only seen B71 connect when locking to it and singling it out. Band 12 seems to be fairly popular and is close to the 600mhz lower frequencies at 700mhz.

I got lucky and am within ~3 miles of a tmob tower, they are extremely scarce around these parts and in rural areas that i've seen. Vzw or att blows them away as far as tower access around these parts, yet, tmob seems to blow them away as far as top connection speeds when you include in close access lower band 5G. You have to have a pretty darn good tmob B71 5G signal though as i've tried about every combination of antennas you can think of and at 3 miles I'm barely better than 4G with an 'almost' line of site.

FYI
T-Mobile has band 71 4G and
n71 5G they are both using 600MHz

T-Mobile Band n41 is the faster 5G

n71 is 5G low band
n41 is 5G mid band

In a rural setting 600MHz is your friend
Not the fastest but gets the job done

Didneywhorl wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:05 pm Hey! Welcome to the forum!

I would jump right in and say, yes I think it's worth it. If you compare it to the other options out that support B71, the MC7411 support uplink CA and is already testing to be a reliable modem.

If you have the money to get a Telit LM960A18, and the 4 antennas with it, or a 5G modem like the Quectel RM5xx modems, then your really just asking yourself do you want the power of the 4x4 MIMO and higher end modem chip, or not? Right?

That is helpful to know. This is my first foray into cellular internet so knowing this modem is reliable already is good.

I don't necessarily have the cash for a 5G modem--I'm thinking $300 max for the modem which limits me to modems from thewirelesshaven.com without B71, excluding the EM7411. I also read in the forums that Telit modems were harder to work with than Sierra or Quectel modems, but I could be wrong on that front.

I did find a link to a newer EM7690 model, which appears to have support for B71 and is CAT-20. Has anyone worked with this one yet? It is within my budget and I'm familiar (kinda) with configuring Sierra modems.

https://techship.com/products/sierra-wi ... te-cat-20/

mtl26637 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:50 pm As far as Tmob goes, I think B71 is more geared towards their lower 5G band. Fairly rural area here but looking at cellmapper all of the tmob towers near here like to latch on to 2/12/66 for their 4G signal and i've only seen B71 connect when locking to it and singling it out.

I don't plan on utilizing 5g at all since it is still so new and the modems are pretty expensive, which is the primary reason I narrowed my choice to the EM7411 since it was the only new-ish 4G-only modem on the The Wireless Haven website with B71 access.

Band 12 seems to be fairly popular and is close to the 600mhz lower frequencies at 700mhz.

So you think LTE B71 might be more scarce then and to focus more on other low-frequency bands? I get B12 almost everywhere with ATT for sure.

I got lucky and am within ~3 miles of a tmob tower, they are extremely scarce around these parts and in rural areas that i've seen. Vzw or att blows them away as far as tower access around these parts, yet, tmob seems to blow them away as far as top connection speeds when you include in close access lower band 5G. You have to have a pretty darn good tmob B71 5G signal though as i've tried about every combination of antennas you can think of and at 3 miles I'm barely better than 4G with an 'almost' line of site.

Yea I've read the Verizon and ATT tend to have much better coverage in less populated areas, both in articles online and from reading about user experience. It seems Verizon is a bit stingy to work with (talking "magic" and TTL mods, even then it can take a lot of TLC, etc.), and since I have ATT I figured TMO would be a good backup since it is mentioned a lot here.

If it were me I wouldn't put too much effort into B71 if not going after 5G. Around my area it isn't one of their primary bands for 4G use. 2/12/66 are their main 4G bands in these parts and I would assume its that way in most areas so they can keep 71 open for their 5G customers. In all honesty, I wouldn't even consider tmob if it wasn't for 5G, there coverage is complete crap in my parts, for 4G I be getting a second line on att or vzw but I guess it all depends on location. As far as modems, Sierra's are great and I like my original EM7565 a lot but i'm pretty fond of the quectel modems these days, they seem to be more open to commands and settings. They all get the job done though if your after reliability, the prices are geared toward additional speeds.

It depends on your location, where I am at its a strong band and with the 7411, I'm seeing it carrier aggregate with Band 2 and 66 giving it quite a boost. I have noticed better tree/forest penetration on band 71 than band 12. Also I have found Band 12 to always be saturated due to the number of phones that use it, especially older cat4 phones.