No Voice or Text on Inland Cellular (non-MVNO) but Internet Data Works!
11-13-2020, 02:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2020, 02:12 PM by calinb.
Edit Reason: typo
)
I have an Inland Cellular SIM card. Inland is NOT an MVNO and Inland owns the only towers and provides the only cellular service in my part of rural Idaho, US. I really wanted PinePhone to work and I'm very disappointed. (I will give up mobile phones entirely rather than use a spy phone, even though the telecom networks still spy on those of us using PinePhones.)
I hope someone here has a few ideas or suggestions that will help me.
My PinePhone receives an Inland 4G signal and Internet data works, but voice and SMS text are completely non-functional (inbound and outbound). The Inland tech was very helpful and even loaned a Samsung phone to me that, of course, works reliably on their network. I use the loaner phone to check SIM settings, signal strength, and functionality. (I appreciate the "hometown" feel and personal support of this carrier, compared to my previous dealings with Verizon, AT&T and a couple of their MVNOs. The tech was very interested in my PinePhone too!
I also tried my old, no longer subscribed Verizon SIM card some miles away where Verizon towers are visible. It too produced a good 4G signal bar indication, but I have no idea whether or not Verizon would work because the subscription has expired. Guess I could have tried calling 911!
The Inland tech told me that Inland does not support VoLTE but they are working on it. The following Inland frequency and band specs are posted at https://www.signalbooster.com/pages/what-are-the-cellular-frequencies-of-cell-phone-carriers-in-usa-canada.
Inland Cellular
3G Frequencies / Wavelengths
3G : 835 - 845 MHz, Block B Band 2 (CDMA2000). 880 - 890 MHz, Block B Band 2 (CDMA2000).
4G, LTE, 5G frequencies / Wavelengths
4G : 800 MHz ESMR, Band 26 (LTE700). 1900 MHz PCS, Band 25 (LTE700). 2.5 GHz BRS/ EBS, Band 41 (TD-LTE700/ LTE Advanced).
The following PinePhone specs are summarized in the wiki: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone#Specifications
Communication: G25-G
LTE: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B8, B12, B13, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, B38, B39, B40, B41 WCDMA: B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B8, B19 GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 (MHz)
Though I'm a retired electrical and computer engineer, I find cellular freq / band and modulation specs to be baffling. Are these Inland and PinePhone specs compatible? What is the difference between CDMA and WCDMA?
I tried Manjaro Phosh (I updated to Beta2 level using pacman) and I also tried UBports Ubuntu Touch (Lomiri) and Mobian (Phosh) from the p-boot build and multi bootloader. Actually, I tried all the OS images on the p-boot SD but only Ubuntu and Mobian worked to check or set the APN and establish a connection. They worked far better than Manjora Beta2, in fact.
Manjaro Beta2, updated from OEM and booted from eMMC, was barely usable to set the APN and connect to the Inland network, because the Manjaro Beta2 cellular settings are unstable. I never figured out how I sometimes managed to get a connection (accompanied by Internet data) and Manjaro always required a lot of setting, resetting, and turning the modem off and on. Sadly, the effort was always lost at each reboot.
But these OS configuration utility issue are subjects for other bug reports and p-boot Mobian and Ubuntu seem reliable enough to test any suggestions forum members might prescribe!
My next step will probably be to download the factory test image and boot it from an SD card. Factory-loaded Manjaro build with testing utility. Maybe the test utilities will detect something wrong with my hardware.
Although I was mostly a hardware and signal integrity engineer before I retired, I did a lot of low level programming (boot ROMS, device drivers, diagnostics) during my career and a good deal of it was for *NIX operating systems. I'd very much like to solve this partial, but critical, Inland non-functionality (Internet data IS working). Hopefully I'll then find the spare time to contribute to this project as a developer. (I'm actually busier than ever in retirement on this old rural Idaho homestead!)
Thanks so much for reading and thanks for any help that you may be able to provide to me!
-Cal
I hope someone here has a few ideas or suggestions that will help me.
My PinePhone receives an Inland 4G signal and Internet data works, but voice and SMS text are completely non-functional (inbound and outbound). The Inland tech was very helpful and even loaned a Samsung phone to me that, of course, works reliably on their network. I use the loaner phone to check SIM settings, signal strength, and functionality. (I appreciate the "hometown" feel and personal support of this carrier, compared to my previous dealings with Verizon, AT&T and a couple of their MVNOs. The tech was very interested in my PinePhone too!
I also tried my old, no longer subscribed Verizon SIM card some miles away where Verizon towers are visible. It too produced a good 4G signal bar indication, but I have no idea whether or not Verizon would work because the subscription has expired. Guess I could have tried calling 911!
The Inland tech told me that Inland does not support VoLTE but they are working on it. The following Inland frequency and band specs are posted at https://www.signalbooster.com/pages/what-are-the-cellular-frequencies-of-cell-phone-carriers-in-usa-canada.
Inland Cellular
3G Frequencies / Wavelengths
3G : 835 - 845 MHz, Block B Band 2 (CDMA2000). 880 - 890 MHz, Block B Band 2 (CDMA2000).
4G, LTE, 5G frequencies / Wavelengths
4G : 800 MHz ESMR, Band 26 (LTE700). 1900 MHz PCS, Band 25 (LTE700). 2.5 GHz BRS/ EBS, Band 41 (TD-LTE700/ LTE Advanced).
The following PinePhone specs are summarized in the wiki: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone#Specifications
Communication: G25-G
LTE: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B7, B8, B12, B13, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, B38, B39, B40, B41 WCDMA: B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B8, B19 GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 (MHz)
Though I'm a retired electrical and computer engineer, I find cellular freq / band and modulation specs to be baffling. Are these Inland and PinePhone specs compatible? What is the difference between CDMA and WCDMA?
I tried Manjaro Phosh (I updated to Beta2 level using pacman) and I also tried UBports Ubuntu Touch (Lomiri) and Mobian (Phosh) from the p-boot build and multi bootloader. Actually, I tried all the OS images on the p-boot SD but only Ubuntu and Mobian worked to check or set the APN and establish a connection. They worked far better than Manjora Beta2, in fact.
Manjaro Beta2, updated from OEM and booted from eMMC, was barely usable to set the APN and connect to the Inland network, because the Manjaro Beta2 cellular settings are unstable. I never figured out how I sometimes managed to get a connection (accompanied by Internet data) and Manjaro always required a lot of setting, resetting, and turning the modem off and on. Sadly, the effort was always lost at each reboot.
But these OS configuration utility issue are subjects for other bug reports and p-boot Mobian and Ubuntu seem reliable enough to test any suggestions forum members might prescribe!
My next step will probably be to download the factory test image and boot it from an SD card. Factory-loaded Manjaro build with testing utility. Maybe the test utilities will detect something wrong with my hardware.
Although I was mostly a hardware and signal integrity engineer before I retired, I did a lot of low level programming (boot ROMS, device drivers, diagnostics) during my career and a good deal of it was for *NIX operating systems. I'd very much like to solve this partial, but critical, Inland non-functionality (Internet data IS working). Hopefully I'll then find the spare time to contribute to this project as a developer. (I'm actually busier than ever in retirement on this old rural Idaho homestead!)
Thanks so much for reading and thanks for any help that you may be able to provide to me!
-Cal
