I have a MAX Transit CAT 18. I thought at the time I purchased it, it would be something I could use for years to come. WRONG! The carriers must get their act together. Aren’t they in the business of selling data? Most of us are willing to pay the exorbitant prices they charge for a few hundred Gigs. Why can’t they make this easier? Seem like no one in the stores know anything but how to sell a phone. It’s 2022!
I purchased a “pink” t-mobile card from Nomad Internet ($900 for the year). I was told “Just plug it into the router and it will work”. Nope! It is constantly searching for IP address. I bought t-mobile because I have a great signal with my t-mobile phone. I was told by a Nomad support rep to leave the modem on for a few hours, then turn it off, remove the sim, re-insert the sim and then turn it on again. He did ask me to send him a picture of the SIM so I suspect the SIM was sent to me without being activated. Let’s hope, Anyone with similar issues with Nomad?
Cat-18 Modems were blocked from T-Mobile in August of 2020, see this post…I don’t know if they were ever re-instated.
Dispute the charge with your credit card company.
3rd party plan providers are notoriously suspect.
Im not blaming you, but you probably should have tested with the $10 plan from T-Mobile directly before diving into a $900 plan. Right now you have no frame of reference. Had you started with a TMo direct plan and been successful you would at least have a better idea that the issue is purely on Nomad’s side.
Nomad seems to have a particularly bad reputation on places like https://www.reddit.com/r/Rural_Internet. I don’t know if that is deserved and they’re really any worse than other resellers but search for Nomad on there and you’ll see what I mean.
The situation in the US is unfortunately quite difficult for a private consumer who wants a relatively high volume plan at an affordable price. There are several groups where the standard path is to buy a router which allows you to change the IMEI. Then buy an “unlimited” tablet or phone plan and say goodbye to this nonsense. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do and it’s dubiously legal but it sure makes a lot of problems go away.
Pepwave would probably sell more to consumers if they provided the ability to send AT commands to the modem. They don’t need to know why someone would want to do that.
I had no idea someone could change the IMEI number of the modem. I always thought that was burned into chip! I guess your making my point that it just should be this hard!
Whether or not it’s possible and how difficult it is depends on the brand and model of modem. It’s relatively easy for the Sierra Wireless modems that some Pepwave routers use but you need direct access to the modem commands.