HI
I had no trouble recently setting up my LTEA BR1 mini and activating SIM A with pageplus as a new line, and SIM B with Verizon as a new BYOD hotspot on my existing Verizon account.
I have had a lot of trouble and hours on the phone when I’ve followed other advice and tried to migrate Sprint or Verizon SIMs from other devices. I’ve never tried to move AT&T SIMs.
I recommend new SIMs if you can.
David
I’m not trying to complicate this, I bought a new cellular modem, I want to BYOD activate it on the Verizon network under a new prepaid plan by entering the IMEI and ordering a new SIM. It literally couldn’t get any simpler.
However, I see posts upon posts of people having to jump through multiple hoops getting PepLink devices registered directly with Verizon when PepLink partners are advertising them as 100% compatible with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. I have no desire to dick around with Pageplus, Vision or any other 3rd party, I just want it activated on the Verizon network. Once I have that working I’ll look at hacks.
Once i get mine tomorrow I’ll know if this is going to hard or simple…
My experience is that it’ll be really simple as a new BYOD on Verizon with the device’s actual IMEI and a new SIM. I recall having to put the SIM into a phone so that I could receive a text message with a security code to activate the account. As I remember it my sequence last month was:
- get new SIM. Give the store the IMEI of SIM slot A in your new pepwave. They might ask what sort of device. I told them that it was a Pepwave and they told me that it was a Sierra Wireless hotspot once they’d added the IMEI to their system. I think that Sierra Wireless make the cellular modems in the pepwave unit.
- put SIM in pepwave, power up and connect
- register account online. It then sent me a text with a security code to set up the online account etc for payment
- power off pepwave and take the SIM out of the pepwave and into an unlocked or Verizon phone (not an old CDMA one but a GSM one from the last few years)
- power on the phone, get your text, complete the verizon online account registration
- power off the phone, put SIM back in the pepwave and power up the pepwave.
That sequence worked for me with Verizon BYOD, Sprint and pageplus.
Good luck
David
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Ok, here’s something interesting. I tried to activate with the IMEI from the invoice for the PrePaid service and it errored out. I opened a ticket with peplink and they confirmed it was uploaded to Verizon on the 5th so I called and apparently it can be active on their post paid plan (less data, more cost) but not on their PrePaid plans. I wonder if that’s a separate database peplink needs to update, strange.
There is an option to order a Jetpack they have on sale for $49 with the prepaid service then just swap it over after it activates, that was the reps suggestion or to use an old phone then do the same after it activates.
Nothing is ever straight forward in the wireless world…
I tried a visible.com SIM card: Activated on an IOS device, added it to a MAX Transit and also a MAX BR1, entered the APN, and in both cases it is stuck in “Obtaining IP address”.
Suggestions?
Does that area have known working Verizon service.
What apn did you use , what Bands is it connecting to? What are th cellular signals? Attach a screenshot?
Under the cellular wan, change band selection to custom and uncheck band 4.
Set Health check to disabled, temporarily to see if it ever gets an ip address.
I confirmed that the same APN that had worked for me.
Which peplink were you using in? I used a BR1 CLASSIC LTEA HW3.
Mine pretty much always connected on band 13 , 700 mhz, but could have been my area.
Done (the bands available for Verizon were 13 and 4).
Done
A MAX-TST-DUO-US and a MAX-BR1-LTE-US-T
The above second round of experiments was performed on the Duo, with a Verizon card in one radio and the Visible card in the other. The Verizon card connected swiftly and well.
Still stuck in “Obtaining IP Address” for the Visible card. As a peculiarity: When Band 4 is selected then the connection shows as LTE R (roaming), but with Band 13 it is only LTE. (No IP address in both cases).
Cheers.
Z
Interesting…
Did you put the visible sim in a phone and activate it and test data in the phone first.
I recall doing that, wasn’t sure if it made a difference.
I lent out my Visible sim so I haven’t been able to test again at the moment.
I had it working in a HD2 dome and a br1 classic hw3.
I don’t have a duo-us to test.
Maybe try to test in a phone, then try LTE only mode on the peplink?
Also test 8.1 b2 fw and see if the cellular module has the latest firmware?
Yes. The data connected just fine in an iPhone (but not in an iPad - suggesting that Verizon is leashing Visible very tightly).
The LTE connection in the iPhone seemed to be deprioritized - slightly slower than with the Verizon card.
I always run LTE only mode (3G connections are not workable 
)
These tests were all done with 8.0.2 build 4407 with the latest cellular firmware (05.05.63.01).
I might try the 8.2 beta just to dot the i, but I expect no joy.
Cheers,
Z
And no joy it was - no change w.r.t. the Visible SIM card getting an IP address.
Do you have any other peplinks models to test in?
If not I’d open a support ticket and this point, maybe peplink can tell why it’s not connecting?
You will need an active wired wan or wifi-wan for them to remote in to it.
So - joy! - after all.
The following (possibly obvious) trick did succeed:
In other words, through the network is Verizon, the network mode is “generic.”
Confirmed functioning on a MAX-BR1-LTE-US as well.
All is joy! Way cool.
Thanks @Jonathan_Pitts.
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Awesome! I forgot to ask that, I may have changed that on mine, but can’t remember. Glad you got it to work!
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Oh wow! I have the same problem - Obtaining IP address forever. I would set the Network mode to Generic as you have above, but my MAX BRI 4A27 (MAX-BR1-LTE-US-T) Verizon unit does NOT HAVE that option. My options are: Auto AT&T / T-mobile Sprint Verizon Wireless.
What does this setting do? Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Jeff
mjw930, did you resolve this? I like you just want it to work!
Thank you for this, been trying to figure it out for 2 days… Should have googled it before I spent an hour fiddling with it, lol.
Thanks for this post! I just picked up the MAX Duo and am planning on full-time RV’ing, but need a solid connection like you. I have not researched the SpeedFusion option yet, but would you recommend going that route for working full-time remotely? Current set up: 2 3rd party pageplus cards with 200G of data each. Current testing show both in priority 1 setting provides the fasted up and down. We also have 15G of hotspot on each of our 2 phones. Our trip starts next month and I’m testing it at home right now (several video calls later today so I’ll get a better understanding). Thanks again, Mike