I think the main problem with B71 is that they are marketing it as a speed thing, when this is really a coverage band.
Said another way, this low frequency reaches the farthest, so you can get connected inside buildings, basements, through dense foliage etc.
This is obviously great for coverage, but the downside is since so many devices can hear it, it is the first to get saturated. It’s the same situation with Verizons B13 and AT&T/FirstNet’s B14.
People seem to have the same perception of B14 being some magical unicorn of speed, and it will never be that. It’s just great for coverage.
I’m new here, but I have also purchased a T-Mobile sim on the new 100GB plan. As soon as I receive it I’ll do some testing and post results. I’m not using a cat18 model though. My router is the max transit duo.
Unsure how to phrase this question, but I’m looking for thoughts on what 4G vs 5G means for t-mobile B71 in the context of an LTE modem such as a pepwave cat18 max transit.
Still working on getting some good test results. So far I’ve rarely seen 10Mbps down. I’m also having trouble getting aggregation to happen. Both issues are likely due to my location.
Hi @aquablue. I don’t know the specifics, but I do recall someone mentioning in a YouTube video that what is called “5Ge” is really using the 4G spectrum (no new bandwidth). So, in my case I’m not in a city core where the real 5G is located but I still see 5G on my phone. The speeds are pretty much the same as they have always been as far as I can tell.
I just ordered the 100g card. It will be here Saturday. I will let you know how it works. I ordered a t-mobile card from nomadinternet.com and it did not work. 500kbps max. its going back
With all my research of T-Mobile I have found setting band to 12 only increases download speeds by 80%
UPDATE: I recently installed the 100gb sim card Saturday with no luck at high speed internet until I set it to sprint band 41. I am now getting 9-10mps. Not what I would like to see but doable. Verizon gives me 20-30mps and AT&T gives me 30-40mps.
New to Pepwave - just got my Pepwave MAX Transit set up with SpeedFusion. I have two unlimited hotspot accounts, one prepaid with Verizon and one with OTR Mobile which is now (unfortunately) on T-Mobile.
Just came here to say (in case this helps anyone)… it looks like T-Mobile is now blocking the Pepwave. I also found this much more detailed post outlining this.
Only tried T-Mobile via OTR (reseller). As a workaround (for now), I’m using the OTR/T-Mobile account in a hotspot as a wifi connection in Pepwave. Does the trick until my AT&T SIM comes!
Got it. Well I’m curious to find out if it does work on the Max Transit as I’ve seen blog posts that it’s been blocked. I know the MT has a different brand modem it than that other Pepwaves.
