I purchased this product and put a 3G sim card in it in Australia (Telstra M2M). The manual below says the network LED should blink every 3 second after connection. Would this happen by just powering the board? or it needs to be coded as well?
This is the product:
This is the manual:
That board appears to be a GSM (2G) type which wont work in Australia as 2G isnt used here anymore.
You need a board that supports 3G or LTE.
Thanks for the info. Would you know what I should check to make sure it is 3G or 4G, such as frequency etc?
Do you think I can find SIM cards for these two?
A 3G or LTE (4G) board will say that its supports those protocols.
It may also support 2G.
Heres an example.
https://tronixlabs.com.au/3g-4g-lte-arduino-shield-australia/
Unfortunately, these types of boards are quite expensive .
Search for 3G/LTE shields for Arduino and you may find cheaper ones.
At a minimum, the board should support the 850/ 900 Mhz bands for 3G , and for 4G 2100 Mhz,1800 Mhz and 700 Mhz, as it depends a bit on which Telco you want to use.
This is the specs from the board, do you think it works here:
Quad-Band 850 / 900/ 1800 / 1900 MHz - would work on GSM networks in all countries across the world.
GPRS multi-slot class 10/8
GPRS mobile station class B
Compliant to GSM phase 2/2+
Class 4 (2 W @ 850 / 900 MHz)
Class 1 (1 W @ 1800 / 1900MHz)
No, thats a GSM (2G) board which wont work in Australia as no telcos support 2G.
Thanks mauried. I just learned it has to support WCDMA for 3g and HSDPA for 4g.
Yes that right.
You most likley dont need 4G capability as 4G essentially only provides high speed data transfer which the Arduino wont be able to handle anyway, so just look for the cheapest 3G board you can find , and check that it supports the correct frequencies for the Telco you want to use.
Ideally in most countries 850 Mhz and 900 Mhz are the most commonly used .
In Australia 850 Mhz is used by telstra and 900 Mhz by Optus and Vodaphone.
So what's the criterion here? Is the 3G capability reflected in the fact that the module is SIM900?
I've got this GeeTech GPRS shield that I have had for a few years but I have never used it, and I have wondered if it is out of date.
No, the SIM900 is a GSM (2G) board which doesnt support 3G , however boards which do support 3G will almost always support 2G , GSM.
OK Thanx. I see that I misread the thread in the first place...