I wated to buy a couple of the MKR 1400 GSM boards and seems they are marked as "end of life". The reason I assume is that the used uBox SANA-U2 is marked as obsolete. There are some in stock at other companies sold for insane (even double) price.
There are some GSM shields / modules available, yet I preferred something compact and working. And supporting Arduino brand too.
I don't want to use MKR 1500 NB as not supported by all operators in all countries.
Is there any foreseen (in close future) successor or another option?
I'm asking this questions for years with no repsonse. As to my knowledge, the modem successors from ublox are pin compatible, so just the effort to put a new module in the machine. I can't understand either.
I checked the coverage map for LTE-M and IoT-NB and seems the MKR 1500 NB is usable in most of the world assuming having a SIM card from a supported network provider. So I understand for Arduino it could be technically easier to support only a single product. Even the NB has some limitations (bandwidth) and I see the NB modules working with the default prepayed cards.
I recently tried to subscribe to both of them here in Spain and I was unsuccessful. I even had to explain myself and point out the heat map they themselves provide. No way to subscribe to the service, neither as an individual nor as a company.
So, no, NB 1500 is not an option if it can only enable those two technologies.
We will probably have to revert to old external hats, or abandon arduino completely. Or Arduino could release the MKR GSM 1410 with a current modem that supports gsm and lte.
It is true many mobile carriers are retiring 3G networks, but many do not dare touch gsm because there are many devices out there that run some m2m service based on it.
I do not see the point Arduino forceing the migration when neither new network support is universal, nor gsm networks are being retired. Also currently mkr gsm 1400 vam be used with inexpensive common mobile subscription sims. With nb 1500 that is no longer the case, making the technology more enterprise like and less people like.
But the main reason for Arduino not to drop this board is the raging prices on the very few units still for sale. I am considering myself selling my boards at a profit (last sell i saw was at 200 USD per unit) and move to another platform. This is a very important loss for the mkr family.
I totally agree. There are Pin-compatible modern 4G full LTE modems from u-blox.
A MKR 1410 with a full LTE and I2S support for voice calls would be great.
I assume since Sandeep left Arduino no one is able to code a library or is the MKR family about to distinct?
I built hardware upon the MKR design and 2G/3G is fading out while the MKR1500 is not a solution due to the poor coverage of NB.
IMHO the reality looks different. N/LTE-M is not enabled on much antennas based on my experience and the discussions I had on this forum. Full LTE with I2S support for voice calls would be also nice.