I'm Italian and I'm looking for a SIM card, MKR NB 1500 compatible, to purchase from Italian operators or even from international operators but for end customers (I don't have a company behind me).
For example, I have seen this page from thingsmobile that is confirming compatibility with SARA-R410M-02B that is the same module used by NB 1500 but in the same page, under Arduino boards, there is the MKR 1400 only... and this got me confused.
I'm not able to find any good reference or projects done here in Italy... so just searching for someone else that bought maybe the SIM above and is an happy customer.
The NB 1500 has no full LTE modem, your network carrier has to have LTE-M/NB bands switched on. My experience is that some antennas are some not, even when the carrier bluffs with NB/LTE-M. If your device is stationary under good coverage - fine.
The thingsmobile phone number starts with something like 882..... etc. My home carrier counts these numbers as sat phones and charged me 1.2 Euro per sms sent to this SIM. So if you plan to use 'classic' SMS - find a gold mine first.
Hi and thanks for reply. Gotcha about thingsmobile sms costs... That was my use case, not so good.
But I think the situation here is even worst because I'm really struggling to find a NB-iot SIM provider selling directly to end user, this practically stops any possible prototyping initiative. If I was able to test it I could say how coverage is... In theory Vodafone covered 100% of the territory with Nb-iot band but as said... No SIM, no fun!
I have the same issue here. I tried other IoT SIM card (1nce) with other restrictions.
So i also did not find a perfect solution. I switched back to MKR1400 with a regular Consumer SIM. Cheers
Agree with instarep. I found a supplier that sold me a SIM card for NB-iot application... And... It is 1nce
Okay, now to make it working, I just have to upgrade the firmware with the awful procedure that luckily for us, the wonderful people in this forum developed with a strong support from Arduino (yes I said that...ops) and later try to send just a simple SMS when a digital input will be high.
About the 1nce SIM, the supplier said that due to the low volume I bought (just 1), the customer portal is not for me... Now I have to figure out what's my current data plan by guessing it
My 1nce story:
When i checked their offers some months ago, they wrote about 250 SMS (Now they described it as " Only the sending and receiving of text messages between devices and server is supported.")
So my bought SIMS were not working for me. They sent a personal customer survey email
and my answer was this story. They excused and promises me to repay (Twice). Still waiting..
Hello everybody,
I tried today (for my first Arduino project) with some consumer SIMs (they are all from TIM and Vodafone - italian carriers)
From what I could find on the internet it seems that Vodafone (at least) is completely compliant on nb-iot on all 4G network. But still answers with CEREG: 0,3 meaning registration failed when trying with mkrnb library examples
Any suggestions? Do I need a specific SIM, instead of using the ones that were inside my smartphone?
About the "classic" providers in Italy I got from some researches that none of them support Nb-iot yet. Vodafone gives the infrastructure but seem impossible to me to buy a SIM as a consumer... Looks like they support big companies or they sell their own products to track dogs, cars, other stuff. I bought a 1NCE SIM from a reseller but no way to go...the board got stuck if I force the usage of NB-iot only. I engaged Arduino support, they helped me with firmware upgrade via the modem transfer (version 05.11,A.02.16) but the freeze persist. We didn't arrive at the point of soldering (the procedure described in the forum) and I'm waiting them their feedback on the next steps.
I wish to help but till now... Not lucky with this board.
As pointed out by Instarep, 1NCE SMS feature is a fake feature because it goes to their server and you need access to the portal (i.e. a big volume of SIMs gives access to their portal).
My experience with Nb-iot is that, from consumer/maker perspective is a total mess.
I agree and i'm worried about the Arduino strategy because nowadays the carriers switching off 2G/3G and there is no substitute in the product portfolio. IMHO a full LTE MKR board with wired I2S is needed to substitute the MKR1400. The Telit Charlie board is the only one on the market i know but it's physically longer then the MKR1400 so doesn't fit in existing housings. The MKR1500 is a experimental board for LTE-M which seems not going to be next big thing despite all the PR.
Arduino, please don't forget the MKR community in the 4G/5G times and release the MKR1400 with a modern modem!
I have one up and running from "ho mobile" in a SIM808 module driven by ESP8266 as the backup project of the mkr1500 that won't work. With 4G and 5G there are plenty of providers that with 2 or 3 euro/month offer such plans.
Hello @intstarep and @meuccifra,
I am now facing the same issue as you are and wondering which sim card to use to connect via Nb-iot. Did you find a solution? Mind sharing?
Thank you
It's not the card - it's the net. The MKR1400 becomes outdated and the mkr1500 is NB / LTE-M only. Ublox presented two pincompatible modems but Arduino is not presenting a precedessor so far. I changed to MKR1010 and a dedicated 2G/3G/4G Router Teltonika RUT950 with a built in SMS gateway. Hopefully will Arduino remember the clients who made them big, the hobbyiests and makers who wants MCU instead of little computers. Arduino, give us a MKR1600 with a fully grown LTE modem with wired I2S!!!
So far I abandoned the MKR1500 in favour of a SIM808 Board (the AZ-Delivery one, it has 4G) + ESP8266 (NodeMCU Amica) and I use with an Ho Mobile SIM (Ho mobile - smart home plan). it works for my project but I'm not happy because it's not an optimized design (2 boards, at least 2A PowerSupply, at least a 2500mA battery when main power goes down...).
About the MKR1500, I didn't upgrade the firmware with the soldering procedure yet but maybe.... after that.... maybe.... I could be able to connect to Nb-IoT band with a 1NCE SIM card (that I bought from a reseller https://www.marcomweb.it/it/) but I cannot confirm that is okay because of firmware upgrade not yet done. In previous posts, some thoughs about 1NCE and the mess of finding someone selling NB-IoT SIM to consumers.
About firmware upgrade, soldering means altering the board and since I'm not confident about my soldering skills, I have contrasting feeling because this device should stay in my house 24h/7 for years and I don't feel comfortable, that's the main reason why I wait... but I know that an alternative solution could never come (at least in Europe because in US, one guy here in the forum developed a kit for upgrading the board without soldering: Modem Firmware Upgrade - Easy programming device project - #20 by adavidpglass)
Thank you guys, what I was really after is just the sim whit Nb-Iot network enabled. I wanted to test another development board AVR-IoT Cellular Mini | Microchip Technology that comes with a Truphone sim that has no coverage here in Italy. I am not really sure it will work with Nb-Iot but it looks like a nice dev board and also well documented. I will try the sim from MARCOM srl. Thanks for the suggetion!
The board you mentioned looks promising (at least for my needs). Appreciate if you will share your experience once tested with the 1NCE SIM. From who you buy that board?
(yes I said that...ops) and later try to send just a simple SMS when a digital input will be high.
