NRF9160 connection to Chilean network (sudamerica)

[FranciscoRH]

Hello, sorry if i missed some info, i'm new posting in this forum. I'm developing an IoT devices with the nrf9160 and we are having problem to connect to a LTE-M1 or LTE-NB Iot network in Chile with the nrf9160. We are using a custom board. All with hardware is good, the nrf9160 is flashed with segger jlink and using the SDK v2.5.1 and the modem fw v1.3.6.

Anyone else with problems connecting the nrf9160 to any sudamerica network?

thanks

[dejans]

Hi Francisco,

Which application do you use?

Is this newly emerged issue or you have seen this happening before?

Could you provide application log showing the problem?

Best regards,
Dejan

[FranciscoRH]

Hi Dejan,

It's a wearable band with LTE connection.

It's the first time we see this issue, all because it's the first time we use a Nordic MCU too.

I don't know if it's this application log that you need, but using AT commands to start the modem we get this.

AT%XSIM=1:
OK

AT+CFUN=1:
OK

AT+CRSM=176,12258,0,0,10:
+CRSM: 144,0,"98651000XXXXXXXXX"

OK

AT%XSIM?:
%XSIM: 1

OK

AT+CNUMFailed to read, err 65536
AT+CNUM:
ERROR

AT+CFUN=0:
OK

AT%XSIM?:
%XSIM: 0

OK

AT%XSYSTEMMODE=1,1,0,1:
OK

AT%XBANDLOCK=0:
OK

AT+COPS=0:
OK

AT+CGDCONT=0,"IP","m2m.entel.cl":
OK

AT+CGAUTH=0,1,"entelpcs","entelpcs":
OK

AT+CFUN=1:
OK

AT+CEREG=1:
OK

AT+COPN:
OK

AT+COPS?:
+COPS: 0

OK

AT+CSQ:
+CSQ: 99,99

OK

AT+CEREG?:
+CEREG: 1,4

OK

AT%COPSFailed to read, err 65536
AT%COPS:
ERROR

Best Regards,

Francisco

[dejans]

Hi Francisco,

Your first error when using CNUM indicates that either MSISDN on the SIM is not available or SIM is not initialized. You can get more information in CNUM documentation. However, AT command documentation shows that you should use +CNUM, not %CNUM. The same applies for COPS command.

Best regards,
Dejan

[FranciscoRH]

We have trying with many SIM from differents operators, the SIMs works well on cellphones too. About the CNUM and COPS we have used them with % and + and either way, it still giving error. We are trying to talk with an network operator technical to know more about the true tech used in Chile for LTE

[dejans]

Hi Francisco,

Thank you for this update.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,
Dejan

[Mariano Goluboff]

Hi Francisco,

You'll want to verify with Entel that the SIM card you have supports either NB-IoT or Cat M1.

In most cases, the APN is automatically set by the nrf9160, using the information from the SIM. Have you tried connecting without using +CGDCONT and +CGAUTH?

What is the output of AT%COPS=?

Mariano

[FranciscoRH]

Hi Mariano,

Yes, well, they are supposed to work with those networks, but now I'm doubt about they really use NB-IoT and Cat M1 or just Cat 1 optimized for IoT (it's something we have seen here on devices that really work as expected, like SimCom chips)

Without using +CGDCONT and +CGAUTH we are getting this

nRF9160 Basic Networking Example (nrf9160dk_nrf9160)
Modem FW Ver: mfw_nrf9160_1.3.6
IMEI: 350xxxxxxxxxx
SIM ICCID: 89560xxxxxxxxxxxx
Waiting for network... %XSIM: 1

OK


AT%XSIM=1:
OK

AT+CFUN=0:
OK

AT+CFUN=1:
OK

AT+cnum?Failed to read, err 65536
AT+cnum?:
ERROR

AT+CRSM=176,12258,0,0,10:
+CRSM: 144,0,"98651xxxxxxxxxxx"

OK

AT%COPS=?:
%COPS: (1,"","","73003",7)

OK