NRF9160 connection to Chilean network (sudamerica)

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

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  • 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

  • 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

  • Hi Francisco,

    Thank you for this update.

    Please let me know if you have any further questions.

    Best regards,
    Dejan

  • 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

  • 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

  • Additionally we have this

    AT+CRSM=176,12258,0,0,10:
    +CRSM: 144,0,"98651000002175646851"
    
    OK
    
    AT%COPS=?:
    %COPS: (1,"","","73001",9),(1,"","","73003",9)
    
    OK

    and this

    AT+CEREG?:
    +CEREG: 0,2,"6210","008C3526",9

    Does it means that the nrf9160 is getting antenna's info and just need to change some network configuration?

    Best regards

    Francisco

  • Ok, so we can look at the different outputs:

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

    Looking at the documentation for the %COPS=? command, we see that network is Cat M1 (AcT of 7), the MCC is 730 (Chile) and the MNC is 03 (Claro).

    On the second post:

    AT%COPS=?:
    %COPS: (1,"","","73001",9),(1,"","","73003",9)

    The AcT of 9 means these are NB-IoT networks. Same MCC of 730 (Chile), and MNC of 01 (Entel) and 03 (Claro).

    Here is a good website to find MCC and MNC: https://mcc-mnc.com/

    Then you get:

    AT+CEREG?:
    +CEREG: 0,2,"6210","008C3526",9

    Here is the CEREG documentation. A <stat> of 2 means it's attempting to attach to that network.

    What do you get if you check AT+CEREG? later? The 2 should change to something else when it's either successful or unsuccessful connecting to the network.

    You might also consider sending AT+CEREG=5 before AT+CFUN=1 so that you get unsolicited notifications of network registration status changes.

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  • Ok, so we can look at the different outputs:

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

    Looking at the documentation for the %COPS=? command, we see that network is Cat M1 (AcT of 7), the MCC is 730 (Chile) and the MNC is 03 (Claro).

    On the second post:

    AT%COPS=?:
    %COPS: (1,"","","73001",9),(1,"","","73003",9)

    The AcT of 9 means these are NB-IoT networks. Same MCC of 730 (Chile), and MNC of 01 (Entel) and 03 (Claro).

    Here is a good website to find MCC and MNC: https://mcc-mnc.com/

    Then you get:

    AT+CEREG?:
    +CEREG: 0,2,"6210","008C3526",9

    Here is the CEREG documentation. A <stat> of 2 means it's attempting to attach to that network.

    What do you get if you check AT+CEREG? later? The 2 should change to something else when it's either successful or unsuccessful connecting to the network.

    You might also consider sending AT+CEREG=5 before AT+CFUN=1 so that you get unsolicited notifications of network registration status changes.

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