nRF9160 couldn't connect over NB-IoT/LTE

[AchrefCH]

Hi community

I'm trying to test the functionality of NB-IOT using nRF9160 board. I'm not using the default iBasis SIM card (it doesn't have the couverage in Tunisia), I'm using orange SIM.

In LTE link Monitor, the Modem is power off (red color) and no SIM network found (no signal strength).




I tried to test https example in nRF Connect SDK  v1.8.0, after some minutes, "LTE couldn't connect with error timeout (-116)" ??

[00:00:00.227,020] .[0m<inf> event_manager: APP_EVT_ACTIVITY_DETECTION_DISABLE.[0m
[00:00:00.234,954] .[0m<inf> event_manager: MODEM_EVT_INITIALIZED.[0m
[00:00:00.312,805] .[0m<inf> event_manager: MODEM_EVT_LTE_CONNECTING.[0m
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v2.7.0-ncs1  ***
Flash regions..Domain..Permissions
00 01 0x00000 0x10000 .Secure..rwxl
02 31 0x10000 0x100000 .Non-Secure.rwxl

Non-secure callable region 0 placed in flash region 1 with size 32.

SRAM region..Domain..Permissions
00 07 0x00000 0x10000 .Secure..rwxl
08 31 0x10000 0x40000 .Non-Secure.rwxl

Peripheral..Domain..Status
00 NRF_P0               Non-Secure.OK
01 NRF_CLOCK            Non-Secure.OK
02 NRF_RTC0             Non-Secure.OK
03 NRF_RTC1             Non-Secure.OK
04 NRF_NVMC             Non-Secure.OK
05 NRF_UARTE1           Non-Secure.OK
06 NRF_UARTE2           Secure..SKIP
07 NRF_TWIM2            Non-Secure.OK
08 NRF_SPIM3            Non-Secure.OK
09 NRF_TIMER0           Non-Secure.OK
10 NRF_TIMER1           Non-Secure.OK
11 NRF_TIMER2           Non-Secure.OK
12 NRF_SAADC            Non-Secure.OK
13 NRF_PWM0             Non-Secure.OK
14 NRF_PWM1             Non-Secure.OK
15 NRF_PWM2             Non-Secure.OK
16 NRF_PWM3             Non-Secure.OK
17 NRF_WDT              Non-Secure.OK
18 NRF_IPC              Non-Secure.OK
19 NRF_VMC              Non-Secure.OK
20 NRF_FPU              Non-Secure.OK
21 NRF_EGU0             Non-Secure.OK
22 NRF_EGU1             Non-Secure.OK
23 NRF_EGU2             Non-Secure.OK
24 NRF_EGU3             Non-Secure.OK
25 NRF_EGU4             Non-Secure.OK
26 NRF_EGU5             Non-Secure.OK
27 NRF_DPPIC            Non-Secure.OK
28 NRF_REGULATORS       Non-Secure.OK
29 NRF_PDM              Non-Secure.OK
30 NRF_I2S              Non-Secure.OK
31 NRF_GPIOTE1          Non-Secure.OK

SPM: NS image at 0x10000
SPM: NS MSP at 0x20017680
SPM: NS reset vector at 0x129e1
SPM: prepare to jump to Non-Secure image.
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v2.7.0-ncs1  ***
HTTPS client sample started

Certificate match
Waiting for network.. 
Failed to connect to the LTE network, err -116

My questions:

1.How I can configure or choose between NB-IOT or LTE in my software code ??
2.How I can perform the connectivity using orange SIM (or an other SIM  in our country), what's the conditions ??
3.if we don't have NB-IOT in our country, is there any solution for testing ??

Thanks

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

Sorry to hear that you are facing these issues with your board. First of all, does the Orange SIM support NB-IoT or LTE-m? Please verify this with the service provider. According to GSMA Mobile IoT Deployment Map, there is no coverage for LTE-M or NB-IoT. 

Next I recommend testing with a more simple/complete application from our precompiled package found under the download section of Nordicsemi.com/nrf9160dk. This includes 4 precompiled applications, where I recommend looking at

• Asset Tracker v2
• AT Client

Make sure to go through the getting started guide for nRF9160DK first.

Kind regards,
Øyvind