t-mobile m2m plan?

Anyone got the nova working with t-mobile m2m data plans? Their m2m plans are a little picky.

I think you need a 2G/3G Nova for this as they don’t offer cat-m coverage and NB is limited

I was under the impression T-Mobile didn’t do 2G/3G. T-Mobile JUST moved into my area so no legacy gear.

Are you in the US?

You may want to check on opensignal.com if there is 3G coverage in your area

Yes, in US. opensignal suggests that there is some 3G service.

Can you expand on the Nova and cat-m? T-mobile has explicit support on their network for cat-m1 and narrowband via their IoT program. I don’t know if that means the M2M SIM plans will work though.

Hey @Dan_Denson,

I am not familiar with T-Mobile’s plans and what radio access technologies they use. However using a Hologram SIM you will get 2G, 3G, and 4G with T-Mobile as well as other carriers. So, for example, if you are using the 3G/2G Nova you would get 3G with AT&T and T-Mobile, and 2G with T-Mobile and if you are using the Cat-M1/NB-IoT Nova you would get Cat-M1 with AT&T and Verizon and in the near future NB-IoT with T-Mobile.

If you want to use a T-Mobile SIM on either Nova you would have to ask T-Mobile about what radio access technologies the specific SIM you have offers.

Best,
Maiky

Hi,

My understanding is that T-Mobile’s NB-IoT network is available for testing–at least. I am certain that their coverage is not complete across the US. However, if T-Mobile is offering coverage in areas of interest to you, then it might be worth getting a SIM card and testing.

I have just learned that there are some significant restrictions on the use of T-Mobile NB-IoT:

1.     10 network communications per hour max. They don’t want to hold open a data session.
2.     Can’t use NB-IoT and 4G.
3.     There are no roaming partners on NB-IoT so if there isn’t coverage in an area i.e. Nebraska, it just won’t work.
4.     Some modules do allow for fallback onto 2G (see the 2G Bands category of the Module Timeline doc).

For me, (1) is a big problem as I am using cellular connectivity to track school buses and I send location updates every 30 seconds.

I have some contacts at a high level with the T-Mobile’s largest MVNO partner and am investigating (1).

-Matt

Yeah NB is still pretty early days so you may want to look for something else in the meantime. One other thing to add to your list is that NB doesn’t support tower handoff by design so putting it on moving vehicles may not be ideal depending on how you do it.

That being said, we’ve been doing some initial NB testing with TMo here and might have more news about that in a couple months.

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