Do any GSMs still work in the US?

Adafruit cellular platform - SMS and IoT over celluar

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LAVELL12
 
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Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:12 am

Do any GSMs still work in the US?

Post by LAVELL12 »

I just bought a Fona with the sim808 chip and realized that it doesn't work, most likely because 2G is no longer available in the US.

I saw the 3G version but I'm not sure if that network still around. I looked it up but I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Can someone confirm that 3G is still around and if the Fona3G will work? Or is there another option I can buy?

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rskup
 
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Re: Do any GSMs still work in the US?

Post by rskup »

Yep, FONA 3G works. I use a sim card from SpeedTalk mobile, which is an MVNO for T-Mobile. Don't know how much longer it will work though, some articles suggest 3G ending sometime in 2022, but who knows for sure, companies can (and have) pushed backed deadlines before.

If you like the Simcom chips, and don't need voice capability, I've been tinkering with this 4G IoT breakout board based on the SIM7000G:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32964568200.html

I'm using a Hologram.io sim card in it. I like the board and use an Adafruit Feather Proto (#2771) to control it.

Note Adafruit carries a Pycom GPy (#3612), those look really nice, 4G, wifi, bluetooth, and supports MicroPython, that's on my wishlist for my next Adafruit order.

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