# Anyone playing around with 5G hardware on FreeBSD?



## MasterOne (Dec 3, 2019)

My laptop has an external SIM card slot and I have fitted it with a Huawei ME906s-158 LTE module that works well on Arch Linux. I'm not quite sure what the situation with this is on FreeBSD (according to this it should work, but I could not find anything for its device ID 12d1:15c3 in usbdevs) because I haven't installed it yet, but I'm tempted to return to FreeBSD after quite some time if I can get it running on my hardware.

I'm curious, I have just taken a look what the current situation is with 5G modules and found one named Telit FN980 5G M.2 that only names Linux under "Driver Support", which should be quite promising (but as it seems that module isn't available yet).

So has anyone here already taken a look at 5G?


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## Phishfry (Dec 4, 2019)

Have you actually looked at 5G coverage maps?


			5G
		

5G is only available in a handful of cities and even then the coverage is a very very small area.
The nearest location to me is Washington DC and when I looked it is available on 2 or 3 streets in the city.





						Verizon Coverage Map: Nationwide 5G and 4G LTE Network Cell Phone Coverage | Verizon
					

Even our 4G beats their 5G. Use our interactive network coverage map to check Verizon 5G and 4G availability in your area. Find out just how far our nationwide cell phone coverage map spans.



					www.verizonwireless.com
				



So for now 5G is nothing more than hype. Many carriers are calling 4G-enhanced 5G.
WC Fields said, There is a sucker born every day.

The real pisser is there is plenty of room for 4G speed to reach something usable. Unfortunately we are stuck with crappy low bandwidth 4G.
Why? Who out there gets full 4G speeds currently? Not here on the east coast of the US.

The lack of competition in cellular service means we end up with the same crap service offered to our homes. Vastly overstated and not very dependable.

I doubt FreeBSD will support 5G modems. We are stone age with only PPP protocol available.
Linux and QMI are the best solutions for cellular internet.


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## MasterOne (Dec 4, 2019)

4G coverage is really good here in Europe and the large carriers have chosen my city for the 5G pilot project, though I don't know the coverage for that and their 5G prices are insane.

I'm thinking about a new Clevo laptop in January, which again has a SIM card slot and can be fitted with a M.2 module, so I thought maybe someone here in the FreeBSD community may already have taken a look at available 5G hardware, especially because such is backwards compatible with 4G.


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## drhowarddrfine (Dec 4, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> So for now 5G is nothing more than hype.


I'm seeing a lot of TV ads promoting it lately as being rolled out but I haven't paid much attention to them.


Phishfry said:


> Many carriers are calling 4G-enhanced 5G.


I believe that's only ATT doing that and a shining example of why I will never do business with them and have as little regard for them as I do for Microsoft.

I get 200Mb service from Spectrum for $55/month (discounted to $45 cause I use their (actually Verizon) cell service). 1Gb service is available from them and ATT for $80/month or so but I have no need for that.


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## obsigna (Dec 4, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Have you actually looked at 5G coverage maps?
> 
> 
> 5G
> ...


Note, I did not follow-up all technical implications of 5G. However, besides the technics, one outstanding feature of 5G seems to be that in some countries the regulation authorities reserved some chunks of bandwidth for organizations being allowed to setup their own campus networks independently from the big carriers. In Germany the Bundesnetzagentur (= Federal Network Agency) published the price list, and depending on the contract period, covered area and the population density at the point of installation, the prices are in the range of 1000 to 2000 EUR per sqare kilometer and year. This is extremely interesting for the industry rolling out their IoT on their campus'. Such kind of regulation would make a huge difference in the competitiveness of industry and other business operations. The carriers are upset, because they won't participate, however, nobody cares.

I don't know the situation in the U.S., however, Phishfry, I remember our conversation about Agricultural Projects. A low tax private campus 5G network would be perfect for this. Only, the regulation authorities need to reserve a bandwidth for this.

Anyway, the role of FreeBSD in this situation could be the same like the role of it in cooperation with a WLAN router.


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## Phishfry (Dec 4, 2019)

Well if 5G modems are like 4G ones what you need to look for is DirectIP mode.
That is what works with FreeBSD on Sierra modems with PPP used.
With Sierra modules you can pick the mode/protocol that the modem uses but recently many are shipping with MBIM mode only.








						MC7455 stuck in MBIM-only USB composition
					

Hi,  I’m using MC7455 modem on a Linux system, with latest firmware revision (SWI9X30C_02.08.02.00, Generic). I switched USB composition using AT!USBCOMP and AT!USBPID to check QMI and MBIM modes, but now the device is only exposing two MBIM interfaces… So I’m stuck and don’t know how to get...




					forum.sierrawireless.com
				



This is some Microsoft forced crap that is even giving Linux troubles.
Note: The MC77xx and MC73xx models are supported on FreeBSD.


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## Phishfry (Dec 4, 2019)

I hope I didn't sound too optimistic.
The fact that cellular phones have a 5G indicator is my beef.
People in my realm think they have 5G service because thier phone says they do.
We do not have 5G in my area yet and the marketeers have convinced people they are using 5G.
People don't know enough to look at the actual coverage maps.

Sure it will be great when it rolls out. Fact is it is not widely in use yet. Only in limited test markets.


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## gigagoochelaar (Dec 5, 2019)

obsigna said:
			
		

> ... agricultural projects. A low tax private campus 5G network would be perfect for this.


I would change perfect by massively overpowered in that sentence. LoRa would probably do just fine. Plants don't grow at the speed of light.
Any updates in the agricultural thread are welcome btw, I would like to expand my indoor cacti hobby in the near future.


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