I live in a rural area, there is no DSL (only ISDN) and lt. To availability Map of the provider (Telecom, Vodafone, etc.) is a blank spot here, and GPRS phones work only in a few places (usually outdoor). For the Internet I recently worked with a directional antenna (4x quad) with UMTS HSDUPA and thus usually 2000 - 3000 kb / s download rate can reach.
About 2 weeks ago, I switched with this stick on LTE, without an external antenna, however, was no signal in the house, at best, been in the garden at one point "1-2 bar" signals. With an external antenna (2 x double quad, approximately 13 dB gain), the display shows 6-7 bars (Vodafone Connect Manager under Windows 7). After dialing several LTE trials arise on average about 18000 kb / s, very pleasing among the conditions we have here!
It is worth mentioning that the two antenna jacks have failed extremely flat for the connection of external antennas - the mating plug hold very poor because they can not be sufficiently plugged into the sockets. For a long-lasting and more durable fixation of hobbyists is in demand! That's why only 4 instead of 5 stars, although the very good price / performance ratio that actually makes me up for it.
Under Win7 the stick worked well, but for me he should run under Linux - which is why a few notes on:
The AT command sequence for dialing can be easily found on the Internet, there exists a Blog (Armageddon) and you can create a simple chat scripts. The kernel (I have 3.9.8 in use) includes the module "Kalmia", which has been specially tailored to the chipset in this stick. "UMTS mode switch" is not necessary because apparently "Kalmia" already provides for the changeover to modem mode.
The following must briefly run consecutively, so best to pack everything in a dial-up script, briefly outlined:
- "Chat -f -vs chatscript name / dev / ttyUSB0"
- "Dhcpcd wwan0" (obtained from the IP provider, "wwan0" is the communication interface)
- "Minicom -w -o -d / dev / ttyUSB0" Start (terminal program must be running permanently)
Although now the connection is working - but max. about 1 min. transfer nothing, falls asleep, and the connection must be completely rebuilt.
Interim Solution: As a poor workaround I have bypassed this problem by automating the 10sec. Rhythm a "ping" to "outside" is sent. Then it works constantly and really great. Or maybe someone has a better solution (then please contact me!), I'm working anyway still working.
All in all, one has with this stick a class LTE solution for the 800MHz range at an extremely attractive price!
