US Cellular CradlePoint MBR1000 with Kyocera KPC680

jameswadewilson · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:28 am Post subject: Re: US Cellular Service

I just talked with US Cellular yesterday, they tell me that they have EVDO working in Hot Springs.

I have Verizon and have to roam on US Cellular for signal. I was waiting for my phone to say EVDO, but it still says 1X. US Cellular tells me that they don't have reciprocal roaming working with Verizon yet for EVDO, but expect to in the next month.

I'm going to Weaverville in the next day or so to pick up my card. Is there a US Cellular store in Mars Hill?

We'll see how this works with the Cradlepoint router. We may go ahead and switch our whole family and business service to US Cellular, Verizon never started "Working for us", but US Cellular has!

How about a US Cellular forum EVDO Forums?

jameswadewilson · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:44 pm Post subject: Re: US Cellular Service

Well after giving 3G Store first crack at selling US Cellular service I had to drive an hour to Weaverville, NC to pick up a wireless card.

I got it home and hooked up the antenna and got full signal. I ran a speed test, but only got 1X speeds.

I called US Cellular technical support and was eventually told that they don't yet have EVDO here. This is frustrating!

So I'm sending the card back.

About the US Cellular forum - when I emailed the 3G Store about adding a US Cellular forum I got back a reply stating they were considering it, but hadn't made a final decision yet. ???!!! I started using EVDO forums as a forums for discussing all things EVDO, not just what 3G Store sells. And I spent several hundred dollars with 3G Store last year and directed many people to this site as an EVDO knowledge repository.

I replied back saying, "If you don't support forums for all EVDO carriers then you shouldn't call yourselves EVDO forums..."

And got the reply stated that my opinion was noted and it wasn't helping convince them. Wow. Well if you don't see me any more you know what happened. I'll be over at Howard Forums where they include everyone.

carhopper · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:02 pm Post subject:

I got my Kyocera KPC680 on line in my area today and it screams 1.3mb down and 700kb up on average. I spoke with US cellular and they don't support any routers. Cradlepoint tech support said that they would help me get US Cellular working if they could so I ordered the CTR350 for testing. Cradlepoint was very helpful as well and they said that they would provide free return shipping if it didn't work. We'll see and I'll keep the forum updated.

jameswadewilson · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: Router support

A Verizon supervisor got all bent out of shape when I told him that I was using their card with a router. He said that it wasn't possible and that I couldn't use it. Next thing you see from them is MiFi!

Hopefully US Cellular will figure out what's wrong with my US Cellular card and their site near here tomorrow. Then I can try my Cradlepoint with it! Smile

cirentrp · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 2

Good luck carhopper let us know how you make out. I had the same conversation with Cradlepoint and was about to irder the CTR500. Think I'll wait to see how you make out.

Thanks in advance

jameswadewilson

After updating US Cellular's PRL on the Pantech UM175 that I got from US Cellular I got EVDO using their software on my laptop.

I pulled the Verizon data card out of my Cradlepoint and inserted the US Cellular card and did nothing else. Works beautifully!

The Verizon service sort of worked, but about once a month signal level would drop until it became unusable. Now that US Cellular has EVDO we have 100% signal strength! Smile

carhopper · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:36 am Post subject:

That's great, thanks for posting James. The MBR1000 is an expensive router though. I didn't win the auction for the CTR350 so I think I'll put an old windows laptop in front of my wireless router and serve the system with Windows ICS. That way I can monitor the log and such so I don't go over 5 gig. I might buy a 2nd card to swap out twice a month so I can get 10 gig. Or maybe I'll experiment with running both at once for double the speed, I don't know yet.

sbonar · EVDO Junkie Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 175

carhopper - have you thought about a CTR500?

carhopper · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 1:08 pm Post subject:

Yes, I will still consider that one if this doesn't work well. I'm concerned about the range on that one. My house is 3 stories and my kids have laptops. That router is still $200 and the laptop option is free. My router will still act as a firewall, DHCP server, and parental controls. I think this solution will be the same thing and if they change something, I update the quicklink software on the laptop. My only concern is latency, but It's a P4 1.8gig laptop with no other applications running so it should be fine.

sbonar · EVDO Junkie Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 175

Just some more information - the CTR500 does have an external antenna port and I believe there are some writes on this forum, somewhere, where the 3G folks had attached some fairly large antenna's that gave the CTR500 greater range. Of course it is still 'G' as opposed to the 'N' on the 1000.

cirentrp · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 2

Any luck anyone? I spoke to two tech people at uscc this morning. They tell me they have no intention of supporting uscc service through a wireless router. Claiming it is a one puter service and that this is why they put the cap on usage.....

None the less this shouldn't slow us down for long....someone is going to figure this out....

Please post is you've managed to achieve uscc/router successfully

Thanks all!

carhopper · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject:

I broke down this week and bought an MBR1000 and loaded firmware 6.1. Slid in my already activated KPC680 from USCC and it works fine, all day so far.

carhopper · Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:24 pm Post subject:

Still going, US Cellular works just fine.