Modems

Note

The Librem 5 phone is expected to ship with a different modem to the one supplied with the development board. See this FAQ for the latest information and this forum thread for a crowdsourced overview of carrier compatibility with various modems.

The development board is equipped with either the SIMCom 7100A or the SIMCom 7100E, depending on your region. The SIMCom 7100A is used for all North American carriers and bands while the SIMCom 7100E is used for all other regions’ carriers and bands.

However, here are some tools you can use to further investigate what bands are supported by your carrier.

Which bands are supported by each SIMCom modem

Standard	Frequency	SIM7100E	SIM7100A
GSM	GSM 850MHz
	EGSM 900MHz	X
	DCS 1800MHz	X
	PCS 1900MHz
CDMA2000/EVDO
WCDMA	BAND5		X
	BAND6
	BAND8	X
	BAND2		X
	BAND1	X
TD-SCDMA	TD-SCDMA 1.9G
	TD-SCDMA 2G
LTE-FDD	LTE-FDD B1	X
	LTE-FDD B2		X
	LTE-FDD B3	X
	LTE-FDD B4		X
	LTE-FDD B5		X
	LTE-FDD B7	X
	LTE-FDD B8	X
	LTE-FDD B17		X
	LTE-FDD B18
	LTE-FDD B19
	LTE-FDD B20	X
LTE-TDD	LTE TDD B38	X
	LTE TDD B39
	LTE TDD B40	X
	LTE TDD B41

What bands does my carrier use?

Using frequencycheck.com, you can find your carrier under your country to see which bands are supported by them. However, keep in mind that not all of these bands may be available in your area.

To find out which LTE bands are available from cell towers in your area, you can look at cellmapper.net. Additionally, if you call your carrier they may tell you which LTE bands are available in your area but they also may not divulge this information.

Note

If you require an LTE band that is not supported by either the SIMCom 7100A or 7100E, then LTE will not be available to you.