Ewon & AT&T 3G Sunset in the USA

13/07/2023 Đăng bởi: Phan Doan

As you may have heard, AT&T has planned on shutting down its 3G cellular network on February 22, 2022, on all the US territory.

This means that end of February 2022, devices using 3G services to connect to the AT&T network will no longer work in the USA.

Some of your customers can or will be impacted by the AT&T mobile network modification.
 

Impacted Ewon devices

→ Ewon Cosy 131 3G: EC6133D
→ Ewon Flexy 3G extension card: FLB 3202

Situation
Theses devices will be directly impacted as their only fallback capability is 2G network (if available in the area).

Recommendation
Upgrade hardware to newer Ewon model:

  • EC6133D (Ewon Cosy 131 3G) => EC6133H (Ewon Cosy 131 4G NA)
  • FLB 3202 (Flexy extension card 3G Cellular) => FLB 3205 (Flexy extension card 4G NA)


→ Ewon Cosy 131 4G (USA - North America): EC6133H
→ Ewon Flexy 4G extension card (USA - North America): FLB 3205

Situation
A portion of 4G LTE capable modules and devices will be impacted when the 3G network sunsets (even if you are connected to 4G).

This is due to 2 phases:

  1. How the Ewon device presents its service request (i.e.: 4G data centric) to the (AT&T) network when powered on (and trying to attach a cellular network to connect to).
  2. How the mobile (AT&T) network will respond to Ewon device service request depending on the available services on the mobile (AT&T) network.

Therefore, some actions are required to ensure best service continuity for all customers. You can choose one of the following recommendation.

Recommendation #1: Ewon firmware update
Make sure the modem is configured in “Data centric” mode

Depending on the modem firmware version, the modem is either set in "Voice centric" or in "Data centric" mode.
‘Data centric’ mode is required to avoid a possible interruption of the service.

The easiest way to make sure the modem is in "Data centric" mode is to install firmware version 14.5s1 on the device, which will verify and set the modem into "Data centric" mode if required.

To perform the upgrade, the user can connect through eCatcher & use eBuddy to update the Ewon remotely.

Recommendation #2: Ewon modem update
Upgrade the modem firmware to latest available version.

Depending on the production date of the Ewon device, the modem firmware may not be the latest available one. In this case we highly recommend upgrading the modem firmware version to 20.00.507

This modem firmware version improves global stability & ensures that service request to the network will be properly performed (in “Data Centric” mode).

The modem firmware 20.00.507 is already embedded in:

  • FLB3205 extension cards with serial number reference 1191-2125-XXXX & after
  • EC6133H / BC6133H with serial number reference 2127-XXXX-22 & after

Firmware version & upgrade process are available on Ewon website
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