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Vodacom Business Fixed LTE - Work with a HUAWEI b618?

ICE-VaPa

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Hi Guys, I just took out a business LTE contract with Vodacom (200gigs).
It's been approved and I went in today to collect the sim card.
They gave me a simcard, and a HUAWEI k5160 (LTE Dobngle) with a old fiber Huawei HG659 modem.

I took it (as it was the package), but said i would like to buy a B618 so that I can have better signal (4x4mimo) and likely place an external poynting antenna. (I told them this when i signed for the contract).

Long story short, they said it likely not work with the B618 (although not certain) - and no one could tell me why.

Anyone know why this would potentially not work in a B618, but work in a old lte dongle k5160? - Before i go buy a B618 to test.
 
It will not work in any other router. The router Vodacom supplies with it is the only router it will work with within the 24months

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
 
It will not work in any other router. The router Vodacom supplies with it is the only router it will work with within the 24months

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
I have 7 Business Vodacom LTE packages.

3 of the 7 has B315 routers which they also supply. The rest HG659

Let me explain why:

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So basically

Now that you have the router
The mac address of the router have been locked to the specific sim card.

But the router only actually serves as a gateway

For example

I have 7 packages and have tested the following:

I tested the 300GB and 150GB package.

The router is locked and Vodacom won't provide you with any password to directly access the settings. All the settings should be configured through the Vodacom Business Online dashboard.

After inserting the original 300gb sim into it's own b315 router it worked fine.

So I then switched the two sims. The one from the usb modem that plugs into the HG659 router and the one from the b315 router.

Which didn't work because each sim card have been locked with the mac address of its own router.

I also tried with my own b525 and b618, b535, b683, E5885, B593 and TP Link 4G router.

So yes, Vodacom supplies the already configured routers with each sim package and only works with that.

If you want to change your Ssid and password and other settings you should logon to your dashboard. Select the router you want to configure and make sure the router is connected.

The only thing I still want to test is by switching the 2 modems of the 2 HG659 gateways. If that works then you would be able to use other updated faster usb modems.

But if there is someone on this forum that can correct me or supply additional information, please do
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Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
 
Thank you so much for the detailed response - I've found the same. It's really frustrating but i guess allows them to trouble shoot better with more restrictions.

The router is also ancient.

I hadn't thought about replacing the usb dongle with a better one - great idea - Worth a shot.

Appreciate your time
 
Can we discuss why Vodacom Business is so slow and why they are firmware locking their routers on B8 (900MHz)

I'm forced to cancel most of my Vodacom Business Contracts (Luckily without penalization fees) due to their spectrum problem or something on Vodacom Business side

Apparently they can't set neither one of my 3 x Vodacom Business Router models to Auto Band.
Guess they don't want Business clients on the faster internet flooding their Prepaid and Personal Contract customers which seems a bit unfair

But a quick breakdown of their pathetic service:

I have a lot of contracts on the Business LTE Internet packages with Vodacom Business

Router Models:

Huawei HG659 with dongle
Huawei B315
Huawei AR129

All of which is of course locked to be used only by Vodacom Business LTE

All of them firmware locked to 900MHz

And struggling with most of them on the speed side with speeds as low as 2Mbps

If I speedtest a normal Vodacom contract in an unlocked B315, I get 40Mbps

So hence why I think Vodacom Business are a bunch of crooks and I can cancel my contract without penalties
Although I have to pay off the hardware/router which is fine

At least they can then Re Flash the routers to be unlocked on any network for me to use on MTN or Telkom


Good luck Vodacom Business 1940
 

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