TRB140 SMS Sending Issue

NETWORKING SOLUTIONS
1

I just installed a TRB140 on a Band 28 Cellular carrier here in Mexico. Everything is working fine except I get SMS send timeout errors:

root@TRB140:~# gsmctl -D -S -s “+5233310718XX test”
GSMCTL modem[0]: Debug mode enabled
GSMCTL modem[0]: Calling Send SMS
GSMCTL modem[0] SMS: Checking input format
GSMCTL modem[0] SMS: Calling LGSM SEND SMS
[gsmctl_send_sms:22] error: ERROR: Failed to parse response
root@TRB140:~#

I can receive SMS fine. My carrier normally provides SIMs card for use in compatible VoLTE phones on their 4G network. Since TRB140 is data only, they sent me a special SIM card which works fine except for SMS issue. I’ve looked at the other cases and tried different configurations,like enabling VoLTE and 2G/3G etc (this is 4G network only though). No luck.

Any ideas?

Tom
3

Hello,

Could you please clarify this part:

Do you mean your carrier provided a SIM card that is strictly for mobile data only (without SMS functionality)?
Or do you mean the SIM card supports both data and SMS, but the SMS feature is not working on TRB140?

Best regards,

4

Hello Marija,

According to the carrier, the SIM supports SMS. I can receive SMS messages, but you can see the timeout message on sending. So it would appear the TRB140 is not working on send. That said, maybe the carrier is wrong? So I need to somehow troubleshoot this and determine where the fault is.

Nearly all of the services on this carrier are via Voice capable phones. Also some provide Internet at home via data only modems.

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5

Thank you for the clarification. Could you please also check and confirm whether your SIM card has an active plan/credits that allows sending SMS?

Best regards,

6

Working, awaiting response from carrier.

7

Hello Marija,
I went back to the carrier to clarify. Their tech support didn’t seem very good but here’s what I gleaned: 1) This band 28 network has over 100 aggregators who mostly offer 4G data and VoLTE/SMS for voice telephones. A lot of them will reject providing any service if the IMEI returns a non-voice capable device. There is no fallback on this network to 2G/3G. This was my first supplier. They denied all service to the TRB140.. 2) Some of the carriers can provide a data only SIM that does not support 4G SMS. This is my second supplier. Data worked fine, but no SMS sending. I asked them about this and we tried a 3rd SIM back on their voice/data offering. They said put it in a voice phone first, then move it to the TRB140. Which I did, and now I have two way SMS. Incoming voice calls go to voice mail. Another problem now seems to be sending one SMS to the modem results in multiple receipt messages..

OK, so I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole here. If the carriers so chose, seems they could offer data only with SMS as a formal third offering. I think, I’ll just go back to data only and work around no SMS… Tom