3G Sunset and MultiTech 4G/LTE Solutions
Industrial Modems, Bridges, and Routers for Dependable LTE Connectivity
Published on
February 18, 2022 at 12:12:24 PM PST February 18, 2022 at 12:12:24 PM PSTth, February 18, 2022 at 12:12:24 PM PST
The 3G Sunset! And 4G/LTE Solutions from MultiTech
Last week a customer called from a local government office. He has been pushing his town to upgrade their cellular communications before the 3G sunset. Towns, of course, are no different from any other customer. There are always more projects than funds. Although US carriers have been sounding the alarm about the 3G sunset for the last 3 years, the town had not approved the technology upgrade until now! This story has a happy ending: the customer found Multi-Tech products on our website and saved the day.
Very soon 3G modems and routers will no longer hook up to cellular networks. AT&T will end 3G service on February 22. TMobile will end Sprint 3G service by March 31 and TMobile 3G service by July 1. Verizon will shutdown its 3G network by the end of 2022.
So this week we look at MultiTech’s 4G/LTE cellular modems, bridges, and routers that provide highly reliable LTE connectivity in industry-ready packaging. MultiTech has been the leader in making machines communicate for over 50 years! If your organization is relying on a 3G modem, router, or bridge, the time to replace it is now. We hope this overview will convince you to trust MultiTech for your LTE connectivity solutions.
A Little MultiTech M2M Connectivity History
There were big regulatory changes in the telephone industry in the 1950’s and 1960’s, caused by the Hush-A-Phone case and the Carterfone case, resulting in consumers having more access to the AT&T network.
In 1956, Bell Systems sued Hush-a-Phone for manufacturing a small device that slipped over a telephone mouthpiece and muffled the speaker’s voice to anyone except the person on the receiving end of the phone line. Bell claimed that anything attached to a phone could damage the network. A federal appeals court denied Ma Bell a victory, allowing consumers to mechanically connect equipment to the phone system. In 1968, the FCC ruled in the Carterfone case that consumers were allowed to connect electronic devices acoustically to the AT&T telephone network.
In the swirl of excitement and innovation sparked by these changes, Raghu Sharma, a M.S. and Ph.D. student of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, built his first acoustic coupler in the student workshop at UofM in 1968.
Acoustic Coupler An acoustic coupler allowed a computer to connect to other computers using telephone handsets. The acoustic coupler converts data into sound signals, transmits the signals thru the handset and over the phone line, and a receiving acoustic coupler converts the sound signals back into data at the other end. In 1970, Sharma founded MultiTech. He would later tell MultiTech field applications engineer Steve Kovarik that he didn’t build the first acoustic coupler. He built a better acoustic coupler. By maintaining that commitment to being better, MultiTech has stayed at the forefront of device connectivity technology ever since. Over their 50+ years, MultiTech has regularly introduced both industry-first and award-winning connectivity solutions while maintaining their reputation for reliable, high performing products. In the last decade alone, MultiTech has pushed hard to bring out software agnostic, open architecture connectivity products while also being first to market with LoRaWAN certified sensors, AT&T approved LTE Cat M1 devices, access devices for Private LTE/CBRS networks, and a 2.4GHz LoRa gateway.
MultiTech 4G/LTE Products
We kicked off our Products of the Day with MultiTech’s QuickCarrier®. The QuickCarrier is a very simple to use, industrial-grade USB cellular modem designed for machine to machine communication. Plug the QuickCarrier directly into the USB port of any device to allow immediate communication with your 4G network.
Are you ready for the 3G sunset? MultiTech’s QuickCarrier LTE Cat M1 external USB cellular modem plugs into existing equipment and provides immediate connection to your 4G/LTE carrier. It features an internal antenna and a durable M2M design. Certified & carrier approved.
MultiTech’s MultiConnect® eCell Cellular to Ethernet Bridge is another simple to use, industrial-grade solution from MultiTech that allows you to add a 4G connection to a device on an ethernet network. It is a very popular solution for providing wireless failover to critical assets that require reliable, always-on connectivity. Its high-bandwidth wireless connection keeps equipment connected even if you have a network outage caused by hardware or cable issues, configuration errors, power outages, or security attacks. 3G devices currently in use for wireless failover will cease functioning after the 3G sunset.
Are you ready for the 3G sunset? MultiTech’s MultiConnect eCell is a 4G-LTE Cat 4 Cellular to Ethernet Bridge that allows for the easy addition of cellular connectivity to Ethernet connected devices. The eCell is Certified, Carrier Approved, and ideal for extreme environments. In Stock!
MultiTech’s MultiConnect® rCell 100 Series of industrial LTE routers are designed for highly secure M2M and IoT connectivity. The rCell series supports LTE Cat 4, LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat M1, and LTE Cat NB1 technologies. rCell 100 routers feature ARM mPower software that provides intelligence at the device level so that information can be analyzed onsite and only critical information is relayed to the data center, reducing network demands and costs.
MultiTech’s MultiConnect rCell 100: LTE Cat 4 router with ARM mPower Edge Intelligence for enhanced security and Edge processing capability. The rCell is a rugged and reliable cellular interface to Ethernet or RS232 devices. Quick configuration, over-the-air updates, firewall and routing configuration in a rugged aluminum chassis. WiFi, BlueTooth, GPS. Accessory Kit. In Stock. We have kicked around a lot of LTE terminology this week, so we are including a handy table we got from MultiTech for understanding the differences in LTE technology. Cellular carriers make use of User Equipment categories (or classes) to define the performance specifications of LTE devices. This table illustrates the performance specifications for the LTE categories that we reference in this blog.
If the 3G sunset snuck up on you, you can trust MultiTech for your 4G/LTE connectivity solution! For 50+ years MultiTech products have connected enterprises to their machines, equipment, and devices using standards-based open architecture sensor and communications technologies. Today they provide the best in M2M cellular modems, bridges, and routers; LoRaWAN gateways and sensors; and OnGo CBRS technology. Check out everything they offer!
We will be back next week with more Featured Products. In the meantime, please follow us on Social Media (use the links below) or check our homepage daily to see our Products of the Day.