Redpocket Mobile
$10/month Data package
(AT&T service for Network Radios in the US)
Background:
For those looking to add a sim card to their Network Radio so that they don't need to soley rely on a WIFI connection, I found a cheap solution that works pretty well.
Redpocket.com provides wireless service at a discount. And what's great about them is they don't just work with one of the major wireless companies. They work with the 3 big ones: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. When you sign up for service, you will just need to specify the type of SIM card needed.
So if you stumble upon this page and you don't have a network radio, well then you might want to know about this service for your regular everyday cell phone.
But for those with Network Radios, most of the early models out (like the N-60, TM7-Plus, etc) will only work (fully) with AT&T in the US. So when signing up for service, you will want to make sure you get a SIM card that works with GSMA.
Hurdles Activating a Network Radio in the US
I just activated service on an Inrico S200
I selected the plan I wanted
purchased the GSMA SIM
it arrived in the mail
I activated the card online
I inserted the card in the radio
turned on the radio
waited about 20 minutes
rebooted the radio
waited another 20 minutes
never got service.
I called support and they first they they asked for was the device's IMEI. When you give them an IMEI from a network radio, they are going to give you the same ol' spiel about it's possibly not working because the device is not on their list of supported devices.
But I told them I could see the signal was registering, I could see the LTE tag was appearing at the top of the device, the SIM card slot was registering the AT&T service and had a phone number assigned, etc etc. They only think that was wrong is data was not transferring back and forth.
Well turns out any SIM card you purchase through redpocket.com (with the exception of CDMA) will need to have an APN (Access Point Names) configured in the phone's settings. So they started walking me through those settings which are detailed below:
The problem was, every time I tried to enter in their settings, nothing would save. But I did notice if I started off with the first few settings, it would save without an issue. So then I started going through each setting one by one, and saving after each change. And I found it was failing when I changed the MNC. The S200 had a default of 280. But when I changed it to 410, it wouldn't save any of the settings at all.
So I tried it again, and this time I left the 280 alone, and then all of a sudden, I had service.
I didn't even know what MCC and MNC stood for. After doing some research, MCC stands for "Mobile Contry Code", and 310 is for the United States of America. The trouble child I was dealing with was the MNC, which stands for Mobile Network Codes. And it turns out both 410 and 280 are AT&T.
Conclusion
Their support rep really did try to help, and they were very professional. But if it wasn't for me tooling around, I would have just given up or gone with another more expensive option. So that's the whole reason for this page. To tell everyone about this great money saver, and to also detail what I was going through, and how it was resolved.