GSM-based phone, SMS, and internet

[dementeddigital]

I'm looking for a solution to provide phone and internet to my house via GSM.  SMS would also be helpful, to receive updates from a home automation system.  I picked up an HAI C3 from ebay, and that works for phone pretty well.  I think that it could likely be hacked a little to provide SMS.  I don't think that it could easily provide internet, though.
 
I was thinking that Asterisk might be the answer, but I don't have any experience with it.  I know that there are GSM cards which can work with Asterisk for phone, but it's not clear if this can also be configured to provide internet.  Huwai makes a small unit that looks like it can provide internet and phone, but the reviews I read about it are pretty bad.  An Asterisk solution might be beneficial, since it could also be used with a VIOP provider for international calling.
 
Thoughts?

 

[ano]

There are many layers of technology, so when you say GSM, that isn't a technology, its many technologies from different wireless operators.  The C3 is designed for one purpose, to provide basic cellular connectivity using the most common technology to connect your alarm.  That isn't Internet.
 
Almost all mobile operators no offer cellular-based mobile hotspots that connect to their cellular network on one end, and give you Wi-Fi on the other.  In fact many cars even have these built-in. They are often free with a two-year contract, so free is about as cheap as you can get.  But wireless Internet access is going to be much more expensive than wired, and the days of unlimited wireless Internet are gone.  These devices typically don't provide voice, but if you need that, there is this device called a mobile phone. 

 

[pete_c]

Most telco providers today offer combo wireless DECT / Wireless AP 3G/LTE modems with specific plans.  IE: you cannot take your SIM card from your cell phone and plug it in to a purchased one of these gizmos.  You can though purchase a SIM card / service for one of these gizmos.
 
I have one that is just a little wireless hub with LTE connectivity and you can do SMS messaging with the little device.  It has a little USB port on it for charging and I cannot use it for a wired network modem like the old ones.  Here is the model I have.  It only does wireless LTE internet.
 
ZTE MF96 4G LTE Wireless Mobile Hotspot Router.  It is the size of my palm.  You can put a little microSD in it and use it as a shared tiny NAS.  You do not really need it though with your smart phone wireless AP mode.

 
You used to be able to mod your smartphone's USB port to access the radio / network stuff.  The newest OS's on most smartphones do not let you do this.
 
Last year saw a few USB Huawei LTE/3G modems on Ebay.  I do not know where they were coming from and they were new and unlocked.  I purchased one and noticed though that they didn't work with my AT&T accounts; well like the hardware was blacklisted.
 
What does work for me today is: (still testing it)
 
Ericsson Modem - which is a combo voice, fax, network switch, wireless access point, firewall and you can do SMS with it.
 
Ericsson has discontinued these boxes and are no longer making / selling these.  They still are very popular and still widely utilized.  It is very well constructed and comes with a battery backup.
 
Purchased mine on Ebay for some $35.00 USD.  The sticker on it showed that it came from some Australian telco company.
 

 
There was a discussion here relating to this device and it not having an alarm approval sticker on it; well like any piece of hardware you connect to an alarm panel today.
 
I am pretty sure that the built in radio in the automobiles I have does both voice and data today while concurrently pairing with my smart phone.  I have sniffed the serial bus on two vehicles and see the 3G radio chit chatting along with the GPS pushing out coordinates and city state verbiage stuff.  I can send out commands on the serial bus and do all sorts of stuff with the car.  I do not think though it is connected to the internet all of the time though. 
 
I have another device(s) that utilizes two SIM cards (with load balancing and failover built in) and also is a firewall / GPS / router / network switch and AP.  It is used for emergency (a disaster site?) stuff and works fine for me. It is made for an automobile and not for home use even though I am using it at home.
 
If you want to play with this stuff the Ericcson modem is you best bet right now.

 

[ano]

Last year saw a few USB Huawei LTE/3G modems on Ebay.  I do not know where they were coming from and they were unlocked.  I purchased on and noticed though that they didn't work with my AT&T accounts; well like the hardware was blacklisted.

That is becoming more common.  Pretty much anything can be unlocked now-a-days, so that doesn't mean much anymore.  So operators only allow certain equipment on their network.  Of course hackers can simulate any piece of equipment, but that is considerably more difficult since each operator has a different equipment list. Your best bet is buy it from the operator you are going to use. They really don't make much if any money on equipment sales. Their profit is on services.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here have always purchased my phones unlocked to a service. 
 
Well too I have DID had the same cellular service now for over 20 years. 
 
Unlimited everything (internet-SMS) had been grandfathered in to all of my AT&T accounts.  I was told to keep it cuz it was a good deal.
 
 
I did have some issues as my wife wanted a smart large flip phone with illuminated large buttons (no touchscreen) which took me a while to find.

 

[ano]

Unlimited everything (internet-SMS) had been grandfathered in to all of my AT&T accounts.  I was told to keep it cuz it was a good deal.

 
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/technology/att-unlimited-dat-plan/
 
AT&T is not treating its elders (grandfathers) as good as they should.
 
Do you really use that much data? The wife and I have iPhones and we share 500Mb.  I think one month we got up to 410Mb.
 
We were on a Mexican cruise for two weeks this month so this is not really representative.
 

 

[pete_c]

I never did use much data anyways.  That and mostly the phones are off or just charging.  AT&T slammed my account last November, 2014.  I received an a la carte bill for all of the phones with no bucket charges; rather bytes of internet usage charges, every SMS, et al.  When I called them about the invoice they said that a service ticket had been opened to repair my account (it wasn't so).  I cancelled the account.  I was very upset and the CS told me I was being rude.  I switched all of my accounts to a different provider the next day.  Then I got two months of AT&T cellular billing and was told that they had no access to my account because it had been cancelled.  I finally did get it fixed.  I was told that an AT&T internal memo had circulated relating to getting rid of all of the grandfathered accounts no matter what.  My pots line here started with AT&T in the early 2000's and I needed to use a modem for work while waiting for the broadband internet account.  The first AT&T phone bill included "modem" data usage and it was $600 at the time.  Basically they said that I couldn't use the phone for data.  I cancelled and went to MCI.  Thinking today I am the only POTs line here being service by some company out of state that purchased what was left of MCI.
 
Those AT&T commercials you see paint a pretty picture.  The major corporate outages relating to companies that utilize their managed services that you read about in the midwest are not typically related to the corporate entities; rather they are related to the managed WAN services of AT&T.
 
It is funny considering what most people assume they get from them for managed services, what they pay and what they are really getting.  They are not paying much and getting much less these days.  I have seen it from the inside and what they have done; it is a total joke; but it's cheap and profitable.

 

[tmbrown97]

Telular does actually make a device just like you describe - but I'd be willing to bet there are better ways to accomplish what you're after using a cradlepoint or jetpack type of thing.

 

[dementeddigital]

There are many layers of technology, so when you say GSM, that isn't a technology, its many technologies from different wireless operators.  The C3 is designed for one purpose, to provide basic cellular connectivity using the most common technology to connect your alarm.  That isn't Internet.
 
Almost all mobile operators no offer cellular-based mobile hotspots that connect to their cellular network on one end, and give you Wi-Fi on the other.  In fact many cars even have these built-in. They are often free with a two-year contract, so free is about as cheap as you can get.  But wireless Internet access is going to be much more expensive than wired, and the days of unlimited wireless Internet are gone.  These devices typically don't provide voice, but if you need that, there is this device called a mobile phone. 

 
Yes, the wifi hotspots are pretty nice, but they don't offer any way to connect an alarm panel via phone to a monitoring company.  I'm looking for one device.  Even if it's a PC running Asterisk with a GSM card and some analog phone cards.

 

[dementeddigital]

Most telco providers today offer combo wireless DECT / Wireless AP 3G/LTE modems with specific plans.  IE: you cannot take your SIM card from your cell phone and plug it in to a purchased one of these gizmos.  You can though purchase a SIM card / service for one of these gizmos.
 
I have one that is just a little wireless hub with LTE connectivity and you can do SMS messaging with the little device.  It has a little USB port on it for charging and I cannot use it for a wired network modem like the old ones.  Here is the model I have.  It only does wireless LTE internet.
 
ZTE MF96 4G LTE Wireless Mobile Hotspot Router.  It is the size of my palm.  You can put a little microSD in it and use it as a shared tiny NAS.  You do not really need it though with your smart phone wireless AP mode.

 
You used to be able to mod your smartphone's USB port to access the radio / network stuff.  The newest OS's on most smartphones do not let you do this.
 
Last year saw a few USB Huawei LTE/3G modems on Ebay.  I do not know where they were coming from and they were new and unlocked.  I purchased one and noticed though that they didn't work with my AT&T accounts; well like the hardware was blacklisted.
 
What does work for me today is: (still testing it)
 
Ericsson Modem - which is a combo voice, fax, network switch, wireless access point, firewall and you can do SMS with it.
 
Ericsson has discontinued these boxes and are no longer making / selling these.  They still are very popular and still widely utilized.  It is very well constructed and comes with a battery backup.
 
Purchased mine on Ebay for some $35.00 USD.  The sticker on it showed that it came from some Australian telco company.
 

ericcson.jpg
 
There was a discussion here relating to this device and it not having an alarm approval sticker on it; well like any piece of hardware you connect to an alarm panel today.
 
I am pretty sure that the built in radio in the automobiles I have does both voice and data today while concurrently pairing with my smart phone.  I have sniffed the serial bus on two vehicles and see the 3G radio chit chatting along with the GPS pushing out coordinates and city state verbiage stuff.  I can send out commands on the serial bus and do all sorts of stuff with the car.  I do not think though it is connected to the internet all of the time though. 
 
I have another device(s) that utilizes two SIM cards (with load balancing and failover built in) and also is a firewall / GPS / router / network switch and AP.  It is used for emergency (a disaster site?) stuff and works fine for me. It is made for an automobile and not for home use even though I am using it at home.
 
If you want to play with this stuff the Ericcson modem is you best bet right now.

 
Thanks!
 
You wouldn't happen to have a model number for that Ericcson modem, would you?

 

[pete_c]

Model number W25.
 
Ericcson W25 Fixed Wireless Terminal.

 

[tmbrown97]

as mentioned, the Telular models are still in current production and have the phone line - they were designed for fax/data usage and have a special mode for that.  I was using them with special data terminals for a while.  Just another option... although I'd probably just go with an all cellular device for the alarm - with the Uplink systems the cellular data is managed by the monitoring company but seemed pretty reasonable.