Re: Augmenting mobile-broadband-provider-info

[Marcel Holtmann <marcel holtmann org>]

Hi Antti,

> > > > you can't trust the network name string returned by AT+COPS since there
> > > > are so many factors coming into play here. So first of all you have the
> > > > names stored in the modem itself, then the names stored on the SIM card
> > > > and then the potential updates over the network. Every hardware does
> > > > different things to present the result of AT+COPS.
> > > 
> > > AFAIK if there's a name stored in the SIM card it will have precedence
> > > over the ones stored inside the modem. And the ones that network sends
> > > are probably most reliable. I have to look though the specs if there's
> > > any information on this.
> > > 
> > > Anyway the point is that in most situations we should have a correct
> > > alphabetical name for the provider, right? 
> > 
> > I have seen different hardware with the same SIM card give different
> > names. And I also have seen different SIM card with the same hardware
> > result in different results.
> 
> I'm not expecting this to work on every device with every SIM card. When
> it doesn't work and the selected provider is wrong we just offer the
> user the change to manually select the correct option. But when it does
> work and just magically out of the blue your computer or netbook or what
> ever just knows your provider and it's just a single click away to get
> connected, that's something that would be really cool :)

I would prefer that, but I don't think that network names are really the
right thing to do here and offer that more advantage than just showing
two providers when the MCC/MNC has duplicates.

> > Also you have the problem that names change over time and some hardware
> > and SIM card combination returns still the old one, while newer pieces
> > would give you the new name.
> 
> Sure, just like APNs do change sometimes. It's just the matter of
> information gathering and maintenance. And if an operator changes the
> string to be something else, there's nothing stopping us to include the
> new and the old one. And if there's something conflicting then the final
> solution is to leave the network-name data out from the database so that
> manual selection is implicitly required.

actually APNs don't change that often. For example AT&T in the US still
uses the Cingular APN name. And there are many around Europe where
acquisitions may have changed the outside, but all the deep technical
details inside the network are still the same.

And btw. there is a way to do network name updates over the air. The
problem is only that you have no idea on how these are actually handled
by the hardware you are using.

Regards

Marcel