Re: Augmenting mobile-broadband-provider-info

[Denis Kenzior <denkenz gmail com>]

Hi Dan,

>> Fully agreed, the COPS name is junk, and on properly implemented
>> hardware the COPS name can actually
>> change once the network performs a NITZ update.  Unfortunately there's
>> no standard way of knowing what
>> name the hardware is reporting, the one burned into firmware or taken
>> from NITZ.  I've seen this happen on
>> the Freerunner.  Immediately after registering COPS returns
>> "Cingular", 5 minutes later it will return "AT&T".
>>
>> Any such database has to account for the PCS digit for North American
>> carriers.  For instance, T-Mobile
>> SIMs are provisioned with 3 digit MNC, 260.  Yet most (all?) T-Mobile
>> cells will actually report a 2 digit
>> MNC, 26.  Whether the 3rd MNC digit is reported is completely up to
>> the network cell tower.  Refer to
>> table 10.5.3 in 3GPP 24.008.
>
> Yep; I've looked over the MCC/MNC data and that may only be a problem
> for India and the US in the future, but there weren't any clashes that I
> could find in a quick check where for example one provider's 5-digit
> conflicts with another provider's 6-digit with the 6-th digit removed.
>
> But also, it's not *completely* up to the cell tower, as some modems
> will pad it out too.  See below.

Well it is up to the cell tower to report 2 or 3 digit MNC.  How the
ME treats the information is out of the network provider's control.

>
> Some Option devices will also report *7* MCC/MNC digits in the cops
> response.  Odd firmware I'd presume.
>
> Option Quicksilver (AT&T locked & branded, with AT&T 3G SIM):
>
> +COPS: (2,"AT&T","","310410",0),(2,"","","3104100",2),(1,"AT&T","","310260",0),,(0-4),(0-2)";
>
> Three interesting notes:  (1) the 3G network MCC/MNC is 7 digits, and
> (2) 310260 is T-Mobile, not AT&T, so AT&T is hiding the actual operator,
> and (3) it shows 310260 where other devices at that location showed only
> 5-digit operator strings (Nokia N80).

So Option simply got this wrong.  They tried to guess the PCS digit
and shot themselves in the foot.  Someone please make fun of them,
publicly.  I've seen hardware not report the third MNC digit (which is
allowed according to 3GPP) but making up a 4th digit up is something
else entirely.

>
> Standards are relative :)

The standards are actually not, but the implementations certainly are.

Regards,
-Denis