Lock Onto That Cell Tower

Cell Tower Locking Tutorial

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 by Tanya Lau

Why Do We Need To Lock Cell Tower?

Nowadays cell towers are not located too far off to avoid cell signal dead zones and provide stable signals in most areas. And sometimes, this causes signals to overlap in certain zones.

When you happen to be located in these signal-overlapping zones or just traveling in your automobile within these overlapping areas, your devices might sometimes be confused and switch between the two received signals from time to time. Cell Tower Locking can allow your network to have an even more stable connection from just one preferred cell tower.

With GL.iNet’s 5G NR network gateways, you can easily secure cell signals from one cell tower with ease.

1. Log in to the device OS system via SSH protocol.

2. Use the gl_modem -B 0001:01:00.0 SAT sp 'AT+QSCAN=3,1' command to query neighbour cell information.

   

   Note: If the scan fails, run the system as the following:

   gl_modem -B 0001:01:00.0 SAT sp AT+CFUN=0

   gl_modem -B 0001:01:00.0 SAT sp AT+CFUN=1

   <scs>:

   0~15kHz

   1~30kHz

   2~60kHz

   3~120kHz

   4~240kHz

   

3. Locking serving cell.

    NR5G:
    AT+QNWLOCK="common/5g", <pci>, <freq>, <scs>, <band>
    <pci>Integer type, the Cell ID to be locked 
    <freq>Integer type, the Cell frequency band to be locked 
    <scs>Integer type, the Cell subcarrier interval to be locked(SCS subcarrier spacing), support number 15, 30, 60
    <band>Integer type, the Cell band to be locked 
   
    LTE4G:
    AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g", 1, <freq>, <pci>
    <freq>Integer type, the Cell frequency band to be locked
    <pci>Integer type, the Cell ID to be locked
    Reset locked cell:
    AT+QNWLOCK="common/5g",0
   

4. Locking the step 1 cell

    NR5G:
    gl_modem -B 0001:01:00.0 SAT sp 'AT+QNWLOCK="common/5g",165,627264,30,78'
   
    LTE4G:
    gl_modem -B 0001:01:00.0 SAT sp 'AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g",1,2452,8'
   

Now you know how to set up cell tower locking with GL.iNet’s routers, you can easily enjoy even more stable and reliable cell services to share with your devices.