New 4G modems on the engineering to-do list

It's always a challenge to keep our products that use third-party wireless USB modems (Like ACCESS and LiveShot) up to date with all the latest drivers. And the carriers certainly aren't making it easy--they seem to enjoy completely changing the driver structure for each new generation of USB modems they sell (and a generation lasts less than a year). Comrex codecs already support connecting to modems via ppp, DirectIP, Option protocol, custom drivers, and XML commands (not to mention a huge list of specialized drivers required for WiMAX compatibility).

Both AT&T and Sprint have changed up their USB offerings this summer. The new modems are shown below, and are currently the only 4G LTE modems offered by each carrier. AT&T calls their variant the "Beam"(340U)  and Sprint uses the model name of 341U.

And while they look the same (both are manufactured by Netgear, formerly Sierra Wireless), sure enough, each carrier has opted for a completely new, and completely different driver arrangement. And neither are simple upgrades (from a development perspective) to codec firmware.

We're on it. But it will take some time. We recommend not to upgrade to either of these modems for LiveShot or ACCESS until we can manage a firmware update for these. Keep an eye toward our website's update section for late details.

For now, we have a limited stock of previous generation LTE modems for use on the AT&T network for sale. And Mifi-style devices (compatible with the wi-fi modems that ship with our codecs) are still a good alternative for use on these networks.