Re: Augmenting mobile-broadband-provider-info

[Marcel Holtmann <marcel holtmann org>]

Hi Antti,

> > > Do you mean the international dial code like +1 for the US, etc?  We
> > > could do this.
> > 
> > Yes, that's what I mean.
> > 
> > > At least in the case of the timezone db, I think there's better places
> > > to put that.  I realize not all platforms use glibc, but I have to
> > > believe that even if you don't, there's going to be some timezone/locale
> > > information already on the system that it would be a shame to duplicate.
> > 
> > Ok, I agree with that. Could we at least add countries and provider's
> > that do not necessarily offer mobile broadband but just telephony? A
> > mapping from MCC MNC to country and provider name can be helpful in
> > various ways.
> 
> I agree. This would turn m-b-p-i into cellular-provider-info. 
> 
> 
> When we are now talking about augmenting, I would like to make some
> proposals also. I would like to have optional network-name field added
> to gsm section. Virtual providers use same parent networks with same
> mcc/mnc pairs and there's no way telling them a part. Here's an example
> with two Finnish operators which both operate on DNA network:
> 
> DNA:
> at+cops=0,2
> at+cops?
> +COPS: 0,2,"24412",2
> 
> GoMobile:
> at+cops=0,2
> at+cops?
> +COPS: 0,2,"24412",2
> 
> Fortunately each provider conveniently happens to claim they "own" the
> network they are operating in:
> 
> DNA:
> at+cops=0,0
> at+cops?
> +COPS: 0,0,"dna",2
> 
> GoMobile:
> at+cops=0,0
> at+cops?
> +COPS: 0,0,"go.mobile",2
> 
> We can use this long alphabetical format of the network to identify the
> virtual providers from each other:
> 
>         <provider>
>                 <name>Dna</name>
>                 <gsm>
>                         <network-name>dna</network-name>
>                         <network-id mcc="244" mnc="12"/>
> 
>                         <apn value="internet">
>                                 <dns>217.78.192.22</dns>
>                                 <dns>217.78.192.78</dns>
>                         </apn>
>                 </gsm>
>         </provider>
>         <provider>
>                 <name>GoMobile</name>
>                 <gsm>
>                         <network-name>go.mobile</network-name>
>                         <network-id mcc="244" mnc="12"/>
> 
>                         <apn value="internet.gomobile.fi">
>                                 <dns>217.78.192.22</dns>
>                                 <dns>217.78.192.78</dns>
>                         </apn>
>                 </gsm>
>         </provider>
> 
> This allows us to automatically select the correct provider.
> 
> Any thoughts?

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.

And to make it even more complex, in case of roaming situations some
devices actually to weird concat of home network and current network.

Regards

Marcel