I am seeking some clarification regarding the tower locking feature and its capabilities, specifically concerning 5G NSA (Non-Standalone) connections and band configurations.
Tower Locking with 5G NSA (Non-Standalone):
Question: If I want to use 5G NSA (and not Standalone), am I able to use the tower lock feature to lock onto a specific tower that provides both LTE and 5G signals? Or is the tower lock feature exclusively applicable to LTE signals only?
I understand that tower locking for Standalone mode is straightforward, but I am uncertain about its functionality with 5G NSA. Any clarification on whether I can lock onto a tower for both LTE and 5G NSA would be greatly appreciated.
Tower Scans and Band Configurations:
Question: Do the results from tower scans show the possible band configurations available to me?
Is it possible to lock the combination of bands that I connect to? For example, I would like to force a connection to a tower that broadcasts Band 66 LTE and Band 41 NR5G.
Im curious cause I want to get the max download performance. Just eliminating band 71 from the configuration made it so I consistently get around 400mbps instead of 150-200mbps cause I connect automatically to band 41 with NSA 5g.
My antenna is “Waveform 4x4 MIMO Outdoor 5G Panel Antenna (N-Female, 600-6000 MHz)”
In 5GNSA you are using LTE as primary and 5G as a single secondary aggregate band only. You can tower/cell lock only LTE bands in this mode, and since it only aggregates to a single 5G NSA band you can simply turn off the 5G NSA bands you don’t want it to use. So for your case, you can scan, then lock to the specific b66 you’d like, and then turn off 5G NSA n71 (and even n25, or the new n66, if you like).
In 5G SA mode, it only uses 5G in normal use and so you would cell lock to the specific 5G SA band you’d prefer.
Remember, cell locks don’t turn anything off, they only guide the preferred primary “SCC” connection to the preferred tower.
Reference for below: PCC is your primary “anchor” band the modem connects to the tower with, SCC1/2/3/etc are all the secondary cells used for aggregation
You cannot choose the order in which the LTE bands connect (PCC vs SCC1, SCC2, etc) but you can choose which you would prefer to be the PCC band, and that is what the tower cell lock does. The bands that LTE aggregates with depend on what specific band the PCC is, as they are not always capable of aggregating both ways, IE: PCC b13 can aggregate with SCC b66, but b66 PCC cannot aggregate with b13.
The combinations possible are a huge complex spreadsheet and do not guarantee that your cell towers management profile supports them, only that the modem is capable of what is listed at the time it was published.
@ryan can correct me or add no as needed for deeper detail.