Understanding Account Activation for CDMA EV-DO Cards

Account activation is the process of enabling the CDMA EV-DO wireless modem card to connect to your service provider’s cellular network. This is a one-time process where your subscriber information is saved in nonvolatile memory on the card. The procedure you use to perform account activation depends upon the the service provider network.

Before activating an account, you can verify the signal strength on the 3G wireless modem interface by using the show modem wireless interface cl-0/0/8 rssi command. The signal strength should be at least -90 dB and preferably better than -80 dB (-125 dB indicates nil signal strength). If the signal strength is below -90 dB, activation may not be possible from that location. For example:

The service provider requires the electronic serial number (ESN) of the 3G wireless modem card to activate your account and to generate the necessary information you need to activate the card. You can obtain the ESN number of the modem card in the following ways:

• Inspect the modem card itself; the ESN is printed on the card.
• Use the CLI show modem wireless interface cl-0/0/8 firmware command, as shown in the following example, and note the value for the Electronic Serial Number (ESN) field:
  
  

  user@host> show modem wireless interface cl-0/0/8 firmware

  Modem Firmware Version : p2005600

  Modem Firmware built date : 12-09-07

  Card type : Aircard 597E - CDMA EV-DO revA 

  Manufacturer : Sierra Wireless, Inc.

  Hardware Version : 1.0 

  Electronic Serial Number (ESN) : 0x6032688F 

  Preferred Roaming List (PRL) Version : 20224 

  Supported Mode : 1xev-do rev-a, 1x 

  Current Modem Temperature : 32 degrees Celsius

  Modem Activated : YES 

  Activation Date: 2-06-08 

  Modem PIN Security : Unlocked 

  Power-up lock : Disabled

For the CDMA EV-DO 3G wireless modem card, account activation can be done through one or more of the following modes:

• Over the air service provisioning (OTASP)—protocol for programming phones over the air using Interim Standard 95 (IS-95) Data Burst Messages.

  To activate the 3G wireless modem card with OTASP, you need to obtain from the service provider the dial number that the modem will use to contact the network. Typically, OTASP dial numbers begin with the feature code *228 to indicate an activation call type to the cellular network's base transceiver station, followed by additional digits specified by the service provider.

• Internet-based over the air (IOTA) provisioning—method for programming phones for voice and data services
• Manually providing the required information by entering in a CLI operational mode command

Sprint uses manual and IOTA activation, whereas Verizon uses only OTASP.

Note: The 3G wireless modem is set into Single-Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1xRTT) mode automatically when it is activated for Verizon networks.

Related Topics

• Activating the CDMA EV-DO Modem Card with OTASP Provisioning
• Activating the CDMA EV-DO Modem Card Manually
• Activating the CDMA EV-DO Modem Card with IOTA Provisioning