Hello fellow retronetworkers,
Today I received a pair of Possio Greta GSM fax machines from Harald.
I haven't powered up either of them yet, as I have no CSD-capable BTS
up and running currently (sysmoBTS sadly does not support CSD, and I
have yet to tackle the project of trying to bring my ebay-sourced UmTRX
to life with osmo-bts-trx), but as I was examining these devices
visually, I noted that they are a lot more "modern" than I thought
they were. The CE mark on the label sports year 2009, and the IMEI
begins with 35368104. The 04 in the FAC field told me right away that
it must be a "late GSM era" device, NOT early GSM era, but then I tried
looking it up in the IMEIDB leak I once found on Scribd:
https://www.freecalypso.org/pub/GSM/IMEI/186248059-Tac.pdf
And sure enough, it is right there on page 667: this IMEI belongs to
Cinterion MC55i module! So now we know exactly which GSM MS engine
these fax machines have inside. :-) And here is the best part: as the
IMEIDB entry says and searches for MC55i datasheets confirm, this GSM
module and hence the GSM fax machine built around it is quadband!
Prior to this discovery, I feared that I would have to not only get a
CSD-capable BTS up and running, but also operate it in an EU band for
this gear to work - but since it is quadband, I now know that once I
do get a CSD-capable BTS, I can run it in whichever band makes the
most sense given the spectrum-political situation in my neck of the
woods.
Needless to say, I look forward to tomorrow's presentation by Harald,
where we will hopefully learn how ISDN fax differs from analog and GSM
kinds. :-)
M~