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I'm planning on buying a Netgear Nighthawk M1 for use in the EU but also on holiday in the US.

Now I know there are different frequencies and bands in the US that make it so EU devices cannot work properly or at all in the US.

I have read that some 3G might work however. According to the Dutch Netgear website the device supports the following frequencies:

  • LTE/4G: 700/800/900/1800/2100/2300/2500/2600 MHz
  • 3G: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz

Could any of these frequencies work in the US? I was planning on going for a T-Mobile tourist plan.

This is the Dutch Netgear product page: https://www.netgear.nl/home/products/mobile-broadband/mobilerouters/M1.aspx

I would like to know what the chance is that this device will at least get some kind of internet connectivity in the US.

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    I hate when they listed LTE frequencies instead of bands. It's much more difficult to figure it out. Fortunately they have your answer in the knowledge base. Compare these to the bands supported by your mobile carrier. My guess is you will probably find the US version works with your EU carrier, but not the other way round.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 20:00
  • @MichaelHampton when I look at that it looks like 3G should always work, is that correct? Although, when I look at support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4988 I get kind of worried that the EU version won' work at all
    – Marlinc
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 20:14
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    3G should work anywhere worldwide, as at least one of those four bands are available virtually everywhere on the planet. On land, anyway. Except Antarctica and in the middle of the oceans... As for 4G, it doesn't look good for you.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 21:38

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In general it's best to talk in terms of "Bands" rather than "Frequencies", as sometimes carriers will use multiple frequencies together to form a single band.

The device you're referring to - presuming it is the EU model - supports the following bands :

3G - Bands 1, 2, 5 and 8    
4G LTE - Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40 and 41

T-Mobile in the US uses the following bands :

3G - Bands 2, 4
4G LTE - Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 66 and 71

Clearly the only overlap between those two is 3G Band 2, and even then this is a band that is not available in all T-Mobile coverage areas. It is also 3G only, so if you do get coverage it will at best be slow.

The story is similar with other US carrier. AT&T 4G LTE uses bands 2, 4, 17 and 30 - again giving no overlap. Same for Verizon (Bands 2, 4, 13).

The only carrier with any 4G coverage would be Sprint (Bands 25, 26 and 41), however they will generally only allow approved devices on their network, so your odds of being able to use them are low - plus their band 41 coverage is fairly sparse so even if you could get it connected the coverage would be very bad.

So whilst technically this device will work in the US, the coverage and performance will both be bad enough that if you do bring it with you, you'll probably wish you'd let if at home...

If you do decide to bring it, your best option is probably to use AT&T. Their 3G "Band 2" coverage is better than T-Mobile - but again don't expect too much performance.

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    For the record: find the bands of your device and then open Wikipedia: Deployments by region (UMTS-FDD) and LTE deployments by region.
    – user4188
    Commented Apr 25, 2019 at 0:32
  • As mentioned before, I suspect he will do better to buy a US model and use it in the EU. It's much more likely to have 4G LTE overlap with his EU mobile carrier.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Apr 25, 2019 at 1:12

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