Troubleshooting Carrier Aggregation or 4G+ doesn’t work properly on LTE Advanced Router
This Article Applies to
LTE Advanced Routers, including Archer MR600 and Archer MR500
Problem Description
We have received reports from some of our customers regarding issues with carrier aggregation or 4G+ not functioning correctly after updating to the 1.7.0 firmware on MR600 V2 or on MR600 V3. These issues include 4G+ never working or the 4G+ LED turning on and off every few seconds. While the symptoms may appear similar, the underlying causes could vary. To address these issues, we kindly ask you to follow the instructions in this article to troubleshoot and provide us with detailed information for further analysis.
If you are unfamiliar with carrier aggregation or 4G+, please refer to our guide on What is Carrier Aggregation and how it works on TP-Link LTE Gateway Routers/MiFi?
Troubleshooting Steps
1. Confirm with the ISP which band combinations the SIM card supports, then check if it matches with the LTE Advanced Router. You could check the supported bands and Carrier Aggregation band combinations on the specification page of the product.
Here is Archer MR600 V3 Specification. As you can see, not all combinations are supported, for example, even though it supports 4G band 1 and also band 40, it doesn’t support band 1+band 40 for carrier aggregation.
2. Make sure the band is set to be “Auto” on Advanced->Network->Internet page, then check band information on Advanced->Status page, record the band(s).
Then insert the same SIM card into another LTE Advanced device at the same location and check if it works on 4G+ all the time, if so, check the band as well for comparison.
If you have no other LTE Advanced router, please try your smartphone, and you could refer to How to check the 4G band working on our smartphones to check the band working on your smartphone.
After finding the band combinations working on another device, please try to select 4G bands manually on the TP-Link device and make sure same bands are selected:
How to select 4G band manually on the web interface of LTE Gateway Routers
However, if your another device or phone shows 4G, no 4G+, please contact your ISP.
3. Please try to download large files or run Speed Test to see if TP-Link router will show 4G+, some ISPs might allocate more resources when there is high-traffic operation.
If the above troubleshooting still cannot locate or solve the problem, please leave your comment and provide the following information.
1) Model number, hardware and firmware version of your TP-Link LTE Advanced Router
2) Your country and ISP
3) Detailed problem description, band information on Status page, and you are using auto band or manually selected band
4) Brand & model No., of your another LTE Advanced device. Network Type and Band information on it with the same SIM card at same location.
5) Specifically, do you have XiaoMi phone for comparison?
6) Will 4G+ show up when you download large files or run Speed Test
7) System Log file of TP-Link device, you could save it on Advanced->System Tools->System Log page
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Hi, here are the firmware available on the global site, as you can see, there is another firmware 220105 in between the 220826 and 210914, since 220105 is not allowed to downgrade, you will not be able to downgrade from 220826 to 210814, but you should be able to downgrade to 220105, here is the global site link:
Firmware Download for Archer MR600 V2
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Hello,
You mention " a Xiaomi phone for comparison". I have an old Redmi Note 5A handy. If this is good enough, please let me know exactly and in detailed steps what I'm supposed to do with it because it's not entirely clear to me.
I will be near the MR600 V2 in about a week. I could also use a more modern Redmi Note 9, but that will be possible in no less than 40 days from now.
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@Sunshine Thanks for the reply. I downgraded to the older version. And can see 4G+ all the time. As right now I am residing in the place where getting better internet connection is hard, I can't see much improvements. But visually, I am happy now.
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Hello @Sunshine
I wanted to share my experience with the Archer MR500:
I have realized that double band aggregation, starting at midnight (00h), no longer works for me. Throughout the day, it works correctly for me, but at that time, it no longer works. It works again for me around 7:30 in the morning.
With my smartphone, 4G+ works for me at any time, even at night, but not with the router.
I have good coverage, I am near an operator antenna with a signal (depending on the band), but between RSRP: -75 to -86dBm.
In my case I use the band 3,8, 20.
I only have this curious problem, otherwise it works fine for me.
PS: I have firmware v1.7 beta. But with the official v1.5, the same thing happened to me.
Thank you. Greetings
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Hi, thank you very much for your cooperation.
To assist you efficiently, I've forwarded your case to the TP-Link support engineers who will contact you with your registered email address later. Please pay attention to your email box for follow-up.
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Fabri2 wrote
Hello @Sunshine
I wanted to share my experience with the Archer MR500:
I have realized that double band aggregation, starting at midnight (00h), no longer works for me. Throughout the day, it works correctly for me, but at that time, it no longer works. It works again for me around 7:30 in the morning.
With my smartphone, 4G+ works for me at any time, even at night, but not with the router.
I have good coverage, I am near an operator antenna with a signal (depending on the band), but between RSRP: -75 to -86dBm.
In my case I use the band 3,8, 20.
I only have this curious problem, otherwise it works fine for me.
PS: I have firmware v1.7 beta. But with the official v1.5, the same thing happened to me.
Thank you. Greetings
Hi, you mean you selected band 3, 8, 20 manually on the MR500, right?
Please check which band(s) your phone is using with the same SIM card at same location, especially at night: How to check the 4G band working on our smartphones
Then compare the bands with MR500.
By the way, is your smartphone XiaoMi phone or not?
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Hi, you mean you selected band 3, 8, 20 manually on the MR500, right?
Please check which band(s) your phone is using with the same SIM card at same location, especially at night: How to check the 4G band working on our smartphones
Then compare the bands with MR500.
By the way, is your smartphone XiaoMi phone or not?
Yes, I use it manually. Because the bands automatically change me a lot. And some bands work better for me than others. I have to start from the base with band 3.
I have had Xiaomi, but now the one I use is a Motorola Edge 40 Neo
I've been analyzing the bands at night with my cell phone for 2 nights, and I don't understand anything.
It says 4G+ on the icon, but it's not like it has the speed that corresponds to it. Download receipt only as 4G. The check is at the same hours.
I use the Netmonster app and it still tells me one or more bands were added, but it deletes itself in seconds.
I will continue talking to my operator to see if she knows anything about why this is happening.
I noticed this more through the router, with the LED it makes you know better. I have had the router for about 1 week.
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Thank you very much for the update. Maybe the ISP limited the 4G+ or Speed at night since it happens always during the same time with the router.
If you have any further questions on the router after confirming it with your ISP, please let us know.
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Is the System log switching from 4g to 4g+ resolved, for i still experience it here in Philippines with Smart. My speed test varies from 30dl/25ul to 85dl/60ul 4g and 4g+. And i wonder if there are issues like this get resolved.
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Hi, please refer to this reply: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/615176?replyId=1334338
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