I am using the BG96 in a battery powered device. One problem that we have is that if the device has no way to connect to a network, for example if it is being shipped by air or sea or if it is deep underground, then the BG96 takes a long period of time to fail the network dial up. This is very costly for the battery life, so I wondered if there is a quicker way to determine if there are no cell tower beacons than the normal dial up procedure?
Normally we do this:
“AT+CIND?;+CEREG?;+CGREG?;+COPS?;+QCSQ;+QNWINFO”
And give up if there is no network coverage when “+CxREG: 0,4” or “+CxREG: 0,0” is received. This can take several minutes. Is there a quicker way to determine a no network coverage state?