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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Has anyone tried the latest firmware for v3 of the MR600 (Archer MR600(EU)_V3_220727, dated 2024-01-22)? The release notes don't mention this specific issue, but I'm wondering if it was quietly fixed in this firmware? The fact that you can't roll back from the latest firmware might put some people off trying it. @Sunshine Does this firmware release address the 4G+ intermittency problem? If no, then is there any plan to fix it?
I was going to purchase the MR600 but I'm having doubts after reading this thread. If TP-Link still haven't resolved the issue after all this time, that would make me think twice about buying it.
What are the implications of the 4G+ constantly switching on and off? Does it just mean that speeds will only be intermittently optimal, or that there could be intermittent loss of connectivity? Also, if the logs are filling up with loads of 4G+ on/off messages, could that become a problem after a long period of usage?
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I installed the latest FW (I had previously a beta FW installed, following a discussion with the TPL Support team in Asia). Problem of constant switching between 4G+ and 4G has not been fixed in the latest FW (see also my other posts on this).
If I had the choice now, instead of wasting my time and money (time is money) waiting for a fix, I wd spend more money for a tried and tested mobile router, incl. possibly 5G version (e.g. AVM FritzBox, Netgear LBR 20, Mikrotik Chateaux). Unless this is fixed soon I am done with TPL products.
Good luck!
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I got fiber to the home installed 6 months ago, so luckily I got rid of the MR600.
But sometimes I still come here to see how bad things are with TP link 
I guess they're just sitting it out
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It's absolutely appalling how the new "update" doesn't even do anything. In fact, you try upgrading the firmware, it does it successfully (V3) but gives you an error as if it didn't. This router is still a miserable cash grab by TP-Link and the fact that @sunshine is silent on this just shows how they couldn't care less about fixing this issue. This is a shameful cash grab and I should've never bought this piece of junk. Making my neighbours never purchase TP-Link again, and will keep telling people how bad this company is. All around no shame in selling a defective product and not giving it proper support.
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Hello everyone,
Does anyone have a Xiaomi phone for comparison?
Apologies for the delayed response. I understand that many users have reported a similar problem. However, we are currently unable to determine whether the issue lies with the MR600(firmware or the chip) or ISP. Previous analysis suggests a possible connection to the ISP or base station.
Some users have mentioned that the issue started with the 1.7.0 firmware on the MR600 V2, but it's important to note that the 1.7.0 firmware primarily addressed a minor display problem and did not modify the actual 4G+ connection mechanism or logic.
In order to further investigate these cases, we would like to compare them with Xiaomi phones. This is because we can attempt to obtain modem logs from Xiaomi phones for comparison purposes.
If you are experiencing the same issue with your MR600 and have no issues with a Xiaomi phone using the same SIM card in the same location, please leave a comment and provide the following information:
1) Model number, hardware, and firmware version of your TP-Link device.
2) Your country and ISP.
3) Detailed description of the problem, band information on the Status page, and whether you are using auto band selection or manually selecting a band.
4) Behavior of your Xiaomi phone with the same SIM card in the same location, including the model number of the phone, network type, and band information: How to check the 4G band working on our smartphones
5) Does 4G+ show up on the MR600 when you download large files or run a Speed Test?
6) System Log file of the TP-Link device, which you can save on the Advanced->System Tools->System Log page.
We greatly appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
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@Sunshine I've now purchased a TP-Link Deco X50-4G, which seems to suffer from the same problem. The TP-Link app on my phone typically reports the network as "4G" but occasionally switches to "4G+". A family member has just bought the MR600 and the 4G+ light on the router switches on and off periodically. We live in the same area but are connected to different masts.
[Edit] The bands are 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. ISP is EE (in the UK). Network mode is "4G Preferred" and the Band and Carrier are both set to "Auto".
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Hi, for MR600 issue, please confirm if there is a XiaoMi phone available for comparison, if so, refer to this reply to provide us the required information please:
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/615176?replyId=1334338
Besides, when we say band in this thread, we mean LTE band instead of WiFi.
For Deco X50-4G issue, it is recommended to start a new thread under Deco product section of this community. And also remember to test the same SIM card on another 4G device(XiaoMi phone if possible) for comparison.
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@Sunshine I am experiencing the same issue with your MR600but I do not have a Xiaomi phone, I have tested it with a Samsung S22 using the same SIM card.
1) Model: Archer MR600 v2 00000003, Firmware: 1.7.0 0.9.1 v0001.0 Build 220826 Rel.58057n
2) Country: Greece, provider: Cosmote
3) the 4g+ goes on and off randomly resulting to lower internet speeds compared to a 4g+ phone, the band I can see in the status page is a single value that varies between 1, 3 & 7. I have tried both auto & manual band selection resulting to the same issue.
4) My phone is permanently connected in 4g+ with a very good signal (4 of 5 signal bars)
5) Sometimes yes the 4G+ show up on the MR600 when I download large files
6) 4g System Logs attached
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We've tried to get modem logs via Samsung phone but failed, that is why we would like to compare with Xiaomi Phone.
Once there is any update, we will inform you and update the post.
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@Sunshine this screenshot is from Indian page of download section of v2: Link
I am on latest version i.e. Archer MR600(EU)_V2_220826. And I am also facing issues mentioned above. So wanted to go back and test.
As there is no rollback restriction note there for older version, can I try to go to Archer MR600(EU)_V2_210914, which is just below that latest version? Thanks.
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