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SP970 4G USB Modem: Buying Guide & Revisions (V3 / V10)

The SP970 (commonly found as SP970_V3 or SP970_V10) is a prominent MSM8916 wingle family widely sold across Asian markets (China, Southeast Asia, India) and AliExpress. It is well-documented in the original OpenStick project archives.

Hardware Specifications

Section titled “Hardware Specifications”
Component Specification
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) Quad-Core Cortex-A53 @ 1.2 GHz (ARM64)
RAM 512 MB LPDDR3
Storage 4 GB eMMC 5.0 (BGA chip, e.g. Foresee or Kingston)
Wireless Qualcomm WCN3620 (802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz + Bluetooth 4.0)
Cellular Modem Qualcomm LTE Cat 4 (B1, B3, B5, B8, B38, B39, B40, B41)
SIM Slot Standard Micro-SIM (3FF) push-slide tray
Power Input USB-A male 5V, ~270mA idle, up to 1.1A peak cellular

Exterior Shell & Design

Section titled “Exterior Shell & Design”

The SP970 typically uses a compact rectangular plastic shell with rounded corners and a removable cap:

       ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │ [===]    [ 4G ]   [ WiFi ]                       │
[USB]  │                                      SP970 Wingle│
       │                                                  │
       └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The front shell features two distinct light guides for the 4G LTE and Wi-Fi status indicators.

Board Silkscreen Revisions

Section titled “Board Silkscreen Revisions”

Opening the snap-together plastic enclosure reveals the PCB silkscreen:

  • SP970_V3: Earliest widespread version; uses high-quality Samsung eMMC.
  • SP970_V10: Cost-optimized version with slightly modified antenna trace geometry and updated PMIC filtering capacitors.

The main processor must be marked with the Qualcomm Snapdragon logo and MSM8916.

Purchasing Recommendations

Section titled “Purchasing Recommendations”
  • AliExpress / Taobao Queries: SP970 4G USB, MSM8916 SP970 modem, Qualcomm 410 SP970 wingle.
  • eMMC Check: Always verify the flash chip is a smooth BGA square without visible metal pins.
  • Price Range: Typically $7 to $10 USD.

Frequently Asked Questions — SP970 (V3 / V10)

Does the SP970 4G USB modem run OpenStick Debian Linux?

Yes, genuine Qualcomm MSM8916 SP970 V3 and V10 boards with eMMC flash run OpenStick Debian Linux via the lk2nd bootloader.

👉 Ready to flash? Download the 1-Click OpenStick Debian Installer or browse Verified Store Links.