Update:
Elecrow customer service contacted me and confirmed this device is defective if it cannot read / recognize a local, unlocked, working 3/4G SIM card.
They also confirmed that all of their boards should ship with the required jumpers, and they kindly apologized that this one did not come with the required jumpers (not a "big deal" but of course, their quality control team should insure this does not happen).
Elecrow also kindly refunded the cost of this device and mentioned to me they would let me know when an updated version is ready and offered to send the updated version to me when available, so I can retest.
When I get the time, I will send this device back to Elecrow so they can run their own tests on it; or I will try to find time to work with Elecrow engineers to debug this device (from here) when I get back to this project in a few weeks.
For now, I'm moving on to other "mail bag" project ....