Database Users

o2 3G

Hello, without meaning to sound like a complete idiot, can anyone tell me if I will automatically get 3G connection on my o2 account, or do I need to contact them to enable it.
Because every time I try to make a video call, the Exec tells me that 3G is not available.
Or do I need a new SIM Card?
They sent me a new SIM Card with the Exec, but I have not fitted it. Do you think that I need to insert and activate it?
Many Thanks in Advance
Fatzzz

I also got a new SIM card when my Exec arrived and I had to call O2 to get them to activate it. They said this would happen within several hours, but in fact it happened within 5 minutes. The old card stopped working at exactly the same time, so don't go out without them both once you've called them!
You can only make video calls when your phone has locked on to the 3G network. You'll know when this has happened because you'll see a 'U' symbol next to the phone signal strength icon instead of the 'G' for GPRS. (U stands for UTMS.) Or, go to the phone dialler pad and check the network name.
Most people seem to struggle to find a 3G signal though, so it might all be a waste of time. Certainly here in Sussex I haven't found a signal yet.

Thanks SiliconS, do you know if there is a special plan to subscribe to, or will it work as long as it is in a 3G area?
Cheers
Fatzzz

I contacted O2 today to ask the same question (as well as get my new plan confirmed).
I was advised that I would need a new sim, which has been ordered and should be sent out soon, and once that sim arrives, I need to contact O2 and get them to enable the new SIM and disable the old one.
What they then advised me is that 3G would be used whenever it is available.
It'll work in Liverpool where I work, but from what I've seen, St Helens, where I live, won't work just now but is planned for future expansion although there is no date.
To be honest I doubt I'll use it too much as I permanently activesync with my laptop via Bluetooth and use that as an Internet connection.
Once a decent push email solution has been delivered I'll probably rely on 3G a bit more.

In London, I get U everywhere I go, don't know about other areas. It was rather amusing when the train passed Hither Green the U changed to G for about 10 secs then switched back to U again. So does it mean the transmitter somewhere near Hither Green doesn't support 3G?

it could just be that the signal wasn't strong enough to support UTMS.
For example, if I go into the office at work I usually end up on GPRS, yet if I go near a window I can use UTMS just fine.
Hope this helps.

http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/
Check you O2 coverage
I am right on the edge of a coverage area however i am in dark blue but i get a very week signal from O2s UMTS network and a very strong signal from their GSM network.
I have real problems with using a data connection as i keep switching between the 2 networks and there is a delay while it does it. Also MSNM is really bad when it does this. At the moment i have set my Exec to just use the GSM network and ignore the UMTS one.

well I ordered a new sim from o2 to get 3g on my jasjar, and they sent me a normal gsm one (I didn't notice at the time, ended up hard resetting just to make sure I hasn't disabled it somehow!) So check when the SIM arrives that got 3G written on the side with the bubbles and not GSM! I infact ended up going to the O2 shop and getting one from there.
Flubster

3g Tmobile UK Connection Issues

I(m currently switching between GSM and 3g - however i gprs seems to work fine for browsing however 3g does not seem to be working for browsing but ok for calls!! Im in the birmingham area where 3g coverage is normally superb - is anyone experiencing similar problems or know a possible way to resolve? I soft reset doesnt resolve the issue!

I am in T-Mobile UK and have no problems so sorry cannot offer advice - is surfing with GPRS OK? I have found T-Mobile customer support very good - give them a try. Their tech support people seem to know what they are talking about which is nice too - much different to O2. Good luck
PS - if not tried then take a look at the excellent plug-in by Daniel Herrero here. I doubt it will fix this problem but it saves lots of battery power and is very configurable.

I have exactly the same problem. 3g is really slow for surfing and GPRS is so much faster. In fact a lot of the the time on 3g I just get error messages saying the page is not available etc but if I then switch to GSM it loads in a second.
I have found something weird though: If I switch the phone off or go in to comm manager and switch the line connection off then try to surf or download on 3g it will not work.
If however, I switch the phone or the connection on then switch to gsm, and then to UMTS/3g it will surf on 3g.
For this I use Daniel Herrero's excellent program to fast switch.
but even this method sometimes doesn't work.
What I've resorted to is surfing on GPRS and when I need to download something, quickly switch (using Dan's Program) to 3g.
Am I right in thinking the no 3g connection after being switched on is a known issue with the Hermes?

HI JPHCCFC
Im in Birmingham on t-mobile and for the past two ...three days i to have had trouble connecting to the web or msn...very slow or no connection
Gavin

cheers for the info guys - im thinking that maybe its a 3g network error in the area - anybody who isnt experiencing problems in the birmingham area with 3g Data?

still no data 3g in the birmingham area....or is it my handset??? Gav1n how is your data 3g performing?

Im in manchester and i seem to have the same problem with 3g being much slower for browsing than the standard gprs

I'm getting the same issues in East surrey

phoned customer services they said they had no reported errors with the 3g network! they said try the sim swap with another tmobile sim to see if its the handset or network!

hi im still the same no 3G ....in brum (quinton) when i change the band to gsm every is thing is ok....its the same on my wifes phone ...so deff a t-moible thing...
gavin

3G connection issues on TMobile-Vario2
Dear all,
Appears the south-east also has the same type of connection issues. Everything appeared well until about 7-10 days back.
I e-mailed T-Mobile support and they advised that there were some network issues which could have impacted the service. I did notice that their on-line account services had also been upgraded around the same time period - maybe a coincidence - but every since then the phone doesn't seem to surf properly on the 3G service. AND, battery life goes down dramatically - I only now manage to get about a day's use out of the damn phone!
I've got a replacement battery from T-Mobile - but same thing happens. I think it's all inter-related!
So what's the solution anyone? 'cos I am getting rather hacked off with it all!

I'm getting hacked off with really bad now.
My grps is faster than 3g. Period. Regardless of reception. Anyone got a solution???

try disabling hsdpa with hermes tweaker and reboot your phone.make sure you are not connected to gprs while disabling it. it has solved my problems.

3G connection issues on TMobile-Vario2
Same here in the Canary Wharf area for the last 7-10 days. First I blamed my radio rom - I have upgraded to 1.34.00.10 when the problem started. But then I have also tried 1.27 and few older ones - all the same problem. Fast grps, but no 3G. The battery also dies quite fast on 3g, so I have now switched to GSM only. :-(

Don't know if any of you have done this already but I was having the 3G problems for a couple of weeks and battery was draining quickly, I phoned up T-Mobile and asked them if HSPDA was turned on on my account which it wasn't, since they turned it on the problems have disappeared and my connection speed is now at least 750 kbs.

3G issues
i have had my t-mobile for over a week now, but in the shop they said there was no 3G in edgbaston, birmingham but when i got it home i connected quite easily

3g dns failures
I have had a t-mobile vario 2 for the last 5 months. when I first got the phone I was excited to get the hsdpa activated and quickly phoned up tmobile and got through to a tech guy who activated it. I didnt really notice much speed improvement and tmobile only shows the 3g and not the h for hsdpa, but I was pretty happy with my speeds of around 70kbit/sec (tested through http://text.dslreports.com/myspeed?jisok=1). I downloaded fieldtest_157 which showed that I was connected to hsdpa but the values showed through hsdpa cqi status were very low.
About 1 month ago I was suddenly unable to go online whenever my phone went into 3g mode, my phone would show it connected but wouldn’t find any addresses. I was only able to when it switched to gsm. I phoned tmobile to get the problem fixed. they said it was a known issue with the phone and made me permenantly switch my phone to the gsm network. I was basically told that my phone does not support 3g and hangs on switching from gsm to 3g for no apparent reason and that they were working on the problem. they must have done something on their side because when I switched to phone back on to auto network switching, I got gsm and 3g connectivity and downloads but not hsdpa (checked with fieldtest_157)
next day because I was unhappy with the download speed I phoned tmobile and asked for hsdpa reactivation. the first level who answered made me hang on and reactivated hsdpa. same problem cant download except on gsm switch. rephoned tmobile and got through to another 2nd level tech guy and explained all my connection problems.he said that my phone had never been hsdpa connected and connected it for me. what do you know Im suddenly getting 950kbit/sec speeds and hsdpa cqi status shows all high teens or 20's. for some reason my battery is lasting allot longer and 5 months after getting the phone Im happy. moral of the story is to download fieldtest_157 from:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index...e=Hermes_Utils
and check hsdpa status because either lots of bull is being told to tmobile customers or there are some pretty stupid people working there.
I was getting lots of dns failures (except in gsm) and getting really fraustrated. I was going to ask for deactivation of hsdpa. Luckily the technician I spoke to (about the tenth person in 3 days) that eventually got me connected, new his stuff. He tried to trick me into admitting that I was using my phone as a modem for my computer and only connected me after I denied it. after he changed something on his side, he made me pull out my battery and do a soft reset. Everythings now how I expected when I bought the phone. It might sound like conspiracy theory but I got the feeling that he only connected me when it sounded like I knew slightly more than the average Joe. My hsdpa connection has been faultless ever since. Getting consistently high speeds even with 1 bar. On 3g!!
I had low fieldtest numbers before my proper activation. now all much higher teens or twentys
keep phoning tmobile until the problem is fixed!! and speak to someone who doesnt have to read a set of respone instructions and has some real knowledge.
Hope this helps
Cheers craig

No 3G in Glasgow. Was fine until 7-10 days ago. Phoned T-Mobile and the guy said they knew of problems. Asked for HSDPA to be activated, he claimed to have done this but no difference. Another post implies that they might not actually enable HSDPA first time of asking.
I bought the phone for 3G. It clearly has nothing to do with the handset since it worked fine for 3 months. Can I make a claim against T-Mobile?

i activated HSDPA and this resolved the issue for me!

Very weak network signal in place where all other phones have near full connection

Hi all. I bought the iMate JasJar as a converged device after a long time of having a phone/PPC duo with me. But since my PPC Axim X51V with an 8GB solidstate card was stolen, I went hunting for a converged device which was a true PDA. I found the JasJar and recieved it. My only problem is that it refuses to maintain a connections, GSM or UMTS, I have tried all the networks where I a m and none of them are better than the other. I am currently studying in South Africa, I am not a stranger to converged devices or the Windows Mobile world. But the JasJar just cannot function as a phone. I have upgraded the radio from 1.09.00 to 1.15.00 with no results. Is there anything I can do to get a consistent lock on the network? I tried the Manual network selection but that still wont help. The cell tower is also quite close to me since it is about a 5 minute walk from where I am. Please advise. Thank you and I apologize for my ranting.

I see you upgraded the radio, but have you tried other radio ROMs like 1.13 and 1.14? The latest isn't necessarily the greatest. Perhaps try some of the other radio ROMs next and see if any of them are better for you.
The thread for Universal radio's is below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=298090
Best wishes,

There they only mention 1.15, where can i download the other radio roms?

Weaker radio than other phones
I live in a rural area in New Hampshire United State with a weak T-Mobile phone signal. I have an XDA Exec device but I cannot use it as a phone because of its bad radio receiver. I still use my XDA IIi because I can use that phone and make a 20 mins calls from work to home without loosing a connection. The XDA Exec drops about three times (at the same locations) within this distance. Where I have 3 bars on the XDA IIi, I barely have 1 bar on the Exec. I can make calls from third floor with the XDA IIi, but the XDA Exec does not receive any phone signal from the same floor. I have tried radio 1.09 and 1.13 on my XDA Exec and both did not make any different. My conclusion is the Exec seem to have a very weak radio receiver. Unless you live in the city where signal strength is not a problem, Exec does not seem to be a good choice for a phone device.

I have the same problem in the UK with T-Mobile. When I go out of coverage area for a while (say 2 hours) and then return to coverage, the phone does not (I waited 3 hours) pick up the radio signal again. If I go out of coverage for say just 10 minutes then the phone does pick up the signal again. Once the phone has lost the signal but is back in coverage, I've tried turning on Flight Mode and turning it off again and the phone still won't pick up a GSM signal.
I've had this issue with WM5 (T-Mobile UK Jan07 official release), WM6 and all of the radio ROMS that I've tried (including 1.18). T-Mobile's suggestion was to configure the phone to be GSM only (apparently the 3G signal is more patchy) and use the 1800 band only. That solution helps a little if you don't go out of coverage for a significant period of time but doesn't help if you need 3G.
I don't believe that it's a Universal issue - more of a T-Mobile issue. When I had a VF-UK SIM in the phone, I didn't have any of these issues.

PeterMcClure said:
I have the same problem in the UK with T-Mobile. When I go out of coverage area for a while (say 2 hours) and then return to coverage, the phone does not (I waited 3 hours) pick up the radio signal again. If I go out of coverage for say just 10 minutes then the phone does pick up the signal again. Once the phone has lost the signal but is back in coverage, I've tried turning on Flight Mode and turning it off again and the phone still won't pick up a GSM signal.
I've had this issue with WM5 (T-Mobile UK Jan07 official release), WM6 and all of the radio ROMS that I've tried (including 1.18). T-Mobile's suggestion was to configure the phone to be GSM only (apparently the 3G signal is more patchy) and use the 1800 band only. That solution helps a little if you don't go out of coverage for a significant period of time but doesn't help if you need 3G.
I don't believe that it's a Universal issue - more of a T-Mobile issue. When I had a VF-UK SIM in the phone, I didn't have any of these issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cannot offer a solution - but I'm on Orange and using their official ROM (Radio v1.13), I havent had any issues with loosing signal. In fact roaming round Europe and into Russia - the phone picked up equal sometimes more networks than a Nokia N95.
Matt

same problem, I had full signal before, but today, suddenly dropped the exec, and after that, it have very weak signal.
going to disassemble it tonight.

disassembled, problem fixed now, i have signal 5 out of 5

How did you do it? I mean disassemble and fix? Any help appreciated and would let me use my Universal instead of selling it and I want to keep it because I love the device but hate the coverage.

gamefreakgcb said:
How did you do it? I mean disassemble and fix? Any help appreciated and would let me use my Universal instead of selling it and I want to keep it because I love the device but hate the coverage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opened the Universal like the Service Manual told me (downloaded from this site), then, there is a big, white plastic in in the top of the device, that's the antenna, 3 screws holding it. Unscrewed that, and I observed, it has got two little metal feet, connecting to mainboard.
Slacked that thing, so it connects more powerful.
Maybe it deformed when I dropped the device.
Assembled, switched on, and , we have got 5 signals

remember that: remove the flashlight, and the foil above it, before taking off the antenna module, if you don't do that, you can kill your flash.

Radio Recommendations T-Mobile UK

Hi All,
Just got my new TouchHD on T-Mobile in the UK, experiencing poor reception. Can just about get a signal in the house if it's not too windy outside !
Anyway, the latest firmware is on the device (Radio 1.13.25.24) and was wondering if this is the best radio FW to use, or if anyone has experienced improved radio reception with another radio FW on T-Mobile UK. Even a small amount of improvement will be enough !
Thanks
DS

dude, unfortunately t-mobile in the UK is pretty crap. my phone (and partners whose is a sony-erriconson) is often out of signal when other freinds on other networks have coverage of several bars. this is not even out in the wop-wops but occurs in towns and cities. my workmate sites along side me and has full reception on three, where as I can't get enough signal for text messages - he even has HSDPA and I can't get a basic signal.
t-mobile is crap, thats about the summary of it. i've rung them about it, and they always say its my fault blahdeblah but the truth is, when I'm calling from a phone on another network (i have a couple of prepay sims for this reason now) from the same spot i know its not me!!

O2 HD2 upgraded 1.43 to 1.73 now V.Poor signals

At last UK O2 network pulled their collective act together and got a much needed updated ROM out for UK O2 HD2 customers. I installed it two days ago after getting it from the HTC website.
I can now say categorically that this new ROM has resulted in me receiving a significantly worse data & phone service. For the past 6 months I got an HSDPA signal whilst at home only on occasions would this drop to slower 3G strength and never to GPRS. Voice calls were pretty reliable whatever the data signal was doing.
Now I've had several missed calls - some gone through to voice mail even though the phone's showing full GPRS voice signal and my data signal has dropped off the planet - I can only get a GPRS signals now most of the time with occasional blips of 3G and HSDPA! I feel like i've gone back in time!
Has anyone else experience any O2 HD2 official ROM upgrade data signal issues? I want to re-flash back to the old 1.43 at this rate - I haven't noticed any significant differences between the two, they didn't even bother to fix the SMS bugs!

I think there's something wrong with o2 network in last few days (a week perhaps?).
I haven't changed my rom recently, but I got weird loss of services (voice and data) while the signal was pretty good. I wouldn't even realise this, but when I've tried to make a call last week (thursday or friday) I was not connected. my friend who was standing next to me dialed my number and was diverted to voicemail. wth? switching band to gsm have helped, but I had the same issue today- good signal, no voice (both ways) and data. hspa, Bedfordshire area if it's any help....

I had poor reception from o2 over the weekend... 3g was awful
Iam sim free with o2 sim back to stock rom 1.43WWE

bronx said:
I think there's something wrong with o2 network in last few days (a week perhaps?).
I haven't changed my rom recently, but I got weird loss of services (voice and data) while the signal was pretty good. I wouldn't even realise this, but when I've tried to make a call last week (thursday or friday) I was not connected. my friend who was standing next to me dialed my number and was diverted to voicemail. wth? switching band to gsm have helped, but I had the same issue today- good signal, no voice (both ways) and data. hspa, Bedfordshire area if it's any help....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. I'm near Kingston, SW London - I stuck it on GSM only half an hour ago and received calls again no problem. Weird. When I put it back on Auto the phone can't hold on to an HSDPA signal for any length of time before bouncing around to 3G back to HSDPA then back to 3G then eventually on to 2G...where it stays.
Something's gone a bit wacky

My HD2 is one of the original ROM locked HD2's from O2, however I use it with T-mobile.
After installing the latest ROM from O2, no problems with signal.
It would seem its an O2 tower problem, not ROM related.