Database Users

Can you prevent switching to UTMS?

Hi,
I've found that the switch between GPRS and UTMS can be a bit of a PITA. It causes TomTom to drop it's traffic connection, and makes web browsing in a marginal 3G area practically unusable as it's chops and changes between GPRS and UTMS (3G).
I've tried to create a new "Cellular Line" connection with the *99# dialup settings, in a hope that this would connect me to GPRS without switching to UTMS if available, but I can't get it to work - it just says "No modem at above number".
Has anybody got a solution to this?
Cheers,
Steve.

If you select Settings -> Phone -> Band and choose GSM (instead of Auto), what happens? Does it stick to GSM? I think it should do.
EDIT: Jus ttried it on mine. Had full UMTS signal and forced GSM and it worked!

I'm not in a position to test that at the moment (no 3G signal), however, doesn't that prevent all 3G facilities of the phone (i.e. video calls) from working?
Having said that, I can't think why I would want a video call, and I can always switch it back should I need to.
Cheers,
Steve.

Yes it does prevent all 3G features (and therefore extends battery life). Sorry, I didn't realise that this was not what you wanted to do. From your original post I thought you didn't want it to use UMTS at all.

Ideally, it was just the web browsing/internet access that I wanted to prevent switching to UTMS, but to be honest, I'm not sure I would miss video phoning - is there anything else I'm getting on 3G that I'll not get after making that change?
Cheers,
Steve.

As far as I'm aware, making voice calls on 3G is a little bit clearer than on GSM, but consumes more battery. So if you are unable to tell the difference between the two then you could fix it to GSM and save battery life.
However, don't forget that UMTS is vaunted as being 3 times faster than GPRS for internet use, so your browsing etc will slow down if you lock it into GSM/GPRS only mode. I bet this doesn't matter much for TomTom traffic though as I am sure it only uses small amounts of data. If you're happy with GPRS then go for it.

Yes, I'm aware of the speed difference between GPRS and UTMS. My main problem is that I use my Exec to update the football scores on my football club's website, but the home ground is in a marginal UTMS area, so it keeps switching on/off, and consequently takes much longer to update the score than if it just connected via GPRS.
I'll give these new settings a go, and if there are any unwanted side effects, I'll switch back.
Cheers,
Steve.

Having being in the know about 3G for some time now I'm saying that its virtually impossible to only use GSM for internet, but stay with 3G for vid calling.
Your best bet would be some 3rd party software for this as I don't think any 3G phone lets you do this.

Yes I agree Biohead. I don't even think third party software would help as the radio has to disconnect and then reconnect. So you can't do some stuff on GSM (like GPRS) and then some on UMTS (like Video calling) without disconnecting and reconnecting. Luckily for Mr Pritchard, he is not too bothered about video calling and so, hopefully, this will solve his problem.

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!

3G connection drops when making/receiving a call

I use a Vario II and even if I have full 3G reception, it reverts back to GPRS when in a call which means I can't browse the web while in a call. It then connects back to 3G asap when the call is over. During video calls, 3G works fine and stays connected as it should.
I know it's possible to have both because I have actually made a test call while on 3G and was browsing the web for a few brief moments at the same time before it reverted back to crappy GPRS again.
Is this T-Mob UK taking the piss like they do with they're bloody proxy which compresses all images or is there something I can do here to remedy it.
Thanks.

Thoughts anyone?

My phone does that in my house (memphis, USA) and the problem i have is not being able to hang up. I found a program called showumts that i believe i got from here. All it does it change the registry so that a band tab is available in the phone options. I can manually set GSM or WCDMA and make it stick. This is not exactly like your problem but maybe it could force WCDMA instead of the Auto option built into the phone. (I have 8525 Hermes)

I have upgrade my ROM to the WWE AKU 3.3 TEST version on the upgrading site.
The details are listed hereunderwith my user CP.
This new ROM is great and I have it displaying G, U and H for GRPS, 3G and HSDPA respectivly.
I am sure that an official version will be released in South Africa soon.
In fact I have also changed the U to display 3G.
So far the ROM is very stable, the bluetooth stack greatly improved, and I have no gripes with the Radio ROM 1.35.

internet problem?

hi, i have not had a smart phone before and am not to sure on how the bands work but think i have a problem.
my phone is from Virgin mobile and running 1.48 stock rom, manila and radio 2.05.
few questions i'd like to ask before you read what i think my problem is.
1. is the internet supposed to run off 3g when not on wifi?
2. is 3g faster than "H"?
my problem: 3g is active, data connection is off. i open opera (or anything else) and 3g trys to connect, 3g sign disappears and "H" appears. data connection is on and using "Virgin GPRS".
i called virgin mobile tech support and they said it is meant to go through gprs.. lie?
i called htc and they said they don't think it is a problem with my phone...
i have done a hard reset.
i think it is either the 3g doesn't work, or there is something really wrong with the settings, or virgin mobile makes it like this?
please help as i may want to return it if this causes a big problem for me.

Sunil_237 said:
hi, i have not had a smart phone before and am not to sure on how the bands work but think i have a problem.
my phone is from Virgin mobile and running 1.48 stock rom, manila and radio 2.05.
few questions i'd like to ask before you read what i think my problem is.
1. is the internet supposed to run off 3g when not on wifi?
2. is 3g faster than "H"?
my problem: 3g is active, data connection is off. i open opera (or anything else) and 3g trys to connect, 3g sign disappears and "H" appears. data connection is on and using "Virgin GPRS".
i called virgin mobile tech support and they said it is meant to go through gprs.. lie?
i called htc and they said they don't think it is a problem with my phone...
i have done a hard reset.
i think it is either the 3g doesn't work, or there is something really wrong with the settings, or virgin mobile makes it like this?
please help as i may want to return it if this causes a big problem for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's nothing wrong with the phone mate.
You've got GPRS (2G) and 3G which includes HSPDPA (and HSUPA). HSDPA is the fastest of those types, 3G slower, and GPRS the slowest. Your phone will try and use the best connection available, and that just depends on the coverage in your area (and how good the phone's reception is). If you're getting a strong and steady signal, I really wouldn't worry about it.
Basically, HSDPA is a faster version of 3G.

but my sisters 3g (on o2 iphone) is faster (by a lot... and then some) than mine.
ran the same video on youtube (wifi disabled) and she got done in a matter of seconds while i was buffering mid stream
with the coverage checker i ran before i got the phone it said my area was "very good" and i get 3 bars usually.
o it is connecting through gprs not HSPDPA, in the connections screen it shows "Virgin GPRS"

Sunil_237 said:
but my sisters 3g (on o2 iphone) is faster (by a lot... and then some) than mine.
ran the same video on youtube (wifi disabled) and she got done in a matter of seconds while i was buffering mid stream
with the coverage checker i ran before i got the phone it said my area was "very good" and i get 3 bars usually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I can say is that she must have a better signal with O2 than you have with Virgin.

Sunil_237 said:
hi, i have not had a smart phone before and am not to sure on how the bands work but think i have a problem.
my phone is from Virgin mobile and running 1.48 stock rom, manila and radio 2.05.
few questions i'd like to ask before you read what i think my problem is.
1. is the internet supposed to run off 3g when not on wifi?
2. is 3g faster than "H"?
my problem: 3g is active, data connection is off. i open opera (or anything else) and 3g trys to connect, 3g sign disappears and "H" appears. data connection is on and using "Virgin GPRS".
i called virgin mobile tech support and they said it is meant to go through gprs.. lie?
i called htc and they said they don't think it is a problem with my phone...
i have done a hard reset.
i think it is either the 3g doesn't work, or there is something really wrong with the settings, or virgin mobile makes it like this?
please help as i may want to return it if this causes a big problem for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Yes
2) No. H is a faster type of 3G.
My only worries with Virgin and 3G are wether they cap the actual download bandwidth available to handsets at 384kbps (despite the phone connecting with HSDPA - I had this problem with T-Mobile), wether they cap the upload speed at 44kbps and wether they block the Skype ports.
The connection name, Virgin GPRS, is just the name they gave to their data connection when they setup your phone. It could actually say anything you want if you change the settings in the phone.

Sunil_237 said:
but my sisters 3g (on o2 iphone) is faster (by a lot... and then some) than mine.
ran the same video on youtube (wifi disabled) and she got done in a matter of seconds while i was buffering mid stream
with the coverage checker i ran before i got the phone it said my area was "very good" and i get 3 bars usually.
o it is connecting through gprs not HSPDPA, in the connections screen it shows "Virgin GPRS"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible that she has a better signal than you but I find that 3G coverage on O2, especially HSDPA coverage is generally significantly worse than coverage on T-Mobile (Virgin use their network).
However it could also be that the bandwidth is capped at a pretty low level on Virgin (3G rather than HSDPA despite the symbol), which I mentioned in my previous post.

o ok. ok ok. ok lol satisfied with some logical and knowledgable answers.
i believe they will have capped the data rate then (i haven't had signal problems for 7 years now on 4 different providers and the coverage map showed a very good signal for 3g here), if you can provide me with an app which would test.. o maybe speedtest.net may work i'll try them now and let you know.

Only using data/internet with 'H' or 'H+', not 3G

Something strange I've noticed with my Galaxy S II is that data / internet will only work if the 'H' (for HSDPA) is in the status bar, but not with '3G' there...the green arrow will appear next to the 3G when I try to connect to something but it will just time out unless it happens to switch to 'H'.
Anyone know why this would be? Is only the HSDPA network working with my phone, but regular 3G won't?

It is possible that the 3G cells in your area are fully loaded with users.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

nvm
i didn't read it well

Same problem here, on 3.
Wondered if it was the phone or the network! If it's a problem with the phone it'll be fixable/covered by warranty though, right?

Same here, it sits on 3g then i try to load a page etc and it goes to h like it carnt use 3g , im on t mobile and they have full coverage where i am
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I found an older thread that says it's a feature, keeping the phone in 3G mode to save battery until you do something that requires data which switches it over to H. I've kept a closer eye on my phone and that does seem to be what it's doing, usually taking a second or two to switch over each time I use data.
However, there have still been some times where it stays on 3G and is unable to load data.

Yeah i think your right and also it does not change sometimes and kinda hangs, be nice for it to switch over to H abit faster without battery drain.
AXIS of Reality said:
I found an older thread that says it's a feature, keeping the phone in 3G mode to save battery until you do something that requires data which switches it over to H. I've kept a closer eye on my phone and that does seem to be what it's doing, usually taking a second or two to switch over each time I use data.
However, there have still been some times where it stays on 3G and is unable to load data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I have the same issue with my phone to on t-mobile, not working on 3g then working on H.
It is a right pain to be honest.
No way of stopping this battery save? I would rather use more battery.

It's the network. I have no explanation but only Edge and HSDPA work whether on Samsung or Nokia.

Just tested, this does not occur for me, at least right here, right now. Comfortably loading pages on Google with just 3G signal (T-Mobile UK).
It's faster when I stand on my bed upstairs for HSDPA but 3G does work. Stock firmware from T-Mob, no modifications.

AXIS of Reality said:
Something strange I've noticed with my Galaxy S II is that data / internet will only work if the 'H' (for HSDPA) is in the status bar, but not with '3G' there...the green arrow will appear next to the 3G when I try to connect to something but it will just time out unless it happens to switch to 'H'.
Anyone know why this would be? Is only the HSDPA network working with my phone, but regular 3G won't?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate,
I have the galaxy s i9000, with optus here in sydney. same problem, only switches to "H" when i make some sort of data request (load a page, open an app that uses internet), it takes a couple of seconds to switch from 3G to H. Sometimes, it keeps flicking back and forth between 3G and H like its having problems connecting to H
I complained to optus, they reckon i'm lying. Go figure.

joeykatoa said:
Hey mate,
I have the galaxy s i9000, with optus here in sydney. same problem, only switches to "H" when i make some sort of data request (load a page, open an app that uses internet), it takes a couple of seconds to switch from 3G to H. Sometimes, it keeps flicking back and forth between 3G and H like its having problems connecting to H
I complained to optus, they reckon i'm lying. Go figure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry.. just to add on, i've tried about 13 different modems on my i9000 and it happens with all of them.
The only fix I've come by? dial *#301279# and disable HSDPA altogether thats the only way my phone will actually load any data on 3G

I have the same thing, but as i understand H and H+ are the highest form of 3G, not a different thing. So I am wondering what mode we are in when 3G appears. UMTS?

Its all very annoying to be honest.
None of my other phones have this problem as they always stay on HSPDA

Same problem here to the extent that pages fail to load on 3g and come up with the error then when I refresh the page once its on H it loads straight away.

Actually this problem is making my phone more or less not usable.
I use the slingplayer alot, keeps skipping on the Galaxy S II as it seems to keep switching between H and 3G.
Put the sim card into my ZTE Blade (Orange San Francisco) and streams constantly with no problem with signal staying on H.

With all the threads relating to 3g and connectivity issues..we can deduce that SGS2's modem really sucks big time..and still no firmware update to correct this even though large number of people is facing some sort of problem with mobile internet which is a main function on todays smartphone.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatal

Anyone know who to e-mail with examples at Samsung?
I guess they won't fix a problem if they don't realise there is one.
Some people will prefer longer battery when its on 3G then H, others will want the constant H.

I got mine a week after it released. The first two updates mine did the same thing, but instead of timing out, it would drop all signal and display the circle. After a reboot signal would come back. From KE7, it has not done it again.
AT&T in the U.S.

same problem, mode switches around when using data, 3 australia