Database Users

3G drops to GSM when receiving calls and during calls

I searched all the threads and found nothing on this as far as I can see. I have been having this since day one with my G1. Every time I receive a call on my G1 or during the call it drops from 3G to GSM. I had stock T-Mo roms on my G1 (Pre/Post Cupcake) then JF 1.51 and now cyanogen 4.0.2 and this problem persists. I called T-Mo a few times on this and they exchanged my G1 3 times and gave me a new battery and charger free of charge. Does anyone else have this issue or know of a work around? This happens when I am at home and work. I travel for work to different locations and it still happens. When my phone rings it automatically drops 3G and goes to GSM (no icon next to the radio icon in the status bar). While making calls it stays on 3G for about a few seconds before it craps out and drops to GSM. It totally skips EDGE and GPRS. T-Mo said they sent out radio antenna tech's to the antennas near my home and they said all is fine and dandy. I live In Queens NY and work in the Bronx. When I travel to Brooklyn its the same as well as driving though Manhattan. I hope someone can help me with this.

PeterC18st said:
I searched all the threads and found nothing on this as far as I can see. I have been having this since day one with my G1. Every time I receive a call on my G1 or during the call it drops from 3G to GSM. I had stock T-Mo roms on my G1 (Pre/Post Cupcake) then JF 1.51 and now cyanogen 4.0.2 and this problem persists. I called T-Mo a few times on this and they exchanged my G1 3 times and gave me a new battery and charger free of charge. Does anyone else have this issue or know of a work around? This happens when I am at home and work. I travel for work to different locations and it still happens. When my phone rings it automatically drops 3G and goes to GSM (no icon next to the radio icon in the status bar). While making calls it stays on 3G for about a few seconds before it craps out and drops to GSM. It totally skips EDGE and GPRS. T-Mo said they sent out radio antenna tech's to the antennas near my home and they said all is fine and dandy. I live In Queens NY and work in the Bronx. When I travel to Brooklyn its the same as well as driving though Manhattan. I hope someone can help me with this.
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ive always had this as well .. just never considered it a bug lol ... but i could see why someone would wanna keep their 3g while on a call .. reminds me of how sidekicks would lose data connectivity due to a call

xidominicanoix said:
but i could see why someone would wanna keep their 3g while on a call .. reminds me of how sidekicks would lose data connectivity due to a call
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Could you elaborate?
If you've had 3 G1's and a tech says there's nothing wrong with the network then it's clearly an issues with cupcake, be it a feature or a bug...
I don't really see why you would want to keep data conectivity while in a call, (unless you're downloading something in the background..?) so it sounds like a way to save battery..

AdrianK said:
Could you elaborate?
If you've had 3 G1's and a tech says there's nothing wrong with the network then it's clearly an issues with cupcake, be it a feature or a bug...
I don't really see why you would want to keep data conectivity while in a call, (unless you're downloading something in the background..?) so it sounds like a way to save battery..
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Here's a perfect example where 3G would rule when working properly.
I'm talking to my wife on my BT headset while driving home from work. I have my G1 on my dash with google maps running with traffic patterns showing. While talking I am able to talk clearly on 3G and still see where traffic is building so I can avoid it. Being stuck in rush hour in NYC sux homeless man [email protected] Whenever I do this and my 3G connection drops my call quality drops and we both hear it while we're talking and then it cuts in and out and the call drops then I dont get updates. It's a feature I would really like to have. Even when Im working and talking and downloading a new update of an app. This happens when I am at a static location as well. I know driving from cell tower to cell tower can have bad effects but it does the same when I'm just at home or any of my work locations. When 3G works properly which is rare its amazing. Its helped me get un lost and find my way many of times.
Point being when T-Mo released the 3G statement they said all users with 3G phones will expierence higher call quality from the extra bandwidth. Why would they cap or or disable it when they are promoting it? I see the the point of saving battery life but it still shouldnt be happening. 3G is made for that feature to work voice + data being accessed together.

It might just be there 3g network, imo tmobile reception is horrible. Like at my house it is so f'ed up, I can sit in my chair and have 3 bars then walk 2 feet and lose service. It does this all through my house and at my work. They said it must be something in the buildings I am in, bull**** I say because ATT never does that nor did vzw when I used them.

same thing happens with me and 3g and calls..also about the house thing, hows this one for u ill be sitting in the same spot and have good 3g reception and all of a sudden it drops to edge. I know a way around this is to set phone to 3G only but then in areas where theres non im screwed

I don't get it. My wife who had the original iPhone and then 3g and now 3gs never had this issue. She would stay on Edge and 3g depending if she waned to save batery life. My old BB 8700g would always stay on Edge never drop to GSM in my apartment. My 3G doesnt even fall to Edge it goes right to GSM. This is really annoying.

every t-mobile phone I have does this
I'm pretty sure its normal

No one knows if this is a hardware, software, or network problem. Except maybe HTC/T-Mobile/Google.
If your phone stays connected to 3G, it's all good. If it drops down to EDGE, even if for half a second, it will NOT reconnect to 3G until you hang up.

c2tmdsn said:
every t-mobile phone I have does this
I'm pretty sure its normal
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My coworkers Samsung t819 doesn't. That's regular cell phone not a smart phone.
Gary13579 said:
No one knows if this is a hardware, software, or network problem. Except maybe HTC/T-Mobile/Google.
If your phone stays connected to 3G, it's all good. If it drops down to EDGE, even if for half a second, it will NOT reconnect to 3G until you hang up.
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If any of those 3 know they should fix it or at the very least advertise that the calls you make are dropped to the lower bandwidth of the GSM network.
T-Mo finally got 3G for the last year don't dumb it down guys. Fix this.
Yes it is true once your phone drops beneath 3G it will not go to 3G until you hang up the call.

try running 3g only or wdma only by creating phone info shortcut on anycut .. im going to try that out and see if it ever drops .. should be a temporary fix for you atleast with the whole maps thing and such but if you ever in an edge only are your screwed

turboyo said:
try running 3g only or wdma only by creating phone info shortcut on anycut .. im going to try that out and see if it ever drops .. should be a temporary fix for you atleast with the whole maps thing and such but if you ever in an edge only are your screwed
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I changed it to wcdma only in phone info. Hopefully this works. Everywhere I travel to throughout NYC has 3G. Hopefully this works. Also I have noticed that when downloading anything from 3G be it the market or browser it would drop from 3G to Edge as well.

PeterC18st said:
I changed it to wcdma only in phone info. Hopefully this works. Everywhere I travel to throughout NYC has 3G. Hopefully this works. Also I have noticed that when downloading anything from 3G be it the market or browser it would drop from 3G to Edge as well.
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*UPDATE*
While at home downloading apps from Android Market on 3G with wcdma only selected the radio dropped with no netowkr connection. Bust.

PeterC18st said:
I don't get it. My wife who had the original iPhone and then 3g and now 3gs never had this issue. She would stay on Edge and 3g depending if she waned to save batery life. My old BB 8700g would always stay on Edge never drop to GSM in my apartment. My 3G doesnt even fall to Edge it goes right to GSM. This is really annoying.
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Did she use att or tmobile with the iphone? Because att has a much stronger 3g network then tmobile which could be why. I am pretty sure it is something to do with tmobiles network and not your phone, perhaps your area has to many users for it to stay on 3G. I have read about how the cell towers work and they have only so many bands for each user to access at any given time so if tmobile doesn't have enough towers or those things mounted on the towers it may be set up so you only get 3G for data usage and not calls since they don't technically require it to work.

crpercodani said:
Did she use att or tmobile with the iphone? Because att has a much stronger 3g network then tmobile which could be why. I am pretty sure it is something to do with tmobiles network and not your phone, perhaps your area has to many users for it to stay on 3G. I have read about how the cell towers work and they have only so many bands for each user to access at any given time so if tmobile doesn't have enough towers or those things mounted on the towers it may be set up so you only get 3G for data usage and not calls since they don't technically require it to work.
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My wife is on ATT. Isn't lower frequency better at penetrating through walls and such? (T-Mo 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz compared to ATT 1800 MHz) They haven't booted their 850 MHz antennas yet so I hear.
If that is true then why not boot me down to Edge or gprs why all the way down to gsm? I been living in the same area for 26 years. I have been with T-Mo before they even had antennas in my area and walking outside was the only way to get a signal with my phone. Now I get full reception in and out of my apartment and 3G connectivity in my apartment with a signal strength of -93dBm through out my apartment on 3G and -79 dBm on Edge.
T-Mo stated that this should not be happening. Hence the 3 phones new battery and charger and techs to the antennas. I'm starting to think its a HTC Android problem and not a T-Mo problem. Hopefully a new radio update can fix it.

I didn't even know GSM was still used in that way, I thought GPRS would be the bare minimum. How can you tell the difference? I use to only get a G icon and I looked it up and for the g1 it said that meant GPRS, what does it show for GSM? Not like any of this matters though.
I really have no idea why all this is happening to your G1 but I hope it gets resolved, good luck.
edit: on the tmobile coverage map it says edge/gprs and 3g, no gsm. does that make any difference? I checked for NYC overall not any specific boroughs.

crpercodani said:
I didn't even know GSM was still used in that way, I thought GPRS would be the bare minimum. How can you tell the difference? I use to only get a G icon and I looked it up and for the g1 it said that meant GPRS, what does it show for GSM? Not like any of this matters though.
I really have no idea why all this is happening to your G1 but I hope it gets resolved, good luck.
edit: on the tmobile coverage map it says edge/gprs and 3g, no gsm. does that make any difference? I checked for NYC overall not any specific boroughs.
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GSM is what Edge Gprs and 3G run off of. Think of it as a progression. GSM>GPRS>EDGE>3G.
The way I know it is on GSM is to the left of the Radio icon on the home screen there is another icon that shows the network your on. 3G=3G E=EDGE G=GPRS and no icon means GSM. GSM is still being used. Most SMS and MMS messages get sent to your from through GSM while you are on a call.

After 2 Weeks, I Am Throwing In The Towel

I received the Samsung Focus 2 weeks ago today. After I post this I will be heading over to Amazon Wireless to make return arrangements.
I come from a Windows Mobile (Tilt 2) and I don't think I am yet ready to transition to this type of phone. I depend too much on Pocket Informant and I couldn't find any app to replace that. Actually this is not really the reason I gave up. This is the reason that kept me on the fence.
At my work I have a very poor 3G signal indoors. The signal fluctuates between 2 bars to no signal indication and sometimes switching to Edge. With the Tilt 2 I turn off 3G and that keeps the phone happy. Several times I found the Focus showing no signal (small crossed out circle at the top left). Even after I went to an area with good 3G signal the Focus did not change from its no signal status. I had to actually turn it off and back on (soft reset, I guess) to get a strong 3G signal.
Searching on Google for means to turn 3G off in the Focus showed that only a few months ago there was such an option Settings | Cellular. Apparently now it is removed.
With 3G trying desperately to hang in there instead of just giving up and letting Edge take over, this phone is useless to me 8 to 12 hours a day. The Tilt 2 had a similar issue before I tweaked it to give me the band switch. However the Tilt 2 did not get stuck in the no signal state. I wish AT&T did not remove this from settings.
So long, Focus.

Um... there's totally still an option called Cellular in Settings. Whatever, though. If you don't enjoy the phone, there's no reason for you to keep it. However, there's equally no reason for you to share this information with us, since a large part of your issue is born of ignorance of the OS (not finding a setting that is clearly there) and your lack of enjoyment of the phone should have no effect on anyone who owns one.

FishFaceMcGee said:
Um... there's totally still an option called Cellular in Settings. Whatever, though. If you don't enjoy the phone, there's no reason for you to keep it. However, there's equally no reason for you to share this information with us, since a large part of your issue is born of ignorance of the OS (not finding a setting that is clearly there) and your lack of enjoyment of the phone should have no effect on anyone who owns one.
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Yes, the Cellular option is still there, in Settings. However, unlike screen shots or pictures I saw during my search (see this sample), I do not have the option to turn off 3G.
If your phone has it, good for you. Mine does not. Hardly a reason to call me ignorant for this though.

That's strange. My Focus appears to have better reception than my Tilt 2.
Actually, the 3G only setting is under the diagnostic menu I believe. The should have a thread in this forum on it.
Update
I checked and its under the test menu
*#32489#
Back
Back
[7] Network control
[2] Band Setting
This may help you.

Tempest790 said:
That's strange. My Focus appears to have better reception than my Tilt 2.
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For me, side by side, the 2 phones had a similar reception. The Tilt 2 got an extra bar or 2 when I forced it to Edge. However, the Tilt 2 did not get stuck with the no signal indication.
Actually, the 3G only setting is under the diagnostic menu I believe. The should have a thread in this forum on it.
Update
I checked and its under the test menu
*#32489#
Back
Back
[7] Network control
[2] Band Setting
This may help you.
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Click to collapse
While at this moment I do not have the phone with me, I just looked in the PDF I downloaded from that other thread (the PDF shows [2] Band Selection) and I remember that I was in that area and when I tried to make a change I got a message saying something about the selection or option being restricted. Sorry, but I do not remember the exact words. I guess I could try again later tonight after I get home. Thank you.

Tempest790 said:
Update
I checked and its under the test menu
*#32489#
Back
Back
[7] Network control
[2] Band Setting
This may help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I select "[2] Band Selection" the exact message is:
"RAT Selection option is restricted".

Yeah, that's what I got. I also got my phone from freaking Amazon.com and didn't work right. Had do alittle talking around but they me exchange it at the Att Wireless Store. Have you actually tried any other Samsung Focus Phones to see if its just the phone itself?

I got mine from att store, I'm using the org diagnostic app version, I get same error message.

Seed 2.0 said:
I got mine from att store, I'm using the org diagnostic app version, I get same error message.
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I would switch phones then. The phone has to be unlocked to switch bands, even turning off 3G. That's stupid, I know. I have a Dell Venue Pro sitting here that can switch bands but that phone is VERY buggy.

Fuzzy John said:
Yes, the Cellular option is still there, in Settings. However, unlike screen shots or pictures I saw during my search (see this sample), I do not have the option to turn off 3G.
If your phone has it, good for you. Mine does not. Hardly a reason to call me ignorant for this though.
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FWIW: 3G = "Data Connection" on the Focus' settings menu. As far as I know, 3G has nothing to do with voice calls. I suspect that the name of that switch was changed with an eye toward future data options on cell phones. I hope that helps. (Even the person who posted that picture notes that they modified the label to be "Cellular Data". You can see that in the comments area of the image/post that you listed. )

GrayWolf is correct
These are GSM phone and voice only works on 2G.. data on 3G and Edge if necessary. that is why you can talk and use the internet at the same time. You turning 3G off does nothing for your call reception what so ever. When you turn off the Celluar data you turn off both 3G and edge. Also I believe the bars are only for the voice service.

ITDRAGON said:
GrayWolf is correct
These are GSM phone and voice only works on 2G.. data on 3G and Edge if necessary. that is why you can talk and use the internet at the same time. You turning 3G off does nothing for your call reception what so ever. When you turn off the Celluar data you turn off both 3G and edge. Also I believe the bars are only for the voice service.
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This might very well be correct, however on my Tilt 2 I have to turn off 3g in order to get full voice bars back in the location where my room is in my house. It doesn't seem to make any sense; why would the phone's 3g connection interfere w/ the 2g voice? Yet it seems like this is the case.

ITDRAGON said:
GrayWolf is correct
These are GSM phone and voice only works on 2G.. data on 3G and Edge if necessary. that is why you can talk and use the internet at the same time. You turning 3G off does nothing for your call reception what so ever. When you turn off the Celluar data you turn off both 3G and edge. Also I believe the bars are only for the voice service.
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Sorry. I may have used the wrong terms. After all I admit I am not really familiar with all the terminology. I am more like a user. Anyway, on my Tilt 2 phone I have a switch which turn off 3G. This puts the phone in Edge mode. Gives me a lot better reception in areas where the 3G signal is flaky. True, I cannot talk and do data at the same time. Also true that my data rate is slower. But I can receive and make calls while I am in that area.

ITDRAGON said:
GrayWolf is correct
These are GSM phone and voice only works on 2G.. data on 3G and Edge if necessary. that is why you can talk and use the internet at the same time. You turning 3G off does nothing for your call reception what so ever. When you turn off the Celluar data you turn off both 3G and edge. Also I believe the bars are only for the voice service.
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Nope. Both voice and data work on 3G if it is available. You can tell this by the fact that once your phone is on 3G, you will not encounter the annoying speaker buzz from GSM phones.
The switch in the settings are for cell data connection. If you turn it off, it turns off the data connection, 2G or 3G. There is no separate setting to turn off 3G data only (a commonly requested feature but non-existent on all AT&T phones). You will always have to access the secret menu to select your band (WCDMA or GSM).
The bars are for signal strength, not just for vocie service.

EDIT: rjohnstone
foxbat121 said:
Nope. Both voice and data work on 3G if it is available. You can tell this by the fact that once your phone is on 3G, you will not encounter the annoying speaker buzz from GSM phones.
The switch in the settings are for cell data connection. If you turn it off, it turns off the data connection, 2G or 3G. There is no separate setting to turn off 3G data only (a commonly requested feature but non-existent on all AT&T phones). You will always have to access the secret menu to select your band (WCDMA or GSM).
The bars are for signal strength, not just for vocie service.
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<snipped my "you're wrong" message, but leaving my other data here.>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G contains the following quote:
"The UMTS system, first offered in 2001, standardized by 3GPP, used primarily in Europe, Japan, China (however with a different radio interface) and other regions predominated by GSM 2G system infrastructure. The cell phones are typically UMTS and GSM hybrids. Several radio interfaces are offered, sharing the same infrastructure"
<snipped my "you're wrong" message, but leaving my other data here.>
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=2877
"Modes GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
WCDMA 850 / 1900 / 2100"
Those are the GSM and 3G bands that the Samsung Focus uses. <snipped my "you're wrong" message, but leaving my other data here.>
I'm always willing to accept that I can be wrong (EDIT: and it seems that I was). I'm only human after all. If I'm the one who's somehow misunderstanding, then I would be open to having some information shared so that I can learn more about it. Would you have any links to back your claim up?

GrayWolf said:
I'm sorry to say that you've misunderstood how AT&T's network is set up. 3G + GSM = Data + Voice. Not 3G = Voice & Data.
contains the following quote:
"The UMTS system, first offered in 2001, standardized by 3GPP, used primarily in Europe, Japan, China (however with a different radio interface) and other regions predominated by GSM 2G system infrastructure. The cell phones are typically UMTS and GSM hybrids. Several radio interfaces are offered, sharing the same infrastructure"
To further back the position that our phones do not use 3G to carry voice data:
"Modes GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
WCDMA 850 / 1900 / 2100"
Those are the GSM and 3G bands that the Samsung Focus uses. GSM for voice traffic, WCDMA (3G) for data.
I'm always willing to accept that I can be wrong. I'm only human after all. If I'm the one who's somehow misunderstanding, then I would be open to having some information shared so that I can learn more about it. Would you have any links to back your claim up?
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AT&T sends both voice and data traffic over the 3G connection when in a 3G area.
The GSM radio only comes into play when the data connection falls back to EDGE (i.e., 3G signal is too weak or not present).
This is why your call drops when you switch from a 3G area to a GSM/EDGE area.
It's a hard hand off to the next tower.

rjohnstone said:
AT&T sends both voice and data traffic over the 3G connection when in a 3G area.
The GSM radio only comes into play when the data connection falls back to EDGE (i.e., 3G signal is too weak or not present).
This is why your call drops when you switch from a 3G area to a GSM/EDGE area.
It's a hard hand off to the next tower.
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Click to collapse
Thanks - would you happen to have any links that explains this in any detail?
I looked around after you mentioned it and found that I should have ran a few more keyword searches before posting. So far, the best explanation that I've found seems to be here:
"3G or Non 3G-that is the question"
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/G...at-is-the-question/m-p/1544262/highlight/true
The specific/relevant portion that I'm referring to is:
Yea 3G is amazing. It's the replacement for GSM. It's a completely seperate network. When in 3G at present signal in some area's might seem a bit more week than GSM because in some area's it runs on the 1900mhz frequency which has less penetration. But AT&T has plans of phasing out GSM in the future for 3G on the GSM frequency.
But 3G on the W-CDMA side handles call's and data, GSM also does handle voice and data. But the two networks are seperate. For example. If your phone is in 3G then the 3G network is handling the call and not transmitting anything to do with GSM at all. But if you travel to a non 3G area while in the call then your phone will hand off to the GSM network to continue the voice call and the call quality will get that crackly raspy phenomenom. Hope this helps!
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Now that's another person's statement on a forum and, like rjohnstone's post, makes logical sense. I'd love to read a bit more about this, if there are any useful links out there?

GrayWolf said:
Thanks - would you happen to have any links that explains this in any detail?
I looked around after you mentioned it and found that I should have ran a few more keyword searches before posting. So far, the best explanation that I've found seems to be here:
"3G or Non 3G-that is the question"
The specific/relevant portion that I'm referring to is:
Now that's another person's statement on a forum and, like rjohnstone's post, makes logical sense. I'd love to read a bit more about this, if there are any useful links out there?
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Graywolf,
My friend is a tower manager for T-Mobile.
He helped setup the initial GSM/EDGE network for Cingular back when they leased tower time from T-Mobile while they were making the transition from TDMA devices from the old AT&T network.
He explained how the call handlers worked and how the air interface works when handing off from UMTS/HSPA over to the GSM/EDGE network.
All of AT&T's handsets are programmed to use either GSM/EDGE or UMTS/HSPA, not both at the same time.
The point is, a handset can't have a GSM voice call and an HSPA data session occurring at the same time. The radios are not configured to allow it.
Many towers run both GSM/EDGE radios and UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ radios.
Mainly to support legacy devices.
You will also notice that the old network is still there when you turn of the 3G radio in an iPhone or any other handset that permits it.
Yes, AT&T is working to decommission the older GSM/EDGE towers all together to recover the 850Mhz frequencies for use with HSPA+. This will give them better building penetration in large metropolitan areas.
Right now, AT&T does use the 1900MHz band for HSPA, and as the residence of NY will tell you, it sucks at going through walls.
You will have to do some digging for old AT&T press releases, but the info is out there.

Gotta give credit where it's due. I appreciate the technical detail combined with layman phrasing. I'll do more digging later but you've given me a nice high-level view of things. I did have a suspicion that my understanding was flawed somehow. Thanks for taking the time to share, rjohnstone!

Yep your right I typed it wrong.. voice and data both work on 2G and 3G, but I know I'm in a 3G area only and when I turn data off 3G goes out. Now that doesn't mean I'm only making or recieving calls on the 2G band. It just mean 3G data is off. So if you want to turn off 3G all together, I don't see it on these phones yet. When I turn the celluar data back on, the 3G symbol comes back on, because it would be pretty dumb for the 3G to be controlled by turning data on and off.

[Q] Best Network Type?

So when I got my Mytouch 4g I realized the default radio is set to GSM only, however with my stock Nexus One it is set to WCDMA preferred.
I've been using my MT4G for about a month now, two weeks with it on GSM Only and another two weeks with it on WCDMA preferred.
I've noticed that while on GSM only it tends to prefer edge instead of 3g or HSDPA+ and find it very annoying because it does it in places where I know i hit HSDPA+.
When I set it to WCDMA preferred i've noticed that it sticks to 3g/hsdpa+ a lot more often and it's stable, except for in the market. A lot of the times when i go into the market while in wcdma preferred it times out and tells me theres no connection or something like that.
Can anyone tell me which network type is best for this phone? Or maybe explain them a little bit? I just find it odd that my Nexus One and my Mytouch 4g have different defaults if they're both on the same carrier

its prob just the setting it was on when the phone was out the box. when i got mine, it was set on auto. "gsm only" will NOT allow you to connect to 3G or hsdpa+! gsm is edge and gprs! if you want it to chose between the two then AUTO is the way to go. it will prob pick wcdma first and then only jump down to gsm when the wcdma signal is weak or non-existent. i prefer mine on wcdma all the time too. i havent had any issues with the market as of yet. you might want to try to clear the data and cache in market and see if that helps. when mine is on auto it 99% of the time stays on wcdma until the signal gets weak and then auto switches to gsm/edge. the only reason i dont keep mine on auto is because when its on auto and i receive a phone call, i dont get data(the H or E disappears while on call, then pick back up when i end the call) and i need to have data going in and out while on the phone to get emails from school and my job so therefore i leave it on wcdma only

Thats pretty much correct. GSM only means 2g only. Wcdma only means 3g only. So if you dont have a 3g sig. You have no sig. Wcdma prefered/auto means that it will stay on 3g untill the signal becomes low and switches to 2g. When it finds a good 3g signal again it will switch back to 3g.
If you hav it on auto, when your on a call it stays on 3g until it gets low then switches to 2g to keep the call alive. But it does NOT switch back to 3G untill you hang up.
I usually keep mine on wcdma only because i have good 3g where i live and i hate when it switches to 2g during a call because i personally can notice a sound quality difference and i alao like to be able to use internet in call if i need it

Signal Problem

No matter what I do my phone will not switch to edge. I tried enabling the 3g toggle and when i turn it off it stays on 3g. My signal would drop down all the way to no signal and not even go into edge. Anyone else having the same problem? This is my third focus so far and the previous one had the same thing.

I have a captivate and a focus, and both pick up 2g edge. Of course, where I live, I do not have 3g coverage. However, when I go to work, I have 3g coverage. On my captivate, to pick up 2g edge service at work, I have to manually disable the 3g wcdma bands on my device. Of course, I would prefer to connect to 3g over edge anytime, so I haven't tested with the focus. I am not even sure if I can manually pick what bands to connect on with the focus. On the captivate, I go to the phone dialer, and dial *#0011# to see what band I am connected on, and dial *#2263# to select which bands to connect to. If you are looking for the best speed and signal possible, you should try to connect on wcdma 850mhz band if your phone will allow you to choose. I will do some testing on my focus and see what I can come up with.
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I just received my second focus, due to it getting run over, and this new Focus has the same problem as the op. It will go into 2g but first it goes to no bars on 3g, which means I lose the call. This is at my home so it's really aggravating, it loses signal every time. It will go from 3 bars on 3g to nothing.
I don't understand how this phone sucks yet my last Focus didn't do this. I need to ask for a replacement again. I'm not sure it matters though because the op is on his third phone. I guess I should have switched carriers as I had the same damn problem with my Fuze.

Fix/Workaround for mobile data connectivity problems (3G/H/H+ dropping connection)

I've been following the mobile data connectivity issue that some users are experiencing (where data connection drops randomly, apparently coinciding with a lot of switching between 3G/H/H+).
Initially, people suggested disabling 'fast dormancy' using *#*#9900#*#*, however, this did not work for many, including myself.
In this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15250511&postcount=6, there appears to be a solution, albeit a workaround.
I have started this thread, as there are so many separate threads about this issue, and only the Telstra Australia thread had this answer (as far as I've read). I have copied the post (a repost from whirlpool) by dusty_nz below. Basically, the problem is serious, the guys from Samsung have insisted this will be fixed in KE9, but there is a workaround in the mean time (disabling H+ and H, or just disabling H+ using *#301279#). This may seem drastic to speed freaks, but 3G connection alone should still give you 1.5 Mb up/down if you can put up with that. This has worked for me, no more data stalling, no more server errors etc. etc. I hope H/H+ will be fixed in future firmware.
Here is the post:
dusty_nz said:
Found this on
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1714413
****************** FIXED ******************
After contacting Samsung for an insane period of time (ended up on an international call to England i think... or now that i think about it could have just been some English guy in Aus lol) I have got an official explanation and confirmation that this issue is being looked into for KE8 (but it appears that KE8 has been launched in India already so it might be KE9).
*disclaimer*
I am no expert on mobile technology this in-depth however the (probably very) dumbed down version the Samsung guy told me was this;
*end disclaimer*
The problem stems from the fact that this phone has 3 forms of data connection, 3G, HSDPA, and HSPA+.
3G is what we have all had since 3/Telstra launch 10 years ago.
HSDPA is the 7.2mbps connections that we got after that.
HSPA+ is the full fledged 42mbps Next G stuff that only Telstra has.
The problem is, when you are just using the phone as "a phone" it idles on a 3G connection to save battery and when you initiate a data connection it flicks on to the higher connection protocols for better speed.
What is supposed to happen when you initiate the data connection is the phone checks for H+ connection, then for H and then finally 3G. For some reason if you arent with Telstra or are in an area without HSPA+ the phone gets hung up for too long attempting to initiate the H+ connection and refuses to drop back to H!
Also, even if it does give up on H+ it then has an issue with falling back to 3G. Resulting in the problem that if it cant get H+ or the tower is too flooded for a H connection you get absolutely nothing until you restart the data mode within the phone, renegotiates with the tower and BAM, you are back in business.
So... there are 5 fixes;
1. Wait for KE9 (or what ever firmware fixes the modem timings etc)
2. Get a Telstra sim and never leave an area that has H+
3. Turn off/on data mode whenever it happens
to which i told him they were stupid answers and completely unacceptable, but then he came out with this complete gem!
4. using service code *#301279# you can turn off HSPA+ completely forcing it to start the data connections on HSDPA
5. using *#301279# again you can just turn off HSPA+ and HSDPA meaning it instantly starts downloading the data on 3G without delay
Now yes, i thought... great... ive bought this $779 phone that has all the latest and greatest technology and I cant even use it! But, I did some testing!
First of all my normal sim is Vodafone so turning off HSPA+ is an obvious one for me, im never going to get it so why bother. So now that the phone only attempts to get a connection with HSDPA the need to turn off and on data connection was getting more and more rare but still having the problem (i have a feeling that is due to congestion?). So i bumped it down to 3G only and it works perfectly 100% of the time!
The point of these faster connection protocols is speed so i did testing.
Vodafone sim, 4 bars of signal in the middle of a shopping centre.
HPSA+ turned on = 4mbps down, 1mbps up
HSDPA turned on = 4mbps down, 1mbps up
3G only = 3.5mbps down, 1mbps up
did this over and over and over again and to be perfectly honest, im willing to lose 500kbps to make sure that data always works and if you are just doing general web browsing the time it takes to initiate the HSDPA connection wastes more time than the slightly slower speeds with 3G does.
Now obviously this only works fine in my situation, if you are with Telstra and going from HSPA+ down to 3G means going from 20mbps to 3... i would be pissed. But for the rest of the country you are talking about a loss of less than 1mbps so in real world situations with just small amounts of burst data its fine
TLDR; Try and go online and the 3G up arrow lights up but never actually downloads anything
Dial: *#301279# – Change HSPA revision – Release 5 HSPDA only
test, if still a problem
Dial: *#301279# – Change HSPA revision – Release R99 HSPA off
Your welcome, Peace out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

this works! thanks!

Cheers!
Just tried this and I got 1800kbps on 3g!!

Hmm, i played around with those codes. If i choose to drop H+ and H, stays on 3G, but speed is crappy for me. So i want to drop only H+, but when i do that phone stays only on 3G too, not attempting to connect to H. Am i doing something wrong ?

Sp1tfire said:
Hmm, i played around with those codes. If i choose to drop H+ and H, stays on 3G, but speed is crappy for me. So i want to drop only H+, but when i do that phone stays only on 3G too, not attempting to connect to H. Am i doing something wrong ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*#301279#
Option [1] Release R99(HSPA OFF) - This should turn H+ and H off
Option [2] Release 5(HSDPA ONLY) - This should turn just H+ off (what you want)
Option [3] Release 6(HSDPA/HSUPA) - This should turn H+ and H on
To test this, you might want to make sure you are in an area that can pick up 3G, H and H+.
One week on since I selected Option [1] and I have not had any data stalling issues, before I was having data dropping every few minutes whilst browsing.
I tried Option [2] and still had the stalling issue.
Good luck.

tomelsmith said:
*#301279#
Option [1] Release R99(HSPA OFF) - This should turn H+ and H off
Option [2] Release 5(HSDPA ONLY) - This should turn just H+ off (what you want)
Option [3] Release 6(HSDPA/HSUPA) - This should turn H+ and H on
To test this, you might want to make sure you are in an area that can pick up 3G, H and H+.
One week on since I selected Option [1] and I have not had any data stalling issues, before I was having data dropping every few minutes whilst browsing.
I tried Option [2] and still had the stalling issue.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hardly ever get H+, which is why i want to turn it off, thing is if i choose option 2, i only get 3G, while with option 3 i get 3G and H (probably H+ too if i were in the right place). Option 1 works fine, doesn't seem to stall, but 3G speed is crap in my network, that's why i wanted option 2.

Tried all three settings and I am getting about the same speeds with all three settings, 3600-4200 down and 1550-1620 up. So will try setting 1 to see if my connection carries on dropping out.
Thanks

Wat is the code for miui
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I actually tried this before on a few different radios and it didn't really work. The real problem I have is when I get in an elevator for a minute and get out shortly. It's not long enough in the elevator for the phone to say "No Signal" but it's still long enough for the data connection to hang and never bother hooking back up when I get off the elevator.
I'll try again though... will report back.

same here .... i tried the three options but problem persist

I have tried the codes above, including disabling dormancy but my internet still will not connect to the internet. Please help.

I'm with Optus (TPG) and I never really see H. It's either 3G, or H+.
I tried disabling H+ (option 2), and like the other guy now I only see 3G.
My Speedtest with only 3G was:
Down - 228.2kB/s
With H+ enabled (option 3), my Speedtest was:
Down - 482kB/s (but it's been as high as 1103.9kB/s in previous tests.
For now I'll just keep it as it is and put up with the occasional freezes. Hopefully it's fixed soon in a firmware release.

i cant seem to get the codes working.. after i dial *#301279# nothing happens, no menu nothing. tried on my wife's galaxy s 2 same thing.. is there an app to disable HSDPA?

\\Issue solved

Is this issue mainly due to the carrier?
I did not have this problem b4. Now I found that my phone might suffer from this.
Tried to disable the H+ or H & H+ at the same time, it seems the issue is still there.
I am on Vodafone Australia network. And I just raised this similar topic on Whirlpool, if you guys would like to discuss this network problem on an OZ forum, plz refer to the below
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1744684
Cheers

Updating to XXXKG2 fixed 90% of my problems, on vodafone au.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

MealsOnWheels said:
Updating to XXXKG2 fixed 90% of my problems, on vodafone au.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it's still the same, coming from KF2 to KG2. Will try KG3.

Any one with new modem firmware that 100% fixed the 3G drop/stuck connection(only see upload sign lit) bug? I am running KG1 modem(stock rom no root) and still experiencing this issue on ATT in Bloomington, Indiana USA.
I also realized S2 uses Infineon modem chip which is the same supplier for the iPhone3G that had the 3G slow down, drop call issue..
Could this issue be the chip at the end?? Why would Samsung taking forever to fix this critical flaw on I9100??

I'm on 3 UK. Had the cutout on KG1 and KG2. But it's definitely gone away in KG3.

I'm on Airtel India on KG3 and I still have the data stalling issue.
Seems to me like this issue surfaces more when I'm at home on wifi and then step out to data.
Trying out these service codes now to see if it helps to turn off high speed data.
It would make sense for Samsung to include these settings in the rom itself even for those without issues but want to save battery.
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