Questions aobut 3G

[Guest Hylando]

Is 3G only mostly used for data transfer, and connections to the internet?

i wonder this because i do not have a data plan, and if i could turn of the 3G band switching off.

[Guest Confucious]

3G is a data transfer method so if you don't have a data plan and don't want to use data then turn it off.

If you really don't want to use any data then either delete your data connections or use nodata.cab to disable them - then you won't be git by any GPRS charges either.

[Guest dtphantom]

3G is a data transfer method so if you don't have a data plan and don't want to use data then turn it off.

If you really don't want to use any data then either delete your data connections or use nodata.cab to disable them - then you won't be git by any GPRS charges either.

well 3G is also used to increase the quality of calls, so you might not want to turn it off.

[Guest delguini]

well 3G is also used to increase the quality of calls, so you might not want to turn it off.

Is the difference really noticeable?

[Guest Confucious]

I'd forgotten that voice actually goes over 3G as well. In the UK 2G coverage is far greater and I know of nowhere that has 3G coverage that doesn't have 2G coverage and have never heard anyone mention better quality voice calls over 3G.

Judging by your device tho, you are not in the UK? It maybe different where you are.

[Guest delguini]

I'd forgotten that voice actually goes over 3G as well. In the UK 2G coverage is far greater and I know of nowhere that has 3G coverage that doesn't have 2G coverage and have never heard anyone mention better quality voice calls over 3G.

Judging by your device tho, you are not in the UK? It maybe different where you are.

Ya, im from Montreal Canada :D

[Guest dtphantom]

well 3G is also used to increase the quality of calls, so you might not want to turn it off.

only one way to find out. Try making calls with and without 3G turned on and see what happens.

[Guest john redcorn]

A couple weeks back I went into the admin menu (from home screen push *#1546792*#) then network and call settings then network mode and selected "GSM" instead of "auto".

I'm getting much better battery life (2-3 days instead of 16-24 hrs) staying gsm-only as well as no dropped calls. I'd never had a dropped call on at&t with my nokia 6010 and nokia 6682 but as soon as I got the bj2 I started getting drops every day it seemed like. I guess 3g coverage in tulsa, OK isn't so great.

I can't play videos with vtap when it's using edge/gprs but if I really need to see one I switch it back to auto on the network mode menu. when it's set to auto it will defualt to 3g/wcdma.

hint: before changing the network mode you might need to turn off then back on your phone radio. it sometimes won't accept the change unless the phone radio has just been activated. (and it wont make the change if the phone radio is off)

Edited June 16, 2008 by john redcorn

[Guest delguini]

A couple weeks back I went into the admin menu (from home screen push *#1546792*#) then network and call settings then network mode and selected "GSM" instead of "auto".

I'm getting much better battery life (2-3 days instead of 16-24 hrs) staying gsm-only as well as no dropped calls. I'd never had a dropped call on at&t with my nokia 6010 and nokia 6682 but as soon as I got the bj2 I started getting drops every day it seemed like. I guess 3g coverage in tulsa, OK isn't so great.

I can't play videos with vtap when it's using edge/gprs but if I really need to see one I switch it back to auto on the network mode menu. when it's set to auto it will defualt to 3g/wcdma.

hint: before changing the network mode you might need to turn off then back on your phone radio. it sometimes won't accept the change unless the phone radio has just been activated. (and it wont make the change if the phone radio is off)

It's REALLY interesting that you mention that.

Personally i dont use much data on my phone, and when i do, it's for rinky dink programs like MSN or whatever, so i dont need the high speed data.

I mean if the difference between call quality with 3G and EDGE is not even noticeable, it'll take the better battery life and slower data speed over higher data anyday :D

Edited June 16, 2008 by delguini

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

3G is basically CDMA where as EDGE is the GSM version of this.

[Guest Hylando]

A couple weeks back I went into the admin menu (from home screen push *#1546792*#) then network and call settings then network mode and selected "GSM" instead of "auto".

but im not fully understanding how to got to this admin menu

Edit: NVM i thought the *s at first were ", i just woke up :-P

Edited June 16, 2008 by Hylando

[Guest Hylando]

Does turning of 3G affect the sending of text/multimedia messages?

[Guest john redcorn]

Does turning of 3G affect the sending of text/multimedia messages?

It still works if that's what you mean. I don't think the messages mms or sms go through the regular internet connection, but surely they are limited in transfer speed by the data connection, a big mms message might take a little while longer to send but it still goes and it's in the background anyway. It'd be like if you had some mail client app on your pc that sent data to ip x.x.x.x and you switched from 5mbit cable to 1.5mbit dsl, the app will still work, it'll just take longer to xfer.

I only switch back to 3g for watching youtube and such videos with vtap, they just don't seem to go at all with gprs/edge. Web browsing seems fine to me on gprs/edge, and hey, all kinds of people paid like $400 for iphones with only gprs/edge web access.