2g vs 3g networks and auto changing?

[Guest ak888]

Form reading the thread about increasing battery life (I have very poor battery life, lasting about a day - or 17 waking hours or so with hardly any calls), there was a suggestion to switch off background updates and/or 3g networks (and use 2g). I tried this and noticed that when swicthing from 3g to 2g or back again in the network connection settings, that the phone loses connection (an x in the reception strength) and reconnects.

When I was at my parents, the reception was awful when I had the phone on the 3g data preference - awful being zero service. I then thought why waste battery power and switched ot 2g data connection. The phone after a while picked a signal up and I had pretty good reception (about 3 -4 bars).

My question is: should the phone not drop down to 2g automatically when there is no 3g? My brothers blackberry on vodafone seemed to have dropped down to Edge automatically when I told him about the improvement with my manual switching.

[Guest bencoder]

Do you have the "prefer 3g" option set? If you switch that off then it wont keep trying to connect to 3g if there is a considerably better connection available off 2g. I imagine there must have been some 3g signal but it was just very low. If the option isn't set then I don't know, mine switches between 3g and 2g fine.

[Guest ak888]

Do you have the "prefer 3g" option set? If you switch that off then it wont keep trying to connect to 3g if there is a considerably better connection available off 2g. I imagine there must have been some 3g signal but it was just very low. If the option isn't set then I don't know, mine switches between 3g and 2g fine.

D'OH - dawns on me now........I did have the prefer option. Cheers

[Guest xangma]

no I still have the OP's problem. I think it's a bug in the ROM =/

[Guest shovon]

no I still have the OP's problem. I think it's a bug in the ROM =/

Me too. Having the 'prefer 3g networks' option selected should still allow the phone to switch over to 2g when a 3g network cannot be received. Anyone else with this problem?

[Guest eager_b]

Me too. Having the 'prefer 3g networks' option selected should still allow the phone to switch over to 2g when a 3g network cannot be received. Anyone else with this problem?

I must confess that I had a lot of trouble with automatic 2G/3G switching until I discovered that it was possible to have *both* the 'only 2G' *and* 'prefer 3G' checkboxes unticked - I'd thought you had to have one or the other selected. After that the Pulse worked fine, switching between 2G and 3G as I expected.

I think 'prefer 3G' is taken to mean something closer to 'try to use 3G if there is the slightest chance that there may be a signal of any sort, even if it's from another network' ;) (I have no T-Mobile 3G coverage at home, but I do have 3G coverage from other networks, and as long as 'prefer 3G' is ticked the Pulse never switches to 2G at home.)

[Guest xangma]

I must confess that I had a lot of trouble with automatic 2G/3G switching until I discovered that it was possible to have *both* the 'only 2G' *and* 'prefer 3G' checkboxes unticked - I'd thought you had to have one or the other selected. After that the Pulse worked fine, switching between 2G and 3G as I expected.

I think 'prefer 3G' is taken to mean something closer to 'try to use 3G if there is the slightest chance that there may be a signal of any sort, even if it's from another network' ;) (I have no T-Mobile 3G coverage at home, but I do have 3G coverage from other networks, and as long as 'prefer 3G' is ticked the Pulse never switches to 2G at home.)

OH WOW.

Literally didn't know or think of that. You legend.

[Guest channi3]

A bit off-topic i guess, but has anyone tried switching off 3G and measuring the battery life compared to having 3G on?

I'm getting double the battery life with 3G off(or even more), if i don't use the phone (well just to check battery life) it stays at the same battery % for about 6 hours

With 3G on, it depletes the battery in about 12 hours max lol

[Guest meinnit]

That's strange, I dont find 3G is a major drain on my battery

[Guest bencoder]

That's strange, I dont find 3G is a major drain on my battery

Really? With 3G on I had to charge every day. Now leaving it on 2g I can go for days without charging.

[Guest chrisspann]

I've found (With 3 at least) that the December update fixes a lot of 2G/3G switching problems.