Three network on Nexus 5

Pique

Hi,

I've had my N5 since Oct/Nov '13 and am very happy with it (apart from the usual complaints of battery and camera) and have been on Three all the time. I rarely go outside the 3G network.

I have been doing so (leaving the comfort of 3G areas) more and more recently for various reasons and something has really bugged me that I was hoping you guys could help with.

Three have 2 networks. Their 3G one, and whoever they piggyback on for the 2.5G. If I leave 3G coverage and drop to the 2.5G network, the data is indicated as 'Roaming' and so if I have data roaming disabled, I get godawful speed. Maybe not a problem if I never roam (just leave data roaming on, you say), but I live in Donegal and travel to NI fairly regularly and if I forget to disable it before I travel, I end up getting a not insignificant addition to my bill. OK, not the end of the world, but still, annoying.

The other, and far more annoying issue is that if I travel from 2.5G territory back to 3G, the phone does not automatically change me back. Having 'preferred network' set to 3G or LTE makes no difference. It's a fukkin balls to have to go back into settings, scan network providers, choose the 3G version of 3 which shows up (without a difference in name or anything to denote which is which, I might add) and finally get back onto 3G.

It's an absolute pain. On a Nokia dumb phone 15 years ago, there was an option to choose your preferred network provider and it would connect to it whenever it was in range, regardless if you were in an area where 2 networks were operating (like on the border where 3 UK and 3 IRL may be both broadcasting). I had an IPhone 4 a few years ago and it had the same problem, only worse.

Is there an app that might give me this functionality to choose preferred network and actively lock me to it when it's detected (without killing my already fairly poor TBH) battery life?

Cheers all.

Euphoriasean

Pique wrote: »

Hi,

I've had my N5 since Oct/Nov '13 and am very happy with it (apart from the usual complaints of battery and camera) and have been on Three all the time. I rarely go outside the 3G network.

I have been doing so (leaving the comfort of 3G areas) more and more recently for various reasons and something has really bugged me that I was hoping you guys could help with.

Three have 2 networks. Their 3G one, and whoever they piggyback on for the 2.5G. If I leave 3G coverage and drop to the 2.5G network, the data is indicated as 'Roaming' and so if I have data roaming disabled, I get godawful speed. Maybe not a problem if I never roam (just leave data roaming on, you say), but I live in Donegal and travel to NI fairly regularly and if I forget to disable it before I travel, I end up getting a not insignificant addition to my bill. OK, not the end of the world, but still, annoying.

The other, and far more annoying issue is that if I travel from 2.5G territory back to 3G, the phone does not automatically change me back. Having 'preferred network' set to 3G or LTE makes no difference. It's a fukkin balls to have to go back into settings, scan network providers, choose the 3G version of 3 which shows up (without a difference in name or anything to denote which is which, I might add) and finally get back onto 3G.

It's an absolute pain. On a Nokia dumb phone 15 years ago, there was an option to choose your preferred network provider and it would connect to it whenever it was in range, regardless if you were in an area where 2 networks were operating (like on the border where 3 UK and 3 IRL may be both broadcasting). I had an IPhone 4 a few years ago and it had the same problem, only worse.

Is there an app that might give me this functionality to choose preferred network and actively lock me to it when it's detected (without killing my already fairly poor TBH) battery life?

Cheers all.

Same here. When I'm at works 3's coverages is terrible you can only get it outside.So anytime I leave the building I have to go into the menu and change the network manually. Its so annoying.

MonkstownHoop

Will this improve with the takeover of 02?

jimmycrackcorm

Generally my phone's have always automatically changed back to the 3G signal on three. occasionally when using it and knowing that I should be able to get 3G without waiting I keep a home screen widget till turn airplane mode on and off.

A Neurotic

Exact same issue on nexus 4 here. Very annoying.

Euphoriasean

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Generally my phone's have always automatically changed back to the 3G signal on three. occasionally when using it and knowing that I should be able to get 3G without waiting I keep a home screen widget till turn airplane mode on and off.

It looks like a nexus issue so rather than 3. The roaming icon has been on my phone all day even though I've been in a 4g location. On WiFi so havnt manually changed it.

Euphoriasean

Euphoriasean wrote: »

It looks like a nexus issue so rather than 3. The roaming icon has been on my phone all day even though I've been in a 4g location. On WiFi so havnt manually changed it.

Oh and toggling airplane mode does not work for me,I have to manually switch networks

pah

Same here, I had this issue 4 years ago on three with the iPhone 4. It's a combination of handset and network I fear as my previous phones HTC m7 galaxy note 3 did not have the problem

god's toy

This is something that keeps coming back time after time.

Its related to any phone on three network that did not come from three themselves as they don't have the unique three firmware in the modem running set to work with threes lack of a real 2g/fallback network.

We hope that with o2 coming in this will change.

Pique

god's toy wrote: »

This is something that keeps coming back time after time.

Its related to any phone on three network that did not come from three themselves as they don't have the unique three firmware in the modem running set to work with threes lack of a real 2g/fallback network.

We hope that with o2 coming in this will change.

Not true. My iPhone 4 was from 3 on a contract and was locked to them and it had the exact same problem.

Hopefully the O2 takeover will sort it.

Pique

Euphoriasean wrote: »

It looks like a nexus issue so rather than 3.

Nope. See my previous comment.

god's toy

Pique wrote: »

Not true. My iPhone 4 was from 3 on a contract and was locked to them and it had the exact same problem.

Hopefully the O2 takeover will sort it.

It is true, just because your handset has this does not make if untrue... This also happens to 3 phones too but in the amount of times this has come up with Three on boards.ie, the most common factor is the handset NOT being a three branded handset and the Three rep saying as much.

After a load of complaints they they 'look into it', make a change or two their side and (for a short time at least) the problem goes away.... Only to return with a new people starting a new thread asking the same questions a few months later. and around and around it goes.

Pique

god's toy wrote: »

Its related to any phone on three network that did not come from three themselves as they don't have the unique three firmware in the modem running set to work with threes lack of a real 2g/fallback network.

Pique wrote: »

Not true. My iPhone 4 was from 3 on a contract and was locked to them and it had the exact same problem.

god's toy wrote: »

It is true, just because your handset has this does not make if untrue....

Actually, yes, that's exactly what it means. It's not an issue only with non-3 phones, and happened with the top of the range (at the time) iPhone from 3.

Regardless, to my original point, is there an app that will lock the phone to a chosen mobile network if detected?

0lddog

Of late Three have three separate networks in some ( most? ) of the country.

1. Original 3 network
2. 2G network on Vodafone
3. I guess something to do with O2 .....

For reasons of curiosity I sometimes use a windowsphone:o.

I lock this to the original 3 network ( 3G, 4G signals available )

Imagine my surprise when it managed to wander over to the Vodafone network ( 2G / edge ) :eek:

For once, my prime suspect for this is not the WP:D

This happened frequently for a couple of days and then all reverted to normal

I'm expecting more issues like this over the next while.......




Did I see last weeks lottery issue being pinned on the Telefonica network ?