Vodafone 3G

Akula

So I'm considering moving to Vodafone 3G. Whats the best phone out there at the moment? Any new ones on the horizon. I've looked at some of them and they seem horribly large.

soggybizkit

dont buy a 6630 theres nothing but probems with them and the 3g network. apparantly its teething problems

Cyrus

i disagree the 6630 is the best current 3g handset

fade2black

don't think it's a 6630 issue as much as it's a general 3g problem

Guy:Incognito

I had a 6630 and a V800. the v800 wins hands down, far better in every respect. Sold the 6630 a couple of weeks back.

Cyrus

cant agree there, the v800 is a bog std se phone with a decent camera, the 6630 is a top of the range smart phone.

In what way did you find the v800 better, im not being smart, im just curious

fade2black

The sound on the V800 pales in comparison to the 6630.

Guy:Incognito

Cyrus wrote:

cant agree there, the v800 is a bog std se phone with a decent camera, the 6630 is a top of the range smart phone.

In what way did you find the v800 better, im not being smart, im just curious

Much easier to use, looks far nice, less bulky. better screen, far better battery life, found txting in the 6630 awkward. V800 doesnt randomly reboot. Had signal problems on the 6630 with 3g,none with the v800. Overall though, i prefer SE phones. The light on the V800 is very handy aswell.

Guy:Incognito

fade2black wrote:

The sound on the V800 pales in comparison to the 6630.

in what way? the external speaker or the earpiece, personaaly couldnt hear any difference on the earpiece. Plus i have a €1000 amp and speake set for listening to music , so i dont do it via the external speaker on the phone.

fade2black

Meant the external speaker. Do you carry that amp and speaker set around with you...

TCP/IP

dont bother with any of them the network is rubbish at the moment when it works its great but thats a when. Stick to 2.5G for the moment. I just changed back and its nice to have coverage most of the time again. The V800 is the best 3G phone by the way. I just bought an Imate SP3i and it is the best phone I have ever used real class

Doublezero8

TCP/IP wrote:

dont bother with any of them the network is rubbish at the moment when it works its great but thats a when. Stick to 2.5G for the moment. I just changed back and its nice to have coverage most of the time again. The V800 is the best 3G phone by the way. I just bought an Imate SP3i and it is the best phone I have ever used real class

The V800 is the phone that is working best with the 3G network at present. This is from experience with extented use of all 3G phones currently on the market .

Also on the V800 it allows to change to only use the 2.5G network if you are having problems.
The Vodafone branded version of the 6630 does not have this option and a vodafone approved software version that allows to change to 2.5G only will not be available for good while yet.

But as TCP/IP said i would stick too 2.5G until the network improves.

Cyrus

you can install a prgramme on the 6630 to allow u choose 2.5 g

Doublezero8

Cyrus wrote:

you can install a prgramme on the 6630 to allow u choose 2.5 g

Install a program or upgrade the software ?

Cyrus

install a programme, field test

Doublezero8

If you do not have any knowledge of GSM protocol and advanced engineering menus, can you not do serious damage to your 6630. Are the softwares used for this not copyrighted by their respective owners ?

Not something i would have thought you could recommend in the main as a solution to that problem.

But thanks was just interested

Cyrus

you dont need to mess around with a load of options to change from 3g to 2.5g just press left once and change from 0 to 1 easy peasy.

Akula

thing is though with their new tariffs, if you want one of the big packages you HAVE to go with 3G. Effectively punishes heavy 2.5g users like myself. hmmm

Doublezero8

I know this may seem obvious but one thing you should definitely do is ring Vodafone first and ask what 3G coverage is like in the areas where you live and work. I have seen people living in the arse hole of nowhere buying these phones only to discover they can't use them.

Guy:Incognito

fade2black wrote:

Meant the external speaker. Do you carry that amp and speaker set around with you...

Nope, also don't usually feel the need to listen to music out load while im walking down the road, get a proper ghetto blaster if thats what you want to do, It's not really for listening to as a proper music source anyway. The one on the 6630 isnt great either.

Guy:Incognito

TCP/IP wrote:

dont bother with any of them the network is rubbish at the moment when it works its great but thats a when. Stick to 2.5G for the moment. I just changed back and its nice to have coverage most of the time again. The V800 is the best 3G phone by the way. I just bought an Imate SP3i and it is the best phone I have ever used real class

Where you living, im in dublin and ive never had a dropped call or been out of service (with the v800) since january.

brettmirl

in the last two weeks was having SERIOUS problems with 3G on my Nokia 6630. Rang the Customer Care line a few times and got the usual 'turn off the phone and back on again' and 'oh there must be a transmitter problem in your area'.

The phone was rebooting itself, dropping calls for no reason, people trying to phone me counldnt get through or it would ring once and then divert to message minder and 970% of the time if i tried to make an outgoing call i would get "connection error".

After the 5th time onto Customer Care they advised me to go to the Vodafone store and get a new SIM card.

Didn't make any difference.

Rang back Customer Care and was put onto an engineer. Explained to her what had happened and she said that Vodafone rolled out 3G too soon and that they were aware of the issues with the 6630. She advised me to put it back in its box and try it again in 3 months. She also offered me a free phone - the Nokia 2600 http://www.nokia.ie/nokia/0,,62224,00.html -

Told her that wasn't good enough as I need Bluetooth...so she said that was the best she could do...I ranted on a bit more and she went and spoke to her "team Leader" and lo and behold I got me a free 6230.

Just thought I'd let ya know...2 mates of mine are suffering similar probs so I assume it is a very common problem...yet Skodafone continue to heavily market the 6630

wirelessdude

is anyone else having issues with the VF 3G card....i keep getting errors 692,619 and error 31....generally leaving the card for a few hours solves these but sometimes i can keep getting these errors for up to 2 weeks at a time...also any idea what new 3G phones are on the way?

seamus

Stekelly wrote:

far better battery life

:eek:
Battery life on the Nokia must be woeful then. It's my only gripe about the V800, you get 2-3 days out of the battery, max. I've had it for about a month now and given it a few complete drain -> complete charge cycles, and it hasn't improved much.

Takes a good week or two to get used to the V800 interface when switching from a Nokia.

JohnnyMobile

wirelessdude wrote:

is anyone else having issues with the VF 3G card....i keep getting errors 692,619 and error 31....generally leaving the card for a few hours solves these but sometimes i can keep getting these errors for up to 2 weeks at a time...also any idea what new 3G phones are on the way?

These are generally network errors or profile related errors. Force the card onto GPRS or setup a new profile through the software. A deregistration from the SGSN normally helps too as your probably purged.

20 Times 20 Times

mick_irl wrote:

in the last two weeks was having SERIOUS problems with 3G on my Nokia 6630. Rang the Customer Care line a few times and got the usual 'turn off the phone and back on again' and 'oh there must be a transmitter problem in your area'.

The phone was rebooting itself, dropping calls for no reason, people trying to phone me counldnt get through or it would ring once and then divert to message minder and 970% of the time if i tried to make an outgoing call i would get "connection error".

After the 5th time onto Customer Care they advised me to go to the Vodafone store and get a new SIM card.

Didn't make any difference.

Rang back Customer Care and was put onto an engineer. Explained to her what had happened and she said that Vodafone rolled out 3G too soon and that they were aware of the issues with the 6630. She advised me to put it back in its box and try it again in 3 months. She also offered me a free phone - the Nokia 2600 http://www.nokia.ie/nokia/0,,62224,00.html -

Told her that wasn't good enough as I need Bluetooth...so she said that was the best she could do...I ranted on a bit more and she went and spoke to her "team Leader" and lo and behold I got me a free 6230.

Just thought I'd let ya know...2 mates of mine are suffering similar probs so I assume it is a very common problem...yet Skodafone continue to heavily market the 6630

There is a problem with communication i find within vodafone , like that 2nd line support csr you were speakling to shouldnt be advising that we rolled the 3g out too sound it just creates a conflict of information , im shocked and confused how you got a 6230 for free the ONLY way this would happen if you got a upgrade pushed through for you and she offered to process the upgrade there and then for you ? or maybe you wre told to leave back the 6630 and get 6230 in exchage as a "good will gesture " ?

please let me know im shocked

remoteboy

The 6630 is a great phone in theory, but the first batch of them (i've got one) is a crock. The reboot issue is not because of the network, it's the phone. Plus its not the only problem - Bluetooth is flaky, to say the least. I got a free Bluetooth headset when I bought the phone but it won't work with the phone. It works fine with a 6310i.

It's a "known issue". :rolleyes:

If you take it into a Vodafone store, they will generally offer to send it off for a firmware upgrade. This sorts the problem out. Allegedly.

skearon

I have tried 6630 and V800 and prefer the V800 (mine is debranded and flashed with latest Z800 firmware)

Good battery life, great screen and most importantly (for me) reliable bluetooth connection to PDA

20 Times 20 Times

get the sharp v902 .

brettmirl

Sarge wrote:

There is a problem with communication i find within vodafone , like that 2nd line support csr you were speakling to shouldnt be advising that we rolled the 3g out too sound it just creates a conflict of information , im shocked and confused how you got a 6230 for free the ONLY way this would happen if you got a upgrade pushed through for you and she offered to process the upgrade there and then for you ? or maybe you wre told to leave back the 6630 and get 6230 in exchage as a "good will gesture " ?

please let me know im shocked

Yeah i was surprised that she said it too. Seems a bit weird to be knocking the product.

As for the replacement...she mentioned upgrade and spend discount if that means anything. She went off to talk to her supervisor and phoned me back after about 10 mins.

I still have the 6630 as well.

The weird thing is that they never tried to flash new software onto the phone. It wasn't even mentioned as an option. Would it be worth bringing it to the local nokia centre?

20 Times 20 Times

yeah i know what she did , she did it well by the sounds of it as well , she upgraded you over the phone so therefore your "FREE" 6230 isnt actually it will appear in your next bill , send the 6630 in for a software update

brettmirl

Rang to check and they said there was no charge. I'll let you know for sure when my next bill comes in.

20 Times 20 Times

i look forward to hearing about this you must be high user of your phone / own a business that has a account with vodafone or know somebody
but i look forward hearing about ur bill

brettmirl

well my phone bill averages €200+ per month.....

mik_da_man

Just on this topic,
My 6630 was really acting up today
so rang today with a compliant about my 6630 & 3G
Spoke to a few different cust serv reps and got me a brand new fone
nokia 2xxx (cant remember the exact one) for free.
I tried to get a better fone, saying i needed bluetooth for use in the car (which I do)
but no joy.

And i got comfirmation that it was totally free, no need to return my 6630 or the other nokia.

So it is possible

brettmirl

Sarge wrote:

i look forward to hearing about this you must be high user of your phone / own a business that has a account with vodafone or know somebody
but i look forward hearing about ur bill

Bill came in today - no sign of any phone charge on it. Also checked out My Vodafone on the website and it has updated to show my new phone on it as opposed to the 6630.

I dropped the 6630 into the Nokia centre in Cork City and they said it had to be sent off to Dublin for a "level 3 upgrade" so should have that back within the week.

mik_da_man

Got my 2600 the other day, totally free
not a bad little fone @ all (for free!).

Was chattin to a voda guy and he told me that there is a new software upgrade from voda & nokia for the 6630 due out in a week or so.
he says it will fix 'all' known problems.

so here's hoping it will sort it out for me!!

Our man in Havana

does the phone not default back to 2G when there is no 3G signal, ie it can be used outside 3G areas?

MiCr0

Bond-007 wrote:

does the phone not default back to 2G when there is no 3G signal, ie it can be used outside 3G areas?

the 6630 has a "feature" that it won't do 3g -> 2.5g handover

Our man in Havana

MiCr0 wrote:

the 6630 has a "feature" that it won't do 3g -> 2.5g handover

Do any of the 3G phone switch modes properly?

20 Times 20 Times

v980 actually swtichs no bother with the software update and plus you can choose to turn off the 3g all together


oh thanks for letting me know about the 6230 , still surprised but hey fair play

BigMoose

All the 3G phones I've used will switch from 3G to 2G under some conditions. (I've used a v980, 6630 and se800). The problem I've found with the 6630 is that it will hang on to the weakest 3G signal it can before switching. I have had it handover, but it will resist. The weak 3G signal can be fairly unusable which doesn't help. In early testing of handover the other extreme happened in that phones would handover when in full 3G coverage, which the operators obviously dont want to happen.

Our man in Havana

If you take the phone into an area with nil 3G it should default back to 2G? IS that the case? I live in a non 3G area but will be in 3G coverage at work. Will it work?

BigMoose

Yes, I have had no problems with any of the handsets in this situation. Only problems have been with in call handover or in areas of very weak 3G signal that sometimes the 6630 resists handing over until there is zero 3G coverage and when in really weak areas the signal is unusable.

If you're not actually in a call, taking the phone from full 3G coverage to no 3G coverage should have no problems with it picking up the 2G network and then it refinding the 3G network going the other way.

flywheel

Bond-007 wrote:

If you take the phone into an area with nil 3G it should default back to 2G? IS that the case? I live in a non 3G area but will be in 3G coverage at work. Will it work?

i (and other posters on here) have had issues with Vodafone supplied 6630 handset - missing calls, dropped calls, inaudible calls, connection failures... Vodafone launch the phone without a way for the user to choose GSM only which leaves it up to the handset to swap between the currently patchy Vodafone 3G network

a firmware update provides the feature to lock to the 2G network, which is currently the only reliable way of using the phone on Vodafone's network, you can read more about it here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=238376

the Telephone Centre on Dawson St was able to update the firmware... last time I heard of someone sending their 6630 back to the Vodafone approved repair centre (MPRC) for a software/firmware update it came back with the original software/firmware still on it, so no GSM only option...

Cyrus

why dont ye all download field test?

brettmirl

I got my flashed 6630 back today. I'll start using it again once it's charged and let you know if there is any improvement in its performance.

Davexirl

Thinking of getting the Nokia 6680 http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,70452,00.html I heard it is out tomorrow on RTG anyone know what this phone is like?