V800 flaky 3g network connection?

iplogger1

My SE V800 wasn't taking calls this lunchtime (Athlone).
Someone who was trying to reach me got through to me
through someone else and told me my phone wasn't answering.
I checked the phone and there was a 3g icon which I hadn't seen
before next to the small signal indicator icon on the top left of
the phone screen.

Is it possible that I am being exposed to flakiness of the 3g
network ? My brother mentioned something like this (he is
out of the country and I'd normally ask him)
Are some folks asking Vodafone to temporarily set their
profile up so that they remain on the 2.5g network until
problems are resolved ? All I know is that when I powered
the phone down and back up again my access in/out for
voice calls was re-established and it would seem like
the failure happened when my phone locked on to the 3g
network in Athlone.

ipl

Solair

Hmmm, that's a good point actually.

Basically the current GSM/GPRS network's being overlayed with a "3GSM" (UMTS) 3G network which will handle all of your traffic voice, video, data. So, basically it's a bit like roaming when you're on the GSM/GPRS 2.5G network.

I assume vodafone should be able to set the phones up to only jump onto the 2.5G system when the 3G signal's above a certain value. Otherwise, you might have problems.

I certainly know that friends of mine who used 3 UK had nightmarish experiences with coverage despite the national roaming agreements. The phone would always try to use 3 in London and coverage inside buildings and in many ares of the city was pathetic compared to any of the 2.5G networks.

Give vodafone a call and see if they can sort it out.

Also, check your phone's menus and see if there are any user-programmable settings that might help things. e.g. make sure that you put the Vodafone IE network as your prefered roaming network. It might just speed things up when the phone goes hunting.

I think the ideal scenario would have been to keep the phone's voice services on GSM and only use 3G for advanced features until the networks are more solidly built out. That way you'd always have good voice and sms service. However, I don't know how the handsets actually handle this.

iplogger1

Actually I spoked with my brother and did some google searching and
both advised to try on V800, connectivity->mobile networks->preferred network->GSM. However, on my phone settings it doesn't offer me an
option like that for some reason. However, I can manually select from
available networks and I chose the Vodafone network without the
asterisk (assume its 2.5G/GSM) and I set the "search mode" to manual
so that hopefully I won't roam haplessly into 3G again and risk losing
voice calls. When the network stabilises I'll revise this.

ipl

jesus_thats_gre

You have the old software version. Get this updated and you can select 2G. I would imagine that the problems you are experiencing are being causing by your being in area where 3G coverage is patchy..

My experiences for the past 2 months with 3G have been excellent when compared with the first few months. If you are on the edge of coverage areas you will have some probs.

iplogger1

Interesting thanks.

So what else is on the new software or is it just this tweak to
select type of network?

ipl

jesus_thats_gre

I am not 100% to be honest..