Where I work in town my mobile signal can be pretty ropey at times, but can anyone tell me am I better off receiving one bar of 3G or a five bar 2G signal?
I often receive the one bar 3G signal but when I try and connect to the internet then I just get error messages about checking connection settings (although I can see that I do have a signal).
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Do you need fast Internet connections from the phone? If the answer is no then 2G all the time!
For starters GSM (2G) uses less power and therefore saves on battery. If you have a strong GSM signal then again less power is needed from the phone. To connect to a weak 3G signal your phone will increase power used to connect to the base station and significantly reduce battery life.
You do mention Internet so depending on what you're doing, the 3G speeds may be advantageous over the GPRS and EDGE speeds which are much lower.
I usually leave my phone on GSM/2G because I work from home a lot and the 3G signal is poor. But when at home it connects to WiFi anyway.
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Yes I'm trying to access the internet for general web use while I'm away from my home wifi, I guess I'll try a spell of switching to 2G only and see if my connection is more reliable. It just seems that when I have one bar of 3G web pages take for ever to load, but if I have a full 2G signal then my phone sometime says that I'm not connected to the internet, as if it will ONLY accept 3G for web access.
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1bar of 3G is usually insuficient for reliable data
You'll have to change your provider, your phone or your job
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5 bars of 2G coverage should get you maybe 40Kbs of download speed, 1 bar 3G could be anything, 2K or 50K. 2G should do for just reading email headers and suchlike, if you need web browsing at sensible speed then like what Zero says.
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>> but if I have a full 2G signal then my phone sometime says that I'm not connected to the internet
Maybe the cell in use has no or poor Internet connectivity via GSM? I'd be on to the mobile company to complain.
If I was away from home for work and in a hotel, then I'd use hotel broadband and claim it on expenses.
If this is your work location, can you not use the work Internet connection?
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 17 Feb 12 at 21:34
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Sorry I should have said that the bad signal is probably due to all of the buildings around me plus I work on the ground floor of a ward block is there's loads of concrete above me.
I'll switch to 2G for a while to stop my phone connecting via 3G as soon as it gets the slightest whiff of a signal.
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If your phone is wi-fi enabled, then why not get a mi-fi device on a different network?
That's what I've ended up doing as although the 02 network where I work gives a healthy signal, there is no 3G, and the 2G data connection is absolutely rubbish.
I bought a 2nd hand Huawei E585 from ebay (£40), and a Three network data sim from amazon for £10.50 - which gives me 3 months or 3GB of data usage. I shan't be topping up the sim once it's all gone, I'll simply just buy another sim. Works out far cheaper than Three's tariff.
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Just discovered that I can't go to just 2g on my new iPhone unlike my old Blackberry, I just have to recieve what signal is available.
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Yes you can,
settings / general / network / enable 3G (off/on)
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I have what I think may be a similar problem with my Vodafone dongle.
It connects well enough to ordinary 3G - deep blue light on the dongle, but seems to want to hunt for 3G+ - pale blue light on the dongle.
That wouldn't matter, but 3G+ is poor around here and the stupid thing won't work reliably on either signal.
I've had a root around the connection wizard, but there appears to be no way of telling it to ignore 3G+.
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Sorry Z I can't see those options on my 4s following your route, it shows options for turning on/off data roaming, cellular data, VPN, personal hotspot and wifi.
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It definately has it. Settings/General/Network on mine....top slider. Latest software release.
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You are right, the feature has been removed from the Iphone 4S.
support.apple.com/kb/HT4203
Another good reason not to update my Iphone 4.
I could have guessed you were running an Iphone as soon as the problem cropped up. Use any other phone and you will get a much better 3G signal.
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I changed from a Blackberry and haven't found the iPhone all that it's cracked up to be at the moment, which as a lifetime Mac user find very disappointing.
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Thats Ok, the mac isn't all its cracked up to be either.
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Got to be honest, I very nearly went back to Blackberry this time around - but I got a killer deal from 02's customer retention dept so I kept the iPhone for now...
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>> I got a killer deal from 02's customer retention dept so I kept the
>> iPhone for now...>>
I have considered getting an iPhone 4s, but all the outlets seem to want around £40 per month. Is anybody getting a 4s for significantly less?
How much are you paying Rob?
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Mine's a 4 - getting it for less than 12 quid a month. 600/unlimited/500mbs
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>> Mine's a 4 - getting it for less than 12 quid a month. 600/unlimited/500mbs
My I4 £40 a month contract with Tesco (on 02's network) is up at the end of this month. Phoned them up and they're putting me over to a £12.50 SIM only deal.
500 mins, 5000 txts, 1GB of data, and access to certain BT Openzone wi-fi. At the time I got offered it, it was a 3 month contract, then after that I can cancel giving one months notice. I see the deal has now changed to a 12 month contract. tinyurl.com/7876fa7
The 1GB of data is all but useless to me though, as stated earlier up this thread.
I could have gone with Orange who offer an excellent 3G service where I work, but cost wise it's similar to the Tesco deal and the extra bit I'm paying to run the mi-fi device monthly on the Three network. Also I get the clubcard points staying with Tesco ;o)
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 18 Feb 12 at 15:55
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Which is better? - rtj70
