Help Orange T-Mobile default network

[Ian Harding]

I've got a newly purchased Samsung Galaxy S2 on an Orange contract. The network defaults to "Orange", as you'd expect, but I've manually changed that to "Orange T-Mobile" as it makes a big difference in coverage on my journey to work.

When I power-cycled the phone, it reverted back to "Orange" on startup. I don't plan to power cycle very often, but just wondered if there was a way of setting a preferred network on the handset instead of having to manually change every time the phone starts?

On my old Nokia E72, once I'd set to "Orange T-Mobile" the first time, it stuck even through many power cycles (crappy thing kept losing data connectivity until reset!).

Thanks,
Ian

 

[james_uk]

i could be wrong in saying this, i think that the network changes automatically between both depending on the signal quality as far as i know.

 

[Ian Harding]

i could be wrong in saying this, i think that the network changes automatically between both depending on the signal quality as far as i know.

On my train journey to and from work, there are some big gaps with no signal when network is on "Orange", but only one short gap if "Orange T-Mobile" is selected.

 

[bartlet]

On my Desire it would change between T-Mobile and Orange T-Mobile automatically after a loss of signal, but the S2 seems content to stay on whichever was originally selected - regardless of signal.

 

[chillibean]

I think you are a bit confused by the wording orange have used.
When it says 'orange' you are getting the 'old' orange signal. When the orange signal is weak you will get 'Tmobile oragnge' signal which is the Tmobile signal.
James_uk and bartlet are both right in saying that it will switch between the 2 automatically.
Also(i my be wrong but i think)you have to have roaming on so it switches freely between the 2.

Hope this helps and clears the confusion on how eveything everywhere word things

 

[Ian Harding]

I think you are a bit confused by the wording orange have used.
When it says 'orange' you are getting the 'old' orange signal. When the orange signal is weak you will get 'Tmobile oragnge' signal which is the Tmobile signal.
James_uk and bartlet are both right in saying that it will switch between the 2 automatically.
Also(i my be wrong but i think)you have to have roaming on so it switches freely between the 2.

Hope this helps and clears the confusion on how eveything everywhere word things

I know the difference between "Orange" and "Orange T-Mobile". Was already a subscriber when they opened the T-Mobile network up to Orange users.

It's the roaming bit I hadn't clocked. Roaming was enabled on my old mobile long before the network merger as I went abroad a couple of weeks after buying it and never bothered disabling when I got back. Come to think of it, a couple of apps on the old Nokia were forever warning me that I wasn't on my home network.

Looks like roaming is sensibly disabled by default on the S2. I've enabled it now, and set the network selection to automatic. Let's see what happens on the way to work this morning.

Thank you,
Ian

 

[Solarwind]

On a side note, I also am an Orange network user and I manually switch my network from the default "Orange" on bootup, to "Orange T-Mobile" - simply because my download speeds are approximately doubled (I founds this out from network info / speed tests, etc). Not sure if anyone else has found this...

 

[david_inuk]

On a side note, I also am an Orange network user and I manually switch my network from the default "Orange" on bootup, to "Orange T-Mobile" - simply because my download speeds are approximately doubled (I founds this out from network info / speed tests, etc). Not sure if anyone else has found this...

Yes yes yes!!

But I guess that it depends on where you are. The only disadvantage I have found with this is that when you have manually selected a network (say Orange Tmobile), you wont automatically switch to the other one (Orange) if you are in an area with no network (Orange Tmobile) coverage. Whereas if you leave it on select automatically, it will do as it says on the tin keeping your phone within some sort of coverage all the time!

I wish there was a way for the phone to automatically select the strongest 3g signal!

 

[Ian Harding]

Realised I'd forgotten to return and report my results with roaming enabled.

It seems that even with automatic network selection and roaming switched on the handset stubbornly refuses to switch between "Orange" and "Orange T-Mobile" networks. If there's no signal on one, then tough luck, even when the other has good strength.

This is still the case after updating to ICS a few days ago. Fortunately it seems pretty reliable, needing a restart very rarely, so I just have to remember to manually select "Orange T-Mobile" after boot up and it sticks with it giving better coverage and speed.

Ian