3G isn't working, but Wi-Fi is!

[patschwerk]

Okay bizarre one....

I bought my phone in Australia. It's a Telstra Smart Touch 2.
I previously unlocked it with a temporary sim I was using in Thailand and now I'm in settled in France. I've got a sim card with the network SFR and put it in this morning. Calls and texts are working, and when I enter in the password I can log in to Wi-Fi at home, but 3G is not working.

Is 3G the same as 'data roaming'? Sorry for being totally ignorant.

Any clues? Where do I look? What settings do I need to change?

Thanks

 

[Crashdamage]

Have you checked the phone's specs to see if the phone is capable of operating on the 3G frequency used by your provider in France? Contact them for the frequency they require then look at the HSDPA frequencies listed in your phone's manual and see if it's listed.

If there's a frequency match but 3G still fails, contact your provider and see if they can help.

Data roaming is not the same as 3G. Roaming is when you are using a network other than your provider's.

 

[mikedt]

Okay bizarre one....

I bought my phone in Australia. It's a Telstra Smart Touch 2.
I previously unlocked it with a temporary sim I was using in Thailand and now I'm in settled in France. I've got a sim card with the network SFR and put it in this morning. Calls and texts are working, and when I enter in the password I can log in to Wi-Fi at home, but 3G is not working.

There's two things that could be:

1) Your SFR SIM doesn't have internet access or a data plan. It might be phone calls and SMS only. You'll have to check with SFR for that.

2) Your Telstra phone doesn't have the APN(Access Point Names) settings for SFR. You can check this by going Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names > and if it's present, you should see "SFR". If it's not there, you'll have to enter the APN settings yourself for SFR.

This French site appears to have the correct SFR APN details for Android.
Configuration SFR - Android & Windows Phone pour les nuls

Is 3G the same as 'data roaming'? Sorry for being totally ignorant.

No problem, you've got some perfectly good questions.

Data roaming(and roaming in general) is when you take a SIM from its home country and use it in a different country with a foreign carrier. 3G is the general name for a number of wireless technologies used for high speed mobile internet.

 

[mikedt]

Have you checked the phone's specs to see if the phone is capable of operating on the 3G frequency used by your provider in France? Contact them for the frequency they require then look at the HSDPA frequencies listed in your phone's manual and see if it's listed.

If there's a frequency match but 3G still fails, contact your provider and see if they can help.

That's shouldn't be a problem. Australia uses the same 3G technologies and bands as the EU, including France. Think it's only really the Americas and China that tends to be a bit different here, and do their own things.

 

[Digital Controller]

You might also want to check if you need to activate the phone over 3G, i know phones with 3G require an activation, i do not know if that is required for all carriers, but i know on Verizon in the U.S. this is required for only 3G phones, as 4G LTE phones activate themselves.

 

[patschwerk]

Miked you're a star. I would have never looked for those settings so thank you. Thank you for linking it too.

I've updated the MMS and Acces Data settings from the page you linked and my gmail will now refresh within the G-mail app and my browser app will open and search. However, I have a google bar and it returns with an error message and facebook says it can't connect. Do you think it's still something missing within settings or if it's just a case of removing and re-installing these apps?

Thank you!