Help Wildfire GSM/WCDMA network?

[campioni06]

Hi, I'm in the UK on Tesco (O2) network and have had my Wildfire running for a week. People are telling me it takes 10-15 to be able to get through to me, and similarly I can't make outgoing calls to mobiles or landlines for periods of time, although strangely I can call voicemail (905) and Tesco customer services (4455).

I had a play in network settings and have changed from what is defaulted as GSM/WCDMA auto network to GSM only and have immediately noticed the signal strength indicator has gone from the previous 2 bars to the full 4. Time will tell if this has solved the problem but wondering if anyone else had the same issues? Also would anything else be affected by my changing the network option?

Thanks for any help.

 

[hunnymonster]

What you've done there is turn off the 3G functionality - so internet access etc will all be at EDGE speeds maximum (about 220kbps). Reason behind the periodic inability to call/receive calls will be down to the network coverage.

 

[JamesT]

Years ago I had the similar problems on vodafone and had to call their help line on a land line and they said at the time that they were having some temporary 3G transmitter problems and that I should switch off 3G for a few hours until they got it sorted.

I once had to do the same thing while roaming in Sweden once too.

It should only ever be temporary though. What does the tesco customer service desk say?

 

[campioni06]

Years ago I had the similar problems on vodafone and had to call their help line on a land line and they said at the time that they were having some temporary 3G transmitter problems and that I should switch off 3G for a few hours until they got it sorted.

I once had to do the same thing while roaming in Sweden once too.

It should only ever be temporary though. What does the tesco customer service desk say?

When I called them a few days ago I hadn't played with the network settings so didn't realise about 2G/3G etc but all they said was oh it must be a dodgy sim card, we'll send you out a new one. I'll call them again this evening armed with the new knowledge. Will post back with what they say.

 

[campioni06]

Ok just spoken to Tesco customer care, told them I'd switched to GSM only and they said yeah fair enough that's what it should have been to set to in the first place. I asked if doing so would slow the internet (its been painfully slow today) and they said it shouldn't make any difference and that their internet service has been either down or slow-going across most of the UK todayanyway . So fingers crossed switching from 3G to 2G/GSM will have sorted the problem and maybe make the battery last a little bit longer too!

 

[hunnymonster]

Telling you that there's no difference between 2G & 3G internet is laughable. 2G = 220kbps/sec, 3G = 3600kbps+/sec - even if you only get 10% of 3G speed it's noticeably faster than 2G's best effort.

From what I experienced of O2's 3G network though, they might be right, it was painfully slow (apart from at 3am when no-one's using it)

 

[campioni06]

Telling you that there's no difference between 2G & 3G internet is laughable. 2G = 220kbps/sec, 3G = 3600kbps+/sec - even if you only get 10% of 3G speed it's noticeably faster than 2G's best effort.

From what I experienced of O2's 3G network though, they might be right, it was painfully slow (apart from at 3am when no-one's using it)

I'm beginning to think Tesco Mobile are rubbish full stop. Networks been down all day and everyone I speak to says something different. Despite giving them my postcode they're telling e a cell 15 miles away is down and hence no network?!