Develop Bugs

HSDA <-> UMTS automated switching?

I've seen in my TyTN, WM6, radio 1.34 a (strange?) behaviour. I noticed with VODAFONE : I have a plain UMTS connection 3g icon and 3g data connection alive, used for push e-mail.
When I am in HSDPA area and data connection starts data transfer, I see a switch between 3G and H connection, then revert after 1-2 seconds ad the end of data transver back in UMTS mode.
Hypotesis:
1) Could be a simple WM6 LVSW edition bug
2) Could be a WM6 feature (HSDPA has well known problems in voice phone avaliability when active)
3) Could be a Vodafone Network feature, HSDPA onli when needed
4) 1.34 radio compatibility problem/feature?
5) ......
6) I am stupid and this is a well known fact
Question:
Any other wm6 user noticed same behaviour?

It has always worked like this, HSDPA is ON when you need it, not all the time.
thats part of the design, saving resources for the network.

elivne said:
It has always worked like this, HSDPA is ON when you need it, not all the time.
thats part of the design, saving resources for the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't working this way for all mobile phone providers in Italy, with TIM if you are in HSDPA area it will stay connected... and you're off-line if someone calls
May be we discovered why isn't enabled as DEFAULT setting and we need to enable using SetHSDPA.exe

sergiopi said:
This isn't working this way for all mobile phone providers in Italy, with TIM if you are in HSDPA area it will stay connected... and you're off-line if someone calls
May be we discovered why isn't enabled as DEFAULT setting and we need to enable using SetHSDPA.exe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto in Australia. If im connected to GPRS, the icon is permanently showing HSDPA... unless of course i only have GSM coverage (very rare!!).

In Taipei, it works exactly as elivne says... H only when needed.
Cheers

FWIW, I didn't experience proper "throttling" in and out of HSDPA mode until I upgraded to WM6 and radio 1.38 (not sure which to thank for it). Prior to that whenever I was in H coverage, the radio would run almost exclusively in H mode. Talk about battery drain! Currently I can run for almost 2 days between charges (and that's with push mail).
How a particular combination performs for you must depend a lot on the carrier, your locale, etc. Took a lot of "trial and error" for me.

Yep, I'm on UK T-Mobile, and my icon only switches from "3G" to "H" when it's active.
As vp3G says, it noticably saves battery power from the old "permanent HSDPA" behaviour. Although I can't claim to get 2 days usage out of mine.

It is a network feature. If you are inactive on HSDPA for t sec the network will downswitch you to UMTS ( called R99 ). Only 10 users can use the HSDPA at the same time and there is an inactivity timer ( t=10 sec) try to manage the traffic by moving inactive users to R99 ( max speed 384 kbps)

Thank you for sharing your knowlege Austin Boy....
..."and that's the way it is"
Cheers

austin_boy said:
Only 10 users can use the HSDPA at the same time and there is an inactivity timer ( t=10 sec) try to manage the traffic by moving inactive users to R99 ( max speed 384 kbps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really only 10 simultaneous users? Seems like the odds of getting a timeslice when you need it would be virtually nil.

The 10 limitation can be increased by any operator by adding Channel elements (Radios) or more when adding another carrier ( frequency). Europe has more spectrum than the US and it is possible to get two carriers ( 2x5MHz) and use one for speech and the other for data. In the US we are sharing the spectrum between GSM and UMTS. AT&T will be migrating GSM to UMTS gradually and using the 850 band for UMTS before moving to LTE (4G)

sub69 said:
Yep, I'm on UK T-Mobile, and my icon only switches from "3G" to "H" when it's active.
As vp3G says, it noticably saves battery power from the old "permanent HSDPA" behaviour. Although I can't claim to get 2 days usage out of mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar switching scenario.
Prior to flashing my Radio to 1.38.00.10 and ROM to Black 2.0 I tested my download speed at www.dslreports/mspeed and was please to see I got almost a 1Mb/sec rating.
However since the flashes I have re-tested and am now only getting 250-300 kb/sec. It may be the network, so I will try on a few separate occasions and different locations.
NB. I have enabled HSDPA in HTweaksC
I noticed during the test that the download bar jumps staright up immediately but then slows down quite a lot?

sergiopi said:
I've seen in my TyTN, WM6, radio 1.34 a (strange?) behaviour. I noticed with VODAFONE : I have a plain UMTS connection 3g icon and 3g data connection alive, used for push e-mail.
When I am in HSDPA area and data connection starts data transfer, I see a switch between 3G and H connection, then revert after 1-2 seconds ad the end of data transver back in UMTS mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 ITA is working same way.
Enabling HSDPA only when there is data transfer active.

Okay tried again on my commute home, and also when I got to my house.
Speed is looking good ! getting up above the 1mb/sec rate again.
Must have just been a busy cell/network

ok... i have a spv m3100 with black 3.0.1 wich is suposed to be HSDPA enabled... i have also enabled it in the tweaker.... today for the first time i have seen the icon H... in my area there is no HSDPA coverege... none... but i read today that untill the end of the year they are trying to cover it... and i was thinking that they are already making tests... i tested my speed at http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ and i had a 145 kilobits per second speed... wich as far as i know it is similar to 3g... i disabled the HSDPA and tried a few times in 3g... the speed was 135 kb/s... to small the difference...
so... my question... what is the tweaker doing?... enableing HSDPA or just replacing the 3g icon with the H icon?

no one???
what is the tweaker doing?... enable HSDPA or just replacing the 3g icon with the H icon?

Enabling 3g

I have just upgraded from a Kaiser to the TP2.
Using comm. manager on the Kaiser I could manually select 3G to be on or off.
I installed advanced config manager and enabled the 3G tab in comm. manager but it remains greyed.
Any data connection I make appears to connect in Gprs mode with no 3G or H icon displaying in the top bar.
How do I get 3G working on the TP2?
Am I missing something here?

samsat said:
I have just upgraded from a Kaiser to the TP2.
Using comm. manager on the Kaiser I could manually select 3G to be on or off.
I installed advanced config manager and enabled the 3G tab in comm. manager but it remains greyed.
Any data connection I make appears to connect in Gprs mode with no 3G or H icon displaying in the top bar.
How do I get 3G working on the TP2?
Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It automatically goes to 3G if it's available. I don't get 3G in my house. But you don't have to do anything, it's automatic.

T-Mobile removed the icons for the mode. They only did a half-ass job though as the mode shows up once a data connection is established over the bars. Oops! I think this is an attempt to hide the fact that on the roads and byways, most of T-Mobile's network is still GPRS - not even EDGE!
Find one of the Icon packs here on XDA - they work. It will connect in 3G automatically if its available. You can shut that off (doing so saves battery if you're in a known no-3G area as it won't search for the signal) on the Phone settings option if you wish.

Genesis3 said:
T-Mobile removed the icons for the mode. They only did a half-ass job though as the mode shows up once a data connection is established over the bars. Oops! I think this is an attempt to hide the fact that on the roads and byways, most of T-Mobile's network is still GPRS - not even EDGE!
Find one of the Icon packs here on XDA - they work. It will connect in 3G automatically if its available. You can shut that off (doing so saves battery if you're in a known no-3G area as it won't search for the signal) on the Phone settings option if you wish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile has the icons for the 3G mode. It has the "E" for Edge and "3G" for 3G.
It automatically connects to 3G, there's no need to search for anything. The only reason you'd want that is if you want to NOT use 3G.

ace10134 said:
T-Mobile has the icons for the 3G mode. It has the "E" for Edge and "3G" for 3G.
It automatically connects to 3G, there's no need to search for anything. The only reason you'd want that is if you want to NOT use 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no.
The "standby" icons for data mode available ("G", "E", "3G", or "H") are missing from the T-Mobile load. The proper mode does identify over the antenna bars once a data connection comes up, but in data-standby, its missing.
This is an intentional omission as the standard Icon pack from HTC includes these. If you load one of the icon packs off XDA they will "magically appear."
I like knowing what mode is available (not just in use, if any is in use) so I have one of the other icon packs loaded - plus I think they're far more pretty

Genesis3 said:
Yes and no.
The "standby" icons for data mode available ("G", "E", "3G", or "H") are missing from the T-Mobile load. The proper mode does identify over the antenna bars once a data connection comes up, but in data-standby, its missing.
This is an intentional omission as the standard Icon pack from HTC includes these. If you load one of the icon packs off XDA they will "magically appear."
I like knowing what mode is available (not just in use, if any is in use) so I have one of the other icon packs loaded - plus I think they're far more pretty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh, weird. lol. Idk, it works how I'd like it to right now.

Genesis3 said:
Yes and no.
The "standby" icons for data mode available ("G", "E", "3G", or "H") are missing from the T-Mobile load. The proper mode does identify over the antenna bars once a data connection comes up, but in data-standby, its missing.
This is an intentional omission as the standard Icon pack from HTC includes these. If you load one of the icon packs off XDA they will "magically appear."
I like knowing what mode is available (not just in use, if any is in use) so I have one of the other icon packs loaded - plus I think they're far more pretty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK thanks. I agree, I also want to know what mode I am currently using. Can you recommend one of the icon packs?

I'm partial to the Spikes' MicNeo ones here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=522080&highlight=micneo

android 3G vs WinMo 3G?

hi,
just a stupid tech question that keeps me wondering.
i have a HTC Touch pro2
i'm happy running android and windows mobile latest HTC ROM on it.
now the strange thing is...
on WinMo i never, ever got a 3g signal only Hspda and most of the time Edge.
so basicly my speed s*cks.
now the other hand.
on android on running 3g almost all the time, and speeds are super.
what the heck is going on?
i would think to Stable HTC rom would be the best for now, but it is't.
so the question.
what is android doing differently then winMo with the same APN settings on the same location. that one gets Edge and android gets 3G?
ps...
you android devs... keep up to good work.

HSDPA is 3g lol.
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also dubbed 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity

Thought: when in WinMo do you use Internet Explorer? b/c no matter what your connection speed is, that browser is super slow. If that's the case try Opera Mobile 10 (fast + stable) or Opera Mini 5 (faster + slightly buggy).
If this doesn't apply to you feel free to ignore that advice

3G
mmmh
on wiMo if i start up my data connection
my icon of the data connection goes verry fast to the following letters
3G
H
E then my connection works
and sometimes G
so i think it's
3G
Hspda
Edge
Gprs
my i'm wrong
but on the same place i boot to android
and it's 3G and sometimes goed to E = edge
is it that android sees the 3G and HSPDA as one?
ps i'll try the browser thing, idd still IE

piwi3910 said:
mmmh
on wiMo if i start up my data connection
my icon of the data connection goes verry fast to the following letters
3G
H
E then my connection works
and sometimes G
so i think it's
3G
Hspda
Edge
Gprs
my i'm wrong
but on the same place i boot to android
and it's 3G and sometimes goed to E = edge
is it that android sees the 3G and HSPDA as one?
ps i'll try the browser thing, idd still IE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, android sees 3g and HSDPA (DPA - "Downlink Packet Access" not PDA - "Personal Digital Assistant") as the same thing. In WinMo the "H" is a faster connection than the "3G".

I suggest trying different radios

piwi3910 said:
mmmh
on wiMo if i start up my data connection
my icon of the data connection goes verry fast to the following letters
3G
H
E then my connection works
and sometimes G
so i think it's
3G
Hspda
Edge
Gprs
my i'm wrong
but on the same place i boot to android
and it's 3G and sometimes goed to E = edge
is it that android sees the 3G and HSPDA as one?
ps i'll try the browser thing, idd still IE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI: If the "H" signal bugs you try downloading Advanced Config for WM. I think it's on the marketplace and change the "Show HSDPA icon" to no. It will continue using HSDPA (because, as said here, HSDPA is faster) but it will show the 3G icon at the top.

I'm almost the time, have 3g signal....I already call several times on video call (only works on 3g)

Is there any way to disable automatic switching between UMTS and HSDPA?

In my apartment my G2 constantly switches back and forth between UMTS (3G) and HSDPA (H). Is there any way to stop this? Both look like they have the same number of bars, but it seems like UMTS is way slower. I also should be in a 4G market, so is there a way to tell if I'm on HSPA+ or not?

I've honestly never even seen the 3g icon on my g2. whenever im in kent, when it drops it drops from h, to E

jenlow said:
I've honestly never even seen the 3g icon on my g2. whenever im in kent, when it drops it drops from h, to E
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the stock G2 ROM has a specific icon for 3G, if that's what your'e on. It shows H for 3G/HSPA/HSPA+.
I think the original poster is on Cyanogen, where it does show the type of connection a bit more accurately.

I'd also be interested in trying to force an HSPA connection. I don't think Bell has UMTS data so if I'm labeled as on 3G I can make calls and texts but have to wait for it to switch to H when I start using data.

It's a feature of cyanogenmod that it switches to 3G when heavy data is not required and switches to H+ when you need a faster data connection
That is of course if your running CM on your phone...

omarsalmin said:
It's a feature of cyanogenmod that it switches to 3G when heavy data is not required and switches to H+ when you need a faster data connection
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a "feature" of CyanogenMod. This also happens on the stock ROM but we do not see the H icon, only the 3G one. Cyanogen himself explained this a while back.

Vandam500 said:
It's not a "feature" of CyanogenMod. This also happens on the stock ROM but we do not see the H icon, only the 3G one. Cyanogen himself explained this a while back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean stock sees only the H icon, not the 3G one XD

Also note that if you're not actively using data, it'll show the 3G symbol (on Cyanogen or Sense ROMs) - as soon as you start a connection, it'll switch to an H. This isn't necessarily because the phone is switching between a 3G and HSPA signal, but rather because 3G is also used to carry voice - so if the phone isn't using HSPA for data, it obviously doesn't need to show it.

Thanks for all of the information, guys!

Can you change how the phone switches from 2G/3G

I have problems getting a 3G reception at work. My desire displays the H symbol but just doesn't connect to internet at times. If I manually switch to 2G I can connect. It's really slow but better than nothing! I can leave it on 2g all day but as the H signal works intermittently I like to try the 3g signal first before switching back to 2g.
What I would like to know is if there is there a way to change the minimum H signal the phone has to have before it goes down to E. My phone seems to prefer H even if the signal is too low to connect.
Can this be changed?

Yes.
Go to to the secret menu *#*#4636#*#* and select phone information.
Scroll down to the bottom and change
set preferred network type to GSM only.

I think this is a good idea to put through for the already excellent "Toggle2G" app. Thanks for bringing it up
------------------------------
- Sent via HTC Desire -

nagypapi said:
Yes.
Go to to the secret menu *#*#4636#*#* and select phone information.
Scroll down to the bottom and change
set preferred network type to GSM only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, didnt know about the secret menu!
Going by the word preferred it sounds like it is what I am looking for but 'GSM only' makes me think it wont switch to 3G.
Does this mean it disables 3G completely? Couldnt I do that just by going into settings and selecting use 2g networks only?
Edit
Just searched GSM only and found this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=688492. A good explanation of each setting, think GSM auto (PRL) is what I am looking for as GSM only is just 2G but I can usually get a 3G signal so I'll give this a try.