Help Can I Turn Off Cell Radio

[Sanitylost]

I would like to know if I can turn off the cell radio on my HTC Magic but keep the WiFi on.

I live in an area where the cell signal is very poor for all carriers (I'm with Rogers). So when I'm at home I have my phone set to call forward to my landline phone and use WiFi as my connection to the internet for e-mail, MSN, etc.

I know you can put the phone into "Airplane Mode" but this disables all radio including WiFi.

The reason I want to disable only the cell radio is that my phone is constantly losing and reacquiring the signal from Rogers which eats up battery.

Any ideas or an App suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[vikingisson]

I don't have the names on hand but there are a few apps that do what you want. In your case an app with a one touch widget would be ideal. Shuts down all cell data and back on when you need it.

I remember the old days with Fido that allowed you to set forwarding automatically when out of signal, busy, etc. Rogers and the rest don't allow this anymore I suppose so you'd be forced to pay for voice mail. I've argued this with them for years but they won't budge. The options are right there in the setup on every phone but they don't work. Shame, you need that feature like I do.

 

[Sanitylost]

So far from the apps I have seen available on Android App sites and in the Market, all the apps seem to turn off all radio (Cell and WiFi).

If you can remember any of the app names, that would be great.

BTW I pay 2 or 3 dollars a month for unlimited call forwarding.

 

[Sanitylost]

Well I did some searching and the answer is simple:

Put phone into "Airplane Mode" first, then turn on WiFi.
It works like a charm.

I believe this is supported on Android 2.0 and above.

 

[jimf42]

There are widgets as part of the system...I put shortcuts on one of my screens to individually turn off and on: mobile network, wifi, bluetooth and gps.

 

[Sanitylost]

Yes I do have all those widgets you mentioned on one of my home screens but none of them turn off the cell radio.
When your phone is constantly looking for a signal from a tower, as in my case (mentioned in my original post) because of little or no signal it sucks battery big time.
When you put your phone into "Airplane Mode" the phone's radio is turned off which means the phone stops looking for a cell tower signal.
So when I'm at home where the signal strength is weak, I first "Call Forward" my cell phone to my home's land-line number, then put the phone into "Airplane Mode" and then turn on WiFi.
Now I can use the internet, download apps...whatever but my battery lasts much, much longer. When I go out I just take my phone out of "Airplane Mode" and undo "Call Forwarding".
Note: When in "Airplane Mode" you can not make or receive calls from the phone, this is why I use "Call Forwarding" before I put the phone into "Airplane Mode".

 

[vikingisson]

+1
One of my pet peeves about every carrier is the lack of auto forwarding that has been part of the menus since before smartphones but actually never work because of 'policy' at the carrier end. Fido used to have this working so that your phone would auto forward to a preset number whenever you couldn't take a call due to things like a lack of signal or if you turned off the phone or turned off the radio. A really useful feature that they won't allow us to use anymore.

What is technically possible is to script your desired action so that a button push would have this effect and be less of a chore than what you're doing now. Activate forwarding, turn off cell radio, turn on WiFI, place indicator in status bar. and then the reverse. Even slicker would be proximity detection so that once at home it all happens on autopilot. I don't have the code for this but I'm certain that it is possible.

 

[Erik2132]

Well I did some searching and the answer is simple:

Put phone into "Airplane Mode" first, then turn on WiFi.
It works like a charm.

I believe this is supported on Android 2.0 and above.

This worked!!! I have been trying to figure this out for days. Calling Verizon multiple times with no resolution. Thank you!

 

[Darkflame]

I've turned airplane mode on, yet power consumption stats still reveal a 39% use of battery for Cell Standby.

:|

 

[ali4647]

when I have "airplane mode" on and then try turning on Wi-FI, it doesnt work

 

[Darkflame]

Just to update this topic on my situation.

Updating my phone to the latest firmware via Kies brought the power consumption of Cell Standby down from 39% to a far more reasonable 3%.

So if Cell Standby is killing your battery, might be worth checking to see if your phones firmware is up to date.

 

[MoreYummy]

what is that kies update?

 

[Darkflame]

what is that kies update?

Install Kies software from the Samsung website, then connect your phone to it.

 

[MoreYummy]

so the samsung software works on htc magic?
and improve the battery life when no signal?

 

[TJude]

...So when I'm at home where the signal strength is weak, I first "Call Forward" my cell phone to my home's land-line number, then put the phone into "Airplane Mode" and then turn on WiFi.
Now I can use the internet, download apps...whatever but my battery lasts much, much longer. When I go out I just take my phone out of "Airplane Mode" and undo "Call Forwarding".
Note: When in "Airplane Mode" you can not make or receive calls from the phone, this is why I use "Call Forwarding" before I put the phone into "Airplane Mode".

That's a silly amount of fiddling you have to do to conserve power. These phones should be smart enough to make these assessments with a simple set of rules, and do a better job than a person at managing the connections.

 

[Sanitylost]

BTW...this also works on my other phone, an Acer Liquid E