Disabling 2G/GSM

[jimbobmcginty]

Hey all
Brand new Hero (completely sim-free owner for 22 hours. Updated with new firmware etc.

First thing I want to do is disable 2G/GSM and only use 3G/UMTS - I'm in central London and I have no need of swapping between the 2G/3G networks wasting battery. I can only disable 3G in settings.

I can't search these forums for "disable 2g" because "2g" is too short! "disable gsm" also nothing.

Google is also surprisingly light on results.
Anyone?

Ta!
Jim

 

[Gui]

have you already searched on the android market?

 

[CitizenErazed]

There is a widget on the marketplace for 2g/3g switching, it's one of the CurveFish ones and it's called, surprisingly '2G-3G OnOff'. I don't know as there's a way to completely disable the 2G networks, I'm in London too and I occasionally end up with a GPRS signal.

 

[jimbobmcginty]

Yeah there are shortcut apps to make the setting easier to get to, but nothing to set only 3G.

 

[CitizenErazed]

Look to this thread: http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/10625-additional-phone-battery-info.html

In the 'phone info' menu within the testing settings, you can set preferred network type. Set it to WCDMA only, that should fix your problem. Though you may find then in some areas with low signal, that you just won't get a net connection at all.

Cannot believe I didn't spot that last time I looked at that menu.

 

[jimbobmcginty]

Look to this thread: http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/10625-additional-phone-battery-info.html

In the 'phone info' menu within the testing settings, you can set preferred network type. Set it to WCDMA only, that should fix your problem. Though you may find then in some areas with low signal, that you just won't get a net connection at all.

Cannot believe I didn't spot that last time I looked at that menu.

That is precisely the info I needed!
I even saw that post earlier but didn't go as far as putting the code in and looking at all these extra numbers, and all the way down the bottom are some really interesting options

Now all I need is to work out a shortcut to that setting for when I visit the folks out in the sticks with no 3G.

Consolidated answer for anyone searching for this in the future:

Press "phone" and dial: *#*#4636#*#* (4636 spells INFO)

This will take you to the testing menu.
Select "Phone information", and all the way down the bottom you will see "Set preferred network type".

WCDMA means UMTS/3G (also HSDPA depending on availability)
GSM means GPRS/2.5G (also EDGE/2.75G depending on availability - only on O2 in UK)

My phone also has "Unknown" as an option, which is a bit odd......

 

[jimbobmcginty]

Hmm, seems either the setting isn't persistent, or there's a bug.

Select "WCDMA Only", then back out and look at your battery status. Then go back and see if it's still set to "WCDMA Only".

It gets reset to "WCDMA Preferred" on mine. Quitting completely out of that screen to the home screen, and then going back, it hasn't changed though.