Help Can 3g be turned off?

[axisofoil]

Well, I should say that I live in a small town of only around 30,000 people. lol... but long story short, we don't even have 3g coverage. My $10 premium data fee is an absolute joke. There's no way I could use that much data on their network. lol.

Now, with my g1 on tmobile, I was given the option to turn off 3g so that the phone wouldn't search for it and destroy the battery. But I can't find this option on the evo, so when I'm not in an active wifi area, then the phone is continually searching for 3g.

Is there a way for me to turn off 3g on the evo?

 

[strentax]

Try long-pressing the power button, and toggle off mobile internet. That should leave cell service on, but turn off 3G. Wifi should still work too.

 

[axisofoil]

Try long-pressing the power button, and toggle off mobile internet. That should leave cell service on, but turn off 3G. Wifi should still work too.

Can I turn off 3g without turning off 2g?
When I tried that, it wouldn't let me connect to the regular data either.

 

[strentax]

I guess I was not aware of a 2G. I only tried this when Wifi was available and my coverage was spotty/bad. Sorry.

 

[mogulust]

In a rural area with sprint 1x coverage, my family member's hero transmits data with a 1x icon, but the evo has no data with any combination of settings until it picks up an evdo signal. This is a huge firmware flaw that is overlooked because most people have 3g coverage.

 

[axisofoil]

sprint only shows my area as having the normal voice coverage, not 3g or anything higher, but I still get data. It's just slow, enough for navigation or email and such, but not much else.

So you're saying that I actually can't tell it to NOT look for the evdo signal to save some battery life?

 

[mogulust]

does the icon on the top bar for data transfer have a 1x above it?

 

[axisofoil]

does the icon on the top bar for data transfer have a 1x above it?

no. it's just a dim 3g icon. except when it looks for towers (i think, because it lights up the arrows individually for about 2 secs at a time and then goes back to dim for a few minutes).

are the antennas maybe the same? sorry, I'm a CDMA noob.

Screenshot. When I transmit data... the 3g lights up to a brighter white, but the arrows still stay dim.

 

[mogulust]

no. it's just a dim 3g icon. except when it looks for towers (i think, because it lights up the arrows individually for about 2 secs at a time and then goes back to dim for a few minutes).

are the antennas maybe the same? sorry, I'm a CDMA noob.


Screenshot. When I transmit data... the 3g lights up to a brighter white, but the arrows still stay dim.

ok that means the coverage map is inaccurate for your area and you actually are receiving a weak evdo signal. On your screenshot you have 5 bars of voice coverage and when you start transmitting data and the 3g connects and lights up I bet the bars drop to 1. In my case the same thing happens and data is too slow to use, while an htc hero sitting next to it will switch to 1x data over the voice coverage network and transfer data with a stronger signal and at speeds of about 80kbps, much more reliable than a weak evdo connection. The icon on the hero says 1x instead of 3g. No one has ever seen the 1x icon on the evo because on the evo there is no way to transfer data over the 1xrtt 2g network and no way to turn off 3g without disabling mobile data all together. They need to fix this in a firmware update and give the evo the same mobile data abilities that the hero has. They might not even know the problem exists if they only did their testing where there's a strong 3g signal. It sucks.

But the workaround I'm using is a hack to load a verizon prl with a sprint identifier which will connect you to verizon 3g without data roaming charges, assuming verizon has good coverage in your area. The latest modified prl I've found is 51831 and it's giving me pretty fast speeds where sprint 3g doesn't work at all.

The thread with all the info is here:
*techknowfile's* - Hack the HTC EVO - 3G w/o Sprint EVDO coverage! - xda-developers

 

[axisofoil]

%EDIT% Nobody has 3g in my area. Actually, Verizon has 3g here. And apparently sprint sort've does (I'm guessing it's run-over from flagstaff). :'( It's awful. simply awful. At least I'm around wifi most of the time. Sigh.


If I were to put the verizon prl on, that would only help if verizon had 3g here, right?
Verizon's coverage maps don't make any sense to me. If it says it's digital, does that mean they have 3g? That would be nice. I know their voice coverage is similar to Sprint's around here, but I don't think they've rolled out 3g data yet.

 

[mogulust]

yeah, but you are actually getting a weak 3g signal. If you weren't, you would just have the bars for voice coverage, no data arrows, and the internet wouldn't work without wifi. I've been in places where the coverage map shows nothing for miles and gotten 3g, so the maps are definitely not accurate for all areas. The verizon prl is worth a shot.

 

[axisofoil]

just changed the prl. i'll do a speed test. I doubt it will be any slower than the 10kbps i was getting on sprint's prl. lol

 

[axisofoil]

it's not great, but it's definitely much better.
~400kbps down and ~250kbps up.

Would this have changed my voice coverage over too? Or just data? Because I'm getting better voice signal now also.

 

[mogulust]

yup you are officially using a verizon phone now and paying sprint prices, with no detection of roaming. And the 4g radio is unaffected if you happen to travel through a 4g area.

 

[axisofoil]

and if I go to an area that verizon doesn't have any coverage and sprint does, i can just swap that PRL back to call from the sprint tower, right? There are a few of those areas around here. lol. It's such a screwed up place for electronics.

Anyways, thanks for the help. and I'm glad to hear that that won't prevent my 4g coverage during my trips to vegas.

 

[mogulust]

yeah just do the auto prl update to switch back to sprint. I wish there was a way to switch without rebooting so it would be faster. A sprint/verizon toggle widget would be ideal!

 

[axisofoil]

yeah just do the auto prl update to switch back to sprint. I wish there was a way to switch without rebooting so it would be faster. A sprint/verizon toggle widget would be ideal!

I convinced some people that go to my school to get evo's... many of who are CS and CE majors. I'll put them to work on figuring out how to make the phone hotswap the prl's.

 

[HopeofCarter]

I know I'm suppose to be using wifi inside but I've been testing out the 3g signal. Its pretty fast over all but there are times where I have to reload the page. I would notice all voice signal would drop as well. I live in nyc. Is this just because I'm inside? I wouldn't be asking this if it was slow to begin with, but a pretty fast connection with random drops seems odd to me. I pretty much just got the phone.

Thanks for your time

 

[tom1l21]

Download anycut from the marketplace. There is a shortcut called CDMA OPTIONS where you can set it to 1x, evdo, or mixed.

 

[v01rider]

i just found an app in the market called "3g only" and it says it disables background data. im gonna test it for a day and see if my bat life gets better

 

[rego]

Try long-pressing the power button, and toggle off mobile internet. That should leave cell service on, but turn off 3G. Wifi should still work too.

Hmm...When I long-press the power button I get only 3 choices:
Power off
Airplane mode
Restart

The only way I can toggle 3g is through Settings/Wireless&Networks/MobileNetwork. I have QuickSettings, which used to work flawlessly, but since the upgrade to Gingerbread, it won't control "Mobile data", ie, 3g at all.

Android 2.3.3