Automatically switch mobile network

[halloumi]

Hi, I hope someone can help me with this.

I travel between countries a lot and my Galaxy Nexus doesn't automatically register with mobile networks when I arrive in a new country. My old iPhone used to do this and it makes a huge difference to the way I feel about my phone.

I've tried and tried to work out how to get this to work but I've failed. What am I doing wrong? I don't mind paying for an app if that's the solution but the ones I've tried so far haven't helped.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

S

 

[Hadron]

Hi halloumi, and welcome to AF

It really ought to automatically connect. Have you been manually selecting networks in the wireless and network menu? If so, try telling it to automatically select rather than choosing a network. My much older android does this just fine, and it's standard GSM behaviour.

 

[halloumi]

Hi Hadron, thanks for the quick reply and the welcome too.

I agree that it should just work but it doesn't. Maybe some more information might help in working out what's going on.

At the moment I'm in Gibraltar, the phone has a UK O2 sim. The strongest network in Gib is Gibtel so that's the one I'd like it to choose but the "preferred network" is Orange. Gibtel have the only towers in Gibraltar, the Orange towers are in Spain so the signal is clearly much weaker, not good.

If I have connected to Gibtel manually, crossing into Spain means that the network signal is lost and it doesn't bother to try and find a stronger network. If I choose a network in Spain, when I cross back to Gib it doesn't try to register again with Gibtel even though that's the network it was registered on Gibtel previously.

It might be just about livable with (probably not but I'm desperate) if it showed the network it was registered with and whether 3g data was available/connected like an iPhone does so I could at least go into settings and faff about but right now I'm ready to hurl the bloody thing at the wall. I cross back and forth into Spain once or twice a day.

S

 

[Hadron]

Sounds like the ideal for you would be to be able to manually edit the preferred network list. TBH I don't know how to do that (irritating, as I could do it on my old dumbphones). Sure it's possible, but may require root. If you could do that you could tell it to prefer the stronger network, rather than the one your provider prefers.

It should show if 3G data is connected though.

It should be possible to get the network name on the home screen via a widget. I'm sure at least 1 clock I've used previously could do that (my current one could, but only via Tasker), and I can see widgets in the Play Store which will do that.