Hello,

Is there a method to force a basic GSM (2G, no 2.5G) connection on the N900?

I've discovered that my carrier (Wind Canada)'s roaming partner (Rogers)'s 2.5G signal is not call-compatible in the WIND home coverage areas, but their 2G signal is.
A method of forcing 2G would allow me to fall back to a working service when my 3G provider's home coverage area fails.

Switching modes via the normal interface ("GSM/Dual/3G") will intermittently offer me a 2G signal, but quickly scales up to 2.5G, which I cannot make calls on.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

2.5g is just a software upgrade of 2g in their system. 2.5g still uses the same frequency so there is no way that you can force it to 2g only...

i don't understand your situation because a 2g quad band phone (unless you're not) means it got all the frequencies being used around the world. how come a 2.5g will not be while a 2g is supported?

afaik, there's no reason that a call would not work on 2.5g if it worked on 2g, there's something wrong with the carrier in that area, i suggest you call them up!

ditto with adalal

I strongly believe that upscaling to 2.5 and 3.5 cannot be avoided... I hope I am wrong though...

I'm also at a loss to explain why calls work in 2G but fail in 2.5G; Perhaps it's a restriction imposed by the roaming carrier.

A store representative for my provider intimated that the roaming partner's network should not be available (disabled?) within home network territory, but I find that hard to believe (coverage certainly overlaps). Is that level of service discrimination possible?

All I know is that in 2G mode I can make calls, while in 2.5G I get "connection error" every time I try.

(my carrier is 3G 1700/2100 only, the roaming partner's compatible 2G network runs on 850/900, IIRC)

Calls don't actually use 2.5g anyway, only data does

I think the best solution would be an app to disable data connections when in X mode.
I used to have this problem on 2G where if I was in data mode I would never get incoming calls. This seems to have stopped now - I think this was a carrier issue not the n900.

When you get this problem have you tried disconnecting your "internet connection", as this should then go back to 2G (as 3.5G and 2.5G are data connections)

I'm glad I'm largely 3.5G now.

deadmalc & shadowjk> thanks for the input

Such an app would probably cover it.

I did not have the cellular data connection running, most of the ad-hoc testing was done with WLAN active...next time I'm in a dead spot I'll try manually turning it all off.

All in all, not a pressing matter, just an oddity I was looking to explore. My 3G provider has been getting progressively better, so this is less and less of an issue for me.

j_ozzy:

Can you explain "my carrier (Wind Canada)'s roaming partner (Rogers)'s 2.5G signal is not call-compatible in the WIND home coverage areas"

These two networks are available in the same geographic location?

If so, it could be an issue with handover from a roaming network to your home network.

In your network selection menu, how is the network set-up? Automatic, or manual?

Hope that helps.