I need to force 3.5G HSDPA instead of just "normal" 3G when I am in my office.

(I already have the applet that allows me to force between 3G and 2G)

In a nutshell - with it is in 3G mode I get a lot of data drop outs when the device switches between 3G and 3.5G. I seem to get full signal on 3G and near-full signal on 3.5G, but for some reason I can only actually pass packets back and forth when i am on 3.5G and the phone constantly, to the point of being unusable keeps switching to 3G.

Is there any way I can force it to just use 3.5G only? It all works fine everywhere else etc, but just at work it would be dead handy.

I am running N900, PR1.2 (UK firmware version), standard kernel etc. Any help greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Dan

Further info - I only care about data connectivity and I am on Vodafone UK (contract) if that makes any difference.

Many thanks

Dan

Doubtful. 3.5/3G uses the same radio. The tower you are connected to determines whether or not you are on 3.5G.

You'd need to have data flowing (almost) all the time to keep it on 3.5. Not very practical, and it'd definitely butcher your battery.

Thanks - but that doesn't work. I don't mind keeping data flowing for the period I need it. It simply switches to 3.5G, sends and receives a handful of packets and then back to 3G etc. Very frustrating.

I thought that might be the case, but thought I would ask. Thanks for the response.

It may be that your data stream is too wimpy to keep it on 3.5. But if you really have lots of data to receive, are not moving around, have good reception - and it still switches to 3G, I'd say there is some network side problem (or then the phone is just broken).

Well I was trying to keep it alive with a wget of a large iso image file from my laptop (I use Joikuspot). I would imagine that would be man enough to keep it at 3.5G? I don't think it's a network problem as my N82 using Joikuspot (same setup) worked fine and I think I can rule out handset issues as it works fine everywhere else.

It might just be a quirk of geography combined with the antenna in the N900 I guess, but it's a pain.

Thanks for your answer

Yeah, might be a reception problem. I now tried this myself (download the cd-1 .iso from debian web site), and not once did it fall from 3.5g during the first 5+ mins I kept it going.

This is normal behaviour I believe.
While there is no data transfer the signal will show 3G and while data transfer it will switch to 3.5G.

This does mean that you are getting 3.5G signal all along. You cant just force it to show 3.5G always if there is no transfer going along. Relax the 3G-3.5G switching denotes 3.5G reception.

Only in case of 3G-2.5G switching denotes bad 3G reception.