Stuck on EDGE, unable to switch to 3G (E1820 / E1752?)

Yster21 said:
Touch wood, but switching off the WLAN on the router seems to have done the trick! Woot. Though doing that makes the router kinda useless, since I wanted to use it for its wireless capabilities. I'll take it back to Incredible Connection and see what I can sort out. Thanks for the help, ginggs. ;)
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Interesting, but I suppose it does make sense that reducing the power requirements of the router by switching of the WLAN radio makes more power available for the USB port.

Now I am interested to find out what happens if you improve the signal strength to your modem, will it reduce the power required by the modem?

What is your RSSI with the modem in your PC?
To see your RSSI in the Cell C dashboard, go to Tools, Diagnostics, click on the Network Status tab.
 
Seems I spoke too soon. Last night my netgear router lost the signal, and upon reconnecting, it's stuck on EDGE again.

My signal strength is -91dBm, and I know last year before I left on holiday it was -81 to -85 dBm. Considering dB's are measured on a logarithmic scale, that's approximately 1/4 - 1/10 of its original signal strength.
 
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man i hope the constantly returning to EDGE situation (in cape town at least) gets better
i just cant figure out what the pattern is, this morning at 1PM it was still bad. in the early evenings the occurence is the most prevalent.
i do the procedure every 5 minutes : refresh the networks, try to register vodacom ,register cell c. HSPA for a few minutes, bang, EDGE again.
still i wont lose faith.
at least im not paying telscum.
 
jxharding said:
man i hope the constantly returning to EDGE situation (in cape town at least) gets better
i just cant figure out what the pattern is, this morning at 1PM it was still bad. in the early evenings the occurence is the most prevalent.
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What happens if you force the modem to 3G/WCDMA Only? What's your RSSI?
 
hi @ginggs, will checks the RSSI tonight, i have to check where to force it to 3G/WCDMA only.
last night, i managed to stay on HSPA for a long time, cell c i still love you.
 
Antonf said:
Why anyone would even contemplate using anything but Magnificent Data Monitoring Application (MDMA) :love: is as inexplicable as most of government's policies... :confused:
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I couldn't find a setting for choosing the network. Was in Boggoms Bay this past December and even Cell C's EDGE reception was poor. Had to force the modem to use Vodacom. Couldn't do it with MDMA. I use Mobile Partner.
 
3G signal gone

I had a pretty strong 3G signal here in Somerset West until yesterday. Now I only have EDGE. This shortly after Virgin Mobile started having problems with SMS delivery yesterday afternoon. I wonder whether the problems are related, as Virgin uses Cell C towers.

Is anyone experiencing a similar problem?
 
I have similar issues in JHB. Looks like towers off-line or something. Yesterday I had HSPA+ 94-96% signal level, now I have 16-23% EDGE signal and barely usable.
 
Jagtiger said:
No, it was gone. I had WCDMA ~95%, but then it switched to EDGE 98%, then EDGE 47%, and finally EDGE 16-24%. Now it's back: WCDMA ~98%.
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If your modem was in '3G Preferred' mode, how would you know whether your 3G signal was gone or whether your modem decided to switch to EDGE?
 
ginggs said:
If your modem was in '3G Preferred' mode, how would you know whether your 3G signal was gone or whether your modem decided to switch to EDGE?
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"3G Preferred" works in following way (my observations): If 3G signal is 0% (-104~-109dBm), then it uses 3G mode. If 3G is -113dBm or so, it turns to EDGE. (Was so irritating back in day when I had no 3G coverage, that I had to use "GSM only", as modem wanted at least 24% required to work properly.)
Just looked right now, EDGE signal is 41%. This may tell, that modem switched to very weak signal, telling that 3G decreased significantly, possibly disappeared.
I was busy at moment and noticed this only when my speeds were decreased.
 
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I lost WCDMA at around lunchtime today. I am stuck with Edge @ full signal strength. If I force 3G the signal drops to -120 dBm and I cannot connect!

Trying to contact the call centre is virtually impossible!
 
Jagtiger said:
"3G Preferred" works in following way (my observations): If 3G signal is 0% (-104~-109dBm), then it uses 3G mode. If 3G is -113dBm or so, it turns to EDGE.
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I used to leave my previous modems, an E620 and an E272, on '3G Preferred' when I was on MTN and Vodacom and never had problems, although at my father's place in Somerset West where he had relatively poor signal we had to force his modems to '3G Only'.
In '3G Preferred' mode my E1820 often just decides that EDGE is best, even when using an external antenna and getting a -63dBm signal, so my E1820 is now always set to '3G Only'. At the same location my N900, in dual mode, always picks 3G, so I definitely think it's a fault with the E1820.
 
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Still down in JHB :( is this going to be the norm now that CellC sold most of it's data packages.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
After reading ginggs' post, I stuck my spare Cell C SIM in my phone and, guess what? I have a full strength 3G signal.

I then rebooted my computer and, hey presto! The WCDMA signal is back. Problem solved.

Thanks, ginggs!
 
Steinie said:
After reading ginggs' post, I stuck my spare Cell C SIM in my phone and, guess what? I have a full strength 3G signal.

I then rebooted my computer and, hey presto! The WCDMA signal is back. Problem solved.

Thanks, ginggs!
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:confused: Glad to be of assistance. :)
 
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