HTC Sensation with Vodafone sim

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justin787

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#95615 9-Jan-2012 16:18

Hi all

I made the uneducated mistake of purchasing an HTC Sensation from Telecom, with plans to use it with my Vodafone sim (currently part way through a 12 month plan). My limited research indicated it would work fine. It does work, however reception is very poor on Vodafone outside of the main centres. I discovered this while holidaying over the break. I was without reception at all 90% of the time, while friends on both Vodafone and Telecom were fine.

I now understand this is because this phone is locked to Telecom's 3G network, and cannot pick up Vodafone's 3G network, or failing that even the Vodafone 2G network since Telecom doesn't use 2G.

I don't think there is any fix for this without switching to XT? I'm not keen to as it would require me to buy out of my current plan, and also the plans on Telecom don't really fit with my needs.

I understand that there are people out there that have imported the HTC Sensation cheaply only to find out that it is the version that is incompatible with Telecom XT. If any read this I would gladly swap with you!

Cheers

johnr

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#566558 9-Jan-2012 16:20

You should be able to change a setting in the handset menu under network settings to use 3G and 2G not just 3G

John

Gilco2

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#566572 9-Jan-2012 16:52

they work fine on Vodafone network. As John said under settings change it to 3g and 2g or even just 2g. From what you have said, the setting at moment is 3g only. You will be able to use it okay but you wont have 3g extended as it doesnt have the 900 band

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justin787

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#566609 9-Jan-2012 19:26

Yeah it is on GSM/WCDMA Auto under "network mode", which I understand basically means 2G/3G. I have applied the following change I found on another site:

Access the phone dialer and dial the code *#*#4636#*#* – don’t press the ‘call’ button. After a couple of seconds the test menu will appear.
From this test menu, select ‘phone information’ and scroll down to the first dropdown menu. Select GSM auto (PRL) rather than the likely setting, which will be WCDMA/GSM Auto.
Restart your phone by powering off and back on again. Check the test menu again to ensure the GSM auto (PRL) option has been retained. If not, set it again as above.
What this change does is to force the phone to switch automatically between G/E/3G/HSDPA networks based on Vodafone’s predefined Preferred Roaming List (PRL), rather than the best/strongest signal available. The HTC Legend’s signal problem seems to stem from its inability to switch between signals and its preference to try to latch onto a weak 3G/HSDPA signal rather than a slower-but-stronger 2G signal – this cure should hopefully fix that.

And because the WCDMA setting involves the phone constantly scanning the network for the strongest signal, it can really eat away at the battery life. Using GSM auto (PRL) should also help in this regard.

On mine instead of "WCDMA/GSM Auto" as noted above the option was labelled "WCDMA Preferred". Won't be able to see if this works until I go out of town again but fingers crossed.

Cheers

kyhwana2

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#566621 9-Jan-2012 19:56

Note that you'll only get 2G outside of main cities or in vodafones "3G extended" zones, hope you're not planning on doing any internet stuff while out in the sticks ;)

freitasm

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#566641 9-Jan-2012 20:30

justin787: I now understand this is because this phone is locked to Telecom's 3G network, and cannot pick up Vodafone's 3G network, or failing that even the Vodafone 2G network since Telecom doesn't use 2G.

The phone is not "locked". It just doesn't have the 3G frequency used by Vodafone outside the main centres (and now in some as well).

As recommended you can change your settings to allow BOTH 3G and 2G to work on this handset, however... Vodafone 2G coverage is not exactly the same as their 3G coverage, so while changing this might give you some more coverage, it will not extend it to ALL Vodafone coverage.

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