Rubbish GPRS performance on "3" ?

Hi,

I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
it.

Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on T-Mobile/
GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
disappointing?

Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do? Where to
look next?

Many thanks,
Stef

---

› See More: Rubbish GPRS performance on "3" ?

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
> on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
> and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
> Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
> it.
>
> Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on T-Mobile/
> GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
> disappointing?
>
> Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do? Where to
> look next?
>
> Many thanks,
> Stef



3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current partner
which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
repeated here.

And by the way it's Hutchison - there's no 'n' in the middle.



--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

On 26 Dec, 19:34, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > Hi,
>
> > I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
> > on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
> > and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> > network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
> > Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
> > it.
>
> > Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on T-Mobile/
> > GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
> > disappointing?
>
> > Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do? Where to
> > look next?
>
> > Many thanks,
> > Stef
>
> 3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current partner
> which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
> repeated here.
>
> And by the way it's Hutchison - there's no 'n' in the middle.
>
> --
> Woody
>
> harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

ooo maybe problem is Orange GPRS then? :-(

I went in and out of several STRONG GPRS cells and the best I got was
a ultraslow 'fall-back' "3" page saying something like "Full service
currently unavailable" or some such, yuck yuck yuck... :-(

On 26 Dec, 19:34, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi,
>
> > I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
> > on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
> > and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> > network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
> > Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
> > it.
>
> > Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on T-Mobile/
> > GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
> > disappointing?
>
> > Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do? Where to
> > look next?
>
> > Many thanks,
> > Stef
>
> 3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current partner
> which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
> repeated here.
>
> And by the way it's Hutchison - there's no 'n' in the middle.
>
> --
> Woody
>
> harrogate three at ntlworld dot com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com...?articleid=870

"Virgin Trains' customers will soon be able to enjoy better mobile
telephone reception on the move.

Virgin Trains has been working with mobile provider Orange to improve
on-train mobile phone signal reception giving customers more reliable
use of mobile phones, Blackberry devices and 3G Data Cards. The
improvement will be rolled out on Virgin CrossCountry services from
June this year, and will take around 12 months to complete.

A trial on a West Coast Pendolino train will start next month.
Following successful evaluation, installation across the fleet could
begin in September/October and be completed within around 12 months."

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
> on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
> and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
> Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
> it.
>
> Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on T-Mobile/
> GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
> disappointing?
>
> Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do? Where to
> look next?
>
> Many thanks,
> Stef

West Coast Main Line is under wires and frequently in tunnels and cuttings -
no surprise you don't get much signal.

Don't you want UMTS anyway?

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:77c08056-413c-4372-b5f5-d995efc46dca@w24g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
> On Dec 26, 8:10 pm, [email protected] wrote:
>> On 26 Dec, 19:34, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> > <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>
>> >news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> > > Hi,
>>
>> > > I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some
>> > > testing
>> > > on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS ->
>> > > browsing
>> > > and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
>> > > network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at
>> > > all.
>> > > Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but
>> > > that's
>> > > it.
>>
>> > > Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on
>> > > T-Mobile/
>> > > GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
>> > > disappointing?
>>
>> > > Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do?
>> > > Where to
>> > > look next?
>>
>> > > Many thanks,
>> > > Stef
>>
>> > 3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current
>> > partner
>> > which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
>> > repeated here.
>>
>> > And by the way it's Hutchison - there's no 'n' in the middle.
>>
>> > --
>> > Woody
>>
>> > harrogate three at ntlworld dot com- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> > - Show quoted text -
>>
>> http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com...?articleid=870
>>
>> "Virgin Trains' customers will soon be able to enjoy better mobile
>> telephone reception on the move.
>>
>> Virgin Trains has been working with mobile provider Orange to improve
>> on-train mobile phone signal reception giving customers more reliable
>> use of mobile phones, Blackberry devices and 3G Data Cards. The
>> improvement will be rolled out on Virgin CrossCountry services from
>> June this year, and will take around 12 months to complete.
>>
>> A trial on a West Coast Pendolino train will start next month.
>> Following successful evaluation, installation across the fleet could
>> begin in September/October and be completed within around 12 months."
>
> Press release from April 06 so maybe all implemented now?
> (WiFi certainly aint)
>
> Which makes me wonder if this is what is fouling up Orange/GPRS (under
> "3" on Virgin train???).
>
> I'll have to find myself a Orange/GPRS cell with no UMTS where I can
> test this (i.e. NOT on a Virgin train?)
>
> Erk, how do I find one of these?



Find a Lemon site out in the sticks away from habitation - few of those
have 3G as it is primarily used at home and business.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

R. Mark Clayton wrote:

> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

>> When I have UMTS -> browsing
>> and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
>> network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.

> Don't you want UMTS anyway?

He probably does, but he's talking about when he's only in GPRS range.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ([email protected])
15:36:10 up 22 days, 17:48, 1 user, load average: 0.10, 0.10, 0.07
They call me titless because I have no tits

[email protected] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some testing
> on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS -> browsing
> and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at all.
> Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but that's
> it.

I had a similar problem with Three in Wales - only big towns have UMTS. I
found a problem with Opera Mini's network config: it has two modes - proxy
and socket. Usually Opera autodetects this setting when you install it.
When I fell out of 3G range the connection would sieze up. I discovered
that flipping this setting sometimes allowed it connect, as if Orange's
network needed the other setting.

I have had similar flaky performance out of the 2G network using both phone
browser and as a modem. Most of the time I got some data through with a
bit of persistence and plenty of reloads. But it wasn't really reliable
enough to do serious work with.

Theo

Theo Markettos <[email protected]> wrote:
> I have had similar flaky performance out of the 2G network using both phone
> browser and as a modem. Most of the time I got some data through with a
> bit of persistence and plenty of reloads. But it wasn't really reliable
> enough to do serious work with.

Oh yes, I've had trouble in the place I am now. Here I used to use Orange
on their pound-a-day GPRS deal before Three launched mobile broadband. On a
2.5G phone (so no 3G signal involved) Orange GPRS worked just fine.

I have my Orange and Three SIMs here as well as patchy 3G reception
(upstairs is full strength 3G, downstairs is about 60% strength 2G) so I can
test things if you tell me what you want to measure.

Theo

On Dec 26, 7:34*pm, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> 3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current partner
> which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
> repeated here.

I read that "3" were getting in to bed with T-Mobile?
Maybe even possibly merging???

(Anyhow my working assumption, based on your IMSMC, is that "3"'s
current GPRS only service (On "Lemon" cells) is Orange

:-)

On Dec 27, 9:48*am, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Find a Lemon site out in the sticks away from habitation - few of those
> have 3G as it is primarily used at home and business.


Is "Lemon" site a technical term?
(Chuckle, chuckle contemplating many rural orange lemon Sites :-)

I'll get out on my bike into the stick... ;-)

On Dec 28, 12:53*pm, [email protected] wrote:

>
> I'll get out on my bike into the stick... ;-)

sticks!

On Dec 27, 3:37*pm, alexd <[email protected]> wrote:

> > Don't you want UMTS anyway?

Absolutely, Ideally I want UMTS or HSDPA everywhere but this does not
exist in the UK. There are many places (mostly rural) where you can
get a very strong GPRS signal but absolutely no 3G.

Now my Blackberrry on T-Mobile did a very acceptable job of email and
Browsing (I settled on Opera Mini) over GPRS which meant that I could
access my emails & the web pretty much everywhere...

With the e71 on "3" I get far more patchy performance, good when UMTS
is available but nothing when GPRS was only available thus this needs
further investigation...

On Dec 27, 9:48*am, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:77c08056-413c-4372-b5f5-d995efc46dca@w24g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > On Dec 26, 8:10 pm, [email protected] wrote:
> >> On 26 Dec, 19:34, "Woody" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >> > <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> >> >news:9f294217-ecc1-4e24-a08a-5099f10408c8@b38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> >> > > Hi,
>
> >> > > I have a Nokia E71 on "3" UK (Hutchinson) and was doing some
> >> > > testing
> >> > > on the train betwen London & Manchester. When I have UMTS ->
> >> > > browsing
> >> > > and email is fine. But when I have a strong GPRS ONLY signal ->
> >> > > network is unusable - No browsing, no email, no data transfer at
> >> > > all.
> >> > > Just occasionally I might be able to access "3" home page but
> >> > > that's
> >> > > it.
>
> >> > > Having been used to a T-Mobile/Blackberry that works fine on
> >> > > T-Mobile/
> >> > > GPRS or O2/Edge I find the E71 lack of performance on "3"/GPRS
> >> > > disappointing?
>
> >> > > Any suggestions on what might be causing this or what to do?
> >> > > Where to
> >> > > look next?
>
> >> > > Many thanks,
> >> > > Stef
>
> >> > 3 does not do GPRS so you will have migrated to their current
> >> > partner
> >> > which, IMSMC, is Orange. My experience of Orange GPRS could not be
> >> > repeated here.
>
> >> > And by the way it's Hutchison - there's no 'n' in the middle.
>
> >> > --
> >> > Woody
>
> >> > harrogate three at ntlworld dot com- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> > - Show quoted text -
>
> >>http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com...?articleid=870
>
> >> "Virgin Trains' customers will soon be able to enjoy better mobile
> >> telephone reception on the move.
>
> >> Virgin Trains has been working with mobile provider Orange to improve
> >> on-train mobile phone signal reception giving customers more reliable
> >> use of mobile phones, Blackberry devices and 3G Data Cards. The
> >> improvement will be rolled out on Virgin CrossCountry services from
> >> June this year, and will take around 12 months to complete.
>
> >> A trial on a West Coast Pendolino train will start next month.
> >> Following successful evaluation, installation across the fleet could
> >> begin in September/October and be completed within around 12 months."
>
> > Press release from April 06 so maybe all implemented now?
> > (WiFi certainly aint)
>
> > Which makes me wonder if this is what is fouling up Orange/GPRS (under
> > "3" on Virgin train???).
>
> > I'll have to find myself a Orange/GPRS cell with no UMTS where I can
> > test this (i.e. NOT on a Virgin train?)
>
> > Erk, how do I find one of these?
>
> Find a Lemon site out in the sticks away from habitation - few of those
> have 3G as it is primarily used at home and business.
>
> --
> Woody
>
> harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Anybody know any "Lemon" (GPRS only) Orange transmitters in the West
Midlands or NW?

(I suppose next time I go down to London on the train I could use my
e71 to locate some?!)

erk I could hang out the window of the train and try to browse!
(Stefan being very silly - Please don't try this at home folks!)

On Dec 27, 9:52*pm, Theo Markettos <[email protected]>
wrote:

> I had a similar problem with Three in Wales - only big towns have UMTS. *I
> found a problem with Opera Mini's network config: it has two modes - proxy
> and socket. *Usually Opera autodetects this setting when you install it..
> When I fell out of 3G range the connection would sieze up. *I discovered
> that flipping this setting sometimes allowed it connect, as if Orange's
> network needed the other setting.

Basically on my "3" e71 on the Virgin train whilst registering a
STRONG GPRS signal (Orange network?) nothing works: Opera, the native
Nokia browser or Nokia mail nothing nada nothing works until the UMTS
comes back on...


>
> I have had similar flaky performance out of the 2G network using both phone
> browser and as a modem. *Most of the time I got some data through with a
> bit of persistence and plenty of reloads. But it wasn't really reliable
> enough to do serious work with.

That is awful! T-Mobile GPRS network was rock solid and coverage was
very good... Is Orange's GPRS network really that bad!

Cheers,
Stef