Turn off 3G?
 

Been deskbound for 18 months :? but returning to world travel soon :smile: I work offshore and find reception to be a problem, turning off 3G always seems to help. Will I be able to do this with the bold and will I still get my emails? Thanks in anticipation

Wirelessly posted (my new touch button BB)

I don't think that this has been determined yet! Hopefully we will be able to turn off 3G in order to conserve power but at this point we just don't know

International coverage
 

This may be helpful for you and its a link for International coverage.

GSM World - Roaming

I am about 95% sure you can switch the Bold back to 2.5G coverage. You would be running on EDGE (Where applicable) and still receive e-mail. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in Kevin's review of the Bold where he shows you can switch. Just not sure where.

BlackBerry Bold 9000 Review Series | CrackBerry.com

Many thanks for your replies they have been very helpful (y) Thinking about it all my other blackberries received email without 3G so I don't know why I thought I might lose email by turning it off :oops: Thank you for the link shona67 thats a very useful webpage for my future travel.

There is no reason for the phone to be using 3G all the time. Edge is more than fast enough for email and phone. I am sure that software engages the 3G speed as required and it will take a toll on the battery just like other 3G devices.

IT should have an option for that, cannot imagine they would leave that out. Other news has shown the competition has that option so RIM should put that in there as well. I would use it in non-3G for almost everything, as greg said phone and email do not need 3G.

Most likely in the connections settings area like the others. I would agree, it would be a poor design for RIM to not do that.

It is likely software driven. There si no way the phone could be running a full 3G connection all the time and have any kind of battery life. There might be a way of turning it on and off but by default it would be off all the time except when you were using a program that would benefit from it.

RIM will have it all worked out.

I think I remember seeing a screenshot where they had a 3G option in the manage connections menu. I can picture the image in my head. At any rate ... there is absolutely no reason why they would not provide the option because it is software controlled. Unlike CDMA that has only 1xRT (worthless) to fall back on, we have EDGE, which is plenty fast enough for most of what we use our BlackBerries for. I imagine that most of us will have 3G turned off most of the time.

Found this at Crackberry.com thread.
 

I went back to the Crackberry.com review they did and found this bit. BlackBerry 9000 Smartphone Review - Part III - OS4.6 | CrackBerry.com
The other major visual improvement to 4.6 is the treatment of layers, and more specifically, the use of transparency within the Precision themes. Open your email, and hit the menu key – as you scroll through options on the pop-up menu, you can still see through to the images behind. These transparent windows are even at work on home screen and icon screen, if for example you pull up Profiles or Connections (note the 2G/3G/2G&3G selection under Manage Connections > Mobile Network Options).

So we will have the ability to select Edge Only, 3G Only and Edge/3G depending on your area. This way we won't constantly bounce up and down on spotty 3G coverage.

That's not the picture I had in my head, but it still confirms it none the less. The one I saw was a screen where the menu was up showing all of the options.

I truly can't wait. I just hope the web browser is capable of rendering pages quickly, and like the desktop like the iPhone Safari browser.

I knew it was there!!! I told you!! :razz:

Many thanks everyone, that makes me feel a whole lot better and I may wait until the launch of the Bold until I get another Blackberry (due an upgrade from vodafone in july) Although I always got on very well with my pearl and suretype, some of the new themes look good too

I was in love with suretype when I was using my Pearl. I was actually typing slower with my Curve when I first switched because I was still used to suretype. But after a bit, I got used to it and I'm back up to speed. One thing I love about the Curve after using it for a while, is the larger screen.

i'm sorry but what is 3G?

3G is the 3rd generation of mobile telecommunications data protocols. Two of the main 3G technologies are the HSPA family of protocols, and EVDO. HSPA is used by GSM networks such at AT&T, while EVDO is used by CDMA networks such as Verizon and Sprint. Current BlackBerries on GSM networks use EDGE, which is considered a 2.5G network.

EDGE is slower, and cannot handle data at the same time as GSM voice communication. So when you are talking on the phone, data stops. HSPA and EVDO can handle data at the same time as voice communication, so you can do things like get mail and browse all while talking on the phone.

As far as data speeds, the HSPA family of protocols are faster than EVDO, and with AT&T completing the upgrade of their HSPA network at the end of June, will leave EVDO in the dust. Technologically speaking, EVDO cannot compete with HSPA in max throughput.

By the time 3G is fully rolled out they will start upgrading to 4G and then it will take another 5-10 years to finish.

Yep. Right now AT&T trumps Verizon and Spring as far as overall data speeds go. But I think that Verizon will have 4G rolled out before AT&T completes theirs. By 1 or 2 years.

Under Network Mode, there are three options:

1. 3G
2. 2G
3. 3G & 2G

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