Sorry if this is a dumb question, but with the 8700, if you are in a non-EDGE service area, will it switch to GPRS and if so, is it pretty smooth or will you drop phone calls? Thanks for any advice.

GPRS/EDGE is the name for the data network. You won't lose calls as long as you're in GSM service area. GPRS/EDGE takes care of data only, not voice.

google this 'define: EDGE"
Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) is a digital mobile phone technology which acts as a bolt-on enhancement to 2G and 2.5G (a.k.a.GPRS) networks.This technology is working in TDMA and GSM networks.EDGE (also known as EGPRS) is a superset to GPRS and can function on any network with GPRS deployed on it (provided the carrier implements the necessary upgrades).

May be this answers the question that EDGE is tiny GPRS so you may not drop calls but the data could get stuck on 10 seconds

FWIW, the voice side is GSM, so it shouldn't be bothered if the data side switches between GPRS and EDGE.

Dont mean to hi-jack the thread but, Has anyone Browsed using GPRS on the 8700?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Will it display the letters gprs?

Yes it will say gprs/GPRS or edge/EDGE

My question was hows the speed?

I may start a new thread but this looked close enough, so I will see if I get an answer. My old Cingular 7280 had awesome coverage and synching with my outlook e-mail/calendar no matter what network I was on.

Now that I have the 8700 I pretty regularly switch between "EDGE" and "GSM", however, the calendar and email don't synch when it say's GSM. I don't rememer what network my old backberry was connected to, but I never had an issue with email/calendar synching. Now I do and it is really annoying.

Does this make sense? Is there a way to change the network settings to make sure that I don't have this synching issue? Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Drew

But the caveat to that is that if it's lower case, at least if it's lower case "edge", you wont' receive any date. That's the overriding problem that I've started to find with the 8700....it will drop to edge, and not reconnect to EDGE.

SR
8700r / BIS