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[REQ] Can I stop data when roaming?

Hi all,
I know this is probably a strange request and so I'll have to give a bit of background. Recently I changed my mobile provider to 3. 3 have their own telephone coverage in certain areas and if you are outside those areas you go on roaming with Telstra. The issue is 3 charges huge $$ when roaming on Telstras network for data (voice and SMS is fine).
My question is that my TP obviously knows when I'm roaming as it displays the service provider as 'Roaming'. Is there a program that will stop my data (and only data) use when I change over to the 'Roaming' service and activate again when I am in the 3 network?
Thanks for you help!
Trent

Hi, another aussie 3 user here...
I agree with the TS as this is one of the major problem we as 3mobile user face, is there any kind soul out there that could help us with this as my knowledge on PDA is limited.. Thanks for any1 who is willing to help in advance.

With the Sprint TP, I can go to
Settings>Phone>Services>Roaming
and set an option called "Data roam guard" that allows me to choose whether or not data connections will be allowed while roaming. I'm not sure if this option is available for you, but give it a try.

I myself would like to have an automated function for this. Until then I will have to manually switch to my dummy data connection.

Normally it doesn't connect on roaming.
and if it will, it asks first.
isn't this the case with you?

I have an app called NoData
Works really well and lets you enable/disable any data connections

raveenash said:
I have an app called NoData
Works really well and lets you enable/disable any data connections
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about the NoData. However, you still have to enable/disable data connection manually. I'd like to have it automatically disabled when I am roaming.
For example my IM client (QIP) does not ask me whether it should connect or not. So it is very easy to have an "accident" with data connection :-(

I'm another Three user in Australia, looking for something like this as well. I often use my phone while on a tram and it might switch from 3G to Roaming while I'm browsing the web. I'd like for it to warn me so I don't download heaps while roaming (I think it's $1.65 per MB or something crazy like that).

Hi, another 3 Australia user here...and yes, I've been waiting on this sort of function for years now.
Part of the problem here is that 3's "roaming" is not actual roaming in the traditional sense. Normally, the phone detects a roaming signal when on a foreign network and displays a roaming indicator (looks like a little triangle) at the top of the screen. You'll find this is the case if you ever take your phone overseas and use International Roaming. Telstra's network does not give you this signal, and hence even the few roaming aware apps we have (e.g. pocket outlook) don't detect when you're on Telstra's network and turn off their automatic schedules.
The best way I could think of to do this automatically is with an app that detects either Telstra's network ID values (the phone detects these and translates them to the text "Roaming" at the top right of today, much as it translates the real value "3Telstra" to plain old "3" - 3 and Telstra share the 2100MHz network in a joint venture, much as Vodafone and Optus share theirs...you will see the real value if ever you use a non-3 rom) or the network connection type and then runs that NoData app (I haven't seen that before...credit to the guy who posted it).
I've often though some sort of even responder app would be useful. Something like Gyrator, except that read network status instead of physical hardware status. Anyone know of anything like this?
Then you could set up something like:
* On detect EDGE/GSM switch off data connections
* On detect HSDPA/3G switch on data connections
OR
* On detect network ID of Telstra's GSM network switch off data
* On detect network ID of 3's/Telstra's 2100MHz 3G network switch on data

Look at phoneAlarm.

caeci11ius said:
Part of the problem here is that 3's "roaming" is not actual roaming in the traditional sense. Normally, the phone detects a roaming signal when on a foreign network and displays a roaming indicator (looks like a little triangle) at the top of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My HTC TP says 'H' up the top when I'm in 3 coverage and 'E' when I'm roaming. Just near the top it says '3' when I'm in a Three area or 'Roaming' when I'm not...
Don't you have the same phone? What does yours say?

Vanstra said:
Look at phoneAlarm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that perhaps paying 15+ pounds (around AU$40) just to switch off a data connection is a bit steep...any other suggestions around?

grandinferno said:
My HTC TP says 'H' up the top when I'm in 3 coverage and 'E' when I'm roaming. Just near the top it says '3' when I'm in a Three area or 'Roaming' when I'm not...
Don't you have the same phone? What does yours say?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point exactly. You will not see the real roaming indicator in Australia as you never actually roam here. While three call it "roaming" when your phone is on Telstra, the way they have set it up prevents the phone from knowing this is the case so the few roaming aware programs will not be able to adjust for it.
The phone shows G/E when on Telstra as Telstra provide a GSM/EDGE network. It shows 3G/H when on Three's network as Three are providing a 3G/HSDPA network. Hence, you can work out if you're roaming by looking at this even though it's not actually a roaming indicator.
If you look at your home screen though you will see either a "3" in the top right corner of the clock or "Roaming". That's what I was talking about before. It's not a roaming indicator either; it simply shows the network name (with a translation applied from the actual network ID in this case).

thanks caeci11ius, I'm glad you could explain this is better detail then my original statement. I am presuming that this form of roaming and charge to customers is quite rare.

caeci11ius said:
I think that perhaps paying 15+ pounds (around AU$40) just to switch off a data connection is a bit steep...any other suggestions around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You wanted a program which can automatically switch band when roaming.
This is the only program I know which can do that.

Program to disable Data when E or G is shown on taskbar
caeci11ius said:
My point exactly. You will not see the real roaming indicator in Australia as you never actually roam here. While three call it "roaming" when your phone is on Telstra, the way they have set it up prevents the phone from knowing this is the case so the few roaming aware programs will not be able to adjust for it.
The phone shows G/E when on Telstra as Telstra provide a GSM/EDGE network. It shows 3G/H when on Three's network as Three are providing a 3G/HSDPA network. Hence, you can work out if you're roaming by looking at this even though it's not actually a roaming indicator.
If you look at your home screen though you will see either a "3" in the top right corner of the clock or "Roaming". That's what I was talking about before. It's not a roaming indicator either; it simply shows the network name (with a translation applied from the actual network ID in this case).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is Exactly What I need Also. I have looked everywhere? I Dont believe anyone else has come across this issue before and has written something to fix it.
Need a program to detect when the Phone is in 3 or H area (displayed at top) and disable DATA ONLY when G or E is displayed. My work around at the moment is to select HSDPA only connection but this makes the Voice Calls dropout whenever I cannot recieve Three's Network. Can anyone help. There is many people who would be in this same boat.
Wombat

Introducing WombatPhoneRoam
I just wrote a script to keep you connected to 3G or HSDPA networks only. Tryout
WombatPhoneRoam
I hope it is what your looking for
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3076932&postcount=1
Wombat

'Bands' tab and Advanced config questions

I've searched the forums for an answer to this and I've found partial answers. I'm hoping I can get a response that will work for me.
Firstly, in the 'Bands' tab, I'm looking for some clarification on the options available. Under 'network type' there is 'Auto', 'GSM', and 'WCDMA'. Auto, I understand. GSM I'm assuming means GSM network (T-Mo, AT&T and not CDMA). WCDMA, according to Wikipedia, is basically the network that allows 3G speeds over GSM networks.
Now, when I set the network to GSM, I get an EDGE icon in place of the 3G. When I set it to WCDMA, I get 3G, as well I should.
First question: If I set the network to WCDMA, will it force my Fuze to ONLY connect to 3G? Where I live, I'm finding it hard to find a 3G dead zone to test without traveling 30 miles...
Second question: Does forcing 3G only improve battery life? I read in one post there are separate radios for 3G and EDGE/GPRS (which makes sense as to how you're able to talk and use the data connection simultaneously) and by forcing one, the phone doesn't constantly scan for the other.
My third question has to deal with having my device automatically disconnect the data connection after it finishes its business. I read in several posts that 'Advanced Config' has an option to set the data timeout, but I've read through the menus several times and have seen no such option. Are there multiple versions of advanced config floating around? Barring that, could someone just tell me what registry entry to add/edit to set the timeout? I read in yet another post that the phone automatically disconnects after 30 minutes, but that doesn't seem to be the case, as I tested mine and we're going on over an hour with no connection drop. (No email is being checked and weather is disabled. Prior to me starting this particular data connection, the phone had been connectionless for almost 16 hours.)

AdvancedConfig/Menu/More settings/Connections.
There is also that option in DiamondTweak.
WCDMA means 3G only, which means that your phone isn't searching for GSM signal. I haven't noticed battery improvement when forcing 3G, although that would be logical.

[App Idea] GSM/WCDMA Switcher

Hey guys,
As the radio stack is the second cause of battery draining after the display, I was thinking about a way to save battery life by reducing the impact of the 3G connection. Most of the energy saving apps on the market are only disconnecting the phone from the APN, but this isn't a great solution as each app could be set to update at different times and thus being unable to download data even if the user sets some exceptions. So I thought that an application which operates in the following way could be great to save power:
- The phone uses the 3G network while the screen is on;
- It switches to 2G when phone is in standby mode;
- It disconnects the APN data connection while the phone is using a WiFi Network;
Obviously to avoid possible issues during the switch between 2G and 3G the following rules are applied:
- If there's an incoming call or a phone call is being performed, there won't be any radio switch until the phone call is ended;
- If there's an incoming SMS/MMS, there won't be any radio switch until the text message is fully received.
Unfortunately as I'm not a Java developer I can't code anything like this. But let me know what you guys think about my idea and if it's technically feasible... Maybe some developer could be interested into further exploring my thoughts and will try to create such an app
Cheers

I'm not a developer but I think it sounds like a great idea. I go into settings and switch it to 2g when I'm in spotty areas outside of town. I have to work a bit to keep my N1 battery alive all day...

Hello I'm new here.
I don't know if your suggested profiles are the best case scenarios. You would need to calculate your data throughput, not just the radio power.
If you need to send 100 packets, your radio would be on the longest for edge > 3g > wifi. So, even though wifi uses the most power, it would be for a much shorter duration.
A profile for "place calls only" would work somewhat like airplane mode, but still keep track of towers. Your phone just wouldn't register on the network unless you wanted to place a call. You would miss your incoming calls, have no data connection, or sms. But, you could have it check at an interval for voicemail or sms. This would be most useful for "ringer off" situations like class or meeting.

Afaik Android is always connected to the APN even if the phone is not downloading anything, consuming a lot of battery power. On other platforms, i.e. Windows Mobile, the connection can be terminated by user and re-established when an app needs that.
The amount of data downloaded by widgets, Google mobile applications or apps which operates in background like eBuddy or Facebook should be quite low, so downloading the required data by using GSM or WCDMA while the phone is in standby would be pretty much the same. The only difference is that downloading stuff using GSM/EDGE should take much less energy power.
So that's why I thought about the app I described before: the phone can save a lot of energy power while in standby and be back to its full horsepower when there is any kind of user intervention. Pretty much the same thing that the system already does for CPU usage. It scales to the less consuming protocol (or, in the case of CPU, frequency and voltage) to save power

I know on the google api it isn't possible to do this, but I don't think that isn't the problem.
At the moment you have 3 options. GSM only, WCDMA only and GSM/WCDMA. Whenever you switch between the 3 of them, the phone will lose signal for 10 seconds before it can find the best network. So the switcher here is not the best as you will lose connection, and what if you are downloading something at the same time...
What you need is when the phone is on GSM/WCDMA that it knows the best network to pick from depending on the phones lifecycle. GSM/WCDMA loses battery power because it always tries to find the best network to connect to, so for example if you are on GSM it will constantly try to find a 3G network etc (as far as I understand it).
What we need is the ability for the phone to stay on GSM when the phone is idle and then when the phone is woken up to automatically start to search for a WCDMA network and then gracefully switch over like it does now. For this I have no idea if it is possible as I don't know how the scanning of the network works. If it is possible then that would be wicked. But this is what we need.

my preference would be if the phone would stay on 3g as long as any possible even if there would be a more reliable 2g connection and only switch to 2g if there really is no way to connect to 3g. turn of apn if the screen us turned of for longer then 1 or 2 minutes and only check every 15 minutes or so.
most of the time I'm on 3g only mode . since I live in a city I got good coverage almost all over the city. only problem is that when there is no 3g available also my phone is unreachable. I don't really miss data connectivity when there is no 3g since 2g is so slow that I rather have no internet at all but not being sale to be called or texted is a major disadvantage...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

[Q] 3g/wifi question

the question is, why i see both 3g and wifi icons on the status bar at the same time? i mean, wich one is the one i using it when both are on the status bar? do i lost my MB from my data network while i'm using the wifi?

You see both because they're both available. However, the phone will prefer to use WiFi whenever it's connected. If you had a long-running connection over 3G, it might stay on the 3G, and I think some types of data always go over 3G (MMS? But that shouldn't use data plan limit anyhow). Also, just because the WiFi icon shows doesn't mean it's usable; if the WiFi connection is unable to reach the Internet for some reason, the phone will fall back to using 3G.

Sometimes it's possible that the phone uses 3G even though it is connected to a Wifi network. I recognize this, when the 3G Icon turns to 3G+.

I've noticed my Focus Flash tends to use 3G always for push email whereas the browser and market place tends to use WiFi if both are available. Don't know what the situation is for other apps.

@Der Moloch: That's not what "3G+" means at all. It means your phone is connected to a "faster than 3G" technology, probably HSPA+. Although some carriers (and phones) refer to this as "4G", and some phones will just put "H" or "H+" there instead, it all means the same thing. If you go dig into the registry, you can see the list of text that the phone displays for different wireless data technology connections.

@GoodDayToDie
My 3G symbol only changes to 3G+, when there is an actual data transfer.

That's... REALLY weird. I haven't heard of anybody reporting that experience before. The registry values I mentioned are in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Connectivity\CellularUX\DataConnectionIcon. None of the options on my phone are "3G+" but then, my phone doesn't support a "3.5G" network technology like HSPA+ either...

My device also shows 3G+ sometimes when it is available.If not just 3G.
---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------
What do you mean by data transfer?

@Ttblondey
When I say data transfer, I mean that the phone is actually submitting something through the data connection.
For example, I have my mail sync set to manual. I open up the e-mail interface of my Windows phone. On the top right there is the digital clock. If I put my finger on it, the battery icon and the 3G icon (with the reception bars next to it) show up. Then I press sync and the 3G icon changes to 3G+. Once the sync is done, it changes back to 3G.
Maybe I'll upload a video about that, once I am back at my place and have access to a webcam.

You're seeing the phone switch to HSPA+ when it needs to, and back off to HSPA when there's no data being transferred.
It's a power saving thing.

Exactly and this confirms my post above regarding the wireless situation.

Prevent 3G data connection

Hi All,
How do I make it so that my phone will not try and connect to the internet via 3G (the signal icon on the status bar has 3G written on it). Whenever my phone switches to 3G, internet doesnt work. this has been a problem for me here in Aus on multiple phones. While the icon says H, internet works awesome but the second it switches to 3G internet stops working until it switches back to H. It wouldnt be too bad, if it wasnt for the fact that the bloody thing switches back and forth every 5 seconds if Im in a good reception area, which is almost all the time.

Are you rooted/custom ROM? It sounds like it could be a poorly performing radio. Search for the radio/ril thread. You might find some answers there. You can switch your phone to 2G or 3G networks only, but the 3G option also includes H. So even if you left out the 2G you'd still suffer the same issues.