Blackberry Bold Call Dropping Fix

[samobius]

Here's my PSA for the AT&T Blackberry Bold community. (This may help frustrated iPhone users too, but the procedure is different. Please don't reply with non-constructive iPhone vs Blackberry comments)

If you're having problems with calls dropping and crap battery life, switch your phone to 2G mode. I was having a good 50+% of my calls drop in 3G mode. Since switching, my battery life at the end of the day is over 50% and I haven't dropped a single call.

Apparently, AT&T's 3G service is buggy, especially when you're going from an area with 3G service to 2G service and vice-versa. Also, if you're in an area with weak 3G service then calls are more likely to drop as well. By placing the phone in 2G mode all the time, you no longer deal with weak/buggy 3G.

Yes, it will make your web browsing slower, but you have WiFi. If you're not on a WiFi connection and if you absolutely must have faster web browsing, just switch it back to 3G for that session and go back to 2G when you're done.

So how do you do it?

1. Go to Manage Connections
2. Scroll down to "Mobile Network Options"
3. Go down to "3G & 2G" and change it to 2G

[pbwalker]

This works well with the iPhone too. I travel often to NYC and the AT&T network is horrible at best. Calls don't drop because calls can't even be made to begin with. I drop down to 2G and it's a tad better.

Just know that when you are on 2G (Edge), data speeds are VERY slow!

[samobius]

Just know that when you are on 2G (Edge), data speeds are VERY slow!

True, but the only thing that's really affected is apps downloading and web browsing.
Email, texting, IMing, etc don't see any change in speed because they are very low speed services. 90% of what I do is based on these services. When I'm needing to use my browser, I usually have a WiFi connection and when I don't I either suck it up for the brief time that I need to do it, or switch to 3G temporarily. AT&T is nice enough to offer their WiFi service for free to their devices in many places like Starbucks. Basically I find that I rarely miss 3G and now my phone service is so much more reliable.

Can you post the steps for switching to 2G on the iPhone?

[Keith B]

If you want to change to 2G or Edge on the iPhone, just go to Settings, General, Network, and turn off the Enable 3G button. Reverse it to turn back on.