3G Phone. Which cell am I on?

[newtoy]

Is there any way of telling which cell our 3g phone is on as we travel around this beautiful country of ours?

[ol' boy]

Does the area name come up on the phones display as it does with 2G/2.5G and 2.75G.

If so you could use the name then try and match it on

It would still be a bit of guess work if you were in a town with multiple cells
But out in the country shouldn't be too hard.

[astro_boy]

I've noticed this also.
if i switch my phone to UTMS it will not show what cell im conencted to.
But if i switch to GSM it will.
I dont understand why.

And also on gsm my reception is only around 30% where as utms is around 90% from same area on my desk !?

[tytower]

I've noticed this also.
if i switch my phone to UTMS it will not show what cell im conencted to.
But if i switch to GSM it will.
I dont understand why.

And also on gsm my reception is only around 30% where as utms is around 90% from same area on my desk !?

A bit aside -what is UTMS and GSM -what do the letters stand for and what do you understand them to mean

[newtoy]

Does the area name come up on the phones display as it does with 2G/2.5G and 2.75G.

If so you could use the name then try and match it on

It would still be a bit of guess work if you were in a town with multiple cells
But out in the country shouldn't be too hard.

Tks for reply. All it comes up with is3G almost in the signal strength bars.

[ol' boy]

If you are going to be traveling our great land. It' might also be worth finding out what the maximum range from a tower the 3G handset will connect at.
For 2.5G at Full Rate its 35km, at Half Rate it's more like 70Km (so i just found out)
I do remember reading at the same time that 3G offers an up to 200Km range (hard to know what to believe). Which seems huge.... I'll try and find the link. But if that were the case, it could jump to a tower anywhere depending on how many slots were available.
I've also found sites offering 3G range extenders up to 100km... so that kinda blows it all out of the water.

These sites have some reading

[newtoy]

Sorry to make a pest of myself. I have a 900mhz_950mhz beam & we camp out a lot the idea was to use the beam in marginal areas.We ca always use H/F if we have to. The beam seemed like a good idea.

[astro_boy]

Sorry i buggered up my fist post.
shoudl read UMTS.
And a quick google shows



200km sounds pretty far for 3g, i couldnt see it happening unless it was LOS.
Does next-g even get that far ?

[cartman02au]

I've noticed this also.
if i switch my phone to UTMS it will not show what cell im conencted to.
But if i switch to GSM it will.
I dont understand why.

And also on gsm my reception is only around 30% where as utms is around 90% from same area on my desk !?

I find the same thing when I travel to Sydney, you get cell info on GSM, nothing on UTMS. It's quite odd

[astro_boy]

humm...
I still havn't found a working program for my phone.