I have some great coverage of HSDPA on Orange on the Isle of Wight, is there anyway of knowing your on "H" without being connected?
Like when you get G, E and 3G.

No. You will see 3g until you start using it then it will "throttle up" to H if its available.

I get G, E and H appearing in my topbar? I just assumed the H was letting me know that HSDPA was available?

When I put a Vodafone sim card in my diamond it came up with an H so maybe it is depedant on the provider if you get H first or 3G then H when you access data.

Different ROMs show different things, but *most* ROMs don't show 'H' (or U or 3.5G) until it's actually being used and will just show 3G when it's not.
Which ROM are you using?

Just the stock Orange one er....1.37 i think? But it comes up regardless of whether I am actually transferring data or not. when I am, the H moves over the 'signal bars'.

I don't have a Diamond but it looks like different ROMs are showing either 3G or H when not connected. I assume the H changes from a white H when not connected to a black H in a white square when you connect (ie negative image)?

No, the Big H stays as Black on a white background and the little H that appears over the signal strength is white with no background.

That's another way of doing it.
What ROMs have 3G when not connected in and HSDPA area?

Im sure I can help you with that- once orange roll out HSDPA where i live

I've never seen H on this Orange Diamond yet. Annoying when I know there is great HSDPA on O2 around here (Newcastle)

I think Orange missed a trick with HSDPA coverage. I mean I live on the west coast of wales so i'm pretty lucky to have 3g anywhere let alone HSDPA, but - while O seem to have invested in the most masts and better coverage here, of the 4 3g providers here, 2 already have HDSPA and nationally I think its only O2 that are behind them in terms of HSDPA rollout.

ON a side note I took a trip to south wales, even in some of the more built up areas - no H, doesn't bode well for me getting it here anytime soon.

Orange said they would be rolling it out to major cities first.


I am on stock Orange rom and it doesnt show H til its in use.

We are having a massive HSDPA roll out over the coming months in ire, scotland and north east england.
Expect some down time on the 3g network whilst it is upgraded.
2G will continue to function as normal

HSDPA on Orange is using a 2nd carrier in many major cities, as this provides more capacity and higher speeds.

Coverage is being extended across many areas of UK using shared carrier to speed up the rollout.

Wales?

Who's this? I've not heard of Orange (or anyone else except Three who use O for 2G) using someone else's network.

The 2nd carrier means Orange have 2 frequencies. The 2nd carrier/frequency is only rolled out in major cities at present.

Where 2nd carrier/frequency is not available Orange are using shared carrier HSDPA.

IS there any technical reason why they are using 2 frequencies? I wasn't aware of any other operator doing this?

I also thought that only 2100Mhz was allowed in the UK - Have I got it wrong?