confused by orange signal lol

zoesmummy_2006

Finally free of 3, and am on orange PAYG for the time being. I have a HTC hero phone which I unlocked via a code on ebay, the only sim it wouldnt take was tesco.

Anyways, I set up my orange simcard monday night when I got it, only since then it keeps swapping from orange to orange-tmobile, which is fair enough as I hear they share etc now. But above the signal bars I keep getting the symbol R, and in mobile network settings the box that says data roaming keeps automatically checking itself.

I havent set up the internet settings on my phone yet, but if I was to and this roaming thing keeps happening will I be charged for it??? I have 500mb data allowance on my PAYG sim.

Sorry, I probably sound completely daft but I dont have much idea when it comes to these things and was hoping you lovely helpful folks on here would be able to advise

Earthworm

Roaming will only cost you a lot if out of the UK. In the UK you should be fine. I believe to use T-Mobile signal roaming must be activated.

zoesmummy_2006

thanks for that, it keeps doing it automatically, selecting orange-t mobile network and then the data roaming box is automatically ticked when i go into mobile networks in settings.

Will get my internet set up following the settings on orange website and keep an eye on usage/charges via my orange account

zoesmummy_2006

Hmmmmm have just added the settings to my phone via the orange site to set up internet, went to connect to the internet and because the R symbol was showing it came up with a message about being in roaming and significant charges may apply. Changed network manually back to orange 3g and internet loaded fine.

is there anyway of keeping it set to just orange 3g so it stays on that permanently, having to manually change it all the time is annoying after a while! I get a decent signal on orange 3g which im happy with, im just not happy with it keep flickering across.

J_B

zoesmummy_2006 wrote: »

significant charges may apply.

Then again, they probably won't!!!

I suspect that, as your phone isn't Orange 'branded', it will think you are abroad, just coz you are 'roaming' onto T Mob.

Maybe better to phone Orange, they *may* send you the right settings to stop this message.

Buzby

Sure you can turn off roaming (turn off Automatic), however since the phone is latching on to the best available signal, you'd be getting a worse service as the they start to consolidate their respective networks.

(PS National Roaming doesn't cost any more)

ukdutypaid

Two issues here.
Signal roaming and data roaming.
Imagine for one minute that your phone didn't have any data connection at all. e.g it's an old Nokia phone.
The phone will automatically try latch onto the best signal. Orange/T-mobile share network, so it go to the best one it can get.
With respect to DATA. There should be a setting within Mobile Networks that allows for a) national data roaming. We're in the UK not France so it's not going to go over to O2. It will simply switch between Everything Everywhere networks. Which ever tower you're near has the stronger signal.
You can't be on Orange for phone and T-Mobile for data. It's one or the other. Although, they do prioritise for their own customers on a per network basis.
Equally, with respect to battery, don't have data enabled unless you need it. Alternatively, you should be able to make it 2G only. In which case it will only ever go to EDGE, rather than 3G or HSPD(+).

zoesmummy_2006

Thanks for that,

I only have data on when im browsing the net, and switch it off soon as im done.

The data roaming ; connect to data services when roaming is automatically checked whenever I see that my signal has swapped to orange-tmobile, and I uncheck it and change back to orange 3g.