Mobile 3G issue Movistar - HTC Desire HD Horror

[niceguypaddy]

After much debate and mental anguish I decided to not get an iPhone while abroad and I came back from Europe with an unlocked HTC Desire HD only to discover that it will not connect to the 3G network here, at least automatically!

I have messed around with the settings found online but cannot get it to work.
No surprise here but Movistar have been less than useless on the phone so after many calls I am going to take it to the store to see if they can sort it out but I will not hold my breath.

More worryingly though I have heard mention on a few blogs that the 3G will not actually work here at all as the frequency used here is different? Is this true? I have had a myriad of other phones and never had this issue so I hope it just scare mongering.

 

[Guillo]

3g frequencies here are 850/1900.
Europe usually has 900/2100.
Its hardware based, so no hack will help you. You should be able to use up to edge though.
If you cannot get edge to work, you need to configure the "APNs" on Android for Movistar.

European phones usually are a no go. Us phones can work if they work with AT&T. Canadian phones from Telus are also compatible. The rest.... not likely.

 

[niceguypaddy]

Thanks for the reply, how annoying is that. Luckily wifi is good and I will only be here for a few months and then Ill go back so I will have to live with edge for now. Grrrr! Another reason why the iPhone would have been a better choice. Anyway, you win some you lose some hehehe.

 

[Guillo]

There's a new wave of phones that are coming out with 3g support in the 4 bands (so they would work both in Latam and Europe).
Edge should be good enough for mail and calendar sync if you don't have to deal with attachments, but not much more unluckily.

 

[Hellek]

if you are from europe, even if you have 3G in argentina, don't expect it to be anything like at home. at least with personal it was always a pain. apart from that, what guillo said is perfectly right and one should always check the frequencies before buying a phone if you plan to travel far. Besides that, we have cheap phones for 100 bucks that are very good (i.e. ZTE Blade which even has the 850mhz frequency eventhough you need to install a patch to unlock it). Advantage: If it gets stolen (quite likely to happen) it does not suck too much. You could even bring two and sell the second if the first does not get stolen during your stay and probably make up for the cost of both together due to the insane prices modern smartphones are worth in argentina.