[I_R_Engineer]

Hi, I'm interested to know how people's experience is of using the wonderful 3G technology handsets whilst moving?

For example, in a car, (obviously with hands-free) or during a train journey?

I have no practical experience yet of the 3G systems, and I'm wondering if I should wait for the (really called this!) 3.99G phone systems for voice and especially data calls, whilst moving.

thanks, I_R_

[bsrjl1]

I regularly drive up the A1 & know exactly where 3 will drop the call! Switched to O2 GSM & it's better, but still not great around Stamford.

[Ben]

3G data whilst moving deteriorates rapidly - WCDMA just doesn't handle movement well. Stationary in good signal does give great performance though. I have had some good connections on the motorway including 3G-2G-3G handovers but the throughput just isn't there - for example, I could browse, but watching OTV wasn't an option. Interestingly, I got held up in traffic once on the motorway (i'd left OTV on to see if it'd kick in) and it worked really well when stationary. As soon as I started moving it went back to endless buffering.

Voice works - but then on Orange I always get handed over to 2G for calls after a few seconds or minutes.

Welcome to Talk3G!

[TheBrit]

3G voice calls work fine with Orange with handover to 2g and back again, even when viewing WAP pages with no problems.

[Hands0n]

I have held successfull [continuous] Hutchinson 3 3G Voice calls from Dover to Gravesend area in Kent without a single drop-off. In London the mobile situation is much more varied, with disconnects and fall backs to O2 (with the accompanying disconnect).

The quality of the service does seem to depend as much on the ability of the Handset as the Network itself. My best experiences to date have been on the Motorola E1000 where if in the 2G area it holds the call on 2G until it is finished. Some phones will flip back to 3G as soon as signal strength/quality becomes apparent with the resultant call drop.

The above is purely the 3 experience - as others have said above, with Orange and the other incumbents the fall-back and fall-forward between 3G and 2G is seamless and without call drops.

Cannot vouch for Data as 3 do not support any useful data access at the present time.