3 UK simcard and Motorola Droid 2 Global..

[largestherb]

Have been with 3 since August 2010, 2 year contract came with a HTC Wildfire and everything was fine.
Recently lost my phone+sim while in the US, but I had bought myself a Motorola Droid 2 Global to use on a US T-mobile PAYG sim while I was there. Sucks that I lost my phone, but at least I could get a replacement sim to put in this one..

Get back to the UK, get my replacement sim, stick it in my phone. Phone comes on, connects to 3 UK - no 3G connectivity and no calls/text, new sim comes with a letter that says please allow 48 hours for activation. Cool!
It has been 6 days now and still I cannot make calls or send texts and there is no 3G connectivity. Customer services were really not helpful, saying 'You need a 3G enabled phone' and not having an answer when I told them I had a 3G enabled phone, but they assured me that the simcard was activated.

I have since read some stuff about 3 simcards using a strange network connection or something, incredibly technical stuff that is somewhat beyond me. And so this leads me here and to this question~

Does any fancy network boffin know of any way to configure my Droid 2 Global to work on the 3 UK network? I am completely comfortable with flashing firmware and such, I already had to do quite a lot of fun things to get it working in the US to connect to T-mobile*!

On a side note, I was happy with 3 until I contacted their customer services.. really horrible experience, I wont say how many phone calls and emails there were, but out of them only one person I spoke to was actually helpful and explained some stuff to me - sadly I couldn't get in contact with this person again.
Even if I can get this phone working on 3 I am not sure I will be renewing my contract come August.. I definitely noted my displeasure to them.

Well, that is all for now. If anyone can lend any help at all (all my googling produces really only one result that is someone asking the same question as me and not getting an answer) it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance~

(*Something about Verizon asking Motorola to stop the receiver from actually working on some GSM/UMTS bandwidths so that people couldn't use T-mobile or AT&T networks and were stuck with Verizon, cheeky sods)

Last minute: Aha, tomorrow my sister is coming back from Uni, she has a HTC Wildfire (originally from O2, I believe) that I am going to try my 3 sim in.

[Ben]

Hey, welcome to Talk3G!

It'll be good to find out how the Three SIM works in another device. My guess is that it'll work fine.

Is your signal readout correct? What happens when you try to call your number, and make an outbound call from the phone?

If you'd like to PM me your mobile number I'd be happy to check its status on Three's HLR to see if it's actually registering on the network.

My guess is that the handset has been configured at some point to only work on certain network bands, and that it is unable to connect for 3G on 2100MHz. Perhaps what you're seeing is as a result of 2G roaming on Orange UK, but Three aren't permitting you access as your area should have 3G. As for fixing that - no idea I'm afraid.

[largestherb]

I got it working! .. unbelievably simple! will edit with details and screenshots. Very pleased, but also very upset that tech support didn't know about this :\

Did some reading on 'W-CMDA' and had a brain storm in what terms to google.. pieced this together~

Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks

Network Mode : GSM / UMTS
Select network : UMTS Only

> Access point names
Menu > New APN

(anything I miss out, leave blank)

Name : three (but I am sure you can call it hairy mammoth testes if you like)
APN : three.co.uk
Proxy :
Port :
Username :
Password :
Server :
MMSC : http://mms.um.three.co.uk:10021
MMS proxy : mms.three.co.uk:8799
MMS port :
MCC : *see below
MNC : *see below
Authentication type : None (other options are PAP, CHAP, 'PAP or CHAP' ~ no idea what these are and it was working on None so I left it for now)
APN type :

*The following settings were like this by default and I found no mention of them, so I left them as is.

MCC : 234
MNC : 20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And bam! Just like that, 3G came to life. Sent a text, it worked! Made a phone call, it worked!

I am really kind of.. in shock at how easy it was. I was expecting to have to do some kind of sneaky trickery, or find some HIDDEN SETTINGS!!!

If anyone technically minded knows what the other settings are and if they might improve anything, feel free to discuss! They are all blank text boxes when clicked.

One thing I am noticing.. the network connection seems to be weaker now (I had 1 little bar in my room before, now it is down to 0 and keeps dropping off and coming back. Possibly just bad weather? Or could it be my new settings?)

!! Pictures~~

http://i50.tinypic.com/2lx8ra0.png

[Ben]

Ah, thanks for the update!

Setting up an APN will indeed be required for data (most OSs do this automatically these days) but not for calls or regular texts, so I'm not sure what happened there. Great news that you're up-and-running!

[largestherb]

Seems I may have spoke too soon. Calls have gone funny again, I can call but I cannot hear anything? Will have to test a bit more in the morning sleepy time :(

But 2/3G and texts working is great!