Hi. I've just come back from being overseas and for some reason I now can't get any service on XT using my 3GS.
Some background info – 3GS, iOS 4.3.1, owned for two years, purchased new from Vodafone NZ – worked on XT this whole time.
I've been traveling around South East Asia. First stop was Thailand where I noticed the phone was working fine the first day. That night I went out and when I got home I noticed no service and a message like "Network Lost" with the option to dismiss or change. Didn't really need the phone so turned it off. From there went to 4 more countries always getting the same message and no service. Returned home this morning and turned my phone on only to have no service and the same message. Went and check the APN and for some reason all the info there related to something along the lines of "02.vertigo.co.uk…..". I have no idea where these settings came from. I then put all the correct settings in using the iPnz app – nothing. Reset phone – nothing. Hard reset – nothing. Re entered correct XT APN – nothing. More resetting – nothing. I've tried all those tricks and more and still I have no service at all on my phone. If anyone has any ideas it would be an amazing help.
7:21 am 01/11/11
AndrewNZ
Dunedin
Moderator Trusted
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To the best of my knowledge, APN settings have nothing to do with obtaining the initial connection to the network. Forget about them till you have actually connected. The odd settings would have been automatically entered by the last network you connected to.
I've often had issues coming back from Australia, I think the airplane mode has a lot to do with it but I'll never be able to prove it.
First thing, go to Settings>Carrier and see if it actually finds a network, if it does, select Telecom and see if it connects. If it doesn't, try switching airplane mode on then off and try looking for the network again.
I think I even once resorted to removing the SIM card, doing a hard reset, and replacing the SIM once it had powered on.
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
10:11 am 01/11/11
wrc4me
Junior Member
posts 6
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Hi Andrew. Thanks for the reply. Forgot to mention in the first post that when I go into Carrier (normally set to Automatic) it does show all the correct NZ networks and I'm able to tick Telecom but still no service. I'd tried Airplane mode on and off a number of times but just tried your idea of Sim out and hard reset. Once again no service.
If you have the clock set to Auotmatic does it pull the data from the carrier? I ask because I've noticed when I tell it to search for a network (ie after trying the airplane mode trick) for about 1 second the times appears in NZ time but then jumps back to Thailand time (the last place the phone worked).
Any more tips or ideas I could try? Thanks again.
10:44 am 01/11/11
AndrewNZ
Dunedin
Moderator Trusted
posts 93
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Is 3G turned on in the settings? Telecom has no GPRS network so 3G must be turned on.
A little research suggests a few things, they're all a bit odd but worth a try.
3) Try a different SIM card, perhaps yours has died.
4) Restore with iTunes.
2:43 pm 01/11/11
wrc4me
Junior Member
posts 6
5
0
Update. It works again! I'd tried all those ideas Andrew (thanks heaps though) apart from another SIM, due to no access to one, and full restore. Got hold of another SIM this morning and it connected no problem. So from there I headed to a Telecom store.
From there the guy went Settings>Phone>SIM Applications>Roaming Menu….after that there were a few more steps to make it jump onto Telecom but I can't get any further without making changes, which I don't really want to do. I think he had to set it to manual and then select Telecom. If it wasn't that there weren't many options so it shouldn't be too hard to work out. It then jumped right on the network and all I had to do was use the iPnz app to re add the APN settings again.
When I asked the guy what the problem was he said he didn't know the reason for it happening and that it was a new problem that has only come up in the last wee while. I should also note that my SIM also didn't work in my friends phone so the problem relates to something in the data on the SIM card itself.
Thanks very much for the help on this one. Great to have the phone back. Now it's time to update to iOS5 – fingers crossed i don't end up with another brick. Did the update on the iPad last night and it's working well.
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