Our Nokia 5800 magically starts working on 3G

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 28th 2009 at 4:26PM

We powered up ye olde NAM 5800 XpressMusic today, and the weirdest thing happened: it worked on 3G. This comes after a day of frustration trying to get it hooked up to UMTS yesterday -- a sentiment echoed by several others who took the plunge. The only theory we can come up with is that we were in Chicago yesterday at the Nokia flagship store -- a place where many of the "defective" units were sold -- and today we're elsewhere, so it's conceivable that there's an issue with AT&T's 3G network in Chicago. We've noticed an uptick in 3G loss on other devices in Chicago the past few days, so it's possible that the 5800 is just particularly sensitive to crappy networks; then again, there seem to be others in New York that have the same issue, so it's anybody's guess. All we know for sure is that we're showing a big, fat "3.5G" logo in the upper left corner of our unit at the moment -- and we're going to cross our fingers that it stays that way. We have a request out to Nokia for official comment on the issue, and we'll let you know as soon as we have more.

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, HSDPA, UMTS

Tags: 3g, 5800, 5800 xpressmusic, 5800Xpressmusic, nam, nokia

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

robert @ Feb 28th 2009 5:56PM

Where were you today where your nokia 5800 worked. this would be very helpful and what state did you by the nokia 5800.

Neutral

robert @ Feb 28th 2009 6:05PM

Where were you today when your nokia 5800 starting to work on the att 3g network. this would be very helpful and What state did you buy the phone in.

Neutral

Nick @ Feb 28th 2009 6:17PM

It could very well be that AT&T has a very crappy network. I use to work for them. They have very crappy service and unreliable networks. Try bringing your 5300 to Canada. Rogers Wireless has an AMAZING 3G and 3.5G network and is Very reliable. The only time I've lost 3G is when I’ve gone way out into the middle of nowhere lol.

Neutral

Carmen @ Feb 28th 2009 6:48PM

AT&T's 3G has been in and out (mostly out) all day today and kinda iffy the last few days here in Chicago.

Neutral

buggzero @ Feb 28th 2009 6:49PM

Any words on web browsing? Hows the actual browser, and what kind of speeds are you getting on 3.525689787634G?

Neutral

Don Louie @ Feb 28th 2009 7:38PM

Luscious Fox pulled his out I wanted one but didn't want to be tied down to a GSM or pay unlocked prices

Neutral

NuShrike @ Feb 28th 2009 8:39PM

Sounds like AT&T has to enable 3G access for the device (behind the scenes). I and many experienced the same issue when the FUZE first came out and could not get on 3G to save its life. Then 1 week later, reliable and fast UMTS speeds started magically working, irregardless of any registry settings.

I do not remember how my Kaiser started out on AT&T, but I bet all of these devices work just fine on any other 3G network as my Kaiser did on DoCoMo and Softbank the moment I landed in a plane. So, blame AT&T!

Highly Ranked

PeterF @ Feb 28th 2009 10:15PM

AT&T doesn't have to "set up" 3G for any device, if it is compatible it will work.
Regardless, irregardless isn't a word.

Neutral

NuShrike @ Mar 2nd 2009 2:50AM

Since I win because irregardless is in the dictionary, the previous commenter is an obvious b00n and shall be ignored appropriately.

Now, on to the 3G commentary... Since I have quite enough experience with this putting out the FuzeHFix app on XDA, as well as a bunch of other apps, it was very strange that the Fuze we all picked up at the time could not pick up 3G reliably whereas the Kaiser could with the same SIM irregardless of any registry settings. Yet, with the same registry settings, same rom and same radio, the Fuze picked up 3G normally about 1-2 weeks in.

Empirical results from a developer.

Lowest Ranked