GSM to PCS system - please help
 

I based in Hong Kong and got BB 8320, recently it doesn't pick-up signals or signals are week. I bring to a repair shop and guy said, it automatically switch from GSM to PCS system so thats why the signal are very week or there are no signals. Smartone-Vodafone confirms the problem but they will not repair because I bought the machine online. Help please.

Please don't double post.
You posted the exact same question here - http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...cs-system.html

What, exactly, is a PCS system mean. Is it GSM? The 8320 should work on all GSM/GPRS/EDGE based systems.

What does the 8320 show on the top line of the screen? gprs? GPRS? edge?

its 850MHz system,

Is it GSM? If it is not, the the 8320 cannot work.

The OP probably means a network that is running over 850MHz which the BB 8320 should support.

To the OP: If your phone is having problems picking up a signal in a place that previously worked fine then call the provider and let them know. Perhaps they have a tower or antenna down.

Dave

According to Wikipedia PCS in HK should be equivalent to GSM 1800.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Communications_Service

Which means that your phone has either decided to connect to that bandwidth in some areas as it's the strongest frequency available, even if it is weak, OR your operator uses the 1800 bandwidth exclusively.

The only time I've ever heard PCS was in Korea and Japan but even then GSM phones weren't able to connect to the network until UMTS/WCDMA phones became available for GSM users.

According to the wikipedia blurb (it's rather short) the PCS frequency is cross-platform compatible so that probably means that where ever in HK you are, that's the strongest signal for you. Have you tried to set your phone to select the network manually? Maybe your provider has several different networks available at different frequencies. I came across that in Singapore where 1 provider had 2 or 3 different networks ranging from GPRS to 3.5G. Sometimes the network can only be selected by using manual settings.

I can't find this on the BB, but the Treo 750 had an option for you to select not only the network manually, but also the operating frequency. I had this option on a Samsung phone as well. Found it handy because some GSM phones have trouble auto-connecting or don't have an auto-connect feature like my old Samsung.