C3 and GSM compatibility

[rayhod]

Hi All. First post. I have the HAI C3 and a pre-paid SIM card from the local provider here in Canada - Rogers Wireless. It works fine in Calgary but at my second home in Sundre - about 80 miles away, I get no connection to the network. Signal strenth showing on the C3 is fine in Sundre (3 LEDs lit). A second Rogers Nokia handset works fine there too. Swapped SIM cards from the C3 to the Nokia handset and same story - C3 has nothing but Nokia handset works fine with second SIM card. All I get is a fast beep that may indicate a SIM card issue. I cancelled the land line so I could use the same phone number on the C3.
So it seems that there is some difference in the GSM cell network between Calgary and Sundre but Rogers can't or won't reveal this info. Rogers is suggesting that maybe the C3 requires 3G but I don't see that on the C3 specs.
Has anybody seen a cell network do this before? Is there some kind of SIM card setup that I need to do?

 

[mustangcoupe]

Any chance you have a bad C3? I think HAI will have to answer the question about requiring 3G. Do you get 3G service on the handset?

 

[rayhod]

Any chance you have a bad C3? I think HAI will have to answer the question about requiring 3G. Do you get 3G service on the handset?

A bad C3 is possible I suppose but it does work fine in the city. Handset is old and not 3G compatible. I assume that the C3 is 2G?

 

[rayhod]

Any chance you have a bad C3? I think HAI will have to answer the question about requiring 3G. Do you get 3G service on the handset?

A bad C3 is possible I suppose but it does work fine in the city. Handset is old and not 3G compatible. I assume that the C3 is 2G?

Update: Success! I brought the C3 back to Calgary then left it on for the trip back to Sundre. I dialed the C3 with a second phone every 15 minutes and the C3 rang every time, even at the house. Strange thing though - last trip out it showed 2 or 3 green signal strength LEDs but it would not connect. This time with no LEDs showing it connected OK.
However reception this time was poor, so remembering the instructions for a cell amplifier I had once, I put the C3 antenna onto a large steel cookie sheet and the signal immediately improved to one LED. This tip is not included in the C3 instruction manual even though the C3 antenna has a magnet in it. I wonder why HAI doesn't mention this? The instructions for the cell amp made a big deal about the steel reflector. They suggest putting it on the roof or trunk lid.
Since the signal was weaker this time than last, I can't explain why it stayed connected this time - maybe moving from a good cell to a new cell somehow maintains the connection?
One thing I wonder about is that the C3 spec shows 2 watts of transmit power in the 850 MHz range which is several times the power of a handheld. Some amplifier sellers claim that their model is special because the power is modulated so that it doesn't overload the local tower. Not sure what that means but it made me wonder if the C3 was over-powering the local tower when I tried it previously, resulting in rejection of the connection? Too many mysteries....