I'm following up on this thread too, since this is a huge ugly problem with no great solution, IMO.
Sorry, if you've seen this elsewhere.
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I don't have any hard news, but here's what I can "guess" from my extended run through Palm support.
(This is from the highest level of Palm support, so it's as good as fact as it gets...)
Realize that this is my inference of what's likely to be the outcome. I could be wrong.
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Palm claims that the Treo and Centro are essentially EOL (end of life) products.
Thus, they are not going to do any software or ROM updates on the Palm Treo or Centro.
They suggested (as they have in other cases) to replace the SIM card with a new SIM from TMobile.
I did that, and got no improvement as far as I could tell. (If there was any improvement, it was minimal and the problem was still present, but perhaps less severe.)
I was told that "Palm is working on it." And they are clearly *very* aware of the specific issue - but are evasive about what they might be doing about it. Tthey couldn't offer any details about the "working on it" part.
In short, they might well be working with TMobile to resolve the issue, but the unwashed masses won't have any way to check on progress. We won't know when, or if, the effort is given up on. Thus you won't know for sure that you, well and truly, now own a "brick" that has NO chance of ever seeing a resolution.
Before I blame Palm too hard, I must point out that there are numerous reports of users switching away to AT&T and the problem vanishes. I also have first hand knowledge of a 680 on AT&T that has no such problem.
In fact, I think TMob actually bears a greater share of the blame from what I can see.
Clearly TMobile "caused" the problem with (I'm guessing) an infrastructure software update around the end of August. They could dilligently work with their Cellular base-station software vendor to resolve the issue for these phones. As far as I can tell, they're not trying very hard. [Every update I've had from TMobile is, in essence, "We're waiting on Palm." Then when no fix comes from Palm, TMobile simply can claim they are as much victims as the people with 680's and Centro's - TMobile just *couldn't* do a thing because Palm didn't fix it for them. [Which is all misdirection, smoke and mirrors, IMO. TMobile very much *could* do something themselves without having to get cooperation, from Palm. But I'd guess they don't care much - or at least enough to do it when it costs them time and effort.]
So, as you can see, I believe that there's more than enough blame to go around. Either side could fix the problem if they really wanted to, but I'd bet neither side will, and they have a convenient scapegoat to blame. [Palm will blame TMo, and TMo will blame Palm.]
(And before someone claims that the GSM standard shouldn't allow this, I'll just make this comment. A standard is just a way of *helping* improve interpretability. It is NOT a guarantee of it. It's easy to have devices that "follow the standards" but don't work together. If the parties don't want to work together to resolve incompatibilities, they can each claim "well, we are standards compliant." But the end result is a device that doesn't interoperate properly.)
After a couple of passes at Palm tier 3 support, I was offered a no-charge hardware swap to a Treo Pro, runnin WinMobile. I accepted - with reservations.
They are:
1) Should a problem crop up between this new device and TMo, I'd guess I'll be in the exact same boat again. WinMo is dying on the Palm platform, and they're not going to expend much effort to fix any WinMo problems either, I'd guess.
2) I have a lot of Palm OS based apps I'll have to move, and then move again to WebOS should I choose to continue my long tradition with Palm.
3) I really don't like Microsoft very much, and I really don't much want a WinMo device...
So, the long winded stuff above, should be interpreted thus [in my opinion - which again, could be wrong.]
1) Palm would not have offered me a hardware swap if they weren't pretty darn sure that no fix was ever going to be found. If they were really working hard with TMo, and thought a fix was at all probable, they'd have said so and saved the cost of swapping my hardware. [And I probably would have been happier too!]
2) I don't know what TMob is doing, but from all indications I've had personally and from other posts - they're not doing much. I'd strongly guess they'll say "Sorry, we can't help you. Palm isn't doing enough to help us." They'll probably offer some upgrades on hardware at attractive pricing/contracts stipuations if you press them *hard.* [They'll claim when you do that the Palm devices were never sold by TMo, which is true. Your response should be that they work like a charm on AT&T. I'll bet that shuts 'em up quick like.]
3) There's some chance we all get struck by lightning, and another update to TMob's systems will make the problem go away without TMo trying. [If this happens, go buy a lottery ticket - it's your lucky day. Don't squander it!]
4) I see in some posts, that TMobile is starting damage control. Just remember this fact. The Treo's and Centros work great on AT&T. It clearly *IS* possible to support these devices if you want to. TMobile just doesn't care enough to expend the resources to solve the problem. Don't believe "we just can't support your device" - TMob could if they wanted to - they just don't want to. Key words: Want, not Can't.
5) If you want to stay with TMob, then get an unlocked IPhone off of craigslist or ebay. Perhaps a blackberry or a cheap handset until we get a GSM version of the WebOS device from Palm.
If you don't care about staying with TMob, switch to AT&T.
6) If you're a masochist, then open a ticket with Palm and try to get the same deal I got - a Treo Pro (Treo 850) (call their headquarters and get escalated to corporate customer service excalation team - at least that what I think they call it.) Be prepared to sink a lot of time and effort into it. It helps that I know a lot and have a long history with Palm. I've also spent money direct with them and have had open tickets before on unknown issues, so that may perhaps have helped my case.
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That's pretty much it.
I'll say this. I pushed as hard as I could to get a fix for everyone. However when it became clear that was exceedingly unlikely, I took the best deal I could. For me that was staying on TMob, and getting a Pro. I'll probably switch again to a WebOS device when we get a GSM version - hopefully late this year, early next or so.
But it's my opinion that this is the end of the line for everyone on TMobile using a Centro or Treo device that has the symptoms mentioned upthread.
I'm going to cross-post this into a number of threads, so hopefully this info will get disseminated as widely as possible. I'd hate to have anyone else waste the 20+ hours I have in nailing this all down.
