Question

I need to know whether 3G connectivity is permitted on the device or not. I don’t want to know what current network state is, because if you set “Network Mode” setting in “Mobile network settings” screen to “Automatic” network state could be either 2G or 3G. I just want to know which setting is selected there – 2G, 3G or Automatic (latter two mean the same for me).

Both telephonyManager.getNetworkType() and ConnectivityManage.getNetworkInfo(ConnectivityManager.TYPE_MOBILE).getState()

are returning current network state, which can lead me in a wrong direction, because if current state is 2G it could mean that 3G is disabled or just that 3G mode is unavailable at the specific location.

Answer 1

Updated after test on LG GT540 phone:

You can use Settings.Secure to read preferred network mode, as in this code:

ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();
int value = Secure.getInt(cr, "preferred_network_mode");

On my LG GT540 with CM 7.1 firmware, I have four options:

• GSM/WCDM (auto) – the code above returns 3
• WCDMA only – the code above returns 2
• GSM only – the code above returns 1
• GMS/WCDMA (WCMDA preferred) – the code above returns 0

Naturally, GSM is 2G and WCDMA is 3G. Note that this does not provide you with information on which connection is currently active (provided you allow both). For that, see @VikashKLumar’s answer.