[Hero, G2 Touch Android Development] bubblesmoney:
i dont think anything has been disabled on my phone. i have two htc desires both are not rooted, both factory issue unlocked. one of them i have fiddled with the settings and made it GSM(PRL) and automatic radio band. on both phones i still get HSDPA (download speeds of upto 5400kbps, upload speeds of upto 540kbps by using speed test app but sometimes is slow but get these speeds at most times i have done the speed test, signal reception almost mirrors each other. by signal i dont mean something vague like 2 bars and three bars, i mean actual numbers in terms of dBm and ASU values which can be accessed on the HTC desire phone ( from home page > menu > settings > about phone > network. this will show the signal strength in terms of dBm and ASU values and changes dynamically as you move even if you are in a car ). i had both my htc desires side by side while checking if this setting worked. i was continuously monitoring the dBm and ASU values over one hour period while moving in a car and walking, my wife was reading out the dBm and ASU values as i was driving over a large area which i frequently drive around.

the most important thing is that the signal drop in weak signal areas was consistently similar on both the phones, but when i totally lost the signal in a weak signal area, there was a big difference in how the phones behaved. the factory settings phone was wasting battery juice bonking the airwaves trying to get a signal and miserably kept failing as i didnt get a signal at all at the location where i lost the signal on both phones (one phone in each hand next to each other). but the phone i had fiddled with (made the change to GSM(PRL) and automatic radio band) almost instantly got a PRL GPRS signal with 2-3 bars strength and upto 9 ASU strength and phone was usable, while my other factory settings phone still didnt have any signal and was just bonking the airwaves trying to get a signal and wasting battery juice. oh by the way when the parent network signal improved when i moved from that area both phones got the signal and my fiddled phone also instantly switched back to the parent network signal with HSDPA signal after i walked a few hundred yards away where i could get a better signal from parent network. i dont know which network the PRL gprs signal was from as this wasnt obvious from the phone. but i dont get charged anyway even if i am roaming in the uk, which i have confirmed from three network in the uk and have not been billed for roaming either as i was roaming quite a few times in the uk during my last billing period.

This absolutely works in my situation. I am not a techie or a developer, just an extremely pleased user who was about to buy a second PAYG simcard from another network and was about to carry a second phone for such situations but now because of this work around i dont have to carry a second phone, i get a signal where i never used to get a signal and get better battery life to boot. now 22 hours and 4mins after last charge i still have 73% battery left to use :) thank you guys who ever suggested this option, this absolutely worked for me on a factory settings HTC desire unlocked unbranded phone from three network UK.

edit:

also see my other related posts on xda forum on this thread http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=6887960#post6887960 and the more extensive thread on MSE forums http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2523297 first forum post in that thread a LONG post details the problem i had and my test results and successful workaround is posted on page two of that thread in posts 33 and 34 onwards

yippie that was quick, the gods answered and i have linky posting rights now! thanks.