I travel between NYC and d.c. and keep my phone on wcdma only. it rarely disconnects and is a lot more helpful. no drops to edge. the nice thing about hspa is even with 1 or no bars, data still flys, unlike edge.
Hmm, will try that next time.. I was driving up to Boston, so the coverage profile might have been different, but if forcing 3G does the trick, I'm happy
my phone tends to switch to edge rather quickly, there are a few weak spots, and a dead zone maybe twice, but its literally less than a minute usually 30 seconds and your back with 4g.. that's my experience on my htc amaze 4g. your mileage may vary. btw, on my 42Mb amaze, in NYC I get 8Mb down daytime (except near times square. 4Mb give or take) 2mb up. at night, 14- 18Mb down, 2-3 up.