Android's best kept secret code

Just recently I noticed there was a flaky 3G service (MTN of course) in my room, but my phone seems too comfortable restricting me to the near useless EDGE service. I decided I was going to force my phone to use the 3G service, so armed with my computer, internet access and Google, I searched for a way to do this and I was so resolute I won't mind porting a code meant for a USB modem. But to my utmost surprise, I ended up discovering a code (like those IMEI checking code *#06# or Nokia warranty code *#92702689#). This code is definetely android's best kept secret, the code takes you to a sort of troubleshooting settings screen. It is *#*#4636#*#* enter it on the dial screen and as you enter the last character * the phone will switch to a new screen, the Testing screen. The image below is a screen shot of what you'll see.

The Phone information section shows the IMEI number, phone number, service provider network, signal strength, roaming status and even button to run ping test amongst loads of other info. The best part of this section is that you can force the phone to use 3G service, 2G service or any available one with preference on either 3G or 2G! Just sroll down to the Set preferred network type and set the one you want, but it's advisable to set it to one that is compatible with your service provider. Don't set it to CDMA only when your service provider is GSM and don't set it too WCDMA (3G) only if you use your phone for heavy phone calls and not data like I do. So for me, anytime I want to do heavy data access activity, I just set it to WCDMA only, otherwise I leave it at the default of WCDMA preferred.

The other sections are Baterry Information, Battery history, Usage history and Wifi information. But apart from the battery information section that provides you information about the health of the phone battery, the other sections are of little interest in day to day use.