Hello Sarf , thanks for your reply

yes the W880 was working correctly, the SIM is fine, bills payed :)

when i inserted the SIM in a very old Sony i had again good reception and even more strangely if i would move 500mt away from my current location the W880 would again start working properly.

here's what I think happened: there was a thunderstorm and the 3G network must have gone down in my aerea, while the GSM still works.
That's why the old phone was working, it has no 3G.
Infact when I switched my W880 to 'GSM only' it started working properly again.

In synthesis: GSM + 3G would not work if the 3G is down, it would not siwtch automatically to GSM only.
a bit of a bug in the OS in my opinion

best

aero