How do i switch from 3g to 2g on my iPhone 4?

[trenfro]

I mainly want to do this to save battery life. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[PsstGreek]

Settings > General > Network > 3G on/off.

 

[Daveoc64]

Some carriers may block this feature.

 

[trenfro]

Settings > General > Network > 3G on/off.

After doing that i went to safari to test it and it said cellular data is turned of and that safari cant open the page.

 

[Daveoc64]

Are you sure you chose the 3G option?

Your phone will most likely have two options as shown in the following screenshot.

Enable 3G

Cellular Data (shown as the British English equivalent "Mobile Data" here)

The first option will disable the 3G network and only enable your carrier's 2G network (which may provide GPRS, EDGE or 1xRTT data). If there's no 2G signal or the network doesn't support data then you wont be able to use it in the way that you want to.

What do you see in the top left of the phone? Your phone will show a different symbol for each type of network:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1976

 

[trenfro]

Are you sure you chose the 3G option?

Your phone will most likely have two options as shown in the following screenshot.

Enable 3G

Cellular Data (shown as the British English equivalent "Mobile Data" here)

The first option will disable the 3G network and only enable your carrier's 2G network (which may provide GPRS, EDGE or 1xRTT data). If there's no 2G signal or the network doesn't support data then you wont be able to use it in the way that you want to.

What do you see in the top left of the phone? Your phone will show a different symbol for each type of network:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1976

When 3g is on I see: 5 of 5 bars Verizon 3G, when it's off is see: 5 of 5 bars Verizon

 

[dave006]

I mainly want to do this to save battery life. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

Settings > General > Network > 3G on/off.

What version of iOS do you have?

If you have iOS 5 then the option to turn off 3G "only: is not currently available. It is floating around in the new Beta of iOS 5.0.3 so expect it to return as it does help with battery usage in some situations.

Dave

 

[wordoflife]

Oh you can't really turn off 3G on Verizon/Sprint phones.

The phone uses 3G network for data and 1x network for voice. So if you disable cellular data, you're basically disabling 3G. You can't use 1x for data though.

 

[Daveoc64]

When 3g is on I see: 5 of 5 bars Verizon 3G, when it's off is see: 5 of 5 bars Verizon

As Verizon is a CDMA network, you're not likely to see a power saving when disabling 3G.

It'll also mean that in a 3G area you'll lose data connectivity.

 

[NZed]

What version of iOS do you have?

If you have iOS 5 then the option to turn off 3G "only: is not currently available. It is floating around in the new Beta of iOS 5.0.3 so expect it to return as it does help with battery usage in some situations.

Dave

isnt it the iOS 5.1 beta 3 already???

 

[Applejuiced]

isnt it the iOS 5.1 beta 3 already???

Yes.
I wonder if they will enable that option for the 4S too?

Oh you can't really turn off 3G on Verizon/Sprint phones.

The phone uses 3G network for data and 1x network for voice. So if you disable cellular data, you're basically disabling 3G. You can't use 1x for data though.

Exactly.
Welcome to the CDMA world🙂