iPhone 5: EDGE, 3G, LTE and so on ...

Max(IT) · Mar 31, 2013

Hi guys,
I recently switched from an iPhone 4S to a white iPhone 5 and while I'm perfectly fine with all the settings (I owned all the iPhone release since iPhone 3), I'm having some trouble with the Settings -> General -> cellular switches.
In my former iPhone (4s) I had a switch to turn on/off 3G that I used to save battery life while maintaining data (EDGE is more than enough for mail, meteo update and so on ).

In the new iPhone 5 the only switch I have is Enable LTE on/off, and disabling this option keep the phone in 3G mode.
But reading this forum and others, I saw posts of other people speaking about turning 3G on and off with iPhone 5, so I'm puzzled.
Is this related to my operator's sim (4g enabled) ?

Thank you in advance for the help.

darricksailo · Mar 31, 2013

Max(IT) said:
Hi guys,
I recently switched from an iPhone 4S to a white iPhone 5 and while I'm perfectly fine with all the settings (I owned all the iPhone release since iPhone 3), I'm having some trouble with the Settings -> General -> cellular switches.
In my former iPhone (4s) I had a switch to turn on/off 3G that I used to save battery life while maintaining data (EDGE is more than enough for mail, meteo update and so on ).

In the new iPhone 5 the only switch I have is Enable LTE on/off, and disabling this option keep the phone in 3G mode.
But reading this forum and others, I saw posts of other people speaking about turning 3G on and off with iPhone 5, so I'm puzzled.
Is this related to my operator's sim (4g enabled) ?

Thank you in advance for the help.

I think having the option to turn on/off 3G along with LTE depends on the carrier. But for the most part, I think most carriers don't let you disable 3G on stock OS. The only way to do so is via jailbreaking if you don't have the option to turn off 3G in settings

yeah · Mar 31, 2013

Usually having LTE on will still get you the same battery life because all of the radios/antennas are inside one single chip.

Peter K. · Mar 31, 2013

yeah said:
Usually having LTE on will still get you the same battery life because all of the radios/antennas are inside one single chip.

I agree; I think it is there to stop your phone from waffling back and forth if/when you are stationary in an are with a very weak LTE signal.

Max(IT) · Apr 1, 2013

My concerns are not in disabling LTE to save battery life, I know that is almost the same of 3G, but I would like to have the ability of disable 3G/LTE sometimes to save battery life while maintaining some data capabilities.

Here in Italy with every operator I tried there is only the LTE on/off switch enabled.
Jailbreak isn't an option for me: I don't like it.

Missjenna · Apr 5, 2013

Max(IT) said:
My concerns are not in disabling LTE to save battery life, I know that is almost the same of 3G, but I would like to have the ability of disable 3G/LTE sometimes to save battery life while maintaining some data capabilities.

Here in Italy with every operator I tried there is only the LTE on/off switch enabled.
Jailbreak isn't an option for me: I don't like it.

As far as I know, JBing is your only option. I use an older version of BatterDoctorPro to disable 3g.

lordofthereef · Apr 6, 2013

To be quite blunt, if its bit available in settings there is nothing you can do about it outside of jailbreak. It's the reason jailbreak exists: to get around Apple and carrier limitations.

RotaryP7 · Apr 6, 2013

Yes, turning off 3G and/or LTE depends on the carrier. On T-Mobile you can turn off 3G while on AT&T you can't. Both have the LTE on/off button, or will have.

scaredpoet · Apr 6, 2013

Max(IT) said:
My concerns are not in disabling LTE to save battery life, I know that is almost the same of 3G, but I would like to have the ability of disable 3G/LTE sometimes to save battery life while maintaining some data capabilities.

Here in Italy with every operator I tried there is only the LTE on/off switch enabled.
Jailbreak isn't an option for me: I don't like it.

The reason you're seeing carriers disable the ability to turn off 3G, is because they're preparing for a time in the near future where 3G is the baseline. Some carriers are already beginning to turn off EDGE and 2G GSM in areas well covered by 3G/4G technologies, to reclaim the spectrum for those newer networks.

Without jailbreaking, there are no options to restore the ability to shut off 3G, if a carrier has disabled it in the carrier profile.

That said though, you're probably going to get better battery savings out of things like going with fetch email instead of push. EDGE on the iPhone 5, in the rare cases I find I have to use it, really shows 2G's age, and it's a case of diminishing returns... Are you REALLY saving that much battery life if you're spending more time with the phone active while it tries to grab data from such a slow connection?

Applejuiced · Apr 6, 2013

lordofthereef said:
To be quite blunt, if its bit available in settings there is nothing you can do about it outside of jailbreak. It's the reason jailbreak exists: to get around Apple and carrier limitations.

Yep, pretty much what LR said above.
If Apple is not giving you the option then only other way around it is to take charge of your device and JB it.
If you're not up for that then there's nothing else you can do about it.

Max(IT) · Apr 7, 2013

scaredpoet said:
The reason you're seeing carriers disable the ability to turn off 3G, is because they're preparing for a time in the near future where 3G is the baseline. Some carriers are already beginning to turn off EDGE and 2G GSM in areas well covered by 3G/4G technologies, to reclaim the spectrum for those newer networks.

Without jailbreaking, there are no options to restore the ability to shut off 3G, if a carrier has disabled it in the carrier profile.

That said though, you're probably going to get better battery savings out of things like going with fetch email instead of push. EDGE on the iPhone 5, in the rare cases I find I have to use it, really shows 2G's age, and it's a case of diminishing returns... Are you REALLY saving that much battery life if you're spending more time with the phone active while it tries to grab data from such a slow connection?

Traveling a lot for business, here in Europe and in the USA also, I can say that 3G coverage worldwide isn't yet so good to rely only on it.
And for LTE the situation is even worse.
Edge surely has limitations, but is good enough for email and when you're working with battery at 30% it could give you maybe an extra hour (or two) of battery life, that could be what you need to finish your work day.
Thank you for your advice but being a long time iPhone user I already switched off push to save battery.

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