6.1 kills 2G only?

[prism]

Before updating, I could force the phone to stick to 2G only, which is more reliable than the 3G coverage over here. Now the 3G on/off switch has been replaced by an LTE on/off switch and when switch off LTE, the phone keeps jumping between 2G and 3G, is this for real???

[dsh3]

Looks like it. Same thing on my unlocked iPhone 5 here in Denmark.

I, too, had to lock it to 2G because of the bad 3G coverage here in the area, and now I have barely any coverage at all. And even worse, there's no 4G/LTE network available at all on this carrier, so now I have nearly zero coverage on my phone.

[Korican100]

dont kno if you got the memo, but 2g is being phased out permanently. expect more loss of 2g to come in the following year

[Feed Me]

Originally Posted by Korican100

dont kno if you got the memo, but 2g is being phased out permanently. expect more loss of 2g to come in the following year

Don't know if you got the memo, but the USA isn't the only country in the world, nor AT&T the only carrier.

[mikeydeezy]

Originally Posted by Feed Me

Don't know if you got the memo, but the USA isn't the only country in the world, nor AT&T the only carrier.

Yeah right...like they have cell phones outside of the US. Pssh. Next you'll tell me they build the things too huh?

[prism]

Originally Posted by feed me

don't know if you got the memo, but the usa isn't the only country in the world, nor at&t the only carrier.

lol

[adam044]

People use 2G still??

[pnoyblazed]

LTE or bust

[mikeydeezy]

I'd gladly use 2G when I'm not using my phone.

[Marjamrob1]

2G is dying in America, Verizon and ATT will soon be dropping it. But yes it does, that actually happened to me on my iPhone 5 with 6.0.2

[WillFisher]

Here in the UK people still use 2G, but mainly for inside buildings.
Especially for the network 3, around where I live I can only get 2G inside a building, I find it impossible to get 3G in my house!

[MattMJB0188]

You all need to speak for yourselves!!! 2G is very much alive here with AT&T, despite having very strong HSPA+ and LTE coverage. I have an Android phone that allows you to force 2G only and the signal is very strong and it works as it should.

AT&T might have gotten rid of some its 2G towers but NOT all of them!!!

I feel the frustration of OP because I felt the same way last year with the 4S before I moved. Had one bar of 3G coverage and by turing it off I was able to get 4 bars of 2G and much better service.

[0dev]

Originally Posted by WillFisher

Here in the UK people still use 2G, but mainly for inside buildings.
Especially for the network 3, around where I live I can only get 2G inside a building, I find it impossible to get 3G in my house!

Three disabled the 3G toggle in the first place anyway, they've done that with every phone they sell ever since they first started up. I still remember having one of those "teardrop" Nokia 7600 phones which had the disable 3G option greyed out on Three.

But yeah Three's coverage can be quite iffy. If I go across the road my signal drops from around four bars to virtually nothing. The thing is, though, Three has no 2G network, only 3G. When it says 2G it's actually roaming to O2's network, and Three has to pay O2 for that, so they don't want you using just 2G.

[jav6454]

Originally Posted by Marjamrob1

2G is dying in America, Verizon and ATT will soon be dropping it. But yes it does, that actually happened to me on my iPhone 5 with 6.0.2

Wrong. AT&T will be dropping it completely by 2017. Verizon has announced no plans to drop theirs. All 2G frequency allocation is being reallocated to 4G services.

[King Luis]

is there still the disable data cellular button?

[Brian Y]

On O2 in the UK here - my switch still says Enable 3G.

[maflynn]

Here on verizon I could not choose 2G. I could disable LTE, but I had no way to disable 3G.

[WillFisher]

Originally Posted by 0dev

But yeah Three's coverage can be quite iffy. If I go across the road my signal drops from around four bars to virtually nothing. The thing is, though, Three has no 2G network, only 3G. When it says 2G it's actually roaming to O2's network, and Three has to pay O2 for that, so they don't want you using just 2G.

Did not realise that AT ALL. Thanks for that.
My contract ends in around 4 months, the unlimited data won't keep me this time!

[0dev]

Originally Posted by WillFisher

Did not realise that AT ALL. Thanks for that.
My contract ends in around 4 months, the unlimited data won't keep me this time!

No problem.

What network will you be switching to? I'm on Three just because they're the only network I could find with reasonably priced unlimited data which allowed tethering and didn't come with fair use limits. If I can tether without limits for a decent price on another network I might move. I'm just on a rolling contract.

[WillFisher]

Originally Posted by 0dev

No problem.

What network will you be switching to? I'm on Three just because they're the only network I could find with reasonably priced unlimited data which allowed tethering and didn't come with fair use limits. If I can tether without limits for a decent price on another network I might move. I'm just on a rolling contract.

Well I'm unsure at the moment, I don't use as much data as I thought, therefore I'm going to be looking for around 2GB of Data. And even then, I don't tether, so I'm in a slightly different situation.
I've been with O2, Orange, 3 and Vodaphone, and I found Orange and O2 where the best, in both signal strength and customer service, so I recon I'll go with either O2 or EE possibly, especially with the 4G price drops in the next few weeks might give a few 3G prices drop, who knows!

[0dev]

Originally Posted by WillFisher

Well I'm unsure at the moment, I don't use as much data as I thought, therefore I'm going to be looking for around 2GB of Data. And even then, I don't tether, so I'm in a slightly different situation.
I've been with O2, Orange, 3 and Vodaphone, and I found Orange and O2 where the best, in both signal strength and customer service, so I recon I'll go with either O2 or EE possibly, especially with the 4G price drops in the next few weeks might give a few 3G prices drop, who knows!

Yeah I might sign up to EE, especially since they have such wide 2G and 3G coverage, but I'll be waiting until prices drop and 4G rolls out to my area first, and I will need unlimited data so I'll wait until they can provide that because with unlimited LTE I really won't need broadband anymore at all

I was on O2 which had good coverage but, around my way at least, the network itself was unreliable.

I'll have to shop around and see what kind of data I can get, but last I checked no other network could match Three for data.

[AppleFanatic10]

Originally Posted by maflynn

Here on verizon I could not choose 2G. I could disable LTE, but I had no way to disable 3G.

There never was a way to disable 3G on the Verizon iPhones.

[DerekRod]

Originally Posted by Feed Me

Don't know if you got the memo, but the USA isn't the only country in the world, nor AT&T the only carrier.

On a completely unrelated note are you the real Feed Me by any chance?

[KPOM]

Originally Posted by dsh3

Looks like it. Same thing on my unlocked iPhone 5 here in Denmark.

I, too, had to lock it to 2G because of the bad 3G coverage here in the area, and now I have barely any coverage at all. And even worse, there's no 4G/LTE network available at all on this carrier, so now I have nearly zero coverage on my phone.

Originally Posted by Korican100

dont kno if you got the memo, but 2g is being phased out permanently. expect more loss of 2g to come in the following year

Originally Posted by Feed Me

Don't know if you got the memo, but the USA isn't the only country in the world, nor AT&T the only carrier.

The 2G/3G toggle is actually something built into the carrier settings. The iPhone 4S dropped support for that toggle on AT&T in 2011, and the iPhone 5 never had it here. My guess is that the carriers requested that Apple drop the toggle, perhaps because the carrier wants to deprecate the 2G network to make room for more 3G or LTE coverage later. Note that Apple has a bit more sway than usual in the carrier settings (they won't activate LTE, for instance, until they have tested the network), but the carriers still have a lot of say into what goes into the settings.

[Feed Me]

Originally Posted by DerekRod

On a completely unrelated note are you the real Feed Me by any chance?

No.
He's playing a gig in Washington DC right now. No time for love, no time for snarky-internet-comment-posting.