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No LTE on AT&T?

i-John

i-John

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 14, 2008
694
86
The Republic of Texas
Got my iPhone 5 this morning just before I had to go into work.

When I got to work and all was up and running, I was only getting 4G speeds (not LTE). My building is notorious for being a blackhole for service, so I paid little mind.
Well, on my way home, I noticed I had 4G all the way home. I'm in the Dallas suburbs, which is highly saturated with LTE.

This prompted a call to AT&T. First lady I spoke with tried to tell me that there were no LTE coverage in my area... really? The map you have says different. She came back and said I had. She wanted to reset my network settings, but since I was on the phone, I had to hang up... "call back in 2 minutes" I said. 10 minutes later, no call. Call back in. Finally got someone that actually knew what was going on. I was on another line at this stage... he done some resets, rebooted my phone... still 4G. He said "hold on a second", a few seconds later, as he said "Ok...", LTE appeared!! He said he had to "refresh my registration on the network"

Getting decent LTE speeds in my apartment, even though it was also a blackhole for service.

Anyway, long story short... if you're having LTE issues where you should be getting LTE coverage, give them a call to reset everything.

If this wasn't resolved, it would have been a dealbreaker for someone who has been with AT&T for about 13-14 years.
 
i-John said:
Got my iPhone 5 this morning just before I had to go into work.

When I got to work and all was up and running, I was only getting 4G speeds (not LTE). My building is notorious for being a blackhole for service, so I paid little mind.
Well, on my way home, I noticed I had 4G all the way home. I'm in the Dallas suburbs, which is highly saturated with LTE.

This prompted a call to AT&T. First lady I spoke with tried to tell me that there were no LTE coverage in my area... really? The map you have says different. She came back and said I had. She wanted to reset my network settings, but since I was on the phone, I had to hang up... "call back in 2 minutes" I said. 10 minutes later, no call. Call back in. Finally got someone that actually knew what was going on. I was on another line at this stage... he done some resets, rebooted my phone... still 4G. He said "hold on a second", a few seconds later, as he said "Ok...", LTE appeared!! He said he had to "refresh my registration on the network"

Getting decent LTE speeds in my apartment, even though it was also a blackhole for service.

Anyway, long story short... if you're having LTE issues where you should be getting LTE coverage, give them a call to reset everything.

If this wasn't resolved, it would have been a dealbreaker for someone who has been with AT&T for about 13-14 years.
Click to expand...


only time I've seen my LTE was when i lost wifi for a brief sec other than that i haven't seen it again
 
Great tip... thanks for sharing...

I've been using Verizon's 4G/LTE for close to 2 years... and before I purchased my Verizon 4G/LTE mifi, I checked if our area had LTE coverage. When I tried first tried it at home, no LTE signal. When I called... they said they will upgrade the area in the future... even if my zip code said we have coverage on their website. I wasn't mad, because I have wifi at home... but it's almost 2 years, and still no LTE coverage at home. Overall, I'm still happy with the device, but LTE is just spotty in San Diego... but when I have an LTE signal... it's great. However, when I don't... I get slow 3G evdo. Just be happy that when you don't have LTE coverage, you still have AT&T 4G/HSPA speeds. Trust me... you will be happier with AT&T's 4G compared to Verizon's 3G evdo.;)

Also, I have an AT&T iPhone 5, and LTE is just as spotty as my Verizon 4G/LTE in San Diego. When it connects to LTE... it's fast, but when it connects to 4G, when there isn't LTE coverage, it's fast enough.:)
 
i talked to both at&t and verizon today and no one knew what the hell they were doing in general. no wonder everyone else has their reps in India now.
 
I am in the Dallas suburbs too (Carrollton). My iPad and my fiance's iPhone5 were both showing LTE, but mine just said 4G. I am on the phone with AT&T now trying to get it fixed. I just hope she doesn't accidently delete my unlimited data.
 
35 minutes later....she is telling me that 4G and LTE are the same thing and my phone is just showing LTE "a different way." :rolleyes:

I guess I will be calling back to get some one else on the phone.
 
Now tech support is telling me "some phones just don't say LTE on them."

He also wants me to go get my "SIMS" card tested. :rolleyes:

----------

UPDATE:

It is now working after a third reset. I guess the tech guy did something right. :)
 
I had a similar issue here is Las Vegas. Apparently during the activation process at the local apple store the new phone was never registered at AT&T as an iPhone 5 and was still in their system as a 4s. I called 611 from the phone, got thru to tech support and had the issue resolved in minutes.

----------
TWO2SEVEN said:
Now tech support is telling me "some phones just don't say LTE on them."

He also wants me to go get my "SIMS" card tested. :rolleyes:

----------
This is bull. If your phone isn't displaying LTE and is only saying 4G than you are NOT getting LTE.
Click to expand...
 
TWO2SEVEN said:
They finally got it fixed after about an hour.
Click to expand...

Much to my frustration, I'm having the exact same issue with my 5 displaying 4G instead of LTE. Any tips on navigating through at&t's sea of terribly trained/uninformed reps? Did they use any buzz words when they told you what they were doing?
 
tcb9289 said:
Much to my frustration, I'm having the exact same issue with my 5 displaying 4G instead of LTE. Any tips on navigating through at&t's sea of terribly trained/uninformed reps? Did they use any buzz words when they told you what they were doing?
Click to expand...

Well, the tech guy told me to removed and re-insert my "sims :rolleyes: " card. In the end I didn't remove it, I just restarted my phone.

I would ask for tech support first. I went through customer service because I had read threads where people said something needed to be adjusted on their account.
 
tcb9289 said:
Much to my frustration, I'm having the exact same issue with my 5 displaying 4G instead of LTE. Any tips on navigating through at&t's sea of terribly trained/uninformed reps? Did they use any buzz words when they told you what they were doing?
Click to expand...

After I had tech support tell me Apple needed to issue an update, which I regarded as pure BS, I decided to go to ATT and have them check out my phone. Be sure that they have the correct IMEI number set to your account.
This was my issue I believe.
I am up and running fast LTE now.
 
stevetim said:
After I had tech support tell me Apple needed to issue an update, which I regarded as pure BS, I decided to go to ATT and have them check out my phone. Be sure that they have the correct IMEI number set to your account.
This was my issue I believe.
I am up and running fast LTE now.
Click to expand...

+1
AT&T still had 4s imei listed, this solved the problem.
 
crabapplemcn said:
+1
AT&T still had 4s imei listed, this solved the problem.
Click to expand...

I just finished a very fruitful online chat with an at&t tech support rep, and I can confirm that the problem was a lingering 4s IMEI associated with my account. I called about the issue on Friday when I was activating the phone on my line (instead of the line that I stole the upgrade from), but the call was disconnected twice. They got the sim switched over, which at the time seemed like the only important piece of the puzzle . . .

Looks like verifying that the IMEI is correctly associated must be the key. Thanks for the help!
 
tcb9289 said:
I just finished a very fruitful online chat with an at&t tech support rep, and I can confirm that the problem was a lingering 4s IMEI associated with my account. I called about the issue on Friday when I was activating the phone on my line (instead of the line that I stole the upgrade from), but the call was disconnected twice. They got the sim switched over, which at the time seemed like the only important piece of the puzzle . . .

Looks like verifying that the IMEI is correctly associated must be the key. Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Sweet! I'm gonna call AT&T and give them am earful. I had to waste time on ye phone with them and run around town trying to diagnose my own issue versus their "Apple update" answer. If I was gullible amp ugh to believe that, I may have been sitting around waiting for an update for months.
 
stevetim said:
Sweet! I'm gonna call AT&T and give them am earful. I had to waste time on ye phone with them and run around town trying to diagnose my own issue versus their "Apple update" answer. If I was gullible amp ugh to believe that, I may have been sitting around waiting for an update for months.
Click to expand...

Be careful when they do it . . .they indeed fixed my LTE issue, but in the process managed to break visual voicemail, imessage, and facetime. For voicemail, they managed to completely remove the feature entirely, resulting in my entire inbox getting deleted permanently. You may benefit from turning off the facetime/imessage toggles before you have them update the IMEI (and data plan), and specifically ask them to check that your sms/mms/voicemail/other data services are still there before you hang up. After I got the LTE & VM problems resolved, I realized that imessage & facetime (both of which worked prior to adding LTE) were stuck in "waiting for activation..." mode, which ultimately required a full-restore to fix. Giant PITA, but I'm now seeing LTE speeds of 25 Mbps down & 8 Mbps up . . .so there's that.

Good Luck!
 
A problem I am having is my phone will switch to 4G and then doesn't come back to LTE in an LTE zone unless I toggle airplane mode. I notice this on a bus ride in NYC. Anyone else have this?
 
You know for AT&T to have the 4G actually be 3G.5 in disguise. Maybe they should inform there employees that 4G to them is not LTE.

Btw I have been on wifi most of the time but when I'm outside LTE does pop up- New York
 
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