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iPhone 12 5G performance starting to deteriorate, LTE getting better

J

jay968

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 2, 2019
455
268
California
I am seeing that unless I am in a very strong 5G area (such as at my home where I get great reception and full bars on the phone), I am getting better data performance if I switch to LTE. On 5G, if the bars go down to 2, sometimes 3, the data is incredibly slow, almost useless. Forcing the phone to LTE seems to speed things up dramatically. I'm also noticing that LTE speeds are much faster than they were a year or so ago.

Is it that as newer 5G phones are being purchased, the towers are starting to get saturated with 5G users and LTE is now opening up? Or is it that when the phone connects to a distant 5G tower, its performance suffers?

This is frustrating and makes me wonder what on earth the point was in switching to 5G.
 
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You’re buying for the future. 5G currently is Verizon and AT&T basically backhualling it with LTE so it’s mixed. There is a term for that but forgot the name of it. Or their is that mmWave. T-Mobile is using a lot of low band so it can go through walls but speeds aren’t drastically better and mid band which is faster. If you’re on Verizon iPhones support the new mid bands so when they go live you’ll get faster speeds. Idk about AT&T
 
OK, I guess I forgot to mention I am with T-Mobile.

At home I am getting anywhere between 200 and 450mbps download speeds every time I check. More times than I care to imagine, when I am away from home I seem to be getting far slower 5G speeds. It's not like I am on mid band faster towers at home and slower, lower band towers on the road.The speeds I am talking about are more like trying to use 3G in this day and age. Several times I wasn't even able to take a measurement using a speed test app and a few times when it's worked, it indicated slower than 5mbps. I've actually had to force my iphone 12 to LTE several times in recent days when away from my home in order to get acceptable speeds at all. It's honestly been pretty much unusable on 5G. It's not like the speeds are just a little faster or slower than LTE, they are WAY slower, to an unusable extent. This first occurred to me when I was in a restaurant with my wife. She's got an iphone 11 (LTE only) and I've got the 12. My data was dragging so much I couldn't bring anything at all up on the browser nor any data apps. I asked her to try her phone and everything was ok. I then switched mine to LTE and everything was also fine. Went back to 5G and had the problem again. When we got home and I was then on our local tower, once again everything was fine. Did a download test and saw 450mbps!

Again, I am wondering if 5G in this area is starting to get oversaturated already thus having this consequence. I am in Southern California and it actually would make sense that there are an awful lot of people using 5G phones these days.
 
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jay968 said:
OK, I guess I forgot to mention I am with T-Mobile.

At home I am getting anywhere between 200 and 450mbps download speeds every time I check. More times than I care to imagine, when I am away from home I seem to be getting far slower 5G speeds. It's not like I am on mid band faster towers at home and slower, lower band towers on the road.The speeds I am talking about are more like trying to use 3G in this day and age. Several times I wasn't even able to take a measurement using a speed test app and a few times when it's worked, it indicated slower than 5mbps. I've actually had to force my iphone 12 to LTE several times in recent days when away from my home in order to get acceptable speeds at all. Again, I am wondering if 5G in this area is starting to get oversaturated already thus having this consequence.

5G+ is not 5G. It is a marketing name made up by AT&T for the latest LTE tech which is slightly better than LTE. It is unfortunate that they chose the term "5G+" as this is very deceptive. It is not 5G at all and has nothing to do with 5G.
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You are so incorrect!! 5g+ is mmWave which is real 5g. 5ge is fake 5g. Please know what you are saying before you say it. Thank you
 
It’s funny you bring this up because I was going to ask the same question. Here’s my issue. I purchased an unlocked iPhone at the Apple store and was using it on Verizon for the first few months and I never had any data issues. I’ve since ported my number over to T-Mobile including 2 other lines that have galaxy s21’s. Well since making the switch I have had issues with my iPhone 12 Pro Max data where I would browse the web using safari or any data apps and they just don’t work. I found that turning airplane mode on than back off seems to fix the issue. I first thought it was an issue with T-Mobile so I called them and we went through some trouble shooting which helped at first but it happened again. So I called back to T-Mobile and they transferred me to expert services and they told me that they are updating the towers and it would be fixed within a few days but nothing. Next step I spoke with Apple thinking my device might be the issue and they had me shut down 5G on my iPhone and keep it on LTE for a few days to see if that’s what’s causing the issue. So far so good just waiting on a couple days for Apple to call me back to report and will go from there. So needless to say hopefully it’s not an iPhone issue because my 2 Samsung’s have been working just fine with no data issues. I have even used my Samsung’s when having issues on my iPhone and they work great and fast!! So will see I’ll update as soon as I hear from Apple.
 
BigT27 said:
It’s funny you bring this up because I was going to ask the same question. Here’s my issue. I purchased an unlocked iPhone at the Apple store and was using it on Verizon for the first few months and I never had any data issues. I’ve since ported my number over to T-Mobile including 2 other lines that have galaxy s21’s. Well since making the switch I have had issues with my iPhone 12 Pro Max data where I would browse the web using safari or any data apps and they just don’t work. I found that turning airplane mode on than back off seems to fix the issue. I first thought it was an issue with T-Mobile so I called them and we went through some trouble shooting which helped at first but it happened again. So I called back to T-Mobile and they transferred me to expert services and they told me that they are updating the towers and it would be fixed within a few days but nothing. Next step I spoke with Apple thinking my device might be the issue and they had me shut down 5G on my iPhone and keep it on LTE for a few days to see if that’s what’s causing the issue. So far so good just waiting on a couple days for Apple to call me back to report and will go from there. So needless to say hopefully it’s not an iPhone issue because my 2 Samsung’s have been working just fine with no data issues. I have even used my Samsung’s when having issues on my iPhone and they work great and fast!! So will see I’ll update as soon as I hear from Apple.
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So again today, went out, had 3 bars on the phone. Speed test showed 1-2mbps. I'm back home now. 350mbps.
It's almost as though it only works right in my house (yes I turn WiFi off when doing this).

Something is just not right.
 
"reset network settings" in the settings app. You'll have to re-input all your WiFi password and stuff like that, but it might fix the connection speed problems.
 
This is one of the things that T-Mobile had me do and although it did work for some time I still had the same issue within a day or 2. I find it easier to turn on airplane mode and than **** it back off. Data starts working and I don’t have to reenter my WiFi passwords all of again
 
Cellular bandwidth is as variable as midwestern weather, and can change as fast. [I remember one day I watched a thermometer moving as it dropped 20 degrees in minutes].

Variability can depend on:

1. Location. I see values changing from the single digits to the hundreds depending upon where I am.

2. Micro location. Moving just a few feet in an indoor location can have a major difference on speed.

2a. Band availability. A given location may have access to the low, mid, or high bands, which have very different bandwidth capacities. See [5].

3. Contention (?). Given that I can run several tests from the exact same micro location and get widely varying results seems to imply that demand plays a big part in what is available.

4. Device. With a 5G phone and 5G iPad right next together I saw very poor results for some reason on my iPad. Had to use the iPhone connection on the iPad.

5. Carrier. Carriers have purchased different spectrum bands. Verizon bet on the high band, which has very fast speeds but does not play well with distance or obstacles (windows, walls). T-Mobile due to the Sprint acquisition has a ton of mid-band, which is the best compromise between coverage distance and speed. AT&T & Verizon are now scrambling to match T-Mobiles' mid-band. They may never be able to reach parity.

jay968 said:
I am getting anywhere between 200 and 450mbps
Click to expand...

I have seen speeds like like that only a few times. You are lucky.

jay968 said:
Speed test showed 1-2mbps. I'm back home now. 350mbps.
Click to expand...

I'm the reverse. Very slow at home, all though not that slow, faster at other locations.

The bottom line is that right now you will always see wide variations in results, depending upon location, micro location, Carrier, 5G band being used, contention, etc. Whether this will change in the future is uncertain. Now that some carriers are pushing people to use cellular for their home internet connection the future is not clear.
 
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iHorseHead said:
How do I know if I have 5G in use?
Click to expand...

IMG_0606.jpeg
 
5G is pure marketing right now. LTE is more than enough. I can't even tell a situation where someone actually need a 5G connection when Wi-Fi is everywhere and/or LTE is already very good.
 
BigT27 said:
It’s funny you bring this up because I was going to ask the same question. Here’s my issue. I purchased an unlocked iPhone at the Apple store and was using it on Verizon for the first few months and I never had any data issues. I’ve since ported my number over to T-Mobile including 2 other lines that have galaxy s21’s. Well since making the switch I have had issues with my iPhone 12 Pro Max data where I would browse the web using safari or any data apps and they just don’t work. I found that turning airplane mode on than back off seems to fix the issue. I first thought it was an issue with T-Mobile so I called them and we went through some trouble shooting which helped at first but it happened again. So I called back to T-Mobile and they transferred me to expert services and they told me that they are updating the towers and it would be fixed within a few days but nothing. Next step I spoke with Apple thinking my device might be the issue and they had me shut down 5G on my iPhone and keep it on LTE for a few days to see if that’s what’s causing the issue. So far so good just waiting on a couple days for Apple to call me back to report and will go from there. So needless to say hopefully it’s not an iPhone issue because my 2 Samsung’s have been working just fine with no data issues. I have even used my Samsung’s when having issues on my iPhone and they work great and fast!! So will see I’ll update as soon as I hear from Apple.
Click to expand...
I had the same issue. I have to call T-mobile every month to reset the data caps. Problem solved.
 
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