iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 Developer Tool Can More Heavily Prioritize 5G Versus Wi-Fi Connections

[DeepIn2U]

The captive portal is a click through legal agreement between you and the provider, Apple will not program iOS to auto accept legal agreements on your behalf. If something were to happen on that network, such as a hack or data breach, they would be at fault but you signed an agreement. You would be unaware of this agreement because iOS signed it without your knowledge, causing an even bigger mess.

that explanation doesn’t change anything I’ve stated. Apple should NOT auto connect to such networks and try to use data. There should be some sort of detection that it’s a hotspot and if not use interaction involved shouldn’t use that as a priority.

right now even in iOS 14.7 it still does. Test this yourself you’ll see what exactly I mean and how it affects iOS internet connectivity.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Isn’t there a toggle that prevents iOS from connecting to unkown / public networks and to prevent from even asking?

There is however even if disable the behaviour still occurs. .

 

[DeepIn2U]

I've only ever had to do those sign ins one time. I did Starbucks as an example in 2017 and haven't seen a prompt since anywhere in the US same for all the airports I go through. I do always use a VPN which may bypass some but I still see the authentication pages on new networks with it enabled. Another good reason to turn WIFI and Bluetooth off when not in use in my opinion as well.

that’s cause you saved the network connection delete it and you’ll see next time you’re at Starbucks. They’ve gotten better but Pizza Pizza and others I’ve mention tend to lease the intent connection very short (days/weeks) so it’s constant need to agree.

 

[Ethrem]

There is however even if disable the behaviour still occurs. .

It will only do that under two circumstances

1) you have used that SSID before and have auto join enabled on the SSID itself. Toggle auto join off and you’re good.

2) your carrier has bundled these hotspots as part of carrier WiFi in the carrier bundle. This one is annoying and cannot be shut off. Both AT&T and Xfinity Mobile use it and it annoyed me so much I dropped Xfinity Mobile and went to a prepaid plan.

 

[DeepIn2U]

One of the first things I turned off. All too easy to blow past data limits (like the very first iOS update!)

Yes this was absolutely THE most stupid implementation Apple has done on iOS (save for iOS 15 photos/iCloud scanning coming arguably).

this Wi-Fi assist initially was on by default yet after user backlash and along with mobile networks complaining to Apple of refunds on that it’s off by default. I always check this on my iPhone every iOS update just in case.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It will only do that under two circumstances

1) you have used that SSID before and have auto join enabled on the SSID itself. Toggle auto join off and you’re good.

2) your carrier has bundled these hotspots as part of carrier WiFi in the carrier bundle. This one is annoying and cannot be shut off. Both AT&T and Xfinity Mobile use it and it annoyed me so much I dropped Xfinity Mobile and went to a prepaid plan.

you’re correct for those two points however as I stated before - 1. I’ve deleted the hotspot so any per SSIDs I’ve mentioned or encounter still have this issue (reset iPhone or any previous models as far back as iPhone 5S).

2. my carrier has no partnership affiliates for these SSIDs

I’ve done my troubleshooting yet your tips are valid for many out there.

 

[swm]

LTE speeds that average 20Mbps and peak at 100Mbps with latency 25-175ms with an average around 70ms. It’s a noticeable improvement and it’s the fastest network here hands down.

wow, those LTE figures look like crap. Here in europe we have 140Mbps dl speeds outdoors on LTE (TMH), and i live in a town with a population of roughly 9k - so quite small. RTT-wise it is around 18-28ms.
i’m now indoors and i just tested LTE with a cellular ipad air. 32ms rtt and 40Mbps dl speeds. Even with the signal stremgth indicator lit to halfway only. So LTE can be good if done right.

 

[Ethrem]

you’re correct for those two points however as I stated before - 1. I’ve deleted the hotspot so any per SSIDs I’ve mentioned or encounter still have this issue (reset iPhone or any previous models as far back as iPhone 5S).

2. my carrier has no partnership affiliates for these SSIDs

I’ve done my troubleshooting yet your tips are valid for many out there.

Something is obviously broken because I’ve never run into this issue. Once I toggle off auto join on the SSID, that’s that, unless the carrier WiFi situation is involved.

 

[Ethrem]

wow, those LTE figures look like crap. Here in europe we have 140Mbps dl speeds outdoors on LTE (TMH), and i live in a town with a population of roughly 9k - so quite small. RTT-wise it is around 18-28ms.
i’m now indoors and i just tested LTE with a cellular ipad air. 32ms rtt and 40Mbps dl speeds. Even with the signal stremgth indicator lit to halfway only. So LTE can be good if done right.

The problem we have locally is that the carriers have non-contiguous blocks. I mean the spectrum map looks like they were intentionally trying to impede each other. T-Mobile also has a lot more spectrum than Verizon or AT&T unless you look at mmWave holdings.

Verizon in particular suffers here with just 106.85MHz of sub-2.5GHz (this chart calls midband high band) spectrum. There are times during the day that you’re lucky to see 2Mbps on Verizon. No chance of mmWave because we aren’t urban enough for it to make sense.

T-Mobile has 194MHz of contiguous 2.5GHz spectrum here and over 400MHz of sub-6GHz spectrum total so they have a massive leg up over the other two that won’t go away even when Verizon can finally deploy C-Band in 2023/2024.

 

[bn-7bc]

Nice! But what about WiFi 6E? Isn't that faster and more reliable than 5G.

Depends on the internett connection that ultimatly carries the data suplied by the ap, as with any other wifi

 

[macduke]

I’m hoping that they will allow us to override this priority in settings. I get a $10 per line discount on T-Mobile if I stay under 2GB a month, and working from home that’s surprisingly easy nowadays. Don’t want it eating into my data plan just because my inconsistent Mediacom internet slows down for a time.

most 5G deployments are around the performance of 4G. which is not surprising, as 5GNR can squeeze maybe 10% more bw from the same amount of spectrum compared to 4G. so unless you are using 3.5GHz-ish midband with 80-100MHz continuous spectrum, wifi will be better.

the worst crime against technology was the hype around 5G. somehow the 'tech media' managed to glue together the coverage of low-band 5G, the network performance of mmWave 5G and the price point of DSS 4G/5G. now everyone wants to have multi gigabit performance with sub 5ms latency for free on the 700MHz band.

This. Drives me crazy how hyped it all was and was just a big nothingburger. I kept telling people that 5G is only fast in certain large cities and if you open your umbrella it halves the speed. My normal 5G speed has only increased a small amount over LTE, just as you said. I’m also not noticing any better coverage on these so-called superior Qualcomm chips vs. the older Intel ones that everyone eviscerated.

I’m hoping someday we can just get internet on our phones from low-earth orbit. Maybe just pay to access across multiple devices. Like tier 1 is home-based like what Starlink is doing. Then tier 2 could be a home basestation + 2 mobile devices, tier 3 home base station + 5 mobile devices, tier 4 home base station + 10 mobile devices, etc. Just sign in with your existing plan on whatever device you want. No sim cards, no telephone numbers, just pure multi-gigabit internet to use how you want at any location on earth. No roaming, no swapping sims, just earth internet.

 

[amartinez1660]

How does this work again?
I have a dev account (and you might wonder why just by this very same question), it has a download link and all… however, this is to be used only during development only right? Or are those profiles “embedded” as a behavior for an app?

 

[ghostface147]

How about when 5G signal sucks from Verizon?

 

[IllinoisCorn]

reality check: this will lead to 0 arrests of pedophiles.

I think it will, sure. It's the casting of a wider net.

Doesn't make it right.

 

[zorinlynx]

Considering how often LTE has been faster than the local WiFi I was on, why is this only being enabled for 5G?

 

[tyranne201]

this should be up to the users, not developers.

 

[4jasontv]

The captive portal is a click through legal agreement between you and the provider, Apple will not program iOS to auto accept legal agreements on your behalf. If something were to happen on that network, such as a hack or data breach, they would be at fault but you signed an agreement. You would be unaware of this agreement because iOS signed it without your knowledge, causing an even bigger mess.

How is iOS auto accepting any different than when the 19-year-old at Verizon clicks agrees to the iOS T&C during device setup?

 

[randyhudson]

WTF is an insecure WiFi network? All apps are forced to use TLS already.

 

[gene731]

reality check: this will lead to 0 arrests of pedophiles.

No offense, but you know this how?

 

[farewelwilliams]

gotta make sure that connection for icloud upload is stable so CSAM right?

sounds like you never tried AT&T's 5G

 

[owidhh]

The captive portal is a click through legal agreement between you and the provider, Apple will not program iOS to auto accept legal agreements on your behalf. If something were to happen on that network, such as a hack or data breach, they would be at fault but you signed an agreement. You would be unaware of this agreement because iOS signed it without your knowledge, causing an even bigger mess.

Why not? They'll automatically report me if I have suspicious images in my Photo Library, so why not do something in my favor as well and auto accept agreements on my behalf? Half-joking, half-serious...

 

[ian87w]

Nice! But what about WiFi 6E? Isn't that faster and more reliable than 5G.

“WiFi” speed is dependent on your ISP.

 

[one more]

This sounds similar to WiFi Assist and we should be able to opt out, if we do not want to use it for any reason.

 

[dguisinger]

The one thing that drives me crazy is being an Xfinity Mobile user, Xfinity likes to offload onto their Wifi hotspots.... so you will be walking down the road with 5G going and suddenly your internet drops because you are at the remote edge of an Xfinity hotspot where it recognizes it but can't get any data through, but prioritizes it over your 5G connection. Makes me always turn off WiFi when I leave the house.

 

[canpoyrazoglu]

I don't think it should be like 'use this particular tech over this other tech', for example here where I live LTE (can easily reach 200Mbps) is MUCH FASTER than Wi-Fi connections (which are stuck to ADSL or VDSL2 at best). iOS should be smart enough to route traffic over the faster/reliable connection, whether it's Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE, 5G, USB tunnel or whatever.