iPhone doesn't handle AWS very well...

I find it to be the opposite. I have an iPhone 3GS which is only compatible with T-Mobile's 1900mhz HSPA+ and there are quite a few areas where I will have LTE or "4G" with my 5S but EDGE or No Service on the 3GS.

I do find that the LTE signal is always weaker though, which just seems to be the nature of the technology. For example, I get 5 bars "4G" in my apartment if I turn off LTE but when connected to LTE I only get 3 bars in the same location.

I think some of the Androids like the S4 and HTC One just pick up signal better than the iPhone. Inside my local mall people with those devices would pick up LTE while my iPhone 5S is mostly stuck on "4G" and occasionally picking up the same LTE signal.

As far as EDGE goes, the signal strength on EDGE will pretty much always be stronger than what you will get on HSPA+ or LTE.

Trust me you'd rather be connecting to AWS 3G than PCS 3G. The 1900mhz 3G penetrates buildings worse than AWS and the coverage is less expansive. The reason T-Mobile didn't convert the entire AWS band over to LTE is because they still have a lot of devices to support that aren't capable of LTE and need AWS 3G/4G for high-speed data. Their goal was to have 70% of the AWS bands converted to LTE by year end 2013 and 30% HSPA+. They will likely leave it that way until customers are migrated to LTE devices.

 

That seems to be an unfortunate situation.

Similar to the post above me, my area works much better on AWS. The AWS 3G/4G is much more faster and widespread than the PCS 3G/4G. While it is certainly not bad, I would be much better off having an AWS capable device.

 

AWS sucks in general. The frequencies are just weak. Enough said. Maybe if Apple returned their iPhone design back to the 4/4S with a larger screen, the signal would be much better.

I still have yet to get the same signal strength on 5/5s than I did with the 4S. Pathetic.

 

People are forgetting the key advantage AWS has over other LTE bands: congestion. LTE carriers in other countries are rapidly deploying LTE service in the 2600Mhz + 2300Mhz band for this very reason. Less congestion means you still get high speeds when 50,000 people are on the network. Why do you think LTE service in NYC suffers greatly compared to everywhere else?

Personally i have no problems getting LTE and staying on it. Try turning on/off cellular data to see if that fixes whatever problem you have.