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slapple

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
466
21
I have an iPhone 4S on AT&T (running iOS 6), and the 4G internet only works with 2, 3, or 4 bars of signal strength. It rarely works with 1 bar (not surprising) or even 5 bars (very surprising). Anyone else have this issue?
 
With one bar that's not surprising, as you said.

With 5 bars- your phone could be connected to a spoof tower that the government set up to gather all your information. I am sort of joking, but sort of not- they do exist, but I don't know if a phone would still actually work while connected to one or not. I would think they would still work.

Do you have any reason to believe the government would target you for surveillance? Of course you probably wouldn't admit it here, so that's a rhetorical question. Just throwing an idea out there.
 
Is 5 bars of signal strength unusual? Wow so anyone who gets 5 bars of signal strength might actually be targeted by the government?! :rolleyes:
 
With 5 bars- your phone could be connected to a spoof tower that the government set up to gather all your information. I am sort of joking, but sort of not- they do exist, but I don't know if a phone would still actually work while connected to one or not. I would think they would still work.

WHAT? :rolleyes:

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I have an iPhone 4S on AT&T (running iOS 6), and the 4G internet only works with 2, 3, or 4 bars of signal strength. It rarely works with 1 bar (not surprising) or even 5 bars (very surprising). Anyone else have this issue?

Call your carrier. I have 3 towers within range of my house and depending on the weather I'll connect to one that has a horrible data connection from where I live, but I show 5 bars.

Does it always have issues with 5 bars or only when you're in a certain area? Have you tried resetting your network settings?
 
Could be someone jamming the signal if it doesn't work with 5 bars. Basically use the same frequency as your phone, but overwhelm it with a more powerful signal that it locks on to that instead of the tower. Not spying on you, but some movie theaters use to do that, but it is illegal. Doesn't meant someone isn't doing it. Just like Marriott hotels got nailed for blocking use of mobile wifi to force people to pay for their wifi.
 
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