Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad mini Please help. Ipad mini Retina is showing 4G instead of LTE on T-Mobile

I

Investor27

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 8, 2012
200
98
Hi guys. My wife has been complaining that her iPad miniR is so slow now when she on the cellular network. She said it started last month when this pop-up keeps coming up telling her that she needs to update because there was a change in the cellular carrier. We have the free 200 MB with T-Mobile with no additional data plan. When we first got the mini Retina this past December, T-Mobile LTE would show at the top after turning it on. When I decided to look at it today, it just shows T-Mobile 4G instead, and is running very slowly. The APN under "Cellular Data" shows fast.t-mobile.com. And I have LTE enabled. When I disabled LTE, the 4G is still there. And when I re-enable the LTE, the 4G is there as well and not LTE.

If anyone have any idea what is happening, I would really appreciate some insight. My wife doesn't even use her iPad mini Retina at her office anymore because she said it is just too slow. Thanks.
 
Investor27 said:
Hi guys. My wife has been complaining that her iPad miniR is so slow now when she on the cellular network. She said it started last month when this pop-up keeps coming up telling her that she needs to update because there was a change in the cellular carrier. We have the free 200 MB with T-Mobile with no additional data plan. When we first got the mini Retina this past December, T-Mobile LTE would show at the top after turning it on. When I decided to look at it today, it just shows T-Mobile 4G instead, and is running very slowly. The APN under "Cellular Data" shows fast.t-mobile.com. And I have LTE enabled. When I disabled LTE, the 4G is still there. And when I re-enable the LTE, the 4G is there as well and not LTE.

If anyone have any idea what is happening, I would really appreciate some insight. My wife doesn't even use her iPad mini Retina at her office anymore because she said it is just too slow. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Have you tried a network reset? Go to settings>general>reset>reset network settings.
 
hungx said:
Have you tried a network reset? Go to settings>general>reset>reset network settings.
Click to expand...

I just did that as per your suggestion. The iPad shuts down and rebooted. But it still showing 4G. Is it possible that the free 200 MB is now only offered on the 4G network and not LTE anymore?
 
Investor27 said:
I just did that as per your suggestion. The iPad shuts down and rebooted. But it still showing 4G. Is it possible that the free 200 MB is now only offered on the 4G network and not LTE anymore?
Click to expand...

I also have the free data, and it's on LTE. Have you tried taking out the SIM card and then putting it back in? Worst case scenario, you may need to restore your iPad. If that doesn't work, T-Mobile may be doing maintenance on their towers. Can you confirm whether you can get LTE on T-Mobile with another device?
 
hungx said:
I also have the free data, and it's on LTE. Have you tried taking out the SIM card and then putting it back in? Worst case scenario, you may need to restore your iPad. If that doesn't work, T-Mobile may be doing maintenance on their towers. Can you confirm whether you can get LTE on T-Mobile with another device?
Click to expand...

All good suggestions, Hungx. I don't have any other device to confirm LTE, or I would have tried that already. I don't think that T-Mobile is doing maintenance on their towers, because it's been over a month now. I think it's that update pop-up that says something like "Your data provider has a new update". We kept closing it, but it keeps poping up, so we just hit the OK button. It then disappeared. I didn't see any download or update after that, but the problem started then with the slow connections. I'll try pulling out the SIM card. Thanks.
 
Is it worth it to bring it into T-Mo and have talk to them about the issue?
 
maflynn said:
Is it worth it to bring it into T-Mo and have talk to them about the issue?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the OP is experiencing something carrier related or something to do with the iPad itself. I think he/she should try going to Apple first, and if they determine that there is nothing wrong with it, then go to T-Mobile.
 
Mine will show 4G every once in a while. It's usually just for a minute or two and then it goes back to LTE.

Does it happen in the same place everytime? Could be a coverage issue with T Mobile.
 
Do you mean 3G? LTE and 4G are two names for the same thing. Here in Spain I only see GPRS, or E (meaning Edge), 3G or 4G (meaning LTE).
 
HSPA+ in Spain is 3G. They tried to call it 3.75G or something like that in some commercials but ... I did not know Apple did this kind of nasty technology naming. Thanks for the correction.
 
gtjeta said:
HSPA+ in Spain is 3G. They tried to call it 3.75G or something like that in some commercials but ... I did not know Apple did this kind of nasty technology naming. Thanks for the correction.
Click to expand...

So you can't tell if you're on HSPA+ or actual 3G in Spain? I think the carriers in the US are responsible for calling HSPA+ 4G, not Apple.
 
Sure, we cannot. 3G can mean from around 384 Kbps to 42 Mbps, usually in the order of 2-8 Mbps in most of the urban areas of the country. 4G is LTE, I have seen typical speeds from 20-50 Mbps but the coverage in indoor environments is pretty bad due to political problems in the frequency assignments, to be solved next year recovering some bands from DBV for telephony.
 
hungx said:
So you can't tell if you're on HSPA+ or actual 3G in Spain? I think the carriers in the US are responsible for calling HSPA+ 4G, not Apple.
Click to expand...

Whatever "4G" is, it's faster than 3G, right? And didn't the first iPad just come with 3G? I don't remember that being so slow as to be useless. To me, that is the weird part about what's happening here -- that 4G is so slow.
 
Try turning off wifi if it's on and turn on cellular and see if it changes to lte.
 
1k9 said:
Try turning off wifi if it's on and turn on cellular and see if it changes to lte.
Click to expand...

The wifi is not on when we turn off the cellular. We always turned the wifi off, and then turned the cellular on. This is so frustrating. But I do appreciate all the comments guys. We don't have an Apple store in town, so I believe a trip is in order if there are no other suggestions.
 
Investor27 said:
The wifi is not on when we turn off the cellular. We always turned the wifi off, and then turned the cellular on. This is so frustrating. But I do appreciate all the comments guys. We don't have an Apple store in town, so I believe a trip is in order if there are no other suggestions.
Click to expand...

It doesn't sound like a problem with the iPad. It sounds like the network. If it connected to LTE sometimes it sounds like there just isn't great coverage in your area. It happens to me too.

If it doesn't connect at all then it sounds like a problem.
 
Even if 4g is HSPA or HSPA+, it should not be unusable. Of course LTE is nearly ten times faster, but on not too heavy webpages you will find little difference. The difference is much more relevant if remotely accessing a computer, or watching videos or downloading files, but for most simple applications I find little difference between both of them. A different think is when I get the E or GPRS symbol. In this case I tend to avoid using the phone or iPad for anything needing data. So, maybe there is some problem with the iPad. You might try to use some of the apps which may help to assess your data rate and see if is at least in the order of 1/2 Mbps. Otherwise, you have a problem with the iPad or with the network coverage. Moving to an area where you are pretty sure of the coverage quality could help you tell which is the source of the problem. For a few months I had problems in my in laws house. Every time we stayed there my phone would lose like 60% of the battery during the night. Then, without any change from my side, everything recovered to a normal situation. Sometimes, there is some problem with some node of the cell network which eventually gets solved, or they install or remove a tower, and the quality of the service improves or sinks ;).
 
hungx said:
I'm not sure if the OP is experiencing something carrier related or something to do with the iPad itself. I think he/she should try going to Apple first, and if they determine that there is nothing wrong with it, then go to T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

That's why I recommended that he brings it in. They'll help isolate the issue.
 
maflynn said:
That's why I recommended that he brings it in. They'll help isolate the issue.
Click to expand...

I think the OP should have Apple look at it first knowing T-Mobile's track record for customer service. If nothing is wrong with the iPad, then go to T-Mobile as a last resort.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back