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Tmobile iPhone carrier downgrade is possible!

X

xhArRiSoNxD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 8, 2008
174
76
Massachusetts
Okay so my friend upgraded his carrier setting on his iPhone 4S to the latest. He had a backup in his computer and restored to a version that he didn't have the update and it worked! Successful carrier downgrade!!

Thought I'd let everyone know who lost their tethering option by updating.

Credits to my friend Andrew.
 
dontwalkhand said:
What would be the point of downgrading the carrier settings? This allows for MMS and HSPA+
Click to expand...

Because if you have the $70 prepaid plan you lose the personal hotspot and can't get it back. You can't even add on a mobile hotspot for a few extra bucks. It's simply not an option with that plan. You have to change your plan to $50 or $60 prepaid.

And you don't need the updated carrier settings for MMS. Lots of folks have had MMS capability prior to the update by manually inputting the APN settings.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2383
 
Are you supposed to do a regular restore first and then restore from backup.

I didn't restore first. I simply did a restore from backup (dated 4/5) and I still have the carrier update. I didn't update until 4/12.
 
SCIONTX said:
Are you supposed to do a regular restore first and then restore from backup.

I didn't restore first. I simply did a restore from backup (dated 4/5) and I still have the carrier update. I didn't update until 4/12.
Click to expand...

Yes, do a full restore and use the old backup previous to 4/12.
 
hexonxonx said:
Yes, do a full restore and use the old backup previous to 4/12.
Click to expand...

Doing the full restore first worked! I set it up as a new phone before doing a restore from backup just to make sure my backup wasn't screwing things up. Even after restoring from backup I'm still prompted to update carrier settings. For safekeeping I backed up the backup.

Love seeing that 3G symbol. :)

I had to downgrade to the $60 prepaid plan just to get personal hotspot to work. I'll be going back to the $70 prepaid plan when this month's service is up. Woot! Great use with my Wi-Fi only iPad Mini.

There's no LTE in the Dallas area, so I'm not missing out on anything yet by not updating. I'll gladly trade visual voice mail for unlimited 4G tethering.
 
SCIONTX said:
Because if you have the $70 prepaid plan you lose the personal hotspot and can't get it back. You can't even add on a mobile hotspot for a few extra bucks. It's simply not an option with that plan. You have to change your plan to $50 or $60 prepaid.

And you don't need the updated carrier settings for MMS. Lots of folks have had MMS capability prior to the update by manually inputting the APN settings.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2383
Click to expand...

The $70 post paid has tethering (up to 500mb) - you might want to consider switching unless you have bad credit.
 
Diode said:
The $70 post paid has tethering (up to 500mb) - you might want to consider switching unless you have bad credit.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the info. Yeah, I was going to switch to the postpaid and pay for extra tethering. I may have to do that when LTE becomes available in my area and I need to update. Right now I can't pass on unlimited 4G tethering.
 
dontwalkhand said:
What would be the point of downgrading the carrier settings? This allows for MMS and HSPA+
Click to expand...

You still get HSPA+, it just shows as 3G instead of 4G but speed is same. You don't get LTE but its not yet widely deployed, so doesn't make a difference. You can also get MMS if you manually enter the settings. Best part is you maintain free hotspot. I was also able to get the "downgrade" to work. I'm on carrier 14.0 on T-mo iPhone 5!
 
xhArRiSoNxD said:
...
Now the only issue is to figure out how to get iTunes to stop prompting me to update. What if I did by accident! Haha.
Click to expand...

I know. I have to make sure iTunes is closed when I'm charging my phone via USB. Annoying. Easy to click on "OK" or whatever the prompt is by mistake.
 
Eventually once iOS is updated, unless you never plan to upgrade, the carrier update will be built into the next iOS version so there will be no restoring to remove it.
 
I know that without the carrier update I can't get LTE, but I was wondering if the carrier update is necessary to activate the 1700/2100 AWS bands? I haven't used my phone much outside of the areas where I had 3G already on the 1900 band, so I can't say I've noticed the difference.

Has anyone with the carrier downgrade been able to notice availability of 3G in areas where they were getting edge before?

Is there any way to see which frequency your phone is actually connected to? I think I saw some kind of diagnositcs mode before that showed this, but I can't remember how to access it.
 
BruiserB said:
I know that without the carrier update I can't get LTE, but I was wondering if the carrier update is necessary to activate the 1700/2100 AWS bands? I haven't used my phone much outside of the areas where I had 3G already on the 1900 band, so I can't say I've noticed the difference.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile claimed the carrier update added support for those bands (assuming you are using the new iPhone 5). However, I haven't tried it without the carrier update so I'm not sure.
 
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