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Carrier VZW Carrier Settings Update?

K

kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
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Aside from iOS update messages, I am now receiving a message indicating that there are Carrier Settings Updates available. Anyone have any idea what this is? And, where do I even go if I want to manually select to get the update?

Thanks.
 
kat.hayes said:
Aside from iOS update messages, I am now receiving a message indicating that there are Carrier Settings Updates available. Anyone have any idea what this is? And, where do I even go if I want to manually select to get the update?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I received it too. This is normal and I've been receiving them for over a year, usually after an iOS upgrade. You can manually check for these updates by going to Settings -> General -> About. I believe these updates have something to do with carrier firmware upgrades, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
 
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Carrier Settings updates are just that... proprietary to your network service provider... and contain things like preferred roaming lists (PRLs), network specific paths to default services, and other bits of data that allow your device to connect to and use the provider's network.
 
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kch50428 said:
Carrier Settings updates are just that... proprietary to your network service provider... and contain things like preferred roaming lists (PRLs), network specific paths to default services, and other bits of data that allow your device to connect to and use the provider's network.
Click to expand...
That's the best explanation I've ever heard, and I've heard many. Thank you.
 
I'm actually disappointed. I used to get 4-5 bars everywhere with Verizon and now I seem to linger around 2 bars.
 
Armen said:
I'm actually disappointed. I used to get 4-5 bars everywhere with Verizon and now I seem to linger around 2 bars.
Click to expand...

Bars are very misleading.
I wouldn't depend just on those dots.
Sometimes it shows you have full bars and you get like 1mbps speeds and bad service.
They are displayed any way the carriers selects. You could show 4 dots everywhere and have crappy service.
 
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Applejuiced said:
Bars are very misleading.
I wouldn't depend just on those dots.
Sometimes it shows you have full bars and you get like 1mbps speeds and bad service.
They are displayed any way the carriers selects. You could show 4 dots everywhere and have crappy service.
Click to expand...

yeah I know but its the only actual reference I have. Sometimes I have 5 dots and crappy internet speed, other times its 2 dots and good speeds. Dunno why the dots are even there if they don't mean anything.
 
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Did we (Verizon customers) have the wifi calling setting available before the update? I haven't turned it on because I don't need it but I don't remember it being there.

image.png
 
Armen said:
yeah I know but its the only actual reference I have. Sometimes I have 5 dots and crappy internet speed, other times its 2 dots and good speeds. Dunno why the dots are even there if they don't mean anything.
Click to expand...

I hear you.
There was an article a while ago that a certain carrier even on low or bad signal it displayed full bars on devices.
Very misleading.
It then makes you blame the other person you're calling instead of your wireless provider since you have "full signal" :D lol
 
Sometimes carriers will introduce settings that disable certain functions that will yield greater profit for them.
 
Ever since I accepted this update I've been having trouble with iMessages randomly not delivering to recipients. It doesn't matter if I'm on WiFi or LTE, or if it's a text message only or text and photos. Anyone else having this issue?
 
Armen said:
yeah I know but its the only actual reference I have. Sometimes I have 5 dots and crappy internet speed, other times its 2 dots and good speeds. Dunno why the dots are even there if they don't mean anything.
Click to expand...
The dots indicate the signal strength, not the speed. It doesn't take into account if the tower is congested or not. More bars = better battery life.
 
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Interesting, I'm on Verizon and have not gotten one of those Carrier Settings Updates. What is it for ?
 
ABC5S said:
Interesting, I'm on Verizon and have not gotten one of those Carrier Settings Updates. What is it for ?
Click to expand...
Basically the types of things mentioned earlier at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/vzw-carrier-settings-update.1974016/#post-22928401

Often they are simply bundled with iOS updates and get updated when those updates are installed. Sometimes they are released separately from iOS updates and will at some point show up on their own or by going to Settings > General > About.
 
ABC5S said:
Interesting, I'm on Verizon and have not gotten one of those Carrier Settings Updates. What is it for ?
Click to expand...
Scroll up to post #3... go to settings>> general>> about - Carrier entry - you should have Verizon 24.1 unless Verizon hasn't made it available in your market yet... you'll be prompted to update if available by going into settings-general-about...
 
geoff5093 said:
The dots indicate the signal strength, not the speed. It doesn't take into account if the tower is congested or not. More bars = better battery life.
Click to expand...

I understand what your saying but if there is no network congestion wouldn't I get more bandwidth with 5 dots compared to 2 dots? Doesn't signal strength also impact throughput?
 
Armen said:
Since the number of dots don't really indicate whether or not you can place a call or how fast your data will be they may as well replace it with signal/ no signal.
Click to expand...
I guess you can think of them more along the lines of how hard your phone has to work to keep the connection.
 
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