Any way to work around the WiFi requirement for software update ?

Yes, can certainly connect your iPhone to your computer and update using iTunes. If you want to do it over the air, you need Wifi.

Choose the method that works best for you.

There is nothing more anyone else can offer you on this user to user only forum. We don't determine download limits. Apple and the cellular carriers do that. We users have to live with whatever they impose.

douglas711 wrote:

i assume the WiFi requirement is a historic holdover from when over the air data was expensive.

No, it's a current holdover to prevent overloading the world's wireless networks. Unlike cable and fiber, cellular networks have very limited bandwidth. They work most of the time because no more than a few users will be using data at any specific time. But now imagine 500 million iPhone owners trying to update at the same time. Even 50 connected to one tower would crash it. Most towers can only handle a dozen or so connections simultaneously. For major events like sports in arenas or conventions the cellular carriers move temporary towers to the venue. It's also why most carriers support Wi-Fi calling, as it removes load from their cellular networks.

Prove what negative?

The problem for the cell service providers is Apple announces when updates will be available and LOTS of people try to update immediately. This quickly chews up the cell service providers limited bandwidth, slows their network and can result in services not being available. Then you add the potential for people who are mobile having issues with handoffs between repeaters causing a serious failure on the iPhone.

5Ge is just a marketing term that AT&T came up with to describe a faster 4G. In some areas where I use 5Ge it is far, far slower than the standard LTE I get at home.

If you have another device that is cellular you can connect your iPhone to it and update. Otherwise at the current time it is a no go. As far as 5G fixing anything we are a couple of years away and there is still going to be bandwidth limitations. It won't be long for 4k and 8k video to eat up some of that.

I don't care if you buy it or not. I've worked on telecommunications systems since before cell phones were invented (mostly for AT&T), and I know in great detail how cellular networks are designed and work. Whether you buy it or not, it's the reason that you can't do updates over cellular data. Not directly relevant, but my niece is an architect who designs cellular towers.

Yes, you can do that because thousands of other users are not steaming the movie at the same time. And streaming puts much less of a demand on the network than downloading large files.

douglas711 wrote:

as wireless continues to become faster - my 5Ge as they call it is faster then my Centrylink DSL when I had it - it starts to become a replacement for other services. It’s already fast enough for any video- so why invest in 5g if you still require paying for a separate duplicate service ?

Do you really want a lecture on the myth called 5 Ge? All it consists of is LTE (4g) that uses 2, 3 or 4 LTE channels simultaneously for a combined higher bandwidth, and at the cost of 2, 3 or 4 fewer channels for everyone who doesn't have a multiplex connection. It's pure marketing by AT&T, who called 3G HSPA "4G".

Real 5G has not been deployed yet except on an experimental basis, and there are currently no phones that support it because the standards have not been finalized. And it may never be thanks to a disinformation campaign on social media spreading scary stories about how it will sterilize us all, or give us all cancer. Not to mention that the only current technology manufacturers are in China, and our all-knowing President has embargoed all of the producers of the technology (Huawei being the largest). Intel was going to enter the business, but changed their mind.

No.

No.

What is your telecommunications engineering background? Curious to see if you match Lawrence's experience.

The fact remains you need to be on Wifi to do the iOS update. We can't change that for you.

Do you have an actual engineering degree? Lawrence does and actually has worked in the industry directly dealing with bandwidth, not just understanding it.