3G on iPhone 12

Done. Let's wait and see.

Hi Craig,

I am writing this email to bring to your attention a problem some of your customers face due to the removal of an option in the carrier band selection in an iPhone 12.

In many areas 5G is almost non-existent and this won't improve for a number of years yet. As it is, majority of the time, the phone will be on 4G, dropping to 3G frequently.

The problem is that there are cases where the 4G is also very weak and although the phone can detect it and latch onto it, the data transfer rates could be very poor or even 0.

This ends up stranding the user in a mode that there is no internet access and no way to force the phone to 3G which could be (in many areas this is the case) stronger and while 3G cannot compete with a strong 4/5G signal on data rates, the user will still be able to access the internet, albeit at a slow rate in this scenario.

Many thanks for your attention

No, there is no way for you to modify the carrier settings file.

I also note that users who said that they couldn’t select 3G on an iPhone 12 first reported it with the first release of iOS 14, as well as 14.2. If you had it with iOS 14.2 and lost it that is an experience unique to you; I haven’t seen any other reports like that. This thread also has statements that 14.2 definitely does NOT have a 3G switch; see this post from November→https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251982529?answerId=253793876022#253793876022

filippo1992 wrote:

No, same SIM, same carrier, same plan. iPhone 11 had 2 mobile data options: 3G or 4G; iPhone 12 pro has: 5G, 5G auto and 4G. the 3g only option isn't available.

It has nothing to do with the SIM. It has to do with the carrier settings in the phone. Those settings are pushed to the phone by the carrier. The carrier determines what you'll be able to do. For example, my carrier doesn't allow me to turn on or off caller ID from the phone.

TheSpudMan wrote:

How do you know Apple have not removed it completely?

Because in the Tech Specs 3G support is listed. So maybe Apple is lying. Does that seem like a reasonable answer to you?

• 5G NR (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n71, n77, n78, n79)
• 5G NR mmWave (Bands n260, n261)
• FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
• TD‑LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48)
• CDMA EV‑DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) [3G-CDMA]
• UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz) [3G-TDMA; AT&T calls HSPA+”4G"]
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) [2G]

[Emphasis added]

And users in 3G only areas still report that their phones work on 3G.

No it doesn’t support 3G I have spoken to apple customer service they checked in and confirm that iPhone 12 doesn’t support and I checked with my carrier as well they said we support but in iPhone 12 doesn’t have this option,it is causing a big issue,apple software engineer should look in to and send updates

marcello927 wrote:

Apple should updates its software to able the 3G selection. It is something so simple. small thing but big difference for user which are in country-side. Please do it asap

As has been pointed out in this thread repeatedly, enabling or disabling that feature is up to the carrier, not Apple.

The phone will connect to 3G if 4G or 5G is not available. As most carriers are planning to turn off their 3G networks in the coming year buying a phone specifically because it lets you choose 3G (rather than connecting automatically if there are no other options) seems rather short-sighted, but you should certainly buy whatever product makes you comfortable.

That may have worked with the iPhone 11 and lower, but with the iPhone 12, their only options are 5G On, Auto and LTE. Even with data roaming on (and regardless of carrier you connect to), they currently don’t give you data if the phone says 3G. You can get data on their 3G networks if you have something like Google Fi that let’s you choose 4G.

This is bothering me for a while now too. But unfortunately the options that are provided are carrier depended. For example, in Austria where I am, being on a A1 contract, there is only 5G On, 5G Auto and LTE option, but if you are on T-Mobile, they still provide the 3G option, I think.

What is even weirder and somewhat annoying, because I really don't understand it. If I am inside my house and disable Wi-Fi for a moment (if I am inside and connected to Wi-Fi, I always have airplane mode on, Wi-Fi calling makes all calls come through), my 12 Pro connects to 3G with a full 4 bar signal and stays there for half a minute and then switches to LTE with only a 2 or mostly 3 bar signal.

I have my Cellular Mode set to LTE, btw. Since I don't have a 5G contract.

First I tried setting it to 5G AUTO mode regardless, emphasis on the AUTO hoping maybe it would make the phone connect to 3G more often because, well, it says Auto. One could guess that it auto-selects the best connection + includes 5G. But nope. It prefers a medium-good LTE signal over a great 3G connection.

It’s the settings controlled by your carrier, even though there is no settings for it, it can still fall back to 3G when 5G/LTE is not available, just like how the iPhone 5 does not give you the option to select edge, when you disable LTE, it will use 3G, and when 3G is not available, it will drop to edge, it’s the same concept but this time, 3G CDMA is not compatible with 5GNR.

on my T-Mobile iPhone 12, there’s an option for 5G, 5G auto and LTE, try changing the data mode options under settings greater than cellular greater than cellular data options, there’s a section called data mode, don’t use the low data mode but use the middle option.

I am not sure what you mean Enigma but the issue at hand is nothing to do with technology but how much testing apple need to do and how flexible the product should be.

It has been reported that the phone drops to 3G if absolutely no 4G or 5G signal is available.

That proves that the issue is nothing to do with the carrier profiles as some of the Apple paid people on this forum say.

The phone has the knowledge that 3G is available, just chooses not to use it when 4G is available and doesn't give you the option to disable 4G. And therein lies the issue. If you are in a very poor 4G signal area which is just about strong enough for the phone to register but not strong enough to do any meaningful communication, leaving you with no way to get 3G service in other words you could be stranded in a perfectly good 3G service are but not able to make even emergency calls. I am sure the UK regulator will have issue with this scenario.

TonyCollinet wrote:

Then I don't understand the problem. Upthread is a bunch of people saying they can't use 3G.

I admit, it's been a while since I've read the earlier parts of the thread. However, mostly, the issue is that people want to manually switch to 3G. That doesn't appear to be an option with any carrier on the iPhone 12 series. The phones do switch automatically. However, if they can connect at all to the higher speed network, even if only weakly, they won't switch automatically down. In certain rural areas, this can be problematic. So, essentially the problem is, people can't necessarily use 3G when they want to.

Hi all i live in Europe, BG- here we dont have any decent 4G , 5g is not existing last night i upgraded my crappy iphone 12 mini from ios 14.2.1 to 14.5.1 - before upgrading on 14.2.1 i had option to choose 3g or 4g etcs...now i have the only 2 options 5g/ and 4g... i tried swapping sim cards reseting networks etcs..I will tell you why apple done this - if u use 4g or 5g your battery last less, and very soon apple will either sale u new battery which will die again soon or they will sale u brand new phone good for their business , when i was on 3g battery was ok and coverage, now on 4g I GOT NO coverage and my brand new iphone which cost a lot can provide me option to switch to 3g anymore greedie apple.Same sim card - which is 3g/4g sim card its not even a 5g sim card this doesnt exist here in bulgaria , when i put insert it on my old iphone SE , i have the option to choose my network, so i can choose between 3g or 4g . ... but on my new iphone mini i cant, since apple removed the option, so apple doesnt even tells what they do when they provide their terrible upgrades which cripples your phone and make it slower and terrible i am very dissapointed,EVERY possible samsung s21 ultra or other samsung s20 fe have option to choose network, it can be 2g/3g/4g/5g but for apple u dont have options.

We are not Apple, we are just users like you, it is actually carrier related, since all the carriers in Bulgaria support VOLTE. And that’s after iOS 14.3, when the carriers began to Roll out the VOLTE and 5G for users. carriers that do not support 5G will allow options for 3G on iPhone. you’re not telling us The carrier version and the name of the carrier so we can’t help.

@Techguy171 "...The iPhone 12 series are optimized for VOLTE..." I am not sure exactly what you are saying but:

1- There are carriers that do not support 5G and some carriers are trying to peddle it as an enhancement, so you can't say iphone 12 is optimized for 5G or rather I don't think Apple is that unrealistic.

2- The Apple support guys on the thread are adamant that the phone HW is capable of supporting the enforcement to 3G, but with the current FW the only way to get to that is by the carrier sending you a profile with 5G excluded.

3- I am not sure about your battery claim either. Provided you have two signals of equal strength, than perhaps yes but in real life these cases will be rare and in most areas while you get 5 bars of one signal, you might be getting very low signal of the other signal. The issue on this thread is not 5G anyway but the lack of it in most places, therefore irrelevant for another 5-10 years. The example I think I gave was; you are living under a 3G tower (5 bars) but your phone has somehow sniffed out a 4G signal (half bar pretending to be one) and data just doesn't work but your phone is locked in to it with you having no way to force the radio to the "5 bar" 3G signal. Result; 1- your battery drains in half time 2- You can't use the internet at all.

And this is the scenario Apple hasn't considered in their design and the support guys are doing what they do best, shine the non stick (teflon) coating and blame someone else...