I was getting double (or more) the speeds on the same network (Rogers Canada) on my iphone 12 pro max. Since i upgraded to 13 pro max everything is much slower. I reset my network settings and restarted the phone multiple times with no luck!
Anyone else experiencing a similar issue?
Thanks
iPhone 13 Pro Max
So I just upgraded to an unlocked iPhone 13. Pro max 256gb today, bought it unlocked from apple and activated it on boost mobile, no issues, then later on I notice that the phone is downloading at less then 3g speeds in a full 5g area, so after doing some research, I disabled my 3rd party vpn (Torguard) reset all network settings and viola! It worked, downloads crazy fast now with no Wi-Fi, I’ll give you the link to the website that helped me figure this out https://shudhtech.blogspot.com/2021/10/slow-5G-internet-on-iPhone-13-pro-max.html?m=1
Hope it works for you
So I just upgraded to an unlocked iPhone 13. Pro max 256gb today, bought it unlocked from apple and activated it on boost mobile, no issues, then later on I notice that the phone is downloading at less then 3g speeds in a full 5g area, so after doing some research, I disabled my 3rd party vpn (Torguard) reset all network settings and viola! It worked, downloads crazy fast now with no Wi-Fi, I’ll give you the link to the website that helped me figure this out https://shudhtech.blogspot.com/2021/10/slow-5G-internet-on-iPhone-13-pro-max.html?m=1
Hope it works for you
UPDATE: While the problem might not be fully resolved, last night, I updated my iPhone 13 Pro Max to iOS 15.1 and today, 5G speeds seem much better and less erratic. Testing from the same spots as I did before, my download speeds are consistently above 50Mbps and my upload speeds jumped into the 20’s. Prior to the update, I was seeing single digits or worse on upload speeds and the speed seemed very erratic. While I have seen higher speeds elsewhere in town, from my home location, these results are right in line with the best speeds I’ve gotten at home.
For those experiencing the problem, I’d suggest updating to 15.1 to see if it helps. From all the comments here, it was pretty clear that an Apple software update was needed and that this wasn’t a carrier problem. Based on my brief testing with 15.1, it looks like an Apple update was indeed required.
Hi,
Sorry to hear you are having issues.
Could you confirm what the exact issue is in order to further isolate?
I see you have already performed various troubleshooting steps; thank you for confirming whats been done so far.
Reply with your answers to the following:
If the iPhone passed diagnostics with Apple Support, there were no failures found with hardware components for cellular connectivity. The issue would then be isolated to the carrier or software. If hardware failures were found, the iPhone would be replaced free of charge due to being within the Limited Warranty timeframe.
Hi there Ashton_z,
Thanks for taking the time to post in the Apple Support Communities. It sounds like cellular data isn't as fast as you expect it to be. Check to see if Low Data Mode is turned on. Here's how: Use Low Data Mode on your iPhone and iPad. Although you noticed this after switching to a new iPhone, it's a good idea to contact your carrier to make sure there aren't any outages that could be causing this.
Reply to this message if you need more help.
Take care.
I just updated to 15.1 and it seems to have helped with my speed. It's still not where it used to be with my 12 pro max but there is a 50% jump in download speed with all other variables the same as before updating this version.
15.1 has an update for the modem which is supposed to help between 4g and 5g. All pointing to the fact that this was indeed an iPhone issue as almost everyone in this thread has been commenting on and not a carrier issue. Not all carriers from Canada to States and other countries suddenly started having issues just as soon as 13 came out. Let's hope Apple keeps updating the software to give us what we paid for. a better phone
Contact your cellular carrier.
Many upgraded their towers so you see a “5G” label on newer phones but haven’t yet updated their infrastructure such that 5G connections are actually slower than LTE service.
This was an article from last year:
Verizon’s nationwide 5G can be slower than its LTE network, tests show
Did you activate the phone with a new SIM or did you take the SIM out of your old phone.
with AT&T in the US, the new phones ship with new SIMs that identify and connect to a different sub-network (I don’t know all the tech terms). We see it with our company as I look after the phones. People who got new phones but swapped the SIMs don’t get the same speeds as those who activated new because their SIM has a different network profile.
Another important thing to remember: when upgrading from earlier iPhone models before iPhone 12, your old SIM card from that previous model is not provisioned for 5G, as 5G did not exist then nor is it compatible with that model.
When you upgrade to an iPhone 12 or later, you are supposed to get a new SIM Card from your carrier that is included with the new iPhone. This SIM is provisioned for 5G.
If you are seeing 2G, 3G, or 4G as an available cellular data option within Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data, then your SIM card has not been provisioned for 5G. I would recommend ordering a new one, or requesting the carrier to provide one that is compatible with that iPhone model.
I have an iPhone 13, with carrier AT&T, a business unlimited plan, and I have zero complaints with cellular service or device functionality. I also received a new SIM card with my iPhone 13.
The issues you are experiencing are not related to Apple or the product.
You may contact Apple to run diagnostics on the device to confirm there are no hardware failures for cellular components. When the diagnostics pass, you would need to speak to your carrier, switch to another one, or get a new SIM card.
Hope this helps.
You say "no one is suggesting the 11 had 5g" yet you said "Something is wrong with the iPhone 13 with regards to it's 4g/5g connection" when comparing it to the 11.
Again, this is tower configuration and frequency related.
You can't just grab two phones and make these assertions, and the differences with the 11 are frequency-based for the most part as they were with the 12.
I'll give LTE as an example:
I've emboldened the differences between the 11 and 12, and bold/italicized the differences between the 12 and 13.
The way this works is your phone communicates with the cell tower and says "Hi, I'm here."
The base station controller at the cell tower says "Great, you're an iPhone 13, let's see, you support frequency band 21, 21 is uncrowded because only newer phones support it, so use frequency band 21."
Now, if the tower is poorly optimized for operation in frequency band 21, your iPhone 11, which might be assigned to frequency band 17, sees full bars while your iPhone 13 has poor reception on band 21.
Your iPhone 13 can't just unilaterally decide to use band 17, it doesn't work that way.
Further, you can't directly compare and say "My iPhone 11 has four bars, my 13 has two" because bars are relative according to that phone's radio capabilities.
Apple did make a device that works with all carriers, it's your carrier that has their tower not configured or optimized properly.
This is why standards exist; Apple's phones comply with standards, if Verizon doesn't want to configure their system properly, it's not Apple's issue, sorry.
Apple can ask Verizon to fix the issue; Verizon is quite likely to not worry about it because you're paying your phone bill and it would cost them money to send a tech to the tower.
Note that when people had similar issues when the iPhone 12 was released, in every case I know of it was fixed by the carrier finally fixing the issues at the local cell tower or via a carrier settings update; it was not fixed by an iOS update.
If you ultimately can't live with it, you have 14 days from the date of purchase to return your iPhone for a full refund and purchase something else. (Note there are various threads on other message forums detailing similar issues with newish Android models for the same reasons.)
Using your own logic, if there are four bands new to the iPhone 13, since the BSC will assign frequency bands based on congestion, as the least congested bands odds are all new iPhone 13s will get assigned to those bands as the others will be clogged with every other type of phone the BSC is dealing with.
Ultimately, as the customer, you (at least theoretically) have greater import than Apple does since you're the one that can switch to T-Mobile or AT&T if you like.
I don't expect you to call in complaining about a frequency band, as there's no way for ordinary users to even know which frequency your phone is using, but rather you call and complain about poor signal and service. Eventually your carrier will see a pattern - "Hey, only iPhone 13 users connected to tower 4317 are complaining of low signal." Then it's a matter of if they think it's worth sending a tech out and when; it could be the next time any maintenance is due at the tower over the next year or tomorrow, if it's a local CEO who's threatened to switch his 1500 corporate cell phones to another carrier if they don't get it fixed immediately.
Apple literally has zero power in this situation, as Verizon doesn't care if every iPhone owner returns their phone and buys one of the old iPhone 11s many Verizon offices still has in stock, or an Android any more than your local gas station owner cares about what model of car you drive.
What you are asking is akin to having Sony come out and make sure their televisions are compatible with every television station in the USA; no, they build their TVs to meet the appropriate ATSC specs.
Same Issue when going from a 11 pro max to a 13 pro max. I'm on Verizon and the tech i spoke to said it was a "known issue" with some iPhone 13 models. I see that T-Mobile is also experiencing this.
My tech said to upgrade to 15.1 and hope that a fix was in there.
What a pain Apple!
Of course Verizon is going to blame Apple when it’s their network that’s at fault.
Don’t believe me, do an Internet search on a phrase like “5G slower than LTE” and you will see that it’s the networks that are at fault. People are reporting the same issues with Android devices.
Most often, it’s been because the cellular companies have allocated a very small percentage of their network bandwidth to 5G (less than 5% in AT&T’s case), and with all the new 5G devices coming online the 5G frequencies are overcrowded and often slow to speeds that are slower than 3G networks were.
(Why? The carriers wanted to be able to advertise they had 5G service but aren’t willing to slow down the 90% or so of users who are LTE-only at the moment.)
There is nothing that Apple, or for that matter Google, Samsung or any other phone vendor can do about that.
The only thing that will help is when cellular companies build out their infrastructure and allocate more bandwidth to 5G frequencies.
What was going to help with that is the sunset of 3G services in many areas, but that has been delayed as there are numerous non-phone services that use the 3G network, such as burglar alarm systems, point-of-sale systems, and weather stations, and converting all of those has been going much slower than was originally thought.
If you’ve ever tried to make a call or use data at a sports stadium or a theme park, you know the type of network congestion I am talking about. Only now it’s occurring on the 5G networks because of the new phones.
You may be saying to yourself, well Apple should just allow you to shut off 5G and use the LTE network. Unfortunately that is up to cellular providers, not Apple; in many cases the cellular providers do not allow them to provide such a switch.
So yes, due to these factors, we really are in a situation at present where an LTE-only phone, like the iPhone 11, or new iPhones on cell plans that don’t allow 5G (like the original iPhone unlimited data plan with AT&T) will see faster data transfer speeds than 5G phones using a 5G network. This will improve, but it may take months to years; the LTE network took several years to get to where it is. (There are several rural areas near me that are 4G networks, as they still haven’t received an upgrade to LTE.)
There is absolutely nothing Apple can do about it.
Apple sold you a race car, but unfortunately the current road network is a two lane highway clogged with traffic and you can rev your engine all you like but traffic is moving at 3 MPH.
After updating form 15.0 to 15.1 I don't seem to be having the issue so far (two days in). If this is the case it looks like it might be some combination of this phone and OS version but can be solved by upgrading.
Contact your cellular carrier.
There are often three major factors here:
There have been several articles printed on several tech sites addressing both, and the fact that this is due to issues with carriers, not with your phone.
A selection:
There are a number of reasons this could be happening, the usual one being the carrier's databases haven't been updated to recognize iPhone 13s as being able to handle high speed data yet so they default to the slowest common mode available to all devices.
There are also additional possibilities due to the aforementioned databases, such as putting you in the "throttled data" category because again, your hardware is "unknown."
Regardless, the fix lies with your cellular carrier.
LTE/5G very slow afte upgradint to iphone 13 pro max
