LTE/5G very slow afte upgradint to iphone 13 pro max

There are two separate issues, as far as I know.

5G is often slower than 4G unless you are in 5G UWB. Here’s why from 9to5mac:

[DSS 5G] reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G. Phones will automatically prefer a 5G network over a 4G one, so Verizon customers will see that coveted 5G icon pop up. But it’s all for show. Our most recent tests, using an iPhone 12 Pro in New York City, show that DSS 5G is frequently slower than 4G, and rarely faster. These results are similar to what we saw in October in Chicago with a Pixel 5.

Another issue, which people on different carriers are facing, is that with some models of the iPhone 13, even with 5G turned off, you could have a great 4G signal and have virtually no data.

I have been taking screen shots of this when I find such an area:

Here I had four bars of 4G and barely any data.

So I agree, the first issue is with Verizon, but the second issue seems to be an iPhone 13 issue.

I just upgraded to iOS 15.1 and I’m hoping this issue was addressed.

What I would recommend is driving to a different part of your area and checking to see whether the speed is still unacceptably slow to you in an area served by a different cell tower.

If it's faster there, it means the issue is with your local tower.

If it is still an issue, you may want to consider returning your device while you can; you can always purchase another later if you so choose.

Multiple carriers have had the same issues as the underlying technology is the same.

It's not the phone as when the issue is resolved for people experiencing it, it happens without an iOS update, one day things just work and the fact that the vast majority do not experience these issues at all.

Do a little Internet research and you will find the same complaints about 5G speeds across multiple carriers and multiple devices.

Especially for 5G the issue is one of backend bandwidth being less important to carriers than being able to light your phone's "5G" annunciator.

If you think it’s your phone, have it checked by Apple, either at a local Apple Store or by sending it in:

• Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
• Contact - Official Apple Support

Note that iPhone 13s ordered from Apple typically don’t come with a physical SIM at all, but rather are sent from Apple with their eSIM pre-activated for the appropriate carrier network.

As I've explained several times throughout this thread, different devices support different subsets of cellular frequencies and capabilities, and the 2nd generation SE does not support true 5G service at all.

When you are having difficulties, is your 13 Pro Max connected to your carrier's 5G service? If so, there have been many articles in the press detailing how 5G is providing poor performance than LTE for many customers because carriers have been so anxious just to get your phone to display the little 5G logo in the corner that they've been turning it on before they have adequate infrastructure to provide service to people connected to 5G frequencies, such that people are seeing better throughput with regular LTE service.

Here's one from Forbes from last year:

Feel Like Your 5G Network Is Slower Than Promised? You Aren’t Just Imagining It

If you are just using LTE, here's what I mean:

The 2nd generation SE supports these LTE frequencies:

• FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 66, 71)
• TD‑LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48)

The 13 Pro Max supports these, I've noted additional bands supported by the 13 Pro Max in bold:

• FDD-LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
• TD-LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48)

So for example, if the SE is assigned by the cell tower to FDD-LTE band 20 and the 13 Pro Max to band 28, it's possible the SE could work perfectly while the 13 Pro Max could see one bar of signal or even none at all and/or very slow service.

It's also more likely the 13 Pro Max would be assigned to one of the additional frequencies because they are likely to be less crowded than the frequencies supported by more phones.

It's your cellular carrier.

They quite often upgrade their towers for 5G so people will see the "5G" in the upper right hand corner of the phone but don't upgrade the data networks between the tower's base station controller and the Internet. Other times it's due to the 5G frequencies being used.

This may result in data rates being slower for 5G than LTE.

Here's a neat article from ZDNet discussing it:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-is-my-5g-so-slow-comparing-the-hype-to-the-reality/

Cellular data speeds will have to be resolved with your cellular carrier.

Ashton_z ,

Thanks for the reply. Apple may have some additional support options for you. The best step forward would be to contact them again. In case you need it, these links can be used to get in touch with them: Get Support or Contact Apple for support and service.

All the best!

Dogcow-Moof: I've seen your reply multiple times and while a carrier update might indeed be needed to fix the issue, there is no proof of that yet, in fact, I'd argue there's more evidence it's not carrier-related. For this to point to a carrier issue, multiple carriers would all have to have the same problem. Not everyone in this thread is on the same network. It might be possible that multiple carriers have a problem but the iPhone 13 didn't suddenly just show up on their networks without warning. I'd be very surprised if they all forgot to update databases to include the new phones. I think the evidence more likely points to a software update needed by Apple. Maybe it's a new 5G chip that isn't properly optimized in iOS. Who knows but let's keep an open mind to the evidence being reported. A fix might be needed in iOS, in the carrier settings file, or on the carrier networks themselves.

Likely some type of misconfiguration at your cellular carrier, either in terms of frequency, subscriber information or capability description in their internal databases.

For example, is your Samsung on the same data plan as your iPhone? If not, the Samsung's may not be throttled where the iPhone's is.

One that just a miniscule proportion of iPhone owners seem to be experiencing? Yes.

While if there is an Apple component to this, I'm sure Apple will address it, carrier misconfiguration is far more common should the issue arise.

If you feel it is your device, have your phone examined:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

If you feel it is an Apple issue, remember no one here can do anything about it, and you should make your comment to Apple here:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Finally, the speed test results I posted above show that the issue is by no means universal.

Well in the case of this particular issue there's only one solution which I executed, that is Samsung. So having taken my iPhone 13 and having the slow data connection like a lot of people updated carrier settings various things nothing seem to fix the issue so went back to AT&t and they decided to swap the phone out. Great it fixed the connection issues however I had a new problem with the phone the replacement and that was that it overheated. Tried various fixes and to no avail continually was overheating so while I am a long time iPhone user I upon going into the store for the third time decided to check out what was on offer from Samsung and trust me when I say the Galaxy s21 is a fine phone with great signal and no overheating problems.

Blame the iPhone if you like, but if you do an Internet search you will find similar complaints about Google and Samsung phones, including a lengthy one about the S20 in particular.

Toggling Wi-Fi on and off shouldn't cause any side effects with cellular, but toggling Airplane mode on and off will cause the phone to renegotiate with cellular towers it finds in the area.

That isn’t accurate.

When the phone connects with the BSC it tells the tower of its capabilities and the tower assigns it a frequency/technology and the phone must honor that.

Turning WiFi off or on has no effect, but if you drop in and out of airplane mode, you in effect renegotiate with the tower as if you were a new device and it’s kind of a “hack” that allows you to be assigned a frequency/technology again as if you left the area and returned.

Were phones to renegotiate like you suggest automatically, they would create so much traffic that they would be kicked off the carrier’s network.

Finally, the techs at the tower have to know what they are looking for; if a frequency or a few are not properly peaked due to the antenna or for environmental reasons (tree leaves are a big one in the Spring) the tech will need to check that in particular.

If they just check the BSC self-tests it will report everything is OK because the connection works, it’s just for some reason an awful lot of phones seem to be dropping off that frequency and the BSC takes that as the phones driving away or being shut off, not as an antenna/tower issue.

The techs need to know what to look at, as all the diagnostics will come back “Yep, 5G UW, 5G and LTE are all enabled and operational and the tower reports full functionality.”

The techs have to know to specifically check the noise/error rate for devices connecting on the 3.5 GHz band, for example, and they will only see that by checking the logs which few do as they don’t get paid to dig through a 10 Mb log file for 15 minutes looking for issues the diagnostics don’t report.

Toggling Wi-Fi has absolutely nothing to do with which cellular band you are connected to.

Of course shutting Wi-Fi off will force all data to use the cellular connection, but only toggling the cellular connection off and back on can affect the cellular connection.

To avoid any miscommunication, when using Control Center:

The Wi-Fi connection toggle is the one in the lower left; the cellular connection toggle is in the upper right.

It would make sense that toggling Cellular would cause renegotiation with the tower resulting in a possible 5G UW connection; toggling Wi-Fi would have no effect whatsoever.