How to turn off LTE on iPhone iOS 15

I have been keeping up with Down Detector outages as well as the comments there. I am updated as far as the carrier settings as far as I can tell. There is nothing showing in settings in General...About. Now, replacing the SIM card is not something I knew about. It is hard since, as a Consumer Cellular customer, I feel like a forgotten step-child at the moment. I really appreciate those who have responded to me here. Thanks for that info.

Contacted AT&T yesterday and explained to them the exact problem that everyone else is having and their response was that it has nothing to do with AT&T and that it is due to an APPLE software update aka iOS 15 ….

Which problem are you referring to and on what date? AT&T has turned off their 3G network so the only options available are LTE, 5Ge (a marketing gimmick) and 5G. Did they tell you that? Did they tell you those are in your Carrier Settings file that AT&T provides to Apple?

If the "problem" you are referring to about your conversation is selecting whether you want to use LTE, 5Ge or 5G that is TOTALLY controlled by the Carrier Settings file that AT&T provides to Apple, not by Apple. Is that what you are referring to?

On my AT&T iPhone I have an option under Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data for 5G On, 5G Auto and LTE (as already mentioned 5Ge is just a faster LTE).

What options do you have and what do you think is missing?

You must not have an iPhone 12 or 13 with 5G capabilities. Being that you are with AT&T your only option for Voice & Data would be LTE or LTE. So in the Carrier Settings file it checks what type of phone model you have and then the information provided by AT&T as to what options to display/allow. Since there are no options there is no reason to display it.

Again, what would you like it to show?

You have never had true 5G before since the iPhone 11 does not have a 5G radio. What you have seen is 5Ge which is what AT&T (and no one else) calls faster LTE). Even AT&T acknowledges it is LTE and prior to their shutting down their 3G networks it never displayed a 5Ge option. And yes you will have to buy a newer phone with a 5G radio to use that.

Well, we both had a post deleted. I didn’t think anything about that sentence is why I didn’t understand your comment. Your iPhone 11 is far from obsolete and should meet your needs for some time. There were recently some articles covering how much money carriers have spent implementing 5G and how they so far aren’t having great economic success from it. If you don’t need the additional speed from 5G or feel the need to backup or update your iPhone with cell data And you are happy with the speed in your area take care of your phone and you will be fine. But on AT&T it will only work with LTE and you don’t see any options.

ChvseH wrote:

I work 60-84 hrs a week and when i’m at work my phone is basically useless, the only real solution i see is just to upgrade. thanks for the help my guy 👍🏼

Why is it useless? If you have AT&T as of March 1 the ONLY network they support is LTE, and for voice VoLTE. They no longer have a GSM voice network or 3G data network. They have shut down all of their network options except LTE. However, if you have Wi-Fi at work you can enable Wi-Fi calling with your carrier.

If you have T-Mobile they will make the same change in June, and Sprint and Verizon in December.

Carrier settings update Proves it,

today on my iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 14.8.1, I got a carrier settings update for AT&T 46.4,

The original carrier file is AT&T 46.0.2.

The new Carrier file aims to disable the option to use 4G, now it only allows you to use LTE and that’s it.

on March 13, 2021, AT&T started to redirect all calls made on the 3G Network to AT&T customer service.

Well, it goes to 3G, incorrectly called 4G, IF you can switch it off. Who is your carrier? Do they still support 3G? By the end of this year the only networks still operating will be LTE for data, VoLTE for voice, and 5G for phones that support it (iPhone 12, 13 and SE 3rd edition).

And for AT&T and Sprint that has already happened.

I have ATT as well and before iOS 15 I had(and still have) issues with 5G and LTE being that I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max and the phone doesn’t support 5G but I HAD the option to turn LTE off and use 4G network which I had less problems with…

AT&T, like T-Mobile, at one point called a faster 3G network 4G when it really wasn't. When LTE came out AT&T labeled it as that but you could still find areas where you would drop back to "4G" and then possibly to 3G. Both their 3G and inaccurately named 4G networks were shut down on February 28th.

It is a coincidence that iOS 15 came out around the same time AT&T shut down their “4G” network on March 1. You can no longer use 4G because it doesn’t exist in the AT&T network. There will be no network selection switches on an iPhone on AT&T’s network, because there are no choices. The only option is LTE for data and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for phone calls.

So you’re in favor of them shutting down networks that work better than the main network when the main network is backed up? This is an issue that cause people more stress than relief and there should’ve at the least been a poll asking customers if it would be a good idea to shut down the lesser networks