I have a SIM card from the carrier Tomato in Croatia, which for some reason drains the battery when LTE is activated. I've already tested it on 3 different android devices. To solve the problem, I just turned off LTE and left 3G as default, but on my new iPhone 13 I only find the option of 5G or LTE. Does anyone know any way to use only 3G on iphone 13? I don't want to disable data or change SIM card, I want a way to just use 3g instead of LTE
iPhone 13, iOS 16
If you do not see option to enable 3G or disable LTE or 5G, that means your carrier has decided not to allow it. The presence or absence of those options is entirely up to the carrier, and is controlled by the carrier settings profile that they push to each device on their network. Those profiles are different for each device model and the OS version on the device. As 3G networks are being shut down globally, it is becoming increasingly common for carriers to disable access for newer devices.
And yes, this is causing a lot of frustration when using carriers that have not increased their LTE/5G coverage. Many carriers are disabling 3G for phones but keeping it enabled for alarm and emergency systems that need it.
Sites like https://blog.telegeography.com/3gs-sun-is-setting-in-europe provide a bit more information.
3G on iPhone 13
