iPhone 4S unable to turn off 3G?!

Well yes that's just common sense though if you don't have your WiFi or 3G on you won't be able to use the Internet or things like FB. But for ppl who don't like to have the 3G kill your battery simply turn off data to prevent 3G

Based on your previous post, there seemed to be a lack of common sense.

Turning Cellular Data off does more than turn 3G network access off. It turns internet access via the cellular network completely - no 3G, EDGE, or GPRS with the GSM phone, and no 3G and the next step down with CDMA networks, and this also prevents being able to send or receive MMS with the iPhone, but not SMS.

BlueFlowers wrote:

Turning off cellular data just puts you in analogue from before digital existed. You can only make and receive calls (provided you can pick up a tower). Turning off cellular data literally puts you back ten years when a phone was just a phone. No emails or FB or Safari or anything (unless of course you are hooked up to wifi).

In the U.S., analog networks have been largly decommissioned. Current phones don't have the ability to switch back to that network at all. They are exclusively digital.

Meg St._Clair wrote:

BlueFlowers wrote:

Turning off cellular data just puts you in analogue from before digital existed. You can only make and receive calls (provided you can pick up a tower). Turning off cellular data literally puts you back ten years when a phone was just a phone. No emails or FB or Safari or anything (unless of course you are hooked up to wifi).

In the U.S., analog networks have been largly decommissioned. Current phones don't have the ability to switch back to that network at all. They are exclusively digital.

What I stated was exactly what Apple Care told me. They told me exactly what happens if cellular data is turned off.

When cellular data is turned off, there is no 3G, E, O or any other symbol indicating what signal you are receiving.

Turning Cellular Data off turns cellular data or internet access off ONLY - no internet access via the cellular network. It does not prevent the iPhone from placing and recieving calls and the same for SMS. It does not revert the iPhone to analogue access - it turns cellular data off only.

RkoViper81 wrote:

Hi everyone I just bought the 4s 2 days ago this is not my first iphone I have also owned the iPhone 3 & still have my iPhone 4. So I updated my iPhone 4 the other day to iOS 5.0.1 & still had the turn off 3G option & then I buy the 4s & there is no turn off the 3G option. So I noticed somewhere in this post that someone said if you just turn off the Data that would work & some of you were saying that he is wrong & the phone wont work. Whoever said that if you turn off the data it will go to 2G or edge. That person is indeed correct if you turn that off you will turn off the 3G I turned mine off to test this theory it indeed did work I was still able to send & receive calls & txt messages fine with no issue. With that being said you will need to use a WiFi connection or turn your 3G back on for certain things such as Facbook & Mail. Apple isn't being truthful about it being a carrier issue. Hopefully they fix this problem at some point down the road. But if they don't most of us here know what the solution for that will be anyways....lol. Anyways hope this helps some people.

Head meet desk.

Yes, you can make and receive phone calls when you turn cellular data off. No, you are not on 3G, E, or O. You can call Apple to confirm this just as I did.

Turning cellular data off takes the "smart" out of having a smart phone. Why pay for a data plan if you have to turn cellular data off to make phone calls and prevent battery drain? That is defeating the whole purpose of having an iPhone.

There is NO solution to turn 3G off and still use your phone the way it's intended. The toggle switch is gone.

Allan Sampson wrote:

Turning Cellular Data off turns cellular data or internet access off ONLY - no internet access via the cellular network. It does not prevent the iPhone from placing and recieving calls and the same for SMS. It does not revert the iPhone to analogue access - it turns cellular data off only.

Please, if you'd like, call Apple yourself before posting misconceptions. Where in the world would I come up with analogue? APPLE.

Don't need to. I've been in an Apple Store and had to correct an Apple employee providing inaccurate/incorrect information - more than once.

If the iPhone 4S is in a 3G network area and you turn Cellular Data off, calls placed or received are done via the carrier's 3G network. Turning Cellular Data off turns cellular data off only.

Please quit posting this bovine excrement.

BlueFlowers wrote:

No, you are not on 3G, E, or O. You can call Apple to confirm this just as I did.

Actually, you are. You have to be on a network to make calls. There is no analog circuitry in an iPhone. Ergo, you're using the digital network which is, depending on where you are, 3G, Edge, etc. However, you may believe what you like.

Best of luck.

Please fix the problem!!!!! I really want the 3G off when I'm not using it!!!!

If you took the time to read the previous post then you would know this will NOT be possible with the 4S for the reasons already provided. This will NOT change with the 4S.

But mine is unlocked iphone4s, which only supports GSM! I don't see any difficulty to add the turn on/off switch. For those with an GSM/CDMA combined sim card, the switch can simply be shown as unavailable.

<Sigh> The chip doesn't support manual switching from everything I've read. Therefore, it's not a question of hiding anything.

So what? Locked or unlocked has no bearing on this.

Which part about having a combined GSM/CDMA chip do you not understand?

There is no option on the iPhone 4s, to turn off 3G. If there is a way to do it, I cannot find it.

On an iPhone4 and iPhone 3GS running iOS5, you are able to turn off 3G off in Settings> General> Network - as seen in the screenshot below.

This is a problem. Why? Because, for instance, when you're sitting on the beach at Nanny Cay, Tortola (British Virgin Islands), and facing the AT&T Cell Tower in St John (USVI) 2 miles away, you are able to get a bar or 2 of signal strength and 3G. When you initiate the call, the signal drops to nothing,the call fails and the phone goes into "Searching" mode to find a network and if you have an international plan, the network it chooses is "Lime" which is Cable & Wireless (BVI) and if you make the call it costs $1.99/min. And in order to get back to AT&T's US Network, you have to go into settings and force the phone back to AT&Tand try again and all of this takes up to a minute or two, which is a lifetime, when you're trying to simply make a call and get back to your vacation, or your life, or whatever it is that you do.

If you turn off 3G on the iPhone 4 or 3gs you get 5 bars and hardly ever drop a call. So this is one good reason why you should have the ability to Turn Off 3G on the 4s.

Also, turning off Cellular Data, to my knowledge, does not turn off 3G on the 4s or any other previous version of the iPhone.