iPhone 4S - how do I turn off 3G? Option has gone....

Hi all,

i would like to add my three peneth worth here

I'm on O2 in the UK and my commute takes me through different reception areas (Reading to Maidenhead for you blighties)... on my old iPhone 4 with 3G off, I always had reception all the way to the office and home again, I never missed a text or email (okay maybe email - but don't get me statrted on how crap push is with MobileMe and now iCloud).

Now on my iPhone 4s the reception drops in an out like a yoyo, trying to go from 3G to Edge/GPRS, messages will fail to send, in fact if I loose 3G reception (which I do a lot) and someone texts me during my transition to EDGE or whatever, I will likely either never get the text or recieve it hours later.

This is not limited to O2 either, friends are having the same issue on all the major networks.

Now I understand that the hardware is differenent in the iPhone 4s and turning off 3G may no longer be an option, but surely a software update could at least make the iPhone 4s check instantly for text messages once its got even the lowest form of reception.

Some of you may say it does do that... but I'm sorry I'm living proof it doesn't - or it has a crap hit and miss implementation of it.

Come on engineers of Apple, you are the best at what you do... help us all please!

It may also help if we contact apple direct too here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

I too am getting the echo on calls and really crap battery life, The iPhone just about gets through the day with moderate use.

The battery issue has been resolved for me with 5.0.1 which is in beta and I'm sure will become available publicly very soon.

Paul

imacpent- don't know if this will help you but if you put the phone in Airplane mode you will still have access to your calendar but 3g and wifi will be off. You can also keep it in airplane mode and turn on wifi and keep the 3g data off.

Just an update to my situation. I find that sometimes I cant send a txt message even though it says I have 2 bars of 3G reception. This happens a lot, I have to either restart the phone of come back to it 5 minutes later to get it to work again. Ludicrous, my iPhone 4 never had this issue with 3G switched off.

Same problem here, stuck on sending sms or failed or dropped calls. Have to put the phone in airplane mode for a whileto get the service reset, terrible, terrible, terrible. I need 3G option…

The option hasn't gone anywhere. It was never there. Like others have posted, there doesn't seem to have been any iPhone 4S phone with that option.

with ios 5.1 update now it is back!

@yellowhulk What carrier are you on? The option is still not available on my 4s. I'm on at&t.

@transmor..... - Very true, it wasn't ever an option on the 4s, but it was on the 4 and earlier models. Which makes it very confusing that it is not available on the 4s.

@matt.kester well i am in Turkey. So, it is turkcell. I bought my iphone 4s from Netherlands. It is simlock free. I have had the switch option after i updated to ios 5.1.

It is not back with AT&T because AT&T is decommissioning its older networks. It only has 3G and LTE now (or in the near future), so there is no option other than 3G (as the iPhone is not compatible with LTE).