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How do I turn off 3G on the iPhone 4S?

I'm in an area with somewhat spotty 3G coverage. I used to leave my old iPhone on 2G/Edge most of the time, and when I needed data would turn on 3G. This saved my battery life quite a bit. However with the 4S (AT&T) I can't seem to find any sort of option to turn off 3G. Does anyone know if its somewhere else in the settings or if its been disabled?


Thanks!

iPhone 4S-OTHER, iOS 5, AT&T

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 5:53 PM

Reply
265 replies

Dec 9, 2011 10:31 PM in response to transmogrification

See, the problem is in the "modem firmware" for iPhone 4S. "Modem firmware" is the internal software that controls the phone or cell radio portion of the iPhone, and isn't compatible with previous iPhones. Nor is the "modem firmware from previous iPhones compatible with the iPhone 4S, because the 4S uses a different cell radio chipset, it is a hybrid cell radio. Also, the cell radios between the previous GSM iPhones are different manufactures, since the iPhone 4S was a departure from cell radio manufacturer Infineon, which adds to the modem firmware incompatibility.


The 3G/2G toggle API, most likely would be part of the modem firmware. When the GSM iPhone 4 gets iOS 5 installed, it a modem firmware written specifically for the Infineon cell radio chipset, while the iPhone 4S on iOS 5+ gets modem firmware specifically designed around the Qualcomm cell radio chipset. The question that should be asked is if the Qualcomm radio chipset hardware can even support such a 3G/2G toggle. Most likely it can't and may have been an oversight by Qualcomm or a technology hurtle that couldn't be overcome. There are competitor hybrid phones that also use the new Qualcomm manufactured hybrid radio chipsets. The key would be to find out if they have a GSM 3G/2G toggle like ordinary EDGE/UMTS/HSPA phones.

Dec 10, 2011 7:52 AM in response to N19h7m4r3

TallBearNC only one unverified low resolution image of a settings screen with a 3G switch. There is no proof that it a screen shot from a 4S and even if TallBearNC was able to place a 3G/2G toggle switch on an iPhone 4S settings screen, there is no proof or is it verified in any way that the toggle would actually toggle anything. But, go ahead believe the magic.


Apple support forums are not a direct communication channel to Apple. The best way to contact Apple is through the feed back forms, not here. This is customer to customer forum space.

Dec 11, 2011 8:51 AM in response to transmogrification

Just to try and clarify... irrespective of toggling or not - if the problem is that the device tries to hang on to a 3G signal when 2G is better I can understand to some degree - BUT I get the distinct impression that the device is incapable of detecting that the 3G network may be BUSY or at FULL CAPACITY - irrespective of signal strength and maybe another facet of the problem - one would have thought the device should move to 2G in that scenario too - but does not seem to. This, perhaps, is even more critical an issue. The recent occasion sthat I have been non-contactable despite apparent good 3G signal have been in areas of high pedestrian levels which would suggest capacity issue on local 3G network (this was also the case with my partner's 3GS). I can live with low signal at times - often it can be usable - but a device that stays bolted to a set of channels that are NOT available is a disgrace.

How do I turn off 3G on the iPhone 4S?

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