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

It's a bit early to make an assessment but I found the 9A406 carrier handling improved, in poor 3G coverage area I get "No Network" flashing from time to time but the phone doesn't run away into a blind search.

It has been 9 days since TallBearNC was going to go to the gym then post on YouTube, CNET, etc. his method for restoring the switch on the 4s. He was also going to come back here and alert people just that he had done so, not post it here in violation. Hasn't done it so far.

In idle surfing of various jailbreak sites most report that they can cosmetically show the availability of the switch and some have said if they activate it they get an E on the screen. But quite those that looked further said the speed of their data connection did not change, they were still actually in a 3G connection, i.e. the speeds were much too high for EDGE. And no I'm not going to post the sites here in vilolation of the ToU. So unless someone can do the hack and show a change in radio status it still appears that Qualcomm in this radio chipset, just like their other chipsets or other phones that use a similare chipset, does not provide a manual means to control the connection.

deggie,

I as said earlier TallBearNC should have gone to the doctor before going to the gym. Hope he is OK... 😟

You make a point that Qualcomm doesn't provide a 3G switch on any phone with their chip set. I have never seen a 3G/Edge switch on any phone but the iPhone, is there any phone besides the iPhone that has that feature?

I made a suggestion to a friend that he turn off 3G on his HTC Droid Inspire. He looked high and low and his phone did not have that feature. I don't know what chip set the Inspire has but it sure doesn't have a 3G switch.

Qualcomm chipset in the Inspire, same basic radio chip (less the CDMA) as the one in the iPhone 4s.

Hmmm...

Not looking good for those of us that would like the switch back.

As far as the code that "aneagle" refers to, well "in a land far away" I worked on a lot of hardware coding and it is not uncommon for remnants of past version to persist in a code package for a very long time. It gets commented out or "Jumped" over and just hangs around doing nothing except occupying space. A bad practice but in my experience not all that uncommon. Sometimes programmers just comment old code out so they can reference it or at a later time revert back to it should the new code not work as planned, not that a well engineered plan ever fails - LOL.

Unfortunately the toggle was never available with the iPhone 4S. I too, would like to see such a toggle switch on the iPhone 4S, for GSM users. I just don't think it's hardware possible and we might be wrong, too. Who knows? Apple may prove us all wrong and include a toggle that is compatible with Qualcomm's chipset. That would be so cool, if possible!

IMy family has been through at least 15 odd 3G GSM phone in last 4 years-including iphones, Android, Blackberry, symbian, UIQ Samsung etc. Every single phone except iphone 4/4s had three options to control network: only 3G, only2G and auto 2G-3G.

In my opinion, even iPhone 4 implementation of 3G toggle is faulty. If 3G is switched on, the iPhone 4 drops down to 2G whenever the 3G signal becomes weak. Now most networks do not offer data plan for both 2G & 3G mode simultaneously. You can take a data plan in one mode and pay per kb of download if you go in the second mode. This results in hefty charges if some one has opted for a 3G package and the iPhone 4 downloads even if 100 Mb of 2G data due weak 3G signal. In fact my daughter is not able to opt for 3G package on her iPhone 4 for this reason only.

Sometimes it appears that Apple wants to do things differently for the sake of being different.

Mike,

Thanks - over the last 4 years I have gone from Motorola (semi-smart) phones to the iPhone. I have interlaced a few Droid (smart phones) in the last couple of years primarily when Apple seemed to be ignoring the on/off again Battery Consumption problem. I would return the Droids after a short period of time because they just were such a disappointment when compared to the iPhone. Not that the Droids did work, it was driven mostly by the smooth intuitiveness of the iOS and the solid mechanical build of the iPhone.

Anyway I probably never kept any of the Droids long enough to find out if they had the 3G switch and I just never stumbled on to the fact that it was there.

I will say, about your data usage billing, that I have never heard of it being different for Edge (2G), 3G or 4G (on the droids). My carrier is ATT, if they ever pulled that on me I would be having a knockdown drag out with their sales department.

But having used Apple computers (Industrial purposes) and now the iPhone (personal usage) I agree that Apple does do things differently. I don't know why but that has always been my rub with Apple, there secrecy about what and why they added or took away features and I won't go into their secrecy about some code interfaces they will and won't let developers use - and God help you if you do find a code trick that they don't approve of.

HolmanGT,

I am using the phone in India now and out here you have to choose between 3G or 2G data plan. My wife manages very well with 3G data plan - she chooses the mode '3G only ' on her android - HTC Desire while switching to data services. In this mode, the phone cannot go to 2G.

Although not connected to this issue, I can't resist pointing out another quirky thing I just discovered about iOS- no option to forward calls if one is unreachable, busy or if the call is unanswered. A feature so simple and basic that all the entry level mobiles have it. Strangely all these options can be exercised by simply entering the easily available network codes. Another instance of Apple differentiating itself.

Call forwarding is dependent on your carrier. CDMA networks in North America use "vertical service codes" or "star codes" for call forwarding and don't allow for a direct software setup of call forwarding, like GSM technology can. GSM networks can use standard "GSM feature codes", though depending on your GSM carrier's setup, you may have the call forwarding setup feature via a software menu on the phone. iPhones on AT&T in North America have the software set up feature located in "setting/phone settings". I hope this helps explain.

GSM iPhone has one only one option - call forward all calls unconditionally. All other GSM phones have the options of: forward on busy, forward if unanswered or forward if un-reachable.

My point is that Apple, sometimes, in its infinite wisdom chooses to ignore the most basic and easily implementable features.

That is incorrect. There is nothing stopping the GSM iPhone user from using standard GSM Feature Codes to do any of that like any other GSM phone user, depending on if the carrier will allow for it.

Here is a list of GSM feature codes:

http://www.geckobeach.com/cellular/secrets/gsmcodes.php

Let's not hijack this thread anymore on this.

It's not easy to verify without access to the System area but after a "deep reading", thanks to the wide open 9A406, I understood that the package has CommCenter and CommCenterClassic, but the 4s only runs CommCenter and from 9A405 to 9A406 it's been patched at 2 places in the hidden zone. The ENABLE_3G key word needs a signal from Preferences and CommCenter. The most interesting thing is the default behavior of CommCenter, the manager of Qualcomm chip, is defined in DefaultUMTS.pri with GSM_WCDMA_ONLY as Preferred Mode, this exlpains why the 4s tends to stick to 3G.

Transmogrification,

Can't let a topic close on wrong note. My point is that the iPhone doesn't offer these features (except one) in its settings menu. You have to go through the codes you mentioned manually. All other GSM phones offer these features in setting.

Mike,

That is simply an incorrect generalization that ALL other GSM phones offer menu driven features for all aspects of call forwarding. Also call forwarding and all its' features and aspects are carrier dependent, meaning not all features and aspects may not be available with that GSM carrier.

Your original comment on call forwarding was that iOS didn't have a menu setting for call forwarding. It does.