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

i think maybe my wife gets a tiny bit of 3g coverage in her office, but is poor and very slow, and it's not enough to play music on pandora and text messages take 15 min - 30 min to go through. perhaps becuase that 3g is there, it doesn't switch over to alternate method of Edge which was fast enough to play music on pandora/ send texts through faster.

Well when I went to Setting > General > Network, there was no option for this as well. However, I believe it is automatic switching now. Because I remember in some certain area where I live have a dead spot for 3G and does not for Edge so it automatically connects to Edge network. So clearly, Edge does work on iPhone 4S, but no option in Network settings to turn 3G on or off.

Hi, I'm in the UK and travel a lot. I only received my 4S today and have noticed that this option has been removed on the 4S but not on the 4. Removing the option to disable 3G is a huge mistake. Battery life is an issue and one of the main reasons I upgraded. This decision now seems to be counter intuitive.

PLEASE PUT THE OPTION BACK!! LET THE USER DECIDE.

I was afraid this might happen to me as I had an older iPhone and needed to switch 3G off at work to get calls or send texts etc, but I figured, hey this fancy new 4S should handle this automatically and life will be great. Well, that was the wrong answer. I cannot receive phone calls at my desk at work for the same reason. I need to have the switch back or my phone is useless at least 9hrs a day.

Long story short, I am screwed without the switch, Apple, I beg you to please add the switch back in so that I can keep my iPhone!

I returned my iPhone 4S because I couldn't turn 3G on/off when I wanted to. I have the same issues. I hope Apple will bring this function back. If not I'll keep my iPhone 4 and not buy the iPhone 4S.

I'm running iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 and still have the ability to turn 3G off/on. Thats why I was shocked when I got my iPhone 4S on Saturday and found I was unable to turn 3G off/on anymore...I assumed both phones were on iOS 5 so it would still be there but it's not...

That just confirms the problem that we already know about which is that you can't turn off 3G on the 4S. I'm gald I found out about it before I upgraded my phone. There's no way I'll be buying a 4S until I have the option to disable 3G. It's got nothing to do with battery life but when I place a call it's nice to have it actually go through and then not drop when it does. Due to the crap 3G near my home this is just a deal breaker.

Btw if u turn off celluar as well wouldnt it mean for the phone go back to GSM?I know it even if celluar is disabled u can still receive both call n sms through 3G because its just not "data" but it seems logical to me if u have disabled data services to stick just on GSM 2G.

Can anyone try this out?

3G is a "flavor" of GSM, so turning off Cellular will not revert the device back to the standard that it is using.

Turning off Cellular Data will do just that.

Texting is not sent over the data network, it's sent over the voice network, I believe.

MMS and other data services will not work if Cellular data is turned off.

3 coleagues and myself all eagerly upgraded from iphone4 to iphone4s on the release date. Where we are situated we have a 3G mast 5 miles away and a 2G mast 150 meters away. The iphone4s prioritises the 3G signal which has 2major effects,

1. Gives 1bar signal whichs drops out if you try to make or receive a call

2. Takes the phone from full charge to empty in 7 to 8 hours

I have yet to find a good reason for Apple to have removed the 3G disable option from the 4s. Doing this has rendered what could be the best phone on the market, a useless lump of technology, after all what is the use of a mobile phone that you can't make or receive calls on! We rely on these phones to communicat and do business, this issue is costing my business time , efficiency and therefore money!

Apple! If you are reading this, please get this sorted PDQ or we will have no option but return these phones and replace them with ones that we can actually use!

Come on Apple, this has to be addressed! Battery life compared to iPhone4 now ***** and call reliability has dropped (owing to low consistency of 3G signals in the UK).

I'm now regretting a move to iPhone 4S. Please provide some useful feedback! For the 4S to be viable for many we need the option to switch off 3G in IOS5, just like there is on the 4.

As FelipeV has commented, I have been looking at both the 4 and 4S side by side in a UK O2 shop, both were running iOS5. The 4 running iOS5 still has the ability to turn off 3G yet the the 4S does not, so it must be a hardware change not a software change, in which case there will be no option available on the 4S.

Finding this out has just turned me off upgrading to a 4S, rather think I will be heading in Samsung's or back to Sony Ericsson's direction in future.

😟

Believe me, without the ability to turn off 3G, if you happen to be in area with poor 3G coverage, it will render the phone useless.. This is not just my experience but the experience of everyone I Khoi who has a 4s ( 4 people to date).

Apple, you must get this sorted PDQ.

I live in the UK. I have a 4S and Ive been in areas that have patchy or no 3G coverage and my 4S has no problem switching to an alternative connection method when the 3G signal fades away or is non existent. I find my 4S much better at holding onto a 3G signal longer and getting a stronger signal generally than my iPhone 4 was.

I think your comment 'if you are in a area with poor 3G coverage it will render the phone useless' is a bit overboard and not necessarily correct.

According to Apple's website, the iPhone 4S supports:

UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz);

GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)3

802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)

Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology

So, it can not be a hardware problem.