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iPhone 4S switches to Edge over 3G

My iPhone 4S seems to prefer Edge over 3G. On my 3GS (that I upgraded from), the only time it was ever on the Edge network was when 3G was unavailable. I know for a fact that there is good 3G coverage where I am 99% of the time, so there's no reason the my new phone should be on Edge. Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Posted on Oct 16, 2011 6:57 PM

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34 replies

Oct 17, 2011 1:23 PM in response to Caleb Amundson

I noticed my 4s do this to me twice yesterday. My boyfriend was sitting next to me and his iPhone 4 was on 3G. I'd be interested in knowing how/if this was resolved for you. It took restarting the phone to get it to select 3G. I never saw edge on my old iPhone 4.


Now if only I could figure out why my messages app refuses to clear unread message badges after I've read everything. Gotta love new operating systems. :)

Oct 17, 2011 1:54 PM in response to Caleb Amundson

This just happened to me. I checked my iPhone 4S and it showed that had switched from 3G to Edge. My iPad 2 3G sitting right next to it showed it was still connected to 3G.


I turned airplane mode on and off and the iPhone 4S connected to 3G right away.


I am seeing less bars on my iPhone 4S as compared to the iPad 2. The iPad 2 has 5 bars for 3G, the iPhone 4S is fluctuating between 3 to 5 bars (mostly 4 bars) so it's not getting as consistent a signal as my iPad 2. What's odd is that the 4S's antenna is supposed to be better than the iPhone 4's. If it it's switching to Edge and not switching back, that would be bad.


If it keeps happening I'll schedule a Genius appointment.

Oct 17, 2011 2:12 PM in response to Caleb Amundson

I have noticed the same problem. My 4s is in edge more now then my 4 ever did! Im in toronto, ontario so the Rogers 3g coverage is very good across the city. Compared to my old iphone 4 which hardly ever went into edge unless I was in a fringe area or low lying area.


Im also having a problem with echoing on my iphone 4s when using the Apple Headset. Doesnt happen right away but will happen between 1 min - 6 mins on average, and the call becomes garbled and really bad echo.

Oct 17, 2011 6:50 PM in response to Caleb Amundson

I went into the store and was luckily able to reproduce the problem, they did a network reset and it switched to Edge again, we did a sim card swap and it did it again, so they replace it at no charge to me. The Apple Store guy said that it was either a SIM card thing (AT&T's fault), or an iPhone thing. Since it wasn't the SIM card, I got a new phone and that was that.


I suggest doing a network reset first, then swapping out your SIM card (if you don't have one, they said AT&T will give you one in the store to try out), then going to Apple if nothing else works. Hope that helps!

Oct 17, 2011 8:15 PM in response to Caleb Amundson

Mine's only done it that one time so far and turning airplane mode on and off fixed it and it was good the rest of the day.


Let us know if your new phone also has the problem. If it does, it's likely a software issue. The phone should switch to Edge if the 3G signal isn't good enough, but should switch back to 3G once the signal is good. If it's not doing that, there's a problem.


I'll actually get to test this out tomorrow since I'm going into a building where for whatever reason, the 3G signal doesn't get through but Edge does. If the phone doesn't switch back to 3G when I leave that building I'll know something is wrong.

Oct 18, 2011 1:52 PM in response to Morac

I tested it out today and my 4S would switch between 3G and Edge by itself when the 3G signal got poor and then back to 3G when it got better. So that's working.


I found though that the phone would aggressively try to acquire a 3G signal even if the signal was very poor so I had a problem where I ended up dropping connection periodically since it would jump from Edge to 3G and the "No Connection" and back to "Edge". Apple removed the 3G on/off setting for whatever reason so there's no way to turn 3G off.

Nov 2, 2011 9:11 AM in response to Caleb Amundson

I'm on the Rogers network here in Toronto and confirm the exact same issue. My old iPhone 4, and even my backup Android phone would maintain around 3 bars of 3G service on the 20th floor around the Eaton Centre. The 4S drops down to Edge with full signal strength.... and useless data service.


I am not sure it's the phone though, Rogers 3G network has just been getting worse and worse lately.... it's pretty sad actually as I always seem to end up in areas where I can't use the data I am paying for.


Wish I had the option of locking the iPhone on either Edge or 3G....

iPhone 4S switches to Edge over 3G

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