The new iPad constantly losing cellular data connnection

ok so im on my third ipad for the 3g issues the very first one i returned because it couldnt hold a wifi signal with any stability. it did however hold 3g and 4g on att flawlessly. so whenever it lost wifi it would pickup the 3g or 4g right away. the second, third, and now fourth ipad however have the cellular bug where whenever i leave wifi area it looses cellular connection. my question for users in the usa is this. is this only an issue on the att models or are users with the verizon version sufferening the same problem. if its only on the att one i might need to switch mine for the verizon one. thank you in advance for any replies.

Just FEI, none of the current commercially available technologies (in the UK, US or elsewhere), officially meet the definition of 4G, however 2 different technologies (LTE and WiMAX) that are both forerunners to the technologies that will eventually provide true 4G and an Advanced version of 3G called HSDPA+ are being marketed as 4G mobile broadband.

Here in the UK, where we definitely have this problem, we don’t have anything like 4G. In fact, barring some very small and limited trials (Slough and Cornwall), the closest we get is HSDPA+ which is being marked by the 3 network as “Advanced 3G”

Strangely enough, as I posted earlier, the 3 SIM I have works fine and doesn’t have a problem, so there is something different about their network, no idea what it is though.

For what it's worth, I called Applecare after my 3rd iPad. I'm in USA in Columbus, OH. No LTE here. Bought on 3/23/12 and noticed the internet not connecting after I left my home cell tower. Full bars and ATT logo just nbo connection. Got new sim, that didn't work. Went to Apple store, aid to do factory reset. That didn't work. Tried to swap out return to Apple store and wanted to give me refurbished model. Told them no since under 14 days from purchase. Went back to ATT and got another, same issues. Went back to ATT and had them order one from another location. Got that one and still same issue. Called Apple. Sope with senior advisor and ATT 3rd level help. Told Apple and ATT the only thing I have not tried is to turn of LTE. Tried today and it worked after traveling out of home cell. spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone. Still no answer why this is happening but finally got it to work like it should. Still have apple pushing this up to senior engineer and will hear back on Monday. I did let them know about this post and others and had him put this in the record. He was shocked at the number of posts on this.

For US customers try turning off LTE and see if thats the fix. For rest of the world, I'm not sure what will be done but will post back with what I hear. Seems awfully short sighted to release a product that has not been fully vetted. Especially since there was no "new" thing on the market to compete with. Could have waited a few months to fully vet this product.

Let me know if this helps anyone else.

I too am in Columbus, OH and turning off LTE solves the problem for me also.

You had a much better result with Apple tech support than I did. I talked to them twice on 4/11. First guy hadn't heard of the problem and didn't seem to care about this thread. His solution was to reset Network Settings, which doesn't solve the problem.

So I read the rest of this thread and tried turning off LTE. That works.

I told the second person I talked to that turning off LTE solved the problem and asked if I should take the iPad up to the Apple Store. All he did was say AT&T didn't have LTE in Columbus, therefore turning off LTE made sense and didn't acknowledge there was a real problem. He seemed to be saying, if an LTE signal were available there wouldn't be a problem, so he just ignored the issue.

Neither Apple Support Rep gave me a case number.

So, those of us in the US appear to have a work around by turning LTE off. What is the long term solution? Is it just a software patch, or is it a hardware problem? Guess I need to return to the Genius Bar before my 14 days are up.

My original 4/11 post is here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3816436?answerId=18101071022#18101071022

I guess for people outside US like myself, the only way to get 3G back is to do a hard reset on the device. None of the soft reset helps, eg. turning on/off airplane mode, turning on/off cellular data...

So, as I stated before I am also one of the "lucky" ones in the US that has this problem; but something interesting happened when I open iTunes and connected the iPad to it. By the way, I am using Verizon. A message just pop up stating that an update to the carrier settings for your iPad is available and if I want to download it now! Has anyone in the US using AT&T or Verizon got this message? I downloaded it and I guess on Monday I will find out if this helps or not. I will be out of the "home" area and using the extended 3G where I'm going. I will let you guys know if this really solve the problem.

Have the same problem in Norway, iPad 4g, 64gb. You need to do a hard reset to be able to use mobile data in 3G

On another thread, a member called AntonUK posted the following solution. It's worked for me and several other people in the UK on T-mobile and O2. I have no idea why it works, but it certainly seems to.

O2 default PIN is 5555

T-mobile default is 1210

The fix is:

1. Go to settings, mobile data, sim pin

2. Turn on using default pin for your carrier

3. Change pin to one of your choice, that you can remember

4. Turn it off again*

That seems to work for many, hopefully it will work for you too.

Good luck and credit Anton if it works for you.

*I left the SIM PIN lock on and it works for me, it never seems to ask me to unlock it.

Unfortunately that doesn't work. Many of us have changed the sim password already and it didn't change anything.

Maybe You should try to disable completely pin code. Thats the trick?

No, changing and disabling the sim pin code doesn't work for me, and I have seen others say the same thing in these threads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution

This is an interesting read for all struggling with the new 4g. One thing is clear - if you using technology that requires an automatic change from one band to another to continue data transfer - you may not always get it - dependent on whether the fallback is onto a packet switched network or a hybrid using the new LTE (Long Term Evolution) IP addressing standard. If you do read it you will also see that only LTE advanced is fully compliant - I suspect the iPad3's cellular technology is not upto this standard. Very interesting read, though some may find the technical jargon a little hard going. The main problem I suspect is how the iPad manages the command structure instruction sets' at the adapter interface level to handle seamless data flows as the Cellular Adapter tries to keep a service flow going between the various transmitting technologies.

The iPad3 gen is definitely a case of putting the cart before the horse where the Cellular technology is concerned. (my view).

Latency:

LTE - C-plane from Idle (with IP address allocated) to Connected in <100 ms, U-plane latency of less than 5 ms in unload condition (ie single user with single data stream) for small IP packet.

LTE Advanced - C-plane from Idle (with IP address allocated) to Connected in <50 ms, U-plane latency reduced compared to Release 8 E-UTRA and E-UTRAN, specifically in situations where the UE does not have a valid scheduling assignment or the UE needs to synchronize and obtain a scheduling assignment.

This might not mean anything to many - but the Latency qualifier for standard LTE is a small packet - if this is not consistent with current broadband processing over command structure within the iPad's system, problems will arise. Is apple employing "fixed" packet size or is the adapter setting on Auto. If the packet size send /receive is or becomes an inconsistent state the data flow will fail. Since the packet size is a parameter set during the bind phase of a connection, any loss of connection in this context will require an adapter reset - IE a reboot to re-establish the parameters.

Since rebooting is the only known workaound at the moment - this intimates that either this, or.a similar connection set parameter is the problem. Any comments from Apple please?

Is anyone in then UK having this problem on the Three network?

If not, I'm tempted to try a 3 SIM while waiting for Apple to fix the underlying problem.

I used a 3 sim for a week here in the UK with no problems, when I put in my T-mobile sim it locked about 4 times a day . Since doing the sim PIN fix, I've had no problems on T-mobile in three days, so it really seems to work for me.