The new iPad constantly losing cellular data connnection

11 mbps down and 3 up is about what the internet runs at. you are rerely going to get a downstream connection to a server, esp. a shared connection, higher than 11mbps. on 3g, it used to be 1mbps.

3 up is also good, though you can get faster on a wired connection.

Denver, CO

Tried all the siggested fixes but no luck.

Rather than "hanging on" I opted finally to swap my previous AT&T 64 GB unit for a Verizon model with serial number DMPH. It has been a week and so far the upload/ download speeds are far better and no dropped connections. My previous AT&T unit could not hold a data connection since day one. I have another colleague who also purchased a Verizon unit @ launch and he has had no issues with dropped data connections. His speed tests in his home area of Chicago have been amazing.

Interested in discovering exactly what the issue is and plan on following this discussion out of curiosity.

Would be great if a solution is made available sooner than later so current owners won't have all the inconveniences of swapping out for a new unit.

Hi to all I,ve had my iPad for about a month now and I'm sad to say that I'm suffering from the same 3G connection issue. Regarding a possible problem with the carrier, Well I don't that's the cause, I have been trying my 3G with Orange in Switzerland and my new iPad has the same the 3G connectivity issue described by all of you. Sometimes it connects, other times you see the 3G icon, sometimes you can't see any icon. Where as, at exactly the same time, all is fine with my IPhone 4 3G connection. This is really annoying, you would expect that Apple would have verified the correct functioning of their product prior to selling it. Hope the issue is solved, but meanwhile I'Ll be returning my IPad to Apple.

IPad 32G AT&T here, location TN, USA, purchased at a Best Buy, who is refusing an exchange.

This whole buying experience has been one horrible fiasco after another..

Originally, and after standing in line even, on launch day, I purchased the Verizon model of the same specs, and was caught up in being forced or in the words of BEST BUY...

"Required to pay an activation fee of $35.00, then a deposit of $400.00 and also that I MUST sign a two year data plan/agreement"

So I suppose they realized I didnt want to pay another 435.00 on top of the 729.00 price-tag for my iPad 32g LTE, they went to the mobile phone dept inside BEST BUY and exchanged my Verizon model WIthout my approval, for an AT&T model, and said I didn't qualify for the Verizon two year data plan after they had completed their exchange,

and so, now I am stuck because they slipped me an AT&T model in my Verizon's place and Now BEST BUY refuses to exchange this Nonworking CELLULAR BRICK for the the carrier I originally purchased.

AT&T, and I'm having the same issues it seems as everyone else, with the exception that my iPad goes from 4G to "AT&T E" when it drops the carrier as I switch between WIFI and cellular Data..

AS I understand it, AT&T E is "Edge Data" which is slower than drying paint, however, this iPad 3 will NOT connect to anything online, no web pages, no game servers, no GPS data server, NOTHING...It will not load anything!!!

I would be happy with 3G..However, it appears, I am stuck with it because of BEST BUY NOT STANDING BY THEIR EXCHANGE/RETURN POLICY..

WHen I first attempted to exchange, I was well under BEST BUY return policy of 30 days...but wouldn't you know they finally responded to me stating they would not be able to offer me an exchange because NOW the return term time had NOW expired....

SO they waited until my return period had expired to reply and tell me they couldn't and wouldn't exchange it

because my return/exchange period had expired...Yeah, that's a little bit underhanded...lol...

BE glad you bought your New iPad from the Apple Store...at least they are taking their Nonworking iPads back at certain times...

When i think I traded my ASUS TRANSFORMER PRIME for this New IPad, it makes me nauseated..

Over 750.00 and all it's good for is one expensive electronic picture frame...

I have all the receipts and emails to back this up..

It's not a matter of carriers signals!

I'm driving 2 (two) iPad3 AND 1 iPad2 close to the same UMTS cell day by day, usually changing them on daily basis, colleagues of me sitting in the same conference room having iPad3 experiencing the same problems wheras colleagus (and I if under way with iPad2) running there iPads without any interruptions switching between WiFi and UMTS and vice versa.

Stunning experience! Easily to repeat! Success(or fail?)rate: 100%

IPad2: continue to work without any notice - iPad3: needs restart to connect (and work) with ANY kind of 2G/3G cells (4G in Germany is unusable by iPad3 because of the used frequencies); just after delighting it's proud owner with bunches of "cannot connect/no network/..." messages prominently placed on widely visible screen!

Windows orented colleagues have lots of fun then using the sentence "Reboot tut gut!" (restart is let the system feel better...) a usually running gag on windows systems!

According to the frequency of needed restarts they feel (and worst: express!), that the iPad is "the better windows" by means of restarts! And they call it "very secure" because of it's lack of connection...

If you would ask me as an technican, I would say, that there is a need for some "optimized" portion of software (baseband/modem)...

-> And it's kind of overdue since they (the windows crowd) have to much fun day by day watching us restarting and restarting and restarting and restarting and restarting and res...... What a mess!

Try to use iPad3 inside a train or similar. Lots of fun guaranteed. Every new mast!

Apple - a company which produces items you can love and hate at the same time!

Just my 2ct.

Regards

Dietmar

Data Carrier - the data is piggybacked on a carrier frequency - it deamplifies when not carrying the request for data transmission as signalled by the data burst - this conserves power at the mast and stops wasted microwave energy propogating into free space. Polling takes care of the requirement for the signal stregth to be up. the timeslicing for data transmission across the network switches helps co-ordinate the process - if a piece of data times out or is delayed due to network lag across the switch network, other data streams are prioritised - this help avoid bottlenecks and maintains a rate of data flow across all streams.

It is also worth noting\reading about <pink noise> which is a form on sound proofing where the <noise> of a specific range of frequencies is delayed and retransmitted out of phase to cancel the amplitude of the original. (As used in building such as Courts and Tribunals to provide a layer of privacy in adjoining rooms).

Two devices close to each other may display similar out of phase characteristics across broad frequencies that are harmonics of the original. The pink noise effect will be less, but still noticable in the received signal strenth reading of each device - with one showing a better signal strength <dominant> than the other.

One of the reasons why good shielding\grounding is so important in data networks - to sync to earth and isolate signals from one another.

Another overlooked area of carrier wave equipment is something called polarization - but thats another subject.

regards, Ct

CT, got your scientific hypothesis.

How about a case where people are saying tests conducted are done in a mutually exclusive manner (both devices measured, conducted at separate sessions)? Also, assuming if the way of measuring is the same.

Is there any other hypothesis?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-57355741-266/world-travelers-beware-lte-phones -wont-get-4g-abroad/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393182,00.asp

the second article is a little older - about 6 months plus - but does give some idea of roll-outs and also covers the question over data roaming across the major networks.

Overall my view is that if you move in a good locale ffor 4g support get a 4g plan, otherwise stick to a 3g plan which is supported by worldwide data roaming. The 4g switch down from LTE to hspda, etc is not always guaranteed since nearby masts may not have the supporting synchronising technology built in - so the signal is completely lost requiring initiation of a new IP lease to reconnect.

Bottom line - do your homework before buying.

CT,

how do the masts differenciate sharply between iPhones 3G/3GS/4/4S and iPad1/iPad2 as one (working) half and iPad3 (as non-working) half?

I (and coleagues of me) are owner of all this stuff (working and non-working) and mix up in WiFi free meeting rooms (connecting (or trying to connect) to the SAME mast (VERIFIED by diagnostics and contact to carrier(!)) coming out of WiFi working zones.

Again: HOW does this ugly mast distinguish between us to render the iPad3 NON-WORKING and all others WORKING???

And how did this horrible mast manage to get that sorted day-by-day at 100% of all connection attempts?

I fully agree to your general thesis of high-frequency data transmission, but, fortunately, this is NOT related to the constantly seen iPad3 fails.

Apple has delivered an item which FAILS at that part of business.

It's that simple.

The iPad3 (together with it's specific use of IOS) is buggy and therefore rendered unusable for the job, it is announced for!

It's predecessors are working flawless held side by side with it.

Same carrier, same mast, same room, same guy, same time!

Tell me how often I should try and I will show you at any time that the two (together with colleagues 5 (five!)) iPad3 fail where all the rest of apple devices is working without ANY interferences, using the same microwaves sent out from the only one mast in that area (we can test this in many areas as long as you come to Rhein-Main-Frankfurt area and as long and as often as you want). It even works in Front of the two Apple stores we have here in Frankfurt...

See my reply to Susanshire. The quad core processor is very fast and with improved memory specs the service handling capability of the new ipad3 should, subject to good quality control of the hardware, enable easy reliability of connection.

however the theme here, and elsewhere, seems to be one of holding data connections and switching between 3g and 4g orientated networks. remember that an ip lease is issued for a specific technology and the ipad is designed to switch seamlessly between the two. but remembering what i said about carrier wave propogation, which is determined by the lease - a threshhold has to be overcome to switch between the two.

If the threshhold of the carrier signal strength is set incorrectly or prone to keeping alive when data cannot be sent, then equally the lease is not released and the switch cannot occur.

If synchronous data transmission and receive was employed as used with 3g then problems would be fewer. However due to roaming restrictions deliberately put in place by the carriers, ATT, Verizon, etc this seamlessness of data network node (mast) switching is hampered.

when you switch your ipad on, with wifi and Carrier enabled, both will obtain a lease of a carrier wave using your public address Ip, however if problems occur in one while using the other, the problem may not be apparent, and if the lease is maintained by a low signal threshhold - data transmission is not possible either until a new lease is obtained, or the Master DNS Server on the network considers you are life and good to send. The average dns responder network updates about every 20 minutes - the master record about once an hour - for open connections -renewing a lease updates them automatically. But there is no synchronizing between networks employing different technologies!

Two identical pieces of kit run in identical tests separated by time are no guarantee of a logical and meaningful network conformance test. you would have to analysis every part of the route and the background services analysis including overall traffic levels to make a reasonable comparison - which would of course be subject to other outside interferences such as local and non local signal noise.

The tests yyou mention are valid as a means to an end, but not an end in themselves.

regards, Ct

Heavenfire316 wrote:

[...]

and so, now I am stuck because they slipped me an AT&T model in my Verizon's place and Now BEST BUY refuses to exchange this Nonworking CELLULAR BRICK for the the carrier I originally purchased.

[...]

Hey, here's someone with a similar issue at an earlier point of time with Best Buy. Here's his/her experience and hypothesis of what's going under the table.

[Note: Your post is 8 days later than that of the poster's]

I will remove it if BerthaVanation minds me quoting.

vvvvv

"

Re: Is the Heating of New IPad a defect or not?

Apr 17, 2012 1:34 AM (in response to BerthaVanation)

I believe this issue is bigger than any of us realizes. When I went to Best Buy this morning to exchange my 64GB Verizon New iPad, I was first told that they do not have any more units to replace it (except open box units), and they also had no iPad 2's to exchange for either. She then called a Manager over, and he said they cannot order any more New iPad's (except a couple of the wi-fi only units) at this time because of the number that have been returned so far because of the heat issue. Not only can you no longer order them through their website, but they can not even order them using their system or even from different stores.

Besides Apple, Best Buy has to be one of the largest retailers of the iPads, and the fact that they are currently on lockdown, seems to indicate something is going on that Apple is not telling us about.

I think the next several weeks will be interesting ones for iPad users and potential iPad owners."

BerthaVanation

wrote:

[...]

I think the next several weeks will be interesting ones for iPad users and potential iPad owners."

Spot on?

If you paid by credit card you may be covered under their terms - worth checking. Also contact Apple (Write as a complaint\enquiry).

Check with your countries trading standard laws - whether US or Europe (and many other parts of the world) standards are pretty robust now to ensure continuity of service and warranty agreements across international boundaries.

You may have a case for breach of contract between yourself and the seller, a letter from a solicitor will show you mean business and would cost them alot more to try and defend rather than exchange your unit. though be prepared that on giving you a refund they are not obliged to then do further business with you. Any supporting replies received from Apple would also help reinforce the view that they cannot get away with fobbing you off. Apple themselves have a fourteen day, no questions asked return policy for full refund - with the exception of products that have been personalised - in which case the warranty covers for products not fit for purpose or failing to work as claimed.

Go for a straightforward refund - and be prepared to see them in court if they do not agree. Many consumer representing bodies will be only too happy to help you - at least in the UK.

I am just wondering how long it takes them to run debug on the ipad3's network and processor service stacks following interrupt requests for network service routines. Is there an on device latency issue with some manufactured batch parts I wonder.

I, oftentimes, thought this simply HAD to be the reasons behind the "clamp Down" on returning the new iPad to Best Buy..

My, my, it appears everyone who has purchased a new iPad will soon get some stupid appeasement item from Apple, as with what Apple did in regard to the "Antennae Gate" when those customers who could not connect to their data carriers because of errors on Apple's part regarding the iPhone 4 and the $15.00 settlement offered...

What a joke, if something such as this is the case, I will NEVER EVER use anything but an ANDROID OR WINDOWS DEVICE..

This will be one Fruit that will be banned from my entire very large family..

Also, if the above is the case, who can blame the retailer for not wanting to be stuck with someone's defective and non working junk..

I simply wish, I had kept my Transformer and iPad 2..because a RETINA DISPLAY surely isn't worth the headaches which come along with not being able to perform my job function and present my presentations with at least some consistency..

Any idea what it is like to have 500 people watching a display while "cannot connect" error messages come more frequently than the next slide?

Although an "F-WORD" ISN'T usually my first choice when this happens.......Using the word "Frustrating" isn't the F-word I chose to use...not when it happens over and over and....well, OVER again..