iPhone 5 lte signal/reception problem

Call your local VZW store first. One of my local stores didn't have a replacement SIM, the other one did.

Haha I live in the middle of nowhere...there's only 1 Verizon store in a 40 mile radius 😝

Somehow, they gave us LTE though. I would have stayed with AT&T if I felt they were going to have LTE here in the next few years...

While I blame VZW for showing Strong LTE in an area where they obviously have signal strength problems, I cannot blame VZW for the fact that the iPhone 5 is incapable of properly switching back from 3G->LTE when it should. This to me is a phone SW bug (at least I hope this is a SW bug and not something hardwired in to the radio that is not upgradable).

I have turned LTE off for a few days and have been having great reception and no problems with my phone (Ottawa, ON - Bell). I turned it back on today and everything seems to be switching fine. I won't know for sure until I get away from this tower if it's network related, but the phone is switching from 3G to LTE without problems when making/receiving phone calls at the moment. I'll update when I do change locations.

I did that this morning and ever since it seems okay...I wonder how the radios work in some of the other verizon LTE phones. Since Apple essentially made one phone I'm wondering if others engineered theirs to be CDMA/GSMLTE specific...

Ok Guys. This is the news about my recent post.
AT&T (1-866-2887629) understood the problem about LTE reception failure on my Iph5.
For those changing from Iph4, Iph4S to Iph5, or other users to Iph5, AT&T has to update the new equipment within their LTE network, otherwise failures will happen or simply it will not recognize it. For those getting their equipment by mail, most likely they should call AT&T to set it up. Don't believe your line is set up for just following the instructions in the box.
I just did and they fixed the issue despite sending me to Apple several times!

More on VZW's coverage around Metro Boston, the iPhone 5 almost never locks LTE in the areas clearly marked "4G LTE" on Verizon's network map. I think this is both the fault of VZW for having weak LTE coverage and the iPhone 5 for holding on to 3G dearly and not performing well esp. on uploads in lower strength (1-2 bar) LTE areas. Plus as I mentioned in an earlier thread, the VZW fallback to 3G is very slow and likely not as seamless a transition compared to AT&T which offers HSPA / HSPA+ as a fallback.

How's VZW w/ iPhone 5 working for the rest of you? Are you seeing LTE almost everywhere or almost nowhere like me wherever you may be? I do wish I had more runtime with a non-iPhone 5 on VZW to know how much of this is to blame on VZW vs. the iPhone 5. AT&T has such great LTE service here (from a Galaxy S III) that I made a seemingly wrong assumption that the "best" LTE network would be far superior which to me meant that it would be almost everywhere given how surprisingly well AT&T is working in the Metro Boston area.

@pete I've been dealing with the same issue in RI. As far as I am concerned VZW should be hit for false advertising. I can't get LTE anywhere. I just switched from AT&T and I am regretting it to the point where I am debating canceling the VZW contract and switching back as soon as I can get an AT&T iPhone 5

If it works nowhere, try a Nano SIM swap. In my case (after a SIM swap), I'm at the point where it works, but only in strong LTE areas, otherwise it wants 3G or with 1-2 bars of LTE, has really poor download and even worse download speeds.

Add me to the list...Same issue here...I switched from an Android device (Sprint) to the iPhone5 on Verizon because of the "excellent" 4gLTE coverage. When I stream radio on my way to work the sprint phone/network would drop out in 3 locations...mostly hills, etc...The iPhone5 dropped off 28 times this morning....Yes...I counted

It's weird because I just had a coworker standing next to me with his Droid Phone on the same Verizon Network...both 4gLTE...and the iPhone kept losing signal and would either buffer or drop completely off from the radio station. Definitely an antenna issue going on here...I have tried it without a case...and everything..

Do we have another Antenna Gate happening?

I am on my second replacement and still have the same issue. Whenever I'm on an ecrypted wifi I cannot access anything. The phone works fine on open wifis. I was told that there are two manufacturers of the hardware and Apple is having an issue with one of them. At this time there is no "fix" I was told to keep bringing the phone back for a replacement and hopefully I will end up with a phone that works. VERY frustrating!

I have every freeking problem on my iphone5 as described in all the forums here... dropping signal when LTE is on , horrizontal lines in app store , dimming of screen to minium by itself, it dosent reconnect to signal if i am out of coverage area for more than 10 mins like in my lab which in in the basement.

Now the best part they replaced my phone and my replacement phone has the same all problems , so i know this is in all the phones for sure ( because my friends have the same problems in their iphone5 as well) and NOW WE CANT EVEN RETURN OUR PHONES BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN REPLACED. FCUK you apple and your iphones. As holes.

I have 64GB white ATT.

Add me to the list of frustrated users. The only time LTE works is if I'm within eyeshot of the tower (5 bars). Anything else mine will switch between 3g, Edge, and maybe LTE, but it is so unstable it's unusable. I have an email in to VZW support to see what they say. My home and work locations are all within the LTE coverage map along the heart of the Jersey Shore, so I was looking forward to rocking LTE no matter where I went. Too bad this is not the case. I will post updates as my conversation with VZW unfolds...

One thing I will note is that my Wifi is fine. I just renamed and used a new password to be sure there were no bugs on my end, and it's pretty solid.

I’ve read through this entire discussion thread and I think I’ve spent about as much time as Pete Boston with this infuriating problem. However I’ve gone about this a little differently than anyone else, so perhaps this information may be useful...

Bought two iPhone 5’s to replace iPhone 4’s. AT&T is our carrier. Our home is in Marin County north of San Francisco. Work is downtown San Francisco. No problem with getting good LTE in San Francisco for new iPhone 5. At home is a different story. According to AT&T we are just beyond the LTE service area. (There are 3 towers in our area but only one has LTE.) But instead of locking on to the previous strong 3G service we had with our old iPhone 4, the new 5 phone fluctuates between “No Service” and 5 bars - constantly! Unfortunately 20% of the time we have no phone connection! And since it can’t lock into a signal, it just drains the battery.

I have called AT&T’s technical help 3 times and have gone into the store twice. (At least I’ve been credited some money for poor service.) I’ve been to the Apple Store and have opened a case file with Apple for both phones.

But here’s my different approach - my husband and I also opened a new account at Verizon and got Verizon phones and are testing them side by side our old AT&T phones. Pete, I realize you and others have posted on this discussion thread Verizon problems, but here’s my experience:

There are those of us who are experiencing both software and carrier issues. Previous good experience with service providers did not prepare us for our providers issues with LTE. True LTE is not available in all areas and many carriers are still testing their equipment so it is not reliable. It seems many of us are not able to lock into a strong LTE signal.

There seems to be an Apple software issue as well. Both Pete Boston and Megapantallica have correctly determined that the phone wants to lock onto LTE or nothing. When the signal is weak or fluctuates, the phone won’t lock onto a stronger lower signal. Once it does, the phone also won’t seamlessly lock onto a new signal when the phone has changed location.

In summary - It pays to do your 4G LTE research on all the carriers in your area! Find out from your friends, co-works, or neighbors if they use 4G LTE before you upgrade to iPhone 5.

I can tell you that replacing the sim cards in both our AT&T phones did not change our service issues and we still experienced “No Service” 20% of the time.

So, crazy as we are, but incredibly frustrated with our AT&T situation, we went out and got another set of iPhones and opened a Verizon account. I realize we are lucky to be able to do this, so I am reporting my findings.

We have been testing the one set of AT&T phones side-by-side the Verizon set. Both phones have no problem locking on to our home wi-fi. In our home location. The Verizon phones seem to work at home unlike AT&T. We seem to have a strong LTE signal. No problem with signal hunting. We went out to the rural part of the county this weekend and the phone had no problem changing from LTE to 3G.

In the meantime, we have found a fix for our “No Service” problem at home with our AT&T phones by turning off “Enable LTE”.

With time running out to return one set of phones, we have to make a decision. We have been with AT&T for 15 years and have a good cell phone plan with cheaper data. But remembering to manually turn off LTE at home until our local towers are upgraded to LTE is a real bummer. This is a real clunky solution. However, my husband who works in IT hates to give up the ability to use the web while on a phone call which he can do on AT&T but not Verizon.

Or we go to Verizon and pay more for a shared data plan. For our home and work locations this carrier seems to work much better. And even more compelling, I ran a speed test over the weekend and got a ping of 25ms, and a shocking 51.2 Mbps download!! It was an anomaly but we can easily get 27+ Mbps download speed and almost the same upload on the LTE connection.

Good luck everyone! I’m exhausted by this problem.

Everyone who reads this discussion experiencing problems - please report case files to Apple and to your carrier. Let's get this problem fixed!

Im wondering should we open a ticket with apple and the carriers and post it here to reference when we call in, maybe it will turn into a huge ticket that will be seen by higher ups...