iPhone 5 lte signal/reception problem

-80dBm is a very good reading for LTE. If you're getting that and still having weird 3G switching, I would definitely try the SIM swap. I had very odd 3G/LTE swapping all over the place until swapping my SIM. I didn't think it could possibly be the SIM, but after replacing it, that problem went away for me and now i'm just dealing with terrible VZW LTE signal strength and network performance on my iPhone 5.

I just did a screen shot....I'm sitting on the 4 floor of an office building in downtown Greensboro at the moment...full bars....and LTE is wide open here....I just started streaming the station on Live365 and it worked fine for a few minutes and then dropped out and I got the load icon again... See below:

It just freakin' dies!

Pete what is the SIM Swap? Educate me here...

Let me clarify - I know what the SIM is but where do I get a new one? what does it effect? I'm googling now how to replace it...

Right side of your phone is a SIM slot (SIM is a little piece of plastic with a chip on it which identifies your phone to the network). Call your local VZW store and tell them that as part of troubleshooting your iPhone 5 problems of frequently dropping LTE in strong signal areas you were asked to attempt to swap the nano SIM and make sure they have NANO SIMs in stock. When you show up will verify your identity/account, give you a new SIM (little piece of plastic with a chip on it) and will likely insert it for you. You put the other chip in after they activate it and see if anything is better. It may not improve anything, but it's a good troubleshooting step. The process will take about 10-15m plus whatever wait time you have in your VZW store to get assistance. Keep the old SIM after they deactivate it.

I had to call two local VZW stores to find one who had nano SIMs available. I've been told Apple store may have them as well, but I think VZW is a better choice if they have one since I assume they can activate the replacement one easier.

I will do this today, Pete.

For what it's worth, when I go outside, I can pull 3-4 bars on LTE and the value is -90 to -102 or so. Once inside, it hit -130 before dropping back to 4G, then actually switched to Edge right now. I'm right in the heart of LTE coverage, so I'll call AT&T later. I'll browse back in the thread to get the appropriate tech number if it's been posted.

On a side note, if I drive a few miles away, I have full service. A speed test shows me with 40Mbps download (Rate ranged from 18 to 45 Mbps) and over 16Mbps upload (ranged from 9Mbps to 20Mbps). I'd say that's fairly solid. Maybe it is just an issue with the tower nearest to me.

-130dBm is when it should be switching back to 4G and away from LTE, likely sounds like the LTE signal is just not penetrating your building well or you're seeing what I see in low-strength signal areas. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my experience with my iPhone 5 (VZW in my case) is that it does not hold low signal strength LTE as well as other Android LTE phones I have tried (i.e. Galaxy S III). I doubt ATT will do much with a tower case if your outside performance is good (is it good at -90 to -102dBM?), but can't hurt to open one. Given your other issues, can't hurt to try a SIM swap, but if your main complaint is what you just posted, doubt it will make any difference.

I have read this message board from start to finish and am so glad to hear that I am not the only one having an issue.

I had an iPhone 3GS and went to the 5 on AT&T Tuesday night. On my way home I noticed that I couldn't access the data network. AT&T support had me power cycle the phone and I now had "4G".

The next day I had to go to an area that had no service. When I regained coverage, my signal bounced from AT&T E to AT&T but no 4G. When I got back to my desk and power cycled the phone everything worked again. Later that afternoon, I had to go back to the site. This time when I regained coverage, I had only AT&T but could not make a call and surf the internet at the same time. After about 45 minutes the phone read 4G.

I have swapped the sim card and reset network settings multiple times to no avail. In a final act of desperation, I switched to an iPhone 4S. The new phone needed to be upgraded to iOS6. While driving home I lost reception and again could not get 4G back.

One difference was that my camera App would not let me switch to record video. I reset the phone completely and now have better service than I did before.

I don't think the issue is in iOS6 as my 3GS was also using it. My thinking is that the new hardware is having trouble switching from an EDGE tower to another tower.

I certainly hope Apple gets these issues resolved.

-98 now at home

-89 sorry...so frustrated dyslexia is kicking in

-89 = 3G or LTE?

Pete,

Thanks for all your info...following this thread closely. I'm waiting for my VZW iPhone 5 and I'm in the Boston area. Hoping it works okay! It's due to ship later this month, so I'll chime in once I have tried it out. I'm porting over from T-Mobile, so not quite sure what to expect. The VZW LTE reviews have been pretty solid, so I'll be pretty disappointed if I'm only seeing low 3G speeds.

Don't get your hopes up, I am also North of Boston and have been all over Eastern Mass (and now NYC) to very disappointing results. The few times I have had a good LTE experience with my iPhone 5, I have been extremely close to the tower as soon as I get any reasonable distance away, signal and performance drops off a cliff. However, since you're porting over from T-mobile, maybe you won't mind how bad it is.

If you have a great experience, I would love to see your phone next to mine to see if yours is any better where mine is horrible. If I had never used my AT&T Galaxy S III which regularly gives me 20-50Mb/s throughout Boston, NYC and other states, perhaps 1.5-3Mb/s and pitiful <1Mb/s upload speeds in a lot of locations and 3G all over the place wouldn't be so disappointing.

I should also add that I have been a VZW customer for well over a decade since the Bell Atlantic Mobile days and I have been a huge supporter of VZW. I have probably referred hundreds of people to them over the years and now have 3 lines in my direct household (2 iPhone 5s and an iPhone 4S) and at least a dozen in my local extended family. This has been the most AWFUL cellular experience I have ever had, zero ownership of this problem by VZW. Calling VZW connects me to robots who read scripts intead of humans who have a genuine interest in solving this serious problem with the Verizon LTE network and/or Verizon LTE network + iPhone 5.

Well, I'm going to remain hopeful, but if the iPhone 5 can't hold a decent LTE signal, I'll probably swap it out for the Galaxy S3. I don't have alot of patience to deal with days and days of troubleshooting. To be honest, I've actually been pretty happy with my HTC Sensation on TMO, EXCEPT that it often drops to to super slow 2G Edge, which drives me nuts. TMO's "4G" isn't bad...I usally see 1.5mbsp up to about 6mbps, it's just the wholes in their 3G/4G coverage that pushed me to try VZW. I was with AT&T (and Cingular) for many years but tired of the dropped calls I seemed to have almost everyday.

Funny you mention Bell Atlantic...my first cell was actually with NYNEX before they became Bell Atl.

I tried a VZW Galaxy S III for a couple hours in a few areas where my iPhone 5 was not working right and while not as bad, it had signal problems as well, so while I think iPhone 5 has some responsibility here, I am still blaming 75% of my current problems on the VZW network and the other 25% on iPhone 5 signal strength and inabililty to lock back to LTE rapidly after falling to 3G.