iPhone 5 lte signal/reception problem

I have a Verizon iPhone 5 and live in the middle of New York City. The phone gets 4-5 bars of LTE in my house, but will randomly decide to switch back to 3G (which also has 4-5 bars). Once it switches to 3G, I have to toggle airplane mode to get LTE back. Even then, it only regains LTE signal about 50% of the time.

This seems to be a widely known software bug. I'm still running stock iOS6 (have not had the time to upgrade). I'll report back if that fixes the problem.

**Update Nov2012 for Bell Canada network **

All right folks posted my topic on the DSL forums for the LTE problem and got a response from the tech that works at Bell Canada. At least we know it's not just iphones on the Bell Network, hope this helps you other peeps on other networks.

(There's an open master ticket right now regarding LTE reception/handoff-to-HSPA issues on all handsets. This is not an iPhone 5 problem as other LTE endpoints are experiencing No Service or spotty coverage. I hear they've been toying with the network to correct this... YMMV

I've shut off LTE as I've had numerous No Service issues on my iPhone 5. While this does tick me off with regards to network reliability, I have been quite happy with DC-HSPA performance.)

link : https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r27733146-Mobile-LTE-reception-Iphone-5-Bell -Mobility

Message was edited by: Kapatha

Could it be batches of phones that are bad as well? I just bought the 16gb iPhone 5 Saturday night from Verizon (Michigan). They just got a new shipment in. And I was expecting problems after spending much time here reading. But I am acutally shocked that the phone I have, has no issues. I have the Samsung S3 and Razr phones, and was just trying out the 5 to see what it was like. After having the phone for these 3 days, the 5 is replacing all my Androids. It holds LTE better than the other phones, call quality is great. I have only charged one time so far with moderate use since Saturday night. Hope everyone can get their issues resolved. I've been there with other models of phones, and it is no fun experience to go through! .

Anything is possible. Another possibility is that the VZW LTE coverage in MI is actually good, unlike Metro Boston and NYC. The VZW coverage in the Bay Area of California was really good, even though AT&T was still better during my last trip.

Just sending my second one back and am getting a refund. Will wait this out. 2 out of 2 bad phones is too much for me.

First had a yellow screen and poor recption. Second had a perfect screen but still had lousy reception with abborted calls.

toobad as i really like the design of the 5.

Well I tried switching the phones and getting a new sim and still nothing, after trying my friends AT&T iPhone I decided to switch back to them from vzn. Now from getting no lte to 3G or O I get full bars of lte with AT&T and 25mb download. I don't know if their antenna is closer to my job but I am now happy to finally get data on my phone.

I had my VZW iPhone 5 replaced a few weeks ago because of a problem with the sleep/wake button not working (I was also having the same LTE issues). The new phone that I got is doing the exact same thing. I have a friend who has the AT&T iPhone 5 and it doesn't seem to be as bad as mine. He seems to get LTE signal in places that I don't, but he does have issues with reconnecting to LTE after falling back to 3G. I can almost guarantee that it's hardware or firmware related.

I have finally given up on my iPhone 5 VZW. Having 'o' more than LTE and 3G most of the time in Metro Boston is simple unusable. I contacted VZW Executive escalation to see how they want to handle getting me my money back since I am beyond the normal return period.

So perhaps I'm being a bit reactionary here. Buy I just jumped over to Verizon from ATT earlier today. I went from an ATT iphone4 to a Verizon Iphone5. To put it mildly, I'm appalled at the Verizon coverage/speed in NYC.

I know we're only 3.5 weeks out from the damage of Hurricane Sandy, and that there was considerable damage downtown to Verizon's infrastructure. But I was under the impression that the network was up and running again. I could get almost no Verizon signal today on entering buildings located in Manhattan. Out on the street the signal would fluctuate from 2G to 3G to LTE but hardly ever maintain LTE strength. Running speed tests the phone wouldn't even obtain a signal at times.

And just to be sure I wasn't in possession of a damaged phone, I checked my girlfriends Verizon iphone5 signal as well. Downtown. The Village. Midtown. All just absolutely abysmal speeds. I'm curious... from other fellow NYC peeps. How is your Verizon iphone5 experience? I'm half tempted to jump back to ATT after only one day Verizon.

You can find my NYC VZW iPhone 5 LTE experience buried in this thread. To summarize, it was horrible and I put the locations and findings in the thread. This was pre-hurricane and I did a head-to-head comparison vs. AT&T in the same locations (GS III), and AT&T was significantly better in all locations.

Yes I am a iPhone 5 user in New York. I don't live in the city but I have been in the city since owning the iPhone 5. I purchased it October 19. Swapped the sim once and swapped the device once as well to a brand new iPhone 5. Like you stated, horrendous LTE coverage from Verizon. I get "o" everywhere. In my house I have mostly "o" and LTE by the windows and outside just one bar. It's funny how my 2 yr old water damaged android phone had amazing 4g service in the same spot. I love the iPhone. Hate the service! I had spotty LTE in the metro area as well. And I took a trip to garden city which should be prime LTE zone. And had "o" the entire time. :( let me know if u have a solution? Maybe iOS 6.1 will fix it? Who knows.

Did you get an answer yet? I wonder what they will do for you? I'm way past refund too but I like the phone so I don't know what path to take...

I only mailed my Exec. contact a few minutes being posting my iPhone 5 VZW "defeat" message. I should hear back on Monday.

Re: iOS 6.1, I can confirm that iOS 6.1b2 does not fix weak signal strength, 1X (o's), and poor switching back to LTE from 3G. Re: "o" the entire time, you may want to try a SIM swap again if it's ALWAYS

Was your older Android phone also VZW or was it ATT?

I can confirm the 6.1 does not fix the problem either...the LTE reception antenna in this phone is driving me nuts

I'll say it again....I got 100x better data service from my android device when it comes to streaming a radio station. This phone just stops and skips and dies out all together.

New guy in our office got an iPhone 5 last week. Now we're on the top floor of a building in downtown Greensboro NC. So two iphone 5s and 1 android device get together on the Verizon network to stream the same radio station. All three have full bars. iPhones both cut out after a few seconds...restart after a slight sputtering session and start over streaming...this is repeated over and over and over....

The android device never skips, loses signal or anything! Music never misses a beat.

IOs 6.1 YOU STILL SUCK