Q: iPhone 5 lte signal/reception problem

** Nano SIM SWAP UPDATE **

No change, still broken. This is a new iPhone 5 (my third broken one) and my second nano SIM for this phone (other line has a different Nano SIM - combo also misbehaving). Absolutely no change in the behavior. One interesting tidbit, the last VZW store I went to that did the SIM swap had a tower in their bldg and I received fine LTE there.  Driving down the street away from there, I actually had a LTE signal for a while, but started to notice my upload speed degrading, then when I crossed back in to my town, o and 3G, then I got 2 bars of LTE back, then o then back to 3G again. Just woke up phone and 3 bars with an "o".

You just described my issue perfectly.  If you're in an area with a really strong LTE signal, the phone realizes it's a no brainer and sticks with LTE, but as soon as the LTE signal weakens a bit, it gets confused as to LTE/3G or Edge network, and usually you end up with the "o" which means your phone gave up and stuck with edge mode.

This is pretty similar to my problem and why my phone seems to work well outdoors but inside of buildings, especially older brick/masonry ones and the Metro where signal is probably a little weaker, the phone is helpless to keep its LTE connection and these issues crop up.

Verizon is doing a network check on their end and I should get a call back in 2 days with the results of their tests.  In the mean time, I am going to bombard Apple with e-mails and phone calls about this.

Need to go to a meeting, but next call will be to VZW so that they can give me an update on my 3rd trouble ticket.  I have updated my Apple (800-MY-APPLE) engineer as well.

I know that the phone needs to choose the best signal at the time, but it needs to be refined.  If I have one bar of LTE, I can understand the phone giving that up for 5 bars of 3G if need be, but to go from 2 bars of LTE to "o" edge network is just not right.  Even dropping two bars of LTE for 3 bars of 3G isn't necessary.  I hope Apple sorts this out, because even though the bullk of the posts have been Verizon / Bell, it seems to be spread throughout all carriers.

Hey ottawa_guy,

Where abouts in Gatineau are speaking of?  I live in Limbour, and get absolutely no LTE in my neighbourhood even though Telus coverage maps state I clearly should.  I have no problems with LTE on Aut-50 or in Downtown Ottawa and Little Italy, and as of the last couple of days, my iPhone 5 has been acquiring the LTE signal instantaneous once I step outside of my building at work.

I'm in the Plateau area, near the shopping centre.. Usually get 3-4 bars of LTE, dont drop signal at all. When it works it works great, it's just the switching to 3G in order to get calls and make calls that doesnt work properly

@ ottawa_guy,

Thanks for the updates.  Hopefully Telus gets their act together to solve these problems.

** UPDATE FROM VZW - PLEASE READ **

I spoke with "Robert" in Tech support. You reach tech support by calling to report a device problem 800-922-0204, reaching customer service and telling them you need to speak with Tech support.

Robert told me that every ticket I had opened previously with VZW was pointless because those tickets only go to the local tower team.

Robert stated that the way that these issues are escalated inside of Verizon is via their internal "device forum", which is similar to the Community on verizonwireless, but only accessible by members of their technical staff.

There is no way to reach Robert back again thanks to VZW not allowing any direct inbound communication.

Robert posted a forum post internally at VZW under the following title:

"iphone 5 loses 4g lte"

Posted: 10-02-2012 3:53P ET

He claims this post will also be found if they are under your device (iPhone 5) and simply search for "lte" in the forum.

My request to EVERYONE experiencing this problem is to immediately call VZW at 800-922-0204 and register the behavior you are experiencing with them, ask them to add your information to this forum post and ask them to TEXT YOU confirmation that this was done. Texting you gets recorded on your account for future reference.

I've been having the same issue on verizon lte nyc. Usually get 2 bars very weak signal then it begins to cycle from 3G to O. It's getting frustrating I barely get any data at work.

Please follow the instructions below to report to VZW (800-922-0204) and Apple (800-MY-APPLE). It is very important for VZW that your post gets linked to this forum and not logged as a localized tower "ticket".  For Apple, please ensure they reference this forum thread after you report what you are seeing and go through their troubleshooting steps.

With Apple, make sure your case gets escalated to senior support, and your case remains open. Also refer to this support thread.

wow, didn't realize so many people were experiencing this issue like I am.  makes me wonder why I switched to VZW from AT&T.

It's not just Verizon.... I have the same problem with Rogers, and switched to Bell, still the same issue. People are experiencing it with Telus, Virgin Mobile, etc etc. I've even read on forums that some AT&T customers are experiencing the same issues.

** LTE Antenna-gate?? **

Antenna-gate seemed like a distant memory to me, so I didn't bother to do any tests around it for LTE Antenna-gate, but my Apple tech had me run some and it yielded some interesting results.   With NO CASE and NOT HOLDING THE PHONE (on a table) my performance goes from completely unacceptable to unacceptable (2-3Mb/s down and 0.09Mb/s up to 9-10Mbs down and 0.64-1.5Mb/s up).  With either my case (Speck) or holding the phone without a case, performance falls  back in the completely unusable category unless I am next-to a cell tower, in which case in two instances I have seen 15-20Mb/s in both directions (very rare). I am waiting for Apple and VZW's conclusion on this thread, but I am really starting to think that there is a serious antenna/signal HW problem with the iPhone 5 (or at least many iPhone 5s) which is made even worse a by either using the phone (holding it) or being a normal range away from a tower.  Now what I don't understand is why some people are happy with how it is performing, I can only assume those happy with it are in areas where they are always right near a tower since that's the only time my LTE data works properly OR perhaps there are some iPhone 5s that don't suffer from this problem, but it appears my 3 aren't among those lucky ones.