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dtshin wrote:

I have a Nokia Lumia 900 that has been patched/updated to the new firmware update. (Firmware revision 2175.1002.8112.1204)

 

After losing data connectivity (going into the subway, going into an elevator) and then re-establishing connectivity, my phone will only connect to 4G; it will not establish LTE connectivity. Even turning on and off the airplane mode, it only establishes in 4G. Only a power cycle will have the phone re-connect to LTE.

 

I've also run a speed test (with app BandWidth) to confirm that I'm getting 4G (4.65 Mbps) connection instead of LTE (8.60 Mbps).

 

Is anyone else experiencing this?

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I was having this issue too.  Went to a local AT&T store only to find out my data plan wasn't an LTE data plan.  The person who upgraded my phone didn't fix the account.  Hopefully it will work tomorrow but we'll see.

As an update, I am still having this problem.  Data plan adjustment and new SIM card later.  Still no LTE.  I plan on going to a store for a swap later today.

Update: I now have a new phone.  LTE issue still exists and now I have the purple screen issue so my problems are only getting worse.  AT&T and Nokia support haven't gotten me anywhere so far.

If your LTE is not working, could it be linked to the account settings?

Your new 900 should have the new software so should not have data connection problems...

Maybe where you live has a weak LTE signal, because in my house I have 2-3 bars of LTE and when I go into my basement I drop to "4G". Also those LTE speeds your are getting seem a bit slow. I have gotten as high as 32mbps and as low as 10mbps.

I am having the problem and I'm well in the LTE coverage area.  It looks like the network or device just isn't doing the handoff to LTE.  This is my fourth phone and I have AT&T case numbers.

At last I have found other users having the same problem!

I'm on my 3rd Lumia 900 and 3rd SIM card, and continue to have the same issue:

1: reboot the phone within an LTE-covered area...success! I have LTE.

2: go to my house, on the peripherary of the LTE coverage area, and after about 20 minutes the phone drops down to 4G.

3: drive down the road close to a LTE tower... still on 4G.

4: try switching off and on the cellular connection, as was suggested to me by an AT&T store person... no luck, still 4G

5: reboot the phone.... I have LTE again.

6: go to step 2 and repeat.

Nobody at AT&T or Nokia was able to explain what was going on, hence the two changes of phone and SIM card. I was even simply lied to by one person on Friday 4th in who claimed to be in the 'product management center', telling me Nokia had a second revision to the firmware which my phone should be receiving, while he was laughing at the fact I was being bounced around from one department to another. (AT&T, if you're reading this, give me a call and I'll give you the person's name).

Today one of the various AT&T tech people I had talked with last week gave me the most convincing explanation: once the hand-off to the 4G tower has been registered on my phone, the phone is not being handed back to an LTE-enabled tower when I go back into the LTE area, and instead it is being retained by the non-LTE tower. But when I reboot the phone, it is being picked up by the closer LTE tower and so gets the LTE connection again.

Presumably, if I was to go completely out of range from the 4G tower and the ohone was being forced to look for another tower, perhaps then it will find an LTE one???

AT&T: I realize LTE is still young and has to be perfected, but you're doing your clients a disservice by not having a good explanation ready for people like me and others on this thread. I can live with it as long as I understand the issue, and I hope that you and Nokia are working on a solution. Don't keep us in the dark. Make the phobe try harder to switch to a tower offering LTE without having to reboot.

PS #1: I've heard that LTE-enabled New IPad users have a similar issue.

PS #2: I absolutely love my Lumia 900 and the Window Phone software. Please sort this out before you kill the market for this phone!

Glad to see I'm not the only one having this issue.  I thought the 4G network wasn't handing off to LTE.  It gets stuck.  My issue has not been resolved and is still sitting with network engineering.

The biggest thing is we have a limited return window and no word on when the purple screen fix will roll out.  I'd also like to be able to go to work and have the LTE I'm paying for.

By the way, turning on airplane mode for a few seconds and turning it off fixes the problem instead of rebooting.

Sparkedfire, thanks for the tip about airplane mode. Tried it just now and yup, LTE is back without a reboot.

@ventus2c: Did AT&T tech support ever give you a case number?  If not, get one and have them escalate it.

@sparkedfire: oh yes, I had two case numbers, the second was an escalation of the first. Neither produced a solution.

With the escalated case number I was connected to the forementioned individual in Atlanta who plainly lied to me; he said there was some sort of discrepancy in IMEI numbers, with the 'engineers having a different IMEI number for my phone' than the phone's actual IMEI, which was causing the April 14th software revision from being pushed through to my phone. Except that my phone was already running the revision 12084. he told me there was a second revision numbered ..12084REV that my phone wasn't getting. So I called Nokia support and they told me that was absolutely not true.

A separate call to support with the same case number put me in contact with a lady who gave me the explanation about the 4G tower not releasing my phone to an LTE one, which at least makes sense and I expect is something AT&T and Nokia will fix.

By that time I had spent at least 3 hours on various calls to support and 4 trips down to the AT&T store, so I let it ride to keep my sanity!

I think I have pretty much had the same issue.  I have two case numbers, many hours on the phone and 6 trips to the AT&T stores.  I was also told there should be another software update beyond the 84 update.  That never materialized.  Nokia also has no clue as to what's going on. 

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ventus2c wrote:

@sparkedfire: oh yes, I had two case numbers, the second was an escalation of the first. Neither produced a solution.

 

With the escalated case number I was connected to the forementioned individual in Atlanta who plainly lied to me; he said there was some sort of discrepancy in IMEI numbers, with the 'engineers having a different IMEI number for my phone' than the phone's actual IMEI, which was causing the April 14th software revision from being pushed through to my phone. Except that my phone was already running the revision 12084. he told me there was a second revision numbered ..12084REV that my phone wasn't getting. So I called Nokia support and they told me that was absolutely not true.

 

A separate call to support with the same case number put me in contact with a lady who gave me the explanation about the 4G tower not releasing my phone to an LTE one, which at least makes sense and I expect is something AT&T and Nokia will fix.

 

By that time I had spent at least 3 hours on various calls to support and 4 trips down to the AT&T store, so I let it ride to keep my sanity!

 

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Do you live just outside of an LTE coverage area, say 5-10 miles?

Now that I know the problem is not related to my specific equipment, and see that the airplane mode thing gets LTE working again, I'm willing to wait a while for AT&T to shake the cobwebs out of the system. LTE is very new and this issue of handoff between 4G and LTE didn't exist when all we had was 3G.

I just hope it gets adequate visibility within AT&T (AT&T - are you reading this?), because it only affects people moving into and out of LTE-covered areas.

@sparkedfire: I'm living pretty much on the perimeter of an LTE area in North Scottsdale, AZ, so I'm not expecting to get LTE in the house but 3 or 4 miles down the road is definitely covered.

I was on the phone for about 45 minutes and I have a rep contacting a local engineer to investigate.  They say they see the tower that might be causing the issue and it is just outside of the LTE area and seems to be a handoff issue.  My mom has this issue and she may also be running off of the same tower.  Nevertheless I have email addresses now and am supposed to be updated with some more info soon.

I received a call from a network engineer and they said they identified an issue and made a network update last night.  They believe the issue has been fixed but are still evaluating.  So far LTE is working today.

I believe the issue has been fixed.  The issue appears to have been fixed by a tower software fix and verifying you have the correct APN.  Timeframe on a nationwide rollout to other towers is unknown or has possibly already occured.

My Lumia 900 is now having this issue but it drops to "4g" randomly. Sometimes it happens just like that and sometimes it does not to happen unless I am using data alot. I contacted Nokia and they said "the behavior is network dependent, by restarting the device you are forcing it back to LTE". So basically Nokia says it is an AT&T problem.

I think I spoke too soon.  My moms Lumia refused to connect to LTE today.  Drove to the "fixed" tower they setup for me and it still didn't connect.

I have had this issue a couple of times now, were I will move from an LTE area, the data drops down to 4G and when I return to an LTE area, the phone remains at 4G speed until I reboot the phone. 

The last time this happened was June 3rd, went from the Washington DC area out to Dover DE.  The phone remained at 4G speed with the indicator showing at such, until I rebooted the phone on the morning of 4 June. Once the reboot was completed the indicator and data speed returned to LTE.

I spoke with an AT&T engineer last week again and have the following news.  The issue doesn't appear to be an AT&T network problem.  The network appears to be working properly.  This isn't a Windows Phone OS issue.  My wifes Titan II functions properly. 

Based on my own observations, the issue occurs when you leave the LTE coverage area for an extended period of time and return (many hours but tends to be over 8 hours but can occur in about 2 hours).  It has nothing to do with the amount of data you use.  During the time you leave the LTE area, the battery may appear to drain faster than normal.  I believe the problem is the phone keeps looking for that LTE signal, then gives up and goes into 4G mode to save the battery.

I am expecting a call from Nokia support today and I am going to relay my observations to see if their software team will address.

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pjgriff1 wrote:

I have had this issue a couple of times now, were I will move from an LTE area, the data drops down to 4G and when I return to an LTE area, the phone remains at 4G speed until I reboot the phone. 

 

The last time this happened was June 3rd, went from the Washington DC area out to Dover DE.  The phone remained at 4G speed with the indicator showing at such, until I rebooted the phone on the morning of 4 June. Once the reboot was completed the indicator and data speed returned to LTE.

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Turn airplane mode on and off.  It will fix it.  Much better than a reboot.  Get the "Connection Tiles" app and pin an airplane mode tile so you can quickly fix it.  Part of my morning routine is going to airplane mode and cycling on/off before I get in the car

I found a way to force create the problem.  I did this 8 miles from the official LTE coverage area.  1) At a high elevation facing the LTE coverage area, I turned on airplane mode while I was NOT in the LTE coverage area.  2) Next I turned off airplane mode.  3) The phone connected to LTE with one signal bar while not in the LTE coverage area.  4) Moments later it dropped to 4G.  5) Then I drove 10 minutes to the LTE coverage area and it did not connect to LTE.  It appears the phone saw the very weak signal and locked itself in 4G mode.

Another thing to note is the LTE connection with 1 bar shows briefly as connected to AT&T, then looses connection.  It can connect and loose signal, connect and loose signal continuously.

And the latest update still hasn't fixed the problem.

It appears with the latest update, things have gotten worse.  Now the phone looses LTE several times a day in my office (poor reception there) and pretty much every day after I go home.

I got a new phone - digitizer went to whack (I wrote about it in this thread on the forum), so it was replaced. LTE connection is steady, almost never lose it now.

I also received a new SIM, if that has anything to do with it.

I see that there are no APNs set in my new device.