All the lights are on, but no iPhones can connect and other microcell weirdness

This has come up before, disabling LTE to get the iPhone to connect. One possibility was that an update had been pushed, either to the MicroCell itself or the iPhone. We were not able to confirm that either way. AT&T is very tight-lipped about the updates and what they are for. One would think if it was an update it would be global and affect all iPhone users but I've never had an issue leaving my iPhone 5 (iOS 8.1.3) enabled for LTE and connecting to my MicroCell. Others have reported the same, no problems with or without LTE.

It's almost as if the LTE signal strength has been incresed to a point where once the iPhone is connected, it can't disconnect from LTE once it is in range of the MicorCell's 3G signal.

Try a hard reset on the MicroCell if you haven't done so already (see link in my sig to the Tech Guide) and get back to us. In the meantime, I'll contact the Admins.

The fact that your Blackberry can still connect, if not better now, points to the fact that it may be something specific to the iPhone.

If that is true then it's not a MicorCell problem but the phone OS not being able to release it's connection to LTE when it detects the stronger 3G MicroCell signal. My iPhone has no problem switching from a weak LTE/4G to the MicroCell 3G.

Here is the latest

Otto, in my list of items I had done a hard reset, forgot to mention.

I left the microcell alone this weekend. Yesterday my iPhone 5S had some issues in the morning, but after a bit has connected solidly to the microcell (I did a disable/enable LTE on the phone hours apart).

The iPhone 6's still don't connect.

You may have to Reset Network Settings on your iPhone. If you do though, keep in mind that you will probably lose some of your passwords etc so make note of how you have setup your iPhone (pw's, etc) so you can quickly put what gets reset back to how you  had it before.

Reset network settings will do no good, and you will lose your wifi passwords.  See my thread LTE issue redux just posted.  Keep LTE off - it is the only fix.

In order to get the Iphones on my account to connect to the microcell I had to switch the iphone to airplane mode wait 30 sec the switch off airplane mode, after that it would connect. These are the steps I followed. I hope this helps you http://www.ehow.com/how_7382844_iphone-not-connect-microcell.html 

Resetting network settings has worked for some so that's why I suggested it, with the caveat of losing pw.'s It worked for me when I was having other issues with my iPhone and is has worked for others as well. It's just another option one can consider.

Toggling Airplane Mode/LTE is an old "fix" for the iPhone when there have been connection problems. Disabling handing-off is another one. All are listed in the Tech Guide. These are certainly not ideal methods to get the phones to connect or stay connected but they do seem to work in certain cases.

One would think that all of the iPhones who are on the same iOS would be experiencing the same issues if it was the phone/iOS but they are not, which makes troubleshooting all the more difficult because the problem is not widespread or reported enough to Support to hit that magic "tipping point" where they really start to take notice. The ywill continue to handle these issues on a case by case basis following the same script.

As nategold pointed out in another thread he was told that there have been some recent changes to a tower close to him (LTE upgrade I think). That has been my suspicion all along that they are either changing the directionality of the transmission beam and/or increasing it's strength for better coverage. All of which can have an effect on your phones. The iPhone seems to be most sensitive to this as these issues were first reported after the iPhone was introduced and seems to have increased with the release of iOS 7/8. I have to walk up to the end of my street before my phone will connect to LTE. Half way down my block it switches to 4G and stays that way until I start walking up my walkway and then it switches to the MicroCell. Airplane Mode is always off, handing-off is enabled as well as LTE. I live in the heart of Silicon Valley in an area that is only about 30 years old, so AT&T is probably not going to upgrade or improve our coverage and instead concentrate on other, more newer areas.

I think AT&T is messing with certain MicroCell Service Areas for whatever reason (maintenance, tower sharing, better coverage, etc) and that is creating havoc in areas where there weren't any problems with the MicroCell before. Reliable, accurate information from Support is spotty at best. That's the main reason why I'm here and and put together the Tech Guide. I am not a fan boy of AT&T as some have suggested but we do need to keep on topic with suggestions and help, and keep our options open because there is no one universal fix for the myriad of problems that can affect the MicroCell, especially with phones becoming more sophisticated as well as home networks, and god know what else AT&T is doing in some areas.

The ACE title is purely a voluntary position. The advantage of being an ACE is that we have a more direct line to support and the Forum Administrators than "regular" posters have. That also allows us a little more "inside information" on what's going on and in some cases, what's coming up. But that is purely based on the trust that AT&T has given us so if we sound secretive or evasive at times, that's why. There are other forum platforms available only to us where we actually get together and try to work out issues because there can be overlap. For example, a new router or gateway for Uverse customers may adversly affect the MicroCell.

The bottom line is that the ACEs are here because Support quite often is out of touch of what is happening with real users, whether it's lack of training, adequate updates, or whatever. So we take our collective knowledge and try to fix, or at least work around what AT&T can't.

Otto FYI LTE signal strength is still 1 or 2 bars, same crappy signal as it always was.  Yet they told me that there were LTE tower changes at the time that I could no longer connect with LTE turned on.  See LTE issue redux for more info.

That still doesn't mean that your phone is having issues with releasing the LTE lock and reconnecting at 3G. Just because your phone indicates that it's detected an LTE signal doesn't meant that calls will reliable go thru. Signal bars are notoriously unreliable as good indicators of connectivity.