What is happening with 3G?
brtman64's profile

Tutor

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5 Messages

Monday, June 5th, 2017 2:49 AM

microcell not working for iPhone

My iPhone is not recognizing my microcell, and it has been using it for years, but is not getting the signal even though all other registered iPhones are working. I have powered it off and on, but still not working

 

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Employee

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

Go to settings, cellular and the data options. Set ENABLE LTE to OFF. Restart the phone and see if it works.

ACE - Expert

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24.2K Messages

7 years ago

@brtman64 - just curious but which model of iPhone? Have you recently upgraded it? We have iPhone's 3GS, 5, SE, and 7 all running up-to-date iOS's with no issues. If your model of phone has WiFi Assist, is it disabled?

Tutor

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5 Messages

7 years ago

Iphone 7+, up to date ios, wi-fi assist off

Tutor

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5 Messages

7 years ago

okay that worked

ACE - Expert

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24.2K Messages

7 years ago

@brtman64 - I'm assuming it was disabling WiFi Assist that worked. I'm not a fan of WiFi Assist and I believe that Apple enables it by default. It has nothing to do with WiFi-C (WiFi Calling) or WiFi in general, but it does chew up the battery as well as your data plan. It's meant to force your phone to keep an internet connection if cellular gets weak but WiFi is available. 

 

If your iPhones are iPhone SE and above, you can do WiFi-C which offers better voice quality and reliability so you don't even need the MicroCell.

Tutor

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5 Messages

7 years ago

No, turning off LTE is what worked, my wifi assist was already off. I did enable wifi calling though, I did not know about that

ACE - Expert

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24.2K Messages

7 years ago

@brtman64 - good. LTE is problematic for some iPhones and I'm not sure why. It could be that the LTE signal in your area is just strong enough that the phone gets confused on which signal to lock onto. WiFi Assist is another issue that causes problems as well.

 

Keep in mind that if you use WiFi-C on your iPhone but your other phones are not WiFi-C capable, you'll have to decide on whether to use WiFi-C or the MicroCell. The reason being is that iPhones (and other phones as well) will preferentially attempt to connect to a cellular signal instead of WiFi so your will have conflicts. The only workaround is to enable Airplane Mode on your phone which turns off the cellular radio. Not all of our iPhones are WiFi-C capable so I don't use WiFi-C even tho I prefer it over the MicroCell.

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

Is it the same for S7 android?  I have same problem but with an S7

ACE - Expert

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24.2K Messages

7 years ago

@gia917 - Android-based phones have a long history of not playing nice with the MicroCell. Mainly because of the open-sourceness of the OS (just about anything can be added which may or may not interfere with other options/functions). Try disabling LTE on your phone and see if that helps.

Professor

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2.2K Messages

7 years ago

Hey Chief, FYI!

 

WiFi Assist uses cellular data when WiFi connectivity is poor....not how you described it in the earlier post.

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