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First iPhone LTE post

xenadu

By xenadu
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xenadu Member Level: 1x Advanced

xenadu

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All LTE devices use SIMs -- micro SIMs, nano SIMs, embedded SIMs, etc. The question is whether the iPhone 5 has a removable SIM, as many other Sprint LTE devices do not. Regardless, it does not need a removable SIM to roam internationally.

 

AJ

 

Sorry, I should have clarified but in my mind (and most consumers) SIM means removable SIM. An internal SIM is no better than ESID and may as well not exist because it removes everything that makes a SIM useful.

 

Also reporting that I am seeing interesting behavior here at my house. I appear to be on the edge of LTE coverage from a distant tower in certain rooms of the house. In those rooms I get 1-2 bars and LTE on the display, with download speeds of 6.5Mbps and -112db to -117db signal. *But* if I try to place a voice call it immediately swaps over to the Airave and the bars jumps to the full 5 bars... So I may be wrong about the bars, it may actually be displaying the LTE signal strength when on LTE, it just seems to prefer to jump to 3G if the LTE signal is marginal which would be the correct choice except for Sprint's awful non-NV tower situation. I also notice that it doesn't want to connect to my Airave on 3G (wifi turned off), after making a call it stays with the o 1X indicator for a while, probably looking for the LTE signal it lost earlier.

 

 

I can also confirm that the *3001#12345#* debug code works on LTE and brings up an entirely different menu that seems to have more information. LTE was seen on Band Class 25, which I believe is the PCS G band. This debug menu does not seem to show the EVDO/1X info anywhere. I also noticed it has to connect somewhere, presumably it is connecting to the tower to download some of the information. It may be that the carrier is fully in control of what is on this screen, not sure yet.

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xenadu Member Level: 1x Advanced

xenadu

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it switches to 3g because voice over LTE is not supported yet

 

Yeah I knew that, it was more about the signal bars... my earlier post was wrong about the bars displaying the CDMA 1X signal strength, they display the current signal strength for whatever connection is active so when LTE is active it is showing you LTE strength, even though in the background it's CDMA 1X connection is far stronger. It only shows that signal strength when it switches over to CDMA to make a voice call.

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el_oh_el88 Member Level: Digital

el_oh_el88

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Yeah I knew that, it was more about the signal bars... my earlier post was wrong about the bars displaying the CDMA 1X signal strength, they display the current signal strength for whatever connection is active so when LTE is active it is showing you LTE strength, even though in the background it's CDMA 1X connection is far stronger. It only shows that signal strength when it switches over to CDMA to make a voice call.

 

That sounds like a good feature that i wish android phones had. Actually i think they should go back to the days where there were 2 signal strength indicators, that would be much more useful in my opinion.

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MacinJosh Member Level: LTE Advanced

MacinJosh

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The iPhone 5 contains a SIM with a Sprint logo. If it's ejected you get a "no SIM" warning and it appears the radios disconnect from the network.

 

Did you try to make a call after you took out the SIM card? If it won't go thru this will be an interesting turn of events.

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bollar Member Level: 1x Advanced

bollar

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Did you try to make a call after you took out the SIM card? If it won't go thru this will be an interesting turn of events.

So, the answer is that you can make a call. You can't see signal strength bars (says No SIM), but you can make calls. Also tried field test and that worked, too.

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xenadu Member Level: 1x Advanced

xenadu

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So, the answer is that you can make a call. You can't see signal strength bars (says No SIM), but you can make calls. Also tried field test and that worked, too.

 

Only on CDMA, LTE requires the SIM same as GSM. I'll test this tonight and see if it works for me.

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MacinJosh Member Level: LTE Advanced

MacinJosh

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So, the answer is that you can make a call. You can't see signal strength bars (says No SIM), but you can make calls. Also tried field test and that worked, too.

 

Wow. That could get annoying. I like seeing my signal bars, lol.

 

Do you know anyone with an at&t nanoSIM from their iPhone 5 you could use to test and see if the Sprint version is unlocked like the Verizon version? If it is, that would be awesome.

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bollar Member Level: 1x Advanced

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Wow. That could get annoying. I like seeing my signal bars, lol.

 

Do you know anyone with an at&t nanoSIM from their iPhone 5 you could use to test and see if the Sprint version is unlocked like the Verizon version? If it is, that would be awesome.

 

When I find an AT&T phone, I'll give it a go. Or maybe I will trim one of my existing SIMs. I would like to see that it's unlocked as well, but my understanding is that Sprint will unlock the phone for international travel on request?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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bollar Member Level: 1x Advanced

bollar

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Here are some Speed Test results from the only LTE I've found so far -- a very tiny patch of Westlake, TX:

 

Test Date: Sep 23, 2012 1:25 PM

Connection Type: Cellular

Server: Fort Worth, TX

Download: 7.99 Mbps

Upload: 7.50 Mbps

Ping: 177 ms

 

External IP: 66.87.97.145 (spcsdns.net)

Latitude: 32.9808

Longitude: -97.1716

 

329995728.png

IMG_1335.png

IMG_1336.png

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MacinJosh Member Level: LTE Advanced

MacinJosh

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Here are some Speed Test results from the only LTE I've found so far -- a very tiny patch of Westlake, TX:

 

Test Date: Sep 23, 2012 1:25 PM

Connection Type: Cellular

Server: Fort Worth, TX

Download: 7.99 Mbps

Upload: 7.50 Mbps

Ping: 177 ms

 

External IP: 66.87.97.145 (spcsdns.net)

Latitude: 32.9808

Longitude: -97.1716

 

 

Decent speeds you have there!

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