iPhones: "Extended 3G" vs "Extended Network 3G"

[Brad The Beast]

What is the difference between "Extended 3G/LTE" and "Extended Network 3G/LTE" on the status bar of an iPhone? Who controls whether it says "Extended" or "Roaming" in the status bar?

[Brad The Beast]

I think I've figured it out. I'm pretty sure "Extended Network 3G/LTE" is when you are in an "Extended" area. Then "Extended 3G/LTE" is when you are in a roaming area which is horribly confusing. 

[RAvirani]

5 hours ago, Brad The Beast said:

I think I've figured it out. I'm pretty sure "Extended Network 3G/LTE" is when you are in an "Extended" area. Then "Extended 3G/LTE" is when you are in a roaming area which is horribly confusing. 

It isn't specific. Extended Network was initially exclusively used for LTE roaming and now it appears to be somewhat random. I've seen both the Extended and Extended Network carrier tags on both Extended and Roaming networks. 

[Brad The Beast]

So how do I know when I'm in a roaming area vs an "Extended" area?

[RAvirani]

17 minutes ago, Brad The Beast said:

So how do I know when I'm in a roaming area vs an "Extended" area?

From looking at the device, you don't. This is something people have complained about for a long time.

I think devices should simply display Sprint when roaming on Extended networks. This would case a lot less confusion for the average user from a usage standpoint. 

[Brad The Beast]

Just now, RAvirani said:

From looking at the device, you don't. This is something people have complained about for a long time.

I think devices should simply display Sprint when roaming on Extended networks. This would case a lot less confusion for the average user from a usage standpoint. 

I was thinking "Extended 3G/LTE" and "Roaming 3G/LTE". Then it would be perfectly clear. I messaged u/revik2 on reddit about it and he was going to look into it.

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, Brad The Beast said:

I was thinking "Extended 3G/LTE" and "Roaming 3G/LTE". Then it would be perfectly clear. I messaged u/revik2 on reddit about it and he was going to look into it.

Sprint would be much better, I think. Regular users just care whether their usage comes out of their regular allotment or not. "Sprint" for Sprint/Extended and "Roaming" for Roaming would be easiest to understand for customers. 

[Brad The Beast]

1 minute ago, RAvirani said:

Sprint would be much better, I think. Regular users just care whether their usage comes out of their regular allotment or not. "Sprint" for Sprint/Extended and "Roaming" for Roaming would be easiest to understand for customers. 

What happens when they roll into an AT&T roaming area and their speeds are slow? AT&T LTE roaming counts as Extended but its speed restricted. 

[RAvirani]

1 minute ago, Brad The Beast said:

What happens when they roll into an AT&T roaming area and their speeds are slow? AT&T LTE roaming counts as Extended but its speed restricted. 

AT&T LTE is not Extended LTE. It comes out of your data roaming allotment.

All other LTE roaming is Extended and counts towards your regular usage limits. 

[Brad The Beast]

Just now, RAvirani said:

AT&T LTE is not Extended LTE. It comes out of your data roaming allotment.

All other LTE roaming is Extended and counts towards your regular usage limits. 

What? I'm like 99% sure AT&T counts as Extended in some places. Which carrier counts as Extended and has speed restrictions?

[RAvirani]

3 hours ago, Brad The Beast said:

What? I'm like 99% sure AT&T counts as Extended in some places. Which carrier counts as Extended and has speed restrictions?

AT&T roaming always comes out of your roaming allotment. 

[Brad The Beast]

14 hours ago, RAvirani said:

AT&T roaming always comes out of your roaming allotment. 

Who has speed restricted LTE roaming that counts as Extended? I was in central Wisconsin which is all "Extended LTE". I was connected to band 12 (if I remember correctly) "Extended Network LTE" and was limited to 3Mbps down and 1.5Mbps up. It wasn't T-Mobile roaming because T-Mobile has no service in that area and the only two possible carriers it could be are US Cellular and AT&T. I was pretty sure US Cellular wasn't speed restricted but I could be mistaken. 

[Brad The Beast]

Unfortunately this is the only screenshot I have. It has the status bar indicator. This was last summer. I wasn't smart enough to grab the Serving Cell Info screens. 

[RAvirani]

23 minutes ago, Brad The Beast said:

Who has speed restricted LTE roaming that counts as Extended? I was in central Wisconsin which is all "Extended LTE". I was connected to band 12 (if I remember correctly) "Extended Network LTE" and was limited to 3Mbps down and 1.5Mbps up. It wasn't T-Mobile roaming because T-Mobile has no service in that area and the only two possible carriers it could be are US Cellular and AT&T. I was pretty sure US Cellular wasn't speed restricted but I could be mistaken. 

Sprint doesn't throttle USCC roaming on their end. That being said, USCC does deprioritize roaming traffic on their network. If there were USCC customers using the same sector as you, you would have been prioritized behind them. 

I have pulled north of 30mbps on USCC before. 

[Brad The Beast]

6 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

Sprint doesn't throttle USCC roaming on their end. That being said, USCC does deprioritize roaming traffic on their network. If there were USCC customers using the same sector as you, you would have been prioritized behind them. 

I have pulled north of 30mbps on USCC before. 

So I looked and the "Extended LTE" layer matches USCC's coverage map. So it was USCC roaming it looks like. I've never pulled more than 3Mbps down on USCC roaming in that area.

[TechGuru]

I get 128kbps - 512kbps on "Extended Network LTE" and I'm 99% sure it's on AT&T's network.

I get about 5mbps/5mbps on "Extended LTE" and I'm not sure if it's Verizon or T-Mobile's network...

Neither of which seem to go towards my 300mb data roaming limit. The only thing that seems to go towards that limit is "Extended 3G" which is on Verizon.