Smarty sim on a IPhone 8 ....4G / 3G

dazzaofdagenham

Good morning
i have recently moved my daughter onto smarty with the 100gb plan.....she’s using it in a unlocked iPhone 8....
the issue is, the phone will initially show a 4G connection and then after a few mins will drop down to a 3G connection and stay there and will not go back to 4G unless phone is turned off and on again..I know we are in a 4G area....but this seems a bit of a issue 

any thoughts pls

sdduk

It may be Smarty at the moment because everybody is using their phones so the 3g/4g may go up and down, mine is at the moment and i normally get good signal from Three which owns Smarty which runs on the Three network,
also if you live in London its well known to have bad signal in most parts.
Or it could be the phone playing up....Has she tried the sim in another phone to see if there is any difference.
If it works out that its the same in a different phone then put a complaint into Smarty to see if they can do anything about it.

dazzaofdagenham

I thought the phone may switch to 3G in a congested area...but then maybe switch back to 4G when lest congested to more to another area...

this seems not to be the case....once it switches to 3G that’s it.....no back to 4G unless phone switched off / on

quite annoying really 

Frozen_up_north

Three run a mixture of 3G and 4G. I am on Three with an iPhone SE (2020 model) and it mostly shows a 4G signal, whereas my 4 year old original model SE frequently showed 3G more than 4G.

I think it probably depends on signal level. Does moving the phone to a different location give the same result?

At the moment, 9am Sunday, I have 2 bars of signal, 4G displayed and have 80.7Mb/s download and 11Mb/s upload on a speed checker. 

dazzaofdagenham

I’ve found once the phone has switched from 4G to 3G it stays there...no matter what....even if I move to another area ( miles away ) it refuses to switch back.

only turning it off and on again, then it shows 4G ...

oldagetraveller1

I know nothing about fruity devices but is there an option in settings to choose network type?

I know with Android I may choose LTE/3G/2G Auto connect, 3G/2G Auto connect, 3G only, 2G only.

Is it possible the phone is set to 3G/2G Auto connect or 3G only?

Frozen_up_north

oldagetraveller1 said:

I know nothing about fruity devices but is there an option in settings to choose network type?

Yes there is a setting on an iPhone:
Settings\Mobile Data\Mobile Data Options\Voice & Data
There is a 3G only option...

oldagetraveller1

"There is a 3G only option... "

I wonder if that is selected in the settings?

However, the brief 4G indication might mean it isn't.

liggerz87

What about putting airplane mode on and then off

20aday

https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/1155220-using-the-internet-after-you-ve-joined-smarty
I wonder if the APN settings might need updating, even though it should happen automatically. The above link should help.
It's also worth mentioning Smarty don't currently offer VoLTE so when your daughter makes/receives a call mobile data will drop back to 3G for the duration.

dazzaofdagenham

Thanks for your help....still waiting for smarty to respond.
the iPhone is a iPhone 8 previously on Vodafone....unlocked now....officially from voda
ive checked all the options and all are 4G.....damm annoying as she and her friends from college are all on zoom for college discusions etc