Can't pick up band 2 on iphone 5s anymore.
My wife has been struggling with coverage on her iPhone 5s ever since an early July "Carrier Data Update." Places that she used to get full signal, like our back yard, are now "no coverage" or EDGE only. I have a Moto X Pure, and my signal has only gotten better since the same time period. We recently traveled to Northern NH, and while I had band 2 and 4 in lots of places along I-93, she was only getting coverage where my phone read Band 4 (Using LTE Discovery). Our home zipcode is 01720, but we were traveling up to 03838.
We called T-Mobile support over the weekend and they suggested resetting the network settings on the iPhone, but the guy we talked to had no idea what LTE bands even were. As far as we can see, resetting the iPhone's network settings didn't help at all.
The key here is that her coverage dramatically declined after June.
I can't find anything about this type of issue online. I'm trying to convince her to swap her 5s for a 6s, but she says the 6s is too big to fit in her pocket.
Posted Aug 29, 2016, 12:27 PM UTC
Try the iPhone SE. Has all 3 bands and is basically the 5s.
Hey, I didn't know about the SE. That looks like a good upgrade path for her. I'd still like to know what went wrong with her 5S, though.
Contact T-Force and ask them what's up with your area. T-Force is their social media customer support but they're way better than 611.
If you're trying to get the SE on a budget, you can buy a refurb SE for $269.99.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-geek-squad-certified-refurbished-iphone-se-4g-lte-with-16gb-memory-cell-phone-rose-gold-verizon-wireless/5336509.p?id=bb5336509&skuId=5336509
I would avoid buying any Apple products refurbished from Geek Squad because chances are there are 3rd party parts used for the refurb, which means Apple won't warranty it.
From where I found the deal, the products are still within warranty and many reported that they're pretty much in mint condition. If that's a serious concern, you can take it to Apple to do a diagnostics test to make sure nothing is wrong with it.
The best I could tell you is it just crapped out after several years. There's obviously a hardware issue if restoring didn't help.
The SE is a fantastic little phone. Has everything the iPhone 6s has except for the pressure sensitive display, gen 2 Touch ID, barometer, and carrier aggregation I think (Or maybe just 3xCA). It has all 3 LTE bands, 2/4/12, and it will perform far better than the 5s, it also has double the RAM so it should be quite future proof.
I have no idea why the iPhone 5s isn't connecting to band 2. Cycling airplane mode, restarting, resetting network settings, restoring, pulling out SIM card, restarting, putting it back in doesn't help? What about putting your SIM card in her phone when yours sees band 2?
The SE doesn't support any carrier aggregation. It has the band support of the 6s but the speed limitations of the 6.
That's what I thought. Thanks for the clarification. Damn, band12 will suck in cities at times with no CA.
The SE does support CA BUT only up to 15 MHz
+1. And compared to a 5 or a 5S the battery is a beast.