How's the iPad LTE to HSPA+ handoff working for you?

Rene Ritchie

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Jan 12, 2007
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So here's my experience so far:

I have 1-2 bars of LTE, on which I get 15mbps to 50mbps, depending on where I am.

If I switch LTE off an go HSPA+, the transition is smooth and silky. The LTE indicator turns off, a moment later 3G comes on (4G for those of you on AT&T :p).

There's typically 4-5 bars of 3G (HSPA+) and I get around 10-15mbps on it, depending on where I am.

If I flip the LTE switch back on, however, the indicator goes off and comes back... still on 3G (HSPA+).

If I keep flipping it, if I flip data off and on, if I flip Airplane Mode on and off, it always comes back as 3G (HSPA+)

The only way to get LTE back is to wait an indeterminate amount of time, or reboot.

I'm not sure if this is just because I'm so far on the edge of LTE service, and 3G is so much stronger here, that if I give it up the radio just doesn't want to let go of the stronger signal, or if there's something wacky in the radio stack that not properly re-engaging.

Phil Nickinson has filled my head with horror stories of early, horrible Android device LTE handoffs, so I'd like to figure out just what's happening here.

Anyone else experimented with this?
 

appliancemedic

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Jan 18, 2010
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I have had two Verizon units and both of them have had bad hand off problems. So bad that I might have to pull the ipad2 back out. Sometime it will show 2 bars of LTE signal and you go to use it. Then it will say that you have no data connection . The next thing you see it searching for a signal it may show LTE or 3G or 1x. I will say that I think that they need to go back to drawing board . If this is what we will get in the iPhone it will not be good. I would like to add one more thing. It's seem to search a lot long to find a signal.
 

Garz

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Mar 9, 2009
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If I turn off LTE and then turn back on, it is slow to kick back to LTE but it does. Maybe a minute or so. This is on a Vzn model.
 
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itsalexaye

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this isn't just on iPads, but all LTE devices. When you turn off/on LTE it's slow to get back on. At least with Verizon that's what I experienced with Android.
 

hellomiggy

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So I just turned off the LTE, and the Data Roaming and it was Searching for Network for a quite a bit. Maybe a Minute or two, I turn on my screen and I see that I have 3G and it is at two bars. So I turn on LTE and Data Roaming, it took around 3-6 seconds to get LTE. I restored my device as new, and Restored my Network Settings. Was not getting good coverage, now it feels better. Never had an iPad, so restoring never bothered me. Not a lot of Apps either, so I didn't care.
 

coolqf

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It's the implementation of the technology to save battery life. They're implementing it the same way that it's implemented on mobile phones. The phones come with a 3G chip and a 4G chip. Presently, LTE is data only. So, if on AT&T or Verizon and using LTE, the phones is still actually connected to the (3G) tower for voice and the the 4G tower for LTE. In this state the 3G data part of the chip is sleeping, but aware that there is 3G (so it skipps the searching step). Lose LTE, and 3G quickly wakes up. In this state, LTE goes into deep sleep. The LTE chip will periodically wake up to see if there's 4G available, but at certain intervals. During these specific intervals, the phone is using the most battery, because it has the 3G ad 4G data turned on, yikes! The more spread out the intervals, the better the battery life, but the longer it'll take to connect to 4G, which is why it takes a while for LTE to turn on.

Gradually, as LTE is more common, we'll experience this inconvenience less.
 

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