EE / T-Mobile network carrier issues iPhone 5

Xee · 6 Dec 2012 at 12:17

I have changed network from O2 to EE (T-Mobile), and have issues when on 3G while at work. As you will probably know you can use both T-Mobile and T-MobileOrange carriers. If I let the phone select automatically it always seems to be on the T-Mobile one. But at my office the T-Mobile on 3G sucks, the signal is ok (~-100db). The ping is terrible, download speed is about 1-2meg and upload is sometimes 0-0.5 meg. Which seems to causes issues as requests are frequently not sent, apps and browsing freezes.

But I can select T-MobileOrange carrier when I switch auto select off. This has about the same signal strength (maybe a smidge weaker). But I get a responsive ping and double down/up speeds (3-5/0.5 meg). Meaning my iPhone is useable. The problem is that even with auto carrier select off and roaming off, it will keep defaulting back to T-Mobile eventually. The iPhone will not remember my choice.

Any ideas other then changing to a another network? Don't think this particular issue is iPhone '5' related (had O2 on the iPhone 4 in same office with no issues so cant compare). Phoned T-Mobile and gave them the postcode of the affected area, and was told they were upgrading or something in that area and that they would keep checking the status and update me when done. That was 2 weeks plus ago, no update and no improvement.

I also have an issue with the iPhone 5 not returning to 3G once it looses signal or drops to edge. It seems to get stuck, even though a kick up the butt with airplane mode reveals a strong 3G signa is available (this can happen anywhere).

Still love my iPhone 5 and when it works it flies (just mot at the office

)but the above is my only 2 gripes. To be fair to EE /T-Mobile sometimes their 3G network flies if I'm in the right area, and have recorded multiple 15-17meg download speeds (I'm not on 4G). Think I've waffled on for too long now, so will stop

Arthur Hucksake · 6 Dec 2012 at 16:40

<---- Looks at 1 bar 2G at work. *Cries*

~Dockie · 6 Dec 2012 at 16:48

Its not your Iphone, My Xperia did the same before they officially became EE (i was Orange, it would always default to orange unless i chose orange-Tmobile)

Now Its officially EE its fine for me. (orange seems to be gone now, its either Tmobile or EE)

MagicUK · 7 Dec 2012 at 12:50

Strange I'm t mobile customer and manually select t mob on iphone 4s and works a lot better, the orange network is abit slow I feel, mine stays locked on t mob but that might be because I have a t mobile sim???

dan23 · 7 Dec 2012 at 19:23

I'm with Orange / EE. Over the last couple of weeks my iPhone 4S displays "Searching..." in the top left corner. I've managed to get round this by switching off and on and then I get the EE signal and everything is ok. But this issue has got progressively worse, even after resetting and reloading the firmware numerous times.

I don't even have the Carrier option in the settings any more. Not sure if my sim is faulty or it's the iPhone.

Xee · 8 Dec 2012 at 09:27

Well I got a popup asking if I wanted to update carrier settings. Now there is no more EE, only T-Mobile and T-Mobile Orange. With the latter seeming to be the default now when carrier set to auto. Hopefully will be better at the office on Monday.

Xee · 8 Dec 2012 at 09:56

Update - selecting T-Mobile now results in 'no service'. Seems like they are moving to just one carrier selection now.

lmfy2k · 8 Dec 2012 at 17:09

My options are:

EE
EE (3G)

When I go to carrier selection.

I'm set to automatic but never seen EE (3G) show up

dan23 · 8 Dec 2012 at 21:56

dan23 said:
I'm with Orange / EE. Over the last couple of weeks my iPhone 4S displays "Searching..." in the top left corner. I've managed to get round this by switching off and on and then I get the EE signal and everything is ok. But this issue has got progressively worse, even after resetting and reloading the firmware numerous times.

I don't even have the Carrier option in the settings any more. Not sure if my sim is faulty or it's the iPhone.

Turns out my sim was faulty.

Xee · 9 Dec 2012 at 15:52

Changed again. Options under carrier selection are T-Mobile & T-Mobile Orange. Currently set to auto and its gone back to showing EE 3G in top left corner (with T-Mobile showing in settings).

Nick1881 · 9 Dec 2012 at 22:03

I'm having the same problem, I was on Vodafone and recently switched to T-Mobile, it's always shown EE. The first day I did a speed test at work and got 19 MB/s, but last week some days I couldn't even browse the internet.

I read about the carrier selection, when I did a manual search it shows EE and EE 3G, I selected EE 3G and the connection was poor, d/l 0.1MB/s so I changed to EE and the speed was reasonable.

This is a real pain, I was better off with Vodafone. If it's going to carry on like this I will ditch them, but where to go? I dropped Vodafone due to the lack of 3G in so many places around the country, EE has been better in most places.

lmfy2k · 10 Dec 2012 at 14:11

before i had the iphone 5 i had a s3, using the same sim it was perfect in the s3, always a few bars

now i cut the sim to fit in the iphone 5, in town centres the bars are full

but at home rarely see any bars on it, with s3 it was perfect

i may try get a new sim from EE, to see if that helps

JKD · 30 May 2013 at 10:14

lmfy2k said:
My options are:

EE
EE (3G)

When I go to carrier selection.

I'm set to automatic but never seen EE (3G) show up

Same here with me. Manually selecting the 3G version results in decent performance. Leaving it on just EE makes the phone pretty much unusable.

If I leave it as EE (3G) will I lose signal completely if I'm in a 2g only area?

JKD · 1 Jun 2013 at 14:57

JKD said:
Same here with me. Manually selecting the 3G version results in decent performance. Leaving it on just EE makes the phone pretty much unusable.

If I leave it as EE (3G) will I lose signal completely if I'm in a 2g only area?

After around 2 hours on the phone with T-Mob tech support yesterday, they've told me that EE is the old Orange network, currently being decommissioned or upgraded and EE (3G) is the latest network.

Leaving carrier selection at auto, means sometimes picking up the older Orange network (EE) which is pants mostly. So it's OK to force it onto EE (3G). Eventually the old EE network will be fully sorted, so we'll all be free to go back to auto carrier selection.

And finally forcing on EE (3G) will not drop completely when you're in a poor 3G signal area, unless you're on an iPhone 5 which can't do 2G (or so 3re line tech support told me).

Shame they can't unlock my iPhone for me as my old Galaxy S2 is the registered IMEI on my account though. <-- Bit of a rant there.