Does changing the APN affect the phone's ability to connect to towers and/or get LTE?

[jackadillo]

I was wondering why my tethering had been unusuable for a while. Followed the instructions here (http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...831-unrestricted-tether-t-mobile-no-root.html) to see if I could get it back on my Nexus 4 which has the older LTE/HSPA+ modems flashed to it a couple of days ago and have been discovering that my home which only intermittently got LTE/4G has been getting it way more consistently with the speeds being way faster along with my tethernig being fixed.

So I'm wondering, can my APN settings affect my phone's ability to get LTE/4G and its stability? I seem to get only HSPA+ 0.2mbps at this time of the day (5:33pm). But I'm now clocking at least 2mbps with LTE.

 

[Rukbat]

The APN tells the phone how to connect to the internet. If it's right it'll connect, if it's not it won't. It won't connect slower if it's wrong, it just won't connect.

At 5:33PM, most people are still driving home from work. They're on their phones. When the highways are slow, the information superhighway is also slow. For the same reason - a lot of people using a limited resource. I'll bet your busy highways aren't too crowded at 8:32PM either.

 

[jackadillo]

The APN tells the phone how to connect to the internet. If it's right it'll connect, if it's not it won't. It won't connect slower if it's wrong, it just won't connect.

At 5:33PM, most people are still driving home from work. They're on their phones. When the highways are slow, the information superhighway is also slow. For the same reason - a lot of people using a limited resource. I'll bet your busy highways aren't too crowded at 8:32PM either.

I should've clarified at 5:33pm, I almost never get LTE in my house with TMO. When I do, it's a pleasant surprise. But after changing the APN per the instructions in the link in the opening post, I can get LTE. It's not fast LTE, but it's plenty for web-surfing!

I'm starting to wonder whether I may have been getting more LTE dead spots than normal with the bad APN.