[How to] disable LTE on AT&T S3 (you can disable HSPA+ too)

[jeffreii]

Re: [How to] disable LTE on AT&T S3

Here at the house the network is edge 2g, I want to upgrade my phone to the pantech burst, do you know if it compatible to work on the edge network?

I'm not sure how you wound up in this thread or even in the Galaxy S3 forum...but 2g EDGE is an AT&T network and any AT&T phone will work with that.

 

[jdauria]

Re: [How to] disable LTE on AT&T S3

Awesome, I used to do this with my blackberry back in the day but there was an option to choose between 2g and 3g haha

 

[ItnStln]

Does the app "Phone Info" work to disable LTE on AT&T's S3?

 

[Targon]

Going to a Pantech is a downgrade, not upgrade.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Android Central Forums

 

[maskedcarrot]

Wow! Thanks for the details on this. It helped out a lot.

I get great LTE signal all around my work, but at home I get like 2 bars from a distant LTE tower which I think is draining my battery more than it should on my GS3 being as I technically don't even know how I am picking it up at my house. I would think I am out of range. I dunno.

So now after doing this I am going to see how my battery life it, being as I am going to keep it on HSPA+.

On a side note, I couldn't get my sim to actually move out far enough for my phone to recognize that it was removed. So I just removed the battery and started up the phone without the sim card in. Did the code trick, turned off the phone, reinserted the sim, booted back up and it worked fine.

 

[LuvrGirl]

I would LOVE to get this to work on my GS2 Skyrocket with AT&T... I tried to follow the instructions in the OP's message but it never let me get past the RAT selection restriction. Anybody know if this works on the Skyrocket and/or maybe I'm missing a step somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[Drayk]

Why is it advantageous to disable LTE?
I live about 50 miles north of Denver Co. so I don't get LTE yet. I'm just curious why you'd want to disable it.

 

[maskedcarrot]

Why would you want LTE always searching in the background for a signal when you don't have any near you? By turning off LTE, it can potentially save battery.

Also for me, as I said in my post, I get barely 2 bars of LTE at home, but full bars of HSPA+. So it makes sense for me to turn it off and save some battery life until they build out more LTE in my area.

 

[LuvrGirl]

That's exactly why I'm looking around. I stumbled upon this post but it's for the GS3 and I tried it on mine and it wouldn't work. So I'm trying to see if I can find the procedure for my Skyrocket because my LTE signal in my home is barely 2 bars and it's slooooowwwww If I can just switch it to 3G/4G HSPA+ while at home everything would be great!

 

[dwd3885]

just wanted to say THANKS. My phone's hspa would never work when i was on a call. LTE just dropped everything completely. Turns out I set it to wdcma and then back to automatic and now it works perfectly! THANKS

 

[winmod21]

Why would you want LTE always searching in the background for a signal when you don't have any near you? By turning off LTE, it can potentially save battery. Also for me, as I said in my post, I get barely 2 bars of LTE at home, but full bars of HSPA+. So it makes sense for me to turn it off and save some battery life until they build out more LTE in my area.

That's exactly why I'm looking around. I stumbled upon this post but it's for the GS3 and I tried it on mine and it wouldn't work. So I'm trying to see if I can find the procedure for my Skyrocket because my LTE signal in my home is barely 2 bars and it's slooooowwwww If I can just switch it to 3G/4G HSPA+ while at home everything would be great!

LTE got up & running in our area approx. three weeks ago. I've noticed that it's lightening fast, but I haven't been paying any attention to how many bars are typically showing, or how often the phones' cellular radio is searching for the LTE signal? whilst mobile data is toggled on. Now I see that mine's only showing '2 bars', in and around my home office, so maybe it's time to check-out the 'disable' options.

Another member started a: Simple LTE disable for AT&T ? back in mid December.

 

[zak9494]

I have a Galaxy S3 for AT&T running 4.1.1. How can I change it to 3G only because when I take out my sim and something pops up saying I must restart my phone. And i cant get out of that screen. When I do restart it and try and dial #2263# it says only emergency calls only. So I tried dial #2263# when my sim was in the tray and it says "Connection problem or invalid MMI code". Help please, my phone is rooted also BTW.

 

[jeffreii]

I'm currently testing a new method to temporarily disable RAT restrictions - which would make it so you don't have to take off the back cover and remove the SIM card before changing bands.

At&t temoraly RAT removal - xda-developers

As for your question zak9494, I'm not sure if there are any issues with the method described in this thread with regards to 4.1.1. I have not tried it on anything other than ICS 4.0.4. You can check out the above thread and see if that method works for you.

 

[jeffreii]

It appears as though the method from XDA works well and makes this a lot easier/more convenient. No reboot required.

At&t temoraly RAT removal - xda-developers

Thanks to norbarb on XDA:
From the phone dialer enter: *#197328640#
Umts -> Debug Screen -> Phone Control -> Network Lock -> RAT_FREE_SUPPORITNG ON <- once you choose this option it will say "Now RAT Free Supporting" - this will allow you to change bands freely (no need to pull the SIM card) until your next reboot.

Thanks to aybarrap1 on XDA:
You can save *#197328640# in your contacts. I wasn't able to call the contact directly but from the dialer you can dial *#1 and it will pop up as a suggestion - you press that and it launches automatically. You can then go to Umts -> Debug Screen -> Phone Control -> Network Control <- this leads you to the screen you'd find in my original method with *#2263#
From here you can freely swap to whichever band you prefer and it will connect without a reboot required!
Note: After disabling RAT restrictions you can hit the menu button and choose back, twice. You'll then be at the menu list that includes "Network Control" aka *#2263# which is a little faster.

I will update the OP here and on XDA with this new information.

 

[thaJack]

AT&T support walked me through it. Easiest way to do it:

Settings > More Settings > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names

Menu button and "New APN"

Enter "wap.cingular" without the quotes for both the Name and APN fields. Save it and select it. Done. You can switch back and forth between the new APN you created that will not connect to LTE and the original one that will.

 

[HaveBlue83]

^^^I just tried that and I'm still getting the LTE orage wifi looking thiings next to the 4g logo in my statusbar.

I also tried the sim card thing and that still didnt work. I want LTE OFF as I think its killing my battery.

 

[Amanda Zygar]

It seems that At&t is the only carrier that does not offer an obvious, comfortable way to toggle the Gs. My LTE service is so spotty, I was (and would still) miss call after call and none of the 50 tech reps knew why. Spotty is bad bcz the signal jumps back and forth, would have been better to have no LTE altogether. Their tower alerts said LTE signal is very strong by me.... no. They sent me 3 warranty replacements (sg3) in 3 weeks, but of course, the phones were perfectly fine, as I came to learn. This makes absolutely no sense to me bcz I can't be the only one with this complaint. I'd have had to switch phone companies for this reason! Your thread saved me a lot of hassle. Gonna try this out on an upgraded jelly bean 4.1.2 sg2 skyrocket, will let you know.

If we must choose call connectivity and battery life or speed, we should have that damn option!

 

[Shak3k]

Hi I would like to ask you about unlocking my s3 at&t
Rat_free_supporting On....
How to unlock?
Plz help

 

[jeffreii]

Hi I would like to ask you about unlocking my s3 at&t
Rat_free_supporting On....
How to unlock?
Plz help

This thread has nothing at all to do with unlocking your phone. If it's even possible, you'll need to search for a thread that probably has the word "unlock" in the title...good luck.

 

[Jodie Hennessy]

How do ya know if ya have LTE or HSPA or all the other ones people are mentioning here? Very confused now.. I was just thinking of buying a back-up battery. .