Why does AT&T not give us the option to turn off LTE?

[MattMJB0188]

My money is on the fact that they don't want us selecting the network we're on, simple as that. Just because the LTE is embedded doesn't mean we can't turn it off. Once custom ROMS are available you will see the options there.

It would make a lot of sense for them to direct more traffic onto LTE as barely no one is on that network yet. I'm sure many people would feel HSPA+ is fine and better on battery life and turn off 4G LTE - making more traffic on 3G.

 

[movielover76]

I saw the same thing with the HTC thunderbolt when it came out on Verizon, eventually they smartened up after tons and tons of battery life complaint's, now all verizon lte phones' offer the option.

Hopefully AT&T will smarten up, this has to be a carrier lock situation because the htc thunderbolt (eventually) and the rezound both have the option to turn off LTE.

 

[movielover76]

someone answered this on xda so here it goes..

The lte chip is integrated. Verizon chip isnt. So lets say your on verizon, you cant turn off lte, and hey its sucking the battery. But on att, hey its integrated, so its going to look for the best available network in your area, 3g hspa+ etc. Sounds right to me, correct me if im wrong

That can't be it, GSM phones have had the options to lock the phone in 2G or 3G mode for ages, adding a 4G toggle isn't any harder, it's a AT&T restriction, they want you on lte, the real advantage of LTE to the carrier is that it's cheaper to serve you data over LTE than 3G and it takes strain off of their 3G network. I as a Verizon user notice a huge drop in speed when going from LTE to 3G and for that reason I stick with 4G even though I have the option to only use 3G (occasionally I'll switch to 3G if I'm low on battery), on AT&T because of hspa+ you'll notice less of a difference (most of the time) which is why they are trying to prevent you from just using 3G to save battery, because your more likely to opt to simply leave 4G off. I have an SGSII on AT&T for work and while it's slower than LTE, it's still rather speedy and not as noticeable as the drop to 3G on Verizon.

 

[MattMJB0188]

I saw the same thing with the HTC thunderbolt when it came out on Verizon, eventually they smartened up after tons and tons of battery life complaint's, now all verizon lte phones' offer the option.

Hopefully AT&T will smarten up, this has to be a carrier lock situation because the htc thunderbolt (eventually) and the rezound both have the option to turn off LTE.

The time for AT&T do this would have been shortly after the release of their first LTE smartphones, the Skyrocket and Vivid. To this day, neither have the option to turn off LTE (unless you root).

 

[mkslt04]

Just a theory... Maybe since after they decided that HSPA+ if 4G too, they don't want people to realize the difference between there 2 4G networks. How do you explain to a consumer telling them that HSPA+ is 4G, and LTE is 4G? I get it, but the consumer will be like, "Wuh?" So removing the option to turn off LTE removes the confusion between the two 4Gs for the average consumer.

Then you could say that what about more tech savy users like us, we can manage ourselves. Well here's my response to you... When has AT&T ever been focused on us? (Remember blocking of side-loading?)

 

[varsityhacker]

AT&T has too much traffic on the HSPA/3G network. The IPhone killed the network, AT&T underestimated the amount of traffic the IPhone would generate.

 

[MattMJB0188]

AT&T has too much traffic on the HSPA/3G network. The IPhone killed the network, AT&T underestimated the amount of traffic the IPhone would generate.

Exactly. Hopefully with top of the line Androids on AT&T more iPhone users (like myself) will finally move over. Though I got my first iPhone in October, many with the 3GS were streaming as much as they wanted to because "they can".

I know I'd take a lot of heat if I said this on MacRumors but its to bad they don't throttle iPhone users only lol.

 

[movielover76]

Just a theory... Maybe since after they decided that HSPA+ if 4G too, they don't want people to realize the difference between there 2 4G networks. How do you explain to a consumer telling them that HSPA+ is 4G, and LTE is 4G? I get it, but the consumer will be like, "Wuh?" So removing the option to turn off LTE removes the confusion between the two 4Gs for the average consumer.

Then you could say that what about more tech savy users like us, we can manage ourselves. Well here's my response to you... When has AT&T ever been focused on us? (Remember blocking of side-loading?)

They are very clear that their is two 4G's on their website just go to this link and click technology

AT&T 4G LTE - Get 4G Speed with AT&T 4G LTE & 4G HSPA+

 

[varsityhacker]

Exactly. Hopefully with top of the line Androids on AT&T more iPhone users (like myself) will finally move over. Though I got my first iPhone in October, many with the 3GS were streaming as much as they wanted to because "they can".

I know I'd take a lot of heat if I said this on MacRumors but its to bad they don't throttle iPhone users only lol.

Well if you have unlimited which it doesn't sound like you do. You get 5 gb's on LTE with unlimited plan before they throttle you and only 3 gb's on 3g. That right there is a good indication of how much traffic they have on the 3g network.

The best thing for IPhone users is for more and more people to get LTE phones. i just hope that when the next gen IPhone comes out it doesn't kill the LTE network :-X

 

[MattMJB0188]

They are very clear that their is two 4G's on their website just go to this link and click technology

AT&T 4G LTE - Get 4G Speed with AT&T 4G LTE & 4G HSPA+

Still very confusing for the average consumer. I guess AT&T felt that if they called their HSPA+ 3.5G they would loose business as every other carrier was dubbing some "4G" acronym.

I agree about the iPhone killing the network, and unfortunately we're all gonna see LTE speeds slowly decrease in time once our iPhone friends hop on.

 

[varsityhacker]

They are very clear that their is two 4G's on their website just go to this link and click technology

AT&T 4G LTE - Get 4G Speed with AT&T 4G LTE & 4G HSPA+

I don't care what the call the HSPA+ network it's still the 3g network. LTE is the true 4g network.

 

[MattMJB0188]

I don't care what the call the HSPA+ network it's still the 3g network. LTE is the true 4g network.

No it isn't. LTE Advanced is "TRUE" 4G, but that's another argument lol.

 

[Biopsidy]

People are always quick to point the proverbial finger at the carrier, but you should also consider the irony to what you're asking to do and realize this is more of an OEM problem than a carrier problem.

Irony: You bought an LTE phone and want to turn off LTE (to conserve battery life).

If you ask me, this is misguided attention. The OEM's, such as HTC, have gotten away far too long with sending out piss poor battery life smartphones because people are willing to buy them because of how thin the phone is or the specs, completing ignoring the most important part: YOU WANT TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO USE THE FRIGGEN THING.

Blame HTC in my opinion for releasing a device that you have to disable half the features to make it through the day. Then, blame yourself for buying a phone and wanting to disable one of the most important aspects of it.

As a consumer, you have to realize you're contributing to the stupid trend of piss poor battery life devices because you're willing to buy hardware because it's thin and has amazing hardware, completing ignoring the fact that you can only enjoy it for a fraction of the day.

We teach OEM's what's acceptable with our dollars. I personally hope this phone has a ridiculously huge return rate so that HTC gets the hint about battery life. I personally like their devices, but I refuse to support them any longer while they value aesthetics over function.

 

[varsityhacker]

I'm getting Great battery life just as good or maybe even better then my iPhone 4s. The phone is thin lite and sexy and the display is amazing. Thanks HTC for making a great phone.

Singed Happy Customer

 

[AndroidBlizzard]

People are always quick to point the proverbial finger at the carrier, but you should also consider the irony to what you're asking to do and realize this is more of an OEM problem than a carrier problem.

Irony: You bought an LTE phone and want to turn off LTE (to conserve battery life).

If you ask me, this is misguided attention. The OEM's, such as HTC, have gotten away far too long with sending out piss poor battery life smartphones because people are willing to buy them because of how thin the phone is or the specs, completing ignoring the most important part: YOU WANT TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO USE THE FRIGGEN THING.

Blame HTC in my opinion for releasing a device that you have to disable half the features to make it through the day. Then, blame yourself for buying a phone and wanting to disable one of the most important aspects of it.

As a consumer, you have to realize you're contributing to the stupid trend of piss poor battery life devices because you're willing to buy hardware because it's thin and has amazing hardware, completing ignoring the fact that you can only enjoy it for a fraction of the day.

We teach OEM's what's acceptable with our dollars. I personally hope this phone has a ridiculously huge return rate so that HTC gets the hint about battery life. I personally like their devices, but I refuse to support them any longer while they value aesthetics over function.

It's similar to people that want to record at 480p standard, 720hd or 1080p full hd video. There should be options to change in the settings, an option to use 2G 3G or 4G should also be an option.

 

[garrim85]

@HighTechToid: I think you are missing the point man. The people complaining about this feature, or lack thereof, want to be able to switch it to 3G when they don't need 4G going. The 4G radio drains the battery faster than using 3G. Being able to turn it on when you want it, off when you don't would increase battery life. Just because it is 4G LTE capable doesn't mean it has to have the 4G radio in use at all times. The phone is capable of using 3G as well, but you can't switch to it.

 

[Zaisaroni]

It's not Irony, it's down to two reasons causing our situation.

1) AT&T (and VZW too) only want LTE devices from here on out. Hence why we have different SoC's in damn near every major device vs the rest of world. We want new devices, but the only relevant smartphone on AT&T without LTE is the iPhone 4s.

2) LTE is only in select markets. I live in the Twin Cities, one of the larger Metropolitan areas, and never have trouble with AT&T signal, aside from some sporting events, always great coverage and data speed. However, I have no LTE yet. VZW has had LTE here since last year.

 

[BOSSY TEXAS CHICK]

So does this mean when LTE comes to my area (and i could care less if it NEVER gets here, i consistantly get 3-6 MBps, which is plenty if you ask me-mind u i'm coming from Sprint where 300-500 kbps was the avg) ) that i will no longer have the stellar battery life i now have with HTC One X??

BTC

 

[unopepito06]

So does this mean when LTE comes to my area (and i could care less if it NEVER gets here, i consistantly get 3-6 MBps, which is plenty if you ask me-mind u i'm coming from Sprint where 300-500 kbps was the avg) ) that i will no longer have the stellar battery life i now have with HTC One X??

BTC

I'm wondering this too. If I buy and use the One X now, will my battery still be reliable once my city gets LTE? It's definitely a consideration before buying a unibody phone.

 

[Fraydog]

For most One X users it will be an issue at some point. AT&T will have LTE to 250 million POP's by the end of 2013. Most One X users will still have their devices then. That makes the battery issue pretty important.

The good news is that the S4 is a very energy efficient chip for LTE. Good enough that the modem part of the S4, the MDM9615, is good enough to meet Fruit Company standards for energy efficiency to be placed in iPhones. I don't think it's going to be that big of a concern. I live in an area with LTE, HSPA+, and EDGE. I think the One X can work well on all those standards including LTE.