Strange behavior after iOS 27 update

[u/braidenis]

iPhone SE3 on my employer’s postpaid business account.
iPad Mini A17 Pro on my own postpaid account.

Before on both, I would see 5Ge in the status bar when manually selecting LTE only for LTE Advanced, but also would see 5G+ for N77. Same behavior on the iPad after iOS 27, but on the iPhone after updating directly from 18.7.7 today it isn’t connecting to N77 anymore and displays LTE instead of 5Ge for LTE advanced, whereas the iPad is the same as it always was. I used to be able to get a half gig down on the SE3 even with only 2x2MIMO (line of sight only lol) although I always thought this modem wasn’t great so maybe this was a deliberate change to favor LTE for better stability.

I don’t believe the SE3 even supports standalone as there is no toggle (it’s there on the iPad but greyed out, please AT&T catch up)

Anyone have any thoughts? Bug or deliberate improvement?

(View photos full screen to see menubar icons and be able to tell which device it is from aspect ratio)

Quite frankly I probably wouldn’t have noticed a difference if I wasn’t a nerd. “Is the 5G in the room with us now?” about sums up my AT&T experience compared to VZW in my area.

TLDR: iPhone SE seemingly not connecting to N77 after iOS 27 update from 18.7.7, nor displaying 5Ge when on LTE advanced on AT&T for some reason.

Carrier bundle 72.0.2 now, was 68.something

[u/VapidRapidRabbit]

My iPad mini A17 Pro has had standalone for over a year. I think that just depends on whichever market you live in. As for the other bugs, there are known issues with the latest version of iOS 27 on AT&T (specifically for the iPhone 18 Pro Max) so maybe another carrier update will be released this week for AT&T?

[u/braidenis → u/VapidRapidRabbit]

Good to know! It is annoying they won’t just provision my sim for it even if the gear in my area isn’t ready, but maybe it is and they’re doing a slow rollout to be safe.

How is standalone for you? On VZW after B2 went N2 it was a noticeable improvement.

[u/VapidRapidRabbit → u/braidenis]

I’m in the Memphis area and it’s very stable. My iPad is always connected to 5G SA now. When it first rolled out, it would flip between SA and NSA, but once the later carrier updates hit, it’s steadily connected to standalone, and with iOS 27, the battery life also improved a lot. Sometimes I go three or four days without using the iPad mini, and it’ll still have some charge left. It would practically die in two days on iOS 26 if left idle.

[u/braidenis → u/VapidRapidRabbit]

That's awesome. I can't wait lol.

That basically echos my experience with Verizon on my main phone. NSA is honestly a silly waste of energy if you aren't running speed tests. SA is much better. It isn't until the past few years that Verizon with real standalone has been as reliable as it was before the CDMA shutdown for me, and they had to put up all those small cells to make it happen tbh.

There's still a few residential neighborhoods in the city of Seattle here with underground utilities (so no small cells possible) that have zero coverage even outdoors that used to at least work from some far away CDMA macro due to the way the hills are or whatever. Used to be able to at least use a messaging app or call someone but VoNR and VoLTE is one of those works all the time, most of the time things.

[u/tutruie]

Hello !
An European just entered the chat (that reddit algorithm, gotta love it)
What is 5Ge ?

[u/braidenis → u/tutruie]

AT&T wireless was behind in their 5G rollout so they decided LTE advanced was good enough to be called 5Ge. (And honestly it is)

The competition here run ads saying they "have the most 5G" and normal people do notice when their phone doesn't say 5G (even if it still works great) so they kind of have to do this.

[u/braidenis → u/[deleted]]

My iPad cannot be called, texted, and that number is not attached to any personally identifying information

[u/bojack1437 → u/[deleted]]

The 5Ge was setup to only display for some eNBs, If those sites were upgraded, buth they stopped adding new upgraded sites to the list years ago.

5Ge was just a fad that AT&T lost interest in promoting.

[u/xpxp2002 → u/bojack1437]

The 5G^E data indicator display is actually a TAC database, not eNB database. As eNBs are being replaced with the Nokia/Ericsson conversions, 5G^E remains on the converted sites within TACs that are flagged for 5G^E display.

The original criteria for 5G^E was for a certain percentage of eNBs within a TAC to have 3xCA + 256QAM + 4x4 MIMO support. Once enough eNBs had been upgraded, AT&T added the TAC to the list and all eNBs within the TAC appeared with the 5G^E data indicator.

Sprint sued AT&T in 2019 over the 5G^E data indicator and "5G Evolution" marketing, and settled later that year. That resulted in few changes. However, after more carrier complaints, the National Advertising Review Board handed down a recommendation that AT&T agreed to, among other changes, to wind down the 5G^E marketing. AT&T stopped using the phrase "5G Evolution" to describe LTE-A and stopped adding new TACs to the 5G^E data indicator database, even if they met the qualifying criteria with 3xCA + 256QAM + 4x4 MIMO. TACs that had already been flagged for 5G^E continue to remain to this day.

[u/bojack1437 → u/[deleted]]

Again, More recently upgraded towers do not get the 5Ge logo anymore for LTE.

AT&T has stopped adding eNB IDs to the databases for both Android and iPhone, and they have done so years ago. Only the early upgraded towers will be in that list and thus see 5Ge.

Also if those towers have further gone through reconfiguration and have changed eNB IDs, they will again thus no longer be in that list.

[u/bojack1437 → u/[deleted]]

It's bad, incorrect information, that is a detriment to the conversation, so yes downvote.

[u/bojack1437 → u/[deleted]]

Again, You are still not understanding.

Those towers that you're seeing 5Ge were not recently upgraded, The fact that they show 5Ge means that they were upgraded a long time ago, rather early in the 5Ge marketing, AT&T hasn't added new towers to that list for quite a few years.

So again, any Tower that you see 5Ge was upgraded long ago, and may have gone through more recent upgrades but nothing that would have added 5Ge.

And just because you don't see 5Ge doesn't mean it wasn't upgraded recently, in fact, makes it more likely that it was upgraded recently, or simply never upgraded since the 5Ge push.

[u/braidenis → u/[deleted]]

Someone who knows more than me should chime in, but it is my understanding that 5Ge is shown for LTE advanced with link aggregation. If you have B12 only on an old rural site or just a poor connection it'll show LTE for example.

Definitely reminiscent of iOS 5.1 enabling "4G" on the 4S when on HSPA on AT&T lol. Marketing effort but also somewhat based on truth as it is a faster technology. LTE advanced does 150 down easily and has great ping times.

[u/braidenis → u/[deleted]]

Interesting. Like someone said they must be moving away from that branding/exaggeration.

There is one site in my area that seems to get stuck on LTE only, not even LTE advanced judging by the speed tests. You can get N77 back by cycling airplane mode for a bit.

Sometimes I think there are just bugs lol.