Sprint promises fix for iPhone LTE woes after iOS 9.3 update

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited March 2016
In text messages sent out Thursday, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint said it is working to fix an apparent LTE connectivity issue affecting iPhone users who updated to Apple's iOS 9.3 last week.




Customers affected by the bug are unable to connect to certain bands of Sprint's LTE network, according to a reddit post and users who contacted Apple via the company's new Twitter support account. MacRumors reported on the issue earlier today.

"Your iPhone may be having data connection issues w/ the recent software update. We're working quickly to fix. We apologize for the inconvenience," Sprint said in a free text message to affected users.

While a cause has yet to be identified, Sprint subscribers impacted by the issue are having trouble with 4G LTE data transfer reliability. Some have reported an inability to receive incoming messages, while others have seen their iPhone periodically fall back to Sprint's 3G network. Considering the symptoms, it seems Sprint's infrastructure might be to blame, meaning a fix would likely come as a carrier update.

Apple issued iOS 9.3 last week, introducing new features like Night Shift, secure Notes, additional 3D Touch functions and more. Shortly after the release, however, users complained of an activation problem on older devices, as well as a widespread Web links bug that resulted in app crashes. Apple addressed the activation issues earlier this week, while a patch for Web links was included in today's iOS 9.3.1 release.

Despite the problems, one analytics firm declared iOS 9.3 Apple's most stable release in years, noting a crash rate of just 2.2 percent.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member
    Hmm. Had that problem when originally updating from iOS 8 to iOS 9, back at that time, on my iPhone 4s on Ting (sprint).
    Tok a little effort, but helpful people at Ting pushed some buttons and got it working again.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    Cash907DefiantCash907Defiant Posts: 7
     
    Despite the problems, one analytics firm declared iOS 9.3 Apple's most stable release in years, noting a crash rate of just 2.2 percent.
    Unless you were clicking on a link, in which case your crash rate was much, much higher. 

    So this'll be what, the third official revision since 9.3 launched a week ago? Oh yeah, super stable. Big thumbs up. 
  • Reply 3 of 10
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,949member
    Sprint = worst carrier by far.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    zeus423zeus423 Posts: 240member
    I've been with Sprint forever, and I've never had trouble with them.
    redgeminipa
  • Reply 5 of 10
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    If I'm understanding this correctly, the issue isn't with iOS 9.3, it's with the recent carrier update that Sprint pushed out around the same time.

    I have great sympathy for Sprint customers who have to live with a crappy CDMA 3G network.  Both of them.
    edited March 2016
  • Reply 6 of 10
    2old4fun2old4fun Posts: 239member
    While I have always been on AT&T's GSM network, I did not think that that the simultaneous Voice/Data capability was significant. Then I became friends with someone on Sprint with an iPhone and realized how many time I would look something up for him while we talked and he could not do the same. It is easy to miss the fact that you do something that is easy and natural until you find that for others it is not easy or possible.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    redgeminiparedgeminipa Posts: 555member
    2old4fun said:
    While I have always been on AT&T's GSM network, I did not think that that the simultaneous Voice/Data capability was significant. Then I became friends with someone on Sprint with an iPhone and realized how many time I would look something up for him while we talked and he could not do the same. It is easy to miss the fact that you do something that is easy and natural until you find that for others it is not easy or possible.
    While that is very true, I've found that I don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. I'm hoping that'll change with the new ASM chip that's supposed to be in the next iPhone. http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/03/apples-iphone-7-processor-is-using-game-changing-technology-with-an-asm-chip.html
  • Reply 8 of 10
    2old4fun2old4fun Posts: 239member
    redgeminipa said:
    2old4fun said:
    While I have always been on AT&T's GSM network, I did not think that that the simultaneous Voice/Data capability was significant. Then I became friends with someone on Sprint with an iPhone and realized how many time I would look something up for him while we talked and he could not do the same. It is easy to miss the fact that you do something that is easy and natural until you find that for others it is not easy or possible.
    While that is very true, I've found that I don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. I'm hoping that'll change with the new ASM chip that's supposed to be in the next iPhone. http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/03/apples-iphone-7-processor-is-using-game-changing-technology-with-an-asm-chip.html
    It does not look like the ASM makes any change to CDMA'a inability to do simultaneous voice/data. That is the nature of the protocol. I had heard that this would change with CDMA/LTE but there has not been any recent talk of it happening.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    redgeminiparedgeminipa Posts: 555member
    Cash907Defiant said:
     
    Despite the problems, one analytics firm declared iOS 9.3 Apple's most stable release in years, noting a crash rate of just 2.2 percent.
    Unless you were clicking on a link, in which case your crash rate was much, much higher. 

    So this'll be what, the third official revision since 9.3 launched a week ago? Oh yeah, super stable. Big thumbs up. 
    The link clicking is a non-issue for most users, as it's directly related to having the Booking.com app installed as noted in the article below. I've had zero issues concerning link clicks with either my iPhone 6s Plus or iPad Air 2. I do have to question the comments about it being the most stable release, though. I've noticed minor freezes that I never had issues with prior to 9.3. I'll see if I notice it with the 9.3.1 update released today. http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/03/31/apple-releases-ios-931-to-fix-web-link-crashing-bug
  • Reply 10 of 10
    staticx57staticx57 Posts: 405member
    2old4fun said:
    While that is very true, I've found that I don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. I'm hoping that'll change with the new ASM chip that's supposed to be in the next iPhone. http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/03/apples-iphone-7-processor-is-using-game-changing-technology-with-an-asm-chip.html
    It does not look like the ASM makes any change to CDMA'a inability to do simultaneous voice/data. That is the nature of the protocol. I had heard that this would change with CDMA/LTE but there has not been any recent talk of it happening.
    Simultaneous voice and data have been possible on LTE/CDMA networks for a while now. It is done primarily with two different methods. The first method is to use two antennas, one for CDMA and one for LTE. Since you use both systems at the same time you can route voice over CDMA and data over LTE. The first method has been used by Android and Windows phones for years. The second method is to use VOLTE (VOIP) thus routing both voice and data over solely LTE. This has been the recent method adopted by all OSes.
    edited April 2016
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