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Comments on news posted 2012-10-01 14:42:21: Verizon has acknowledged that their version of the iPhone 5 suffers from a bug where the device will consume cellular data, even if connected to a local Wi-Fi hotspot. ..

cooperaaaron
join:2004-04-10
Joliet, IL

cooperaaaron

Member

Bugs.....

They are not nice, lol !
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

In iOS 6 betas there was a feature that would fall back to the cellular network when WiFi was low-quality. While well-intentioned, the feature becomes a bug when you've got non-unlimited data...or a bug for the carriers if you've got unlimited data.

This issue is prevalent in the iPhone 5 particularly because LTE is in fact faster than many people's home WiFi in many areas. Heck, the iPhone 5, in ideal conditions, can download faster over cellular than WiFI (two receive antennas, 20x20 FDD channel on cellular vs. 20MHz on WiFi). If carriers want a lot of data revenue, this phone is an excellent way to get it, both by showcasing their network (the iPhone pretty aggressively looks for LTE) and by using the network whenever it's better than WiFi (a fair amount of the time in areas that are running within spec capacity-wise).

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to cooperaaaron

Premium Member

to cooperaaaron
I'm on Sprint so it in this case it is an annoyance at worst

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

2 recommendations

whfsdude

Premium Member

IPv6 Traffic

iOS 6 added support for IPv6 over LTE. Verizon's LTE network is dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6).

When connected to an IPv4 only WiFi access point, IPv6 data will continue to go over the LTE connection. (As confirmed in this NANOG post. > »mailman.nanog.org/piperm ··· 035.html ).

Not a big deal until you think about the fact that both Youtube and Netflix are IPv6 enabled.

One thing to note is it's hard to predict what will happen. If the WiFi network is significantly lower latency, happy eyeballs will choose v4 over v6.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

1 recommendation

Smith6612

MVM

Good point. I wonder too, if this bug also affects iPhone 4s units running iOS6. Not that the 3G network has IPv6 but I have noticed in the past month our iPhone showing a larger amount of data usage than normal. That might be just due to a number of reasons, but I know the phone came to 300MB short of the 3GB cap when it is pretty much connected to Wi-Fi back at home with IPv4/IPv6 support (Tunnel).

whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

whfsdude

Premium Member

said by Smith6612:

Good point. I wonder too, if this bug also affects iPhone 4s units running iOS6. Not that the 3G network has IPv6 but I have noticed in the past month our iPhone showing a larger amount of data usage than normal.

I am highly skeptical that the iPhone 4S users are seeing the exact same problem that Verizon iPhone 5 users are.

Not to say their point is invalid, there still might be excessive data usage compared to iOS 5. I suspect what people are finding is that the small caps that carriers impose are just not good enough for the increased usage from smartphones.

Looking at my Galaxy Nexus, I'm doing about 40-80 gigabytes per month on my device over 3G. (thank goodness for unlimited). None of that is tethering as I have a unlimited USB dongle for my laptop.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

1 edit

Smith6612

MVM

True. I don't have a Smartphone myself but someone in the house does have one. Come the middle of the month, I'm not quite sure what they're doing with it, whether it is going on YouTube for a little bit or streaming some music, but this month along with the usage two months ago has been very close to the 3GB cap for just that device. To be honest, I'm hoping one of these days the carriers choose either 4G or 3G network to put on an Unlimited Data plan. Ideally, it would be 3G due to the age of the network and due to the fact that they're going to be retiring it anyways as LTE phones come out.

What does make me wonder however is iOS6's feature to move back to Cellular when the Wi-Fi quality gets poor. I'm not quite sure exactly off of the top of my head what Apple means by this. Does this mean when the signal is low on the Wi-Fi, or the phone is having trouble talking to the AP it goes to cellular, or is it basically the Internet connection backing the Wi-Fi that causes issues? At home, we don't have signal issues and get a very strong signal throughout and outside the house, however at times when the iPhone is most used, our Internet connection is also getting destroyed with YouTube, streaming, gaming, and other traffic. We have a 5M/768k connection with Verizon and while it is hands down faster than 3G in the area, when saturating the connection the latency goes through the roof. That's something I'm working with Verizon to resolve as it's a problem on their end with their BRAS (an older one I was on never had this problem) but I suppose I need more details on what the auto-switching tech is doing. If it is a problem I might have to find a way to disable auto-switch to force the phone to only use 3G when there is absolutely no Wi-Fi connection.

EDIT: Upon reflection, I just read some articles where apparently the Wi-Fi + Cellular feature did NOT ship with the software. Maybe this is only with the 4s and lower?

J_in_AL
@bsc.edu

J_in_AL

Anon

What's going on?

I applied this "update" and now my iPhone won't connect to the internet.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

SimbaSeven

Member

It's not a bug..

..unless it doesn't make us tons of money or someone notices.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Thats not a bug

It is a feature which (when combined with their elimination of the unlimited data plan) simply increases their revenue. Don't like it? Use AT&T! Woops!!! AT&T apparently has the same bug... luckily they still have unlimited data... Whoops!

EliteData
EliteData
Premium Member
join:2003-07-06
Philippines

EliteData

Premium Member

the extra revenue that will come in to verizon from those who are not aware about this issue and/or are careless about their data usage/changes in monthly billing, until a fix is pushed to their devices.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

My upgrade is Nov 30th

My upgrade eligibility at the end of November gives them time to work the bugs out.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

dennismurphy to EliteData

Premium Member

to EliteData

Re: 9;

said by EliteData:

the extra revenue that will come in to verizon from those who are not aware about this issue and/or are careless about their data usage/changes in monthly billing, until a fix is pushed to their devices.

Did you not even read the article summary???
Verizon Wireless customers will not be charged for any unwarranted cellular data usage.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

crappy version 5

the problems are working their way into the public light.. and a class action will probably send the bill to Apple...
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72 to cooperaaaron

Member

to cooperaaaron

Re: Bugs.....

It's not a bug, it's Apple knows what's best for you. This is actually a feature of ios6 by DESIGN.
rick0204
join:2009-05-20
North Bergen, NJ

rick0204 to dennismurphy

Member

to dennismurphy

Re: 9;

I am sure a customer will have to call to request a refund.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

dennismurphy

Premium Member

said by rick0204:

I am sure a customer will have to call to request a refund.

I'm sure - 150% sure - you are completely wrong.
ditka_b
Premium Member
join:2001-10-05
Barrington, IL

ditka_b to dennismurphy

Premium Member

to dennismurphy
And you trust verizon to "refund" anything? Seriously they'd have to "guess" and that won't be pretty for the customer.

IOSucks
@qwest.net

IOSucks

Anon

IOS bug

I am so glad to see this, I have been trying to figure this out for days now. I bought my mom an iPhone 5. I walked her through Wifi setup over the phone. It was connected to her wifi network.

She's on a 2 gig plan so last week I checked her data usage to see where things were. Imagine my surprise to see 800+megs of usage just a couple hours after she had activated it. I am an android user who is not that familiar with IOS, so I didn't know where to tell her to even look over the phone. I had been going crazy trying to figure out how this could have happened...until this weekend when I was poking around on her phone in person. She had podcasts which totaled the amount of the data transfer, but when I went into settings for podcasts, the 'use cellular data' option was disabled.

It's pretty unlikely she'd use up all 2 gigs even with the podcast download, but I would be pretty pissed if this had been a shared data plan.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

1 recommendation

dennismurphy to ditka_b

Premium Member

to ditka_b

Re: 9;

said by ditka_b:

And you trust verizon to "refund" anything? Seriously they'd have to "guess" and that won't be pretty for the customer.

if (handset = iphone5) && (month=September) {
overage := 0;
}

No guessing, very easy to do. Trust me, it's done already.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine to whfsdude

Member

to whfsdude

Re: IPv6 Traffic

Good catch.

This means I should reenable my IPv6 tunnel at home.

amarryat
Verizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA

amarryat

Member

Eliminate caps...

...and there will be no problems.

anon202
@rr.com

anon202 to whfsdude

Anon

to whfsdude

Re: IPv6 Traffic

Since 3G CDMA maxes out at 3.1 mbit and I seldom get 128Kb I don't think this will be an issue ont he 4s (non LTE)

And the one fella was right I have 30 mbit cable at home but my wifi sucks my 4g card in my laptop spanks my Wifi