Enable LTE setting- iPhone 6s Plus

[balajik]

I've an iPhone 6s Plus. It came with iOS 9.0.2.

In settings>Mobile Data, there used to be an option called "Enable LTE" where one can enable LTE for Data, Voice & Data etc. And when I was using mobile data, LTE status bar icon was displayed.

Only recently, I updated my phone to iOS 9.2.1.

Now, I noticed the "Enable LTE" option has disappeared. In it's place, I see "Voice & Data" and under it, the options to select are 4G, 3G, 2G but no LTE. And now, only 4G is being displayed in the status bar and never LTE.

I've a few questions:
1. Did this change happen when the carrier profile was updated along with 9.2.1?
2. Did this change happen because Airtel doesn't provide VoLTE?
3. Am I getting LTE or does this 4G symbol mean I'm getting only UMTS?
4. If I'm not getting LTE for data, why not? Airtel is providing LTE services in Chennai.

Please bear with my igorance and any feedback is appreciated.

 

[amish]

Try changing ur iPhone language to English (India) and region to India.

I think in ur case region/language is something else - UK or US

 

[Jay]

This is the result of Airtel's latest carrier update. The only change I noticed is LTE to 4G. Thats all I know.

It could simply be a marketing ploy to fix "My phone does not have 4G!" complaints.

 

[balajik]

@amish: It's set to India and English (India) only.

P.S. I'd already tried changing the Region/Language to US/English (US) but it made no difference except "Mobile Data" changing to "Cellular" in the Settings. So, I changed them back to India and English (India).

 

[Citrus]

Have you done a speedtest and noticed any change in speeds?

 

[balajik]

I did one speedtest, didn't want to waste too many MBs on multiple speedtests. I was indoors and I got around 4.5 mbps DL and 8.5 mbps UL. I've gotten similar speeds on LTE in the past.

 

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[Citrus]

If the speeds are same I wouldn't sweat too much over it.

 

[balajik]

I wrote an e-mail to 121. In response, I got a call from Airtel and was told that 4G and LTE are the same...

Then, I got a kinda confusing e-mail:

As discussed, we would like to inform you that as per the standard maintained by Apple, operators providing commercial LTE services globally, device will remain in Auto Mode (LTE or 4G/WCDMA/GSM), while for other operators, option to switch to a particular network mode will be available.

our records indicate that 4G SIM/USIM is already active on your number. Please note, handsets with 2300Mhz only support airtel LTE services.

However, we would like to inform you that your handset I-phone 6S plus supports 4G LTE service.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Airtel does not allow changing to 3G or 2G. It stays on LTE

All the other operators like Vodafone allow us to set 2G/3G/LTE as highest speed network iPhone can connect to.

 

[balajik]

Is that right? But, I'm able to select 4G, 3G or 2G for Voice & Data and the status bar icon changes accordingly.

 

[Jay]

 

[balajik]

Yep. BTW, I checked for network connectivity using AIDA64 and the app said the phone was getting LTE when 4G was selected/displayed. HSDPA for 3G and Edge for 2G.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Ohh yeah. I was on beta firmware. But I do not get the option to set my APN manually. I can set APN manually on Vodafone.

 

[balajik]

I don't get the option for APN settings either (on Airtel).