Whatever we are paying Verizon is not enough to induce them to build a working mobile data network here in Florida. The dead spots are at least as bad as in Maskachusetts despite the flat terrain and lack of skyscrapers that could generate multipath.
Why not switch to another carrier? T-Mobile and AT&T customers report similar unreliable communications.
The worst part of it is that the phone often shows 3 bars of 5G while simultaneously being unable to load a web page for minutes. Upgrading from the iPhone 12 Pro Max (rubbish) to the iPhone 13 Pro Max (a whole new world of greatness) did not help the problem in any way.
If we assume that T-Mobile’s dead spots are not the same as Verizon’s dead spots, the obvious solution is for the phone, which already is capable of dual-SIM operation, to have both SIMs activated simultaneously for mobile data. If the phone can’t get packets out via Verizon it would try T-Mobile and vice versa.
This is not a radical concept. A colocation facility for Web servers can have data links from at least two Internet Service Providers (ISPs) so that the failure of one ISP does not render the servers unreachable. The whole point of packet-switched networking (invented by a 2SLGBTQQIA+ BIPOC American) is that routing can handle network link failures. There is no more common example of a network link failure than in the final segment between mobile tower and mobile device.
Carriers should like this. They can cooperate to get customers’ money for two subscriptions instead of fighting over who gets paid for a single subscription.
Consumers should accept this. Americans cheerfully pay 2X what Europeans pay for mobile service and home broadband. Why not pay 4X and get something that actually works when you need it?
I have wondered the same about PCs and routers. I have often had access to two different networks, and wanted to have the throughput of both at once.
PCs can handle multiple devices in lots of other ways. Why not internet providers?
The devices exist. You need two modems in a single router, which is probably the reason that it’s not implemented in cell phones:
https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rutx12/
Makes sense for VIP’s like Greenspun, but there just aren’t enough Greenspuns in the world to justify the amount of bloat required for transparent redundancy in every phone. It would require many terrabytes of useless API’s, new programming languages, 5 new versions of gradle, replacing android studio & eclipse with yet another IDE & increasing the load time a few hours by loading terrabytes of zeros.
I have an iPad Mini using one cellular carrier and an iPhone using another. The iPad will transparently switch to using the iPhone’s connection-sharing if its own connection is not available. This won’t help when the failure is byzantine, i.e. a network claiming to be up but not actually routing any packets.
+1 FM. Created WiFi hotspots and Bluetooth sharings on various laptops and tablets to use their internet as an alternative to mobile phone provider connection on my mobile phone, and vice versa. Requires manual connection management on mobile.
Philip, for twice the price you can just second phone with different provider, as once demonstrated by DJT at one of his old TV shows appearances, I believe at an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Perplexed. Why engineer the capability into the phone if you never use it? I understand that products are often designed for modular assembly in such a way that the “heavy option” version differs from the “plain vanilla” version only in terms of how the final connectors are plugged in and the network programmed. This is how most modern cars are built: the wiring harnesses usually contain all the connectors needed for the fully-optioned car, they just sit unused on the “stripper” models. But why would cellphone companies like Apple build in this dual-SIM capability and have it sit there unused?
By the way, 5G is really kind of a “soft fraud” – I still don’t have it anywhere near (within 10 miles) of my location and watch the Verizon commercials and AT&T commercials every single day. They know how to make commericals!
Verizon 5G antennae are the ugliest shit in modern America, how do they get away defacing whole cities?
From support.apple.com:
“On iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13, and iPhone 13 mini, you can use two eSIMs for two or more cellular plans—two active at the same time—or a physical nano-SIM for a cellular plan and an eSIM for one or more other cellular plans”.
So – apparently it is possible.
Ahh, but somewhere else on the same page it states:
“Your iPhone can use one cellular data network at a time”
So perhaps data is treated separately from calls and texts.