iPhone 5 - wi-fi broken?

Lifted

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2004
5,748
2
0
I'm having no luck getting mobile hotspot working over wi-fi. When connecting to a computer over USB I get 30Mbs down, 20Mbs up with the 4G network. When I get lucky enough to even see the mobile hotspot over wi-fi from another device it either doesn't connect, shows out of range (when 6 inches away), or once connected gets speeds of 2kb - 20kb, then stalls for 30+ seconds, then back to craptastic speeds.

When using the wi-fi on the phone I can connect to an access point, and thought all was well without running any tests. But I decided to run the speedtest.net app and noticed that it causes the wi-fi to disconnect or stall. I get 20 or 30Mb on download, then on upload it shoots up to 20Mb, then freezes, at which point I think it looses the wi-fi connection, and it ends up with 0.4Mb or so for upload bandwidth.

Bad wi-fi radio on this unit or are other people having similar issues?

Edit: Tried on another iPhone here and same thing. Called Verizon and they said one other person called in and created a ticket. 1? Does nobody use mobile hotspot? Has nobody run speedtest on these? All of these phones arrived this week, in batch 2 I guess. Model number in the software shows MD664LL. Do the iPhones from the first batch have a different model #?

Anyway, I'm leaving the country tomorrow for 2 weeks and I guess I'll need to bring my blackberry with me to use as a mobile hotspot.

So far, I'm not so impressed Apple.
 
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ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
I'm not a mobile hotspot user (*glares at AT&T*) but I haven't seen any problems with the WiFi radio thus far. Speedtest and such complete just fine without any disconnects like what you're seeing.

It's pretty unlikely, but by any chance are you in an area saturated with 2.4GHz interference? The iPhone 5 doesn't support 5GHz WiFi operation with the hotspot function, which isn't immediately obvious.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I've had WiFi issues while using the phone, but I haven't determined if it's my router misbehaving (I don't restart it often) or my phone. I recall hearing claims of WiFi issues with the iPhone 5.
 

RichieZ

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2000
6,551
40
91
i have an iphone 5 on verizon and am on the 4gb tethering plan, other than sometimes its hard to connect to the hotspot its been pretty damn fast

in fact I just moved and have been tethering at my new place:
 

Ashenor

Golden Member
May 9, 2012
1,227
0
0
Hmm my iPad 3 and my iPhone 5 drop signal from my wifi all the time now, i never had a wifi issue before in my house. I assumed it was my router, but maybe is it a iOS 6 issue or something?
 

Paperlantern

Platinum Member
Apr 26, 2003
2,239
6
81
Thank god, I've been leaving mine on 4g because its easier than resetting the wifi every damn time it drops the connection. It shows still connected but just slows to a crawl or stops altogether. Glad there's a fix coming.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,236
136
Thank god, I've been leaving mine on 4g because its easier than resetting the wifi every damn time it drops the connection. It shows still connected but just slows to a crawl or stops altogether. Glad there's a fix coming.

Ha ha. I saw your avatar and thought it was Phokus. For a brief moment, I thought: "Wha-?! Focus owns an Apple product?!"
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,236
136
I haven't used the iPhone 5 tethering since I'm on an AT&T grandfathered unlimited plan that doesn't allow tethering. Still, I think the problem may have something to do with compatibility between certain wireless chipsets.