Cellphone reception strength goes down when I turn on LTE

[alexpopescu]

Hi all, I have noticed that my reception strength goes down 1 or 2 bars on my iPhone 6, as soon as I turn on the LTE.

For example I have full signal on 3G, but as soon as I turn on LTE, I only have 3 bars.

Anyone know why this is happening?

[srlawren]

@alexpopescu interesting question!  I think that generally when you are seeing a lower singal, it means that your phone is having to transmit with more power in order to transmit to the tower.  So I would think that yes, you may consume battery more quickly when seeing a lower signal meter strength vs. higher strenght in general.  I'm sure there are other factors that may complicate this overly simplistic view of things.  

Regarding does LTE in general use more battery power than 3G, I beleive the answer to that is generally yes as well, but again there's probably a lot more complexity to things.  For example, your phone might be using more power to broadcast data back to the tower, but it is also typically active for less time to send that same aount of data since the bandwidth is higher.  I'm not totally sure how to technically explain it, but I've seen lots of anecdotal suggestions from people to try turning off LTE when folks are concerned about battery life.  

[alexpopescu]

@srlawren thanks for your answer. Does my phone use more battery/power when the signal is lower or if I use LTE?

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

@alexpopescu because you're getting a stronger 3G signal than 4G signal at that point in time in that physical location.  These two signals operate at different frequencies from one another, different network loads at any given time, etc.  This variance is completely normal and not something to worry about so long as you are getting the data come through and at reasonable speeds.