My plan is 3G but myphone says LTE

[DerekSonnichsen]

As the title suggests, sometimes my phone says "LTE" but my plan only provides 3G. Whats up with that?

[dmbcanada]

Ahhh....sucess just added Data and had the same question as my Samsung Galaxy J3 says LTE.   Love these forums! 

[SunnyK]

It does the same for me as well.

It must be that you are connected to a LTE network, but don't worry, it's capped by PM to be only 3mbps.

Latency is the delay between in transfer of data between your phone and the cellular network.

[Sonja95]

THIs just happened to me after I restarted my phone. Before then it showed 3G anytime I used my data. I wonder why. Also what is latency?

[koimr1]

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@Lochness88 wrote:

I have the 3G plan too. I’ve done it in the setting of my phone to change it so it doesn’t connect to LTE just in case it charges me. Depending on what phone you have depends on where that setting is in the iPhones it’s under settings and cellular. 

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PM's "3G" is actually still "LTE" - it's just throttled to be a similar speed as actual 3G - yes, very confusing, they should've named it "LTE Lite" or something instead. Although there's nothing wrong with forcing your phone to actual 3G leaving it on LTE is fine and generally has a few benefits such as lower latency and more efficient use of battery (all things being equal).

In any event, my point is you won't get charged any differently. 🙂

[GreatCanadian]

You won't get charged for anything that you haven't paid for in advance with Public Mobile  PM data is actually provided over the LTE network, throttled to 3g speeds. 

GC 

[Lochness88]

I have the 3G plan too. I’ve done it in the setting of my phone to change it so it doesn’t connect to LTE just in case it charges me. Depending on what phone you have depends on where that setting is in the iPhones it’s under settings and cellular. 

[brent_liza]

This is normal. I have 3G plan shows LTE too. They just throttle the speed in the background. No need to worry. You’re not being charged any differently. 

[GreatCanadian]

In addition to what @srlawren said, 3g speeds on LTE have less latency than true 3g networks.  Super performance. If you are not downloading or uploading files, and just using it for browsing, email, and even streaming video (perhaps not 4k) 3g over LTE is great! 

GC 

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

@DerekSonnichsen 100% normal.  The "3G" speed data is still delivered over LTE, but is artificially throttled/capped to 3Mbps.