Phone has 5G icon but LTE on Speed Tests

[bugout2hills]

Greetings! 

I am on the Visible+ plan, and I am using the Motorola One 5G UW ace phone. 

According to my location on Visible's coverage map, my entire city and some outskirts fall under the teal color for 5G Ultra wideband. However, here at home and in my immediate neighborhood, I have been getting only a regular 5G icon. Speed tests show that I am on LTE and not 5G. Cell Mapper app says that I am on LTE/LTE-A on Band 66. The location of the cell tower I am connected to here is 1796 Sugar Grove Rd SE Lancaster, OH 43130.

I was at a Love's today at the outskirts of town and noticed my phone was on 5G but that Band n77 was what I was connected to. So that proves that I can get a 5G signal. Basically my question is this, why does my phone show a 5G icon here at home when I am actually getting LTE-A Band 66 data and 5G connections say True but 5G State says Not_Restricted. This isn't even close to the 5G UW that the coverage map claims I fall under. 

[bugout2hills]

I took the SIM out and put it back in again and it connected to Band 5 NSA 5G for a total of around 10 minutes, even did the speed test and was actual 5G. Now it is back on Band 66 fluctuating between LTE and LTE-A while still saying 5G on phone. Please note that this phone doesn't give me the option of toggling LTE and 5G connections. 

[Anonymous]

I see there has been no one with a similar issue to help you on this but I will point out this. I have a Motorola G Power(2022), I am on 4G LTE(no 5G within 150 miles of me) and I have a weak signal so I got a booster, bought from eBay used, and ended up with an older model SureCall booster that only uses Verizon's band 13. To be sure I could use it I downloaded Cell mapper and it showed band 13 which is great I am not out the money I just spent. It boosts my signal great but for some reason my Motorola phone jumps from 5  bars to 1 and after a while back to 5. I contacted SureCall and explained my issue thinking it might be because I have such a weak signal to begin with the booster wasn't able to hang onto the signal and not boost it all the time. They had me download an app called Network Cell Info Lite, there are two meters the top one on the app is the one you look at. Well it turns out my phone is band hopping. I am in the middle of two towers which are approximately 10 to 13 miles in opposite directions of me and there are about 6 different bands between them. Even though band 13 is boosted for some reason my phone band hops and there are no setting to stop this. I believe the phone is doing this to use the bands that are least congested even though 13 is the strongest signal at 5 bars and the rest at 1 bar. It is odd that if I toggle airplane mode on and off it will lock into 13 for a short time then it wanders again. 

I know this really didn't help but maybe explains what is happening on your phone. Is there a fix for it, I don't think so, I search high and low on the internet hoping to find a solution to a hidden setting that would stop this but I didn't. 

[bugout2hills]

I am connected to the same tower, it just starts doing its thing whenever I do airplane mode reset or SIM reset. Works good for a few minutes and then goes straight back to Band 66 LTE. Speeds are horrible, in the teens. I don't know what to do at this point. Visible+ is such a great deal but the network is horrible in my area that's connected to this tower. I am thinking about switching to Cricket in a few months if this doesn't improve. I wouldn't be as disappointed if the LTE at least had good speeds but it doesn't. Currently at one bar of Pseudo-5G

Cell Mapper says 5G is not restricted but then again it doesn't say Connected 

[Anonymous]

When your phone says 5G, What does the SIM Card Status found someplace under Settings, About Phone about mobile network data type? NR NSA (New Radio Non Stand Alone)?

I'm trying to track down this issue with my primary carrier, but in at least some cases it appears Cellmapper is incorrect.

[bugout2hills]

Hi Bob, 

Data connection on SIM status says 5G by itself (no NSA, SA, or UW). 

I did some research and the closest explanation I saw was that the tower is telling my phone that the tower supports 5G but that my phone isn't connecting to 5G (which explains the NOT_RESTRICTED message and not CONNECTED on Cell Mapper). I took a 15 minute walk to the downtown area this morning and suddenly my phone was connected to actual 5G UW. I also checked my phone and noticed I was connected to a different tower as well. 

So unfortunately I just think my home is located at a bad spot to the tower I am connected to. That other tower that I had good coverage is on the other side of a hill from me so I don't think there is a line of sight for my phone to connect to that one. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I suspect I'm in a similar situation with my primary carrier when at home.

[Anonymous]

I still say it is the phone that is hopping bands. You may be on one tower but likely has multiple bands that it is emitting, I don't know how many bands are in the 5G or the 5GUW network but 4G LTE I had looked up and there are a lot. I have 2 towers in my area, after my booster arrived I found out it was a band 13 only model from SureCall, I download cell mapper and that only showed one tower and band 13 on the 4G LTE network and thought great this will work but it doesn't because cell mapper was wrong.  There are two towers that have 3 to 4 bands each. I did make the mistake of buying the wrong booster and needed one that covers multiple bands because for some reason my phone will not stay locked onto band 13 since it is booted and the strongest signal. It is the phone that keeps switching bands and I am not sure why it does it, I never really found an answer trying to Google it. I downloaded Network Cell Info Lite, when it switches to the weak signals if I toggle airplane mode off then on it will come back on band 13 but will switch after a period from 30 second to a few minutes.

I am guessing all phones might do this and I know on my Motorola phone it can't be shut off. This is why I mentioned it in my first reply. The 5GUW you might be correct that you can't get it because of the hill and it not being in line of site. My speeds may not be impressive at an average of 35Mbps but it definitely a lot better than my home phone/service provider at 1.5Mbps.