EE MVNO Lyca - LTE CA introduction

Hi All,
I have recently noticed that EE have introduced LTE CA (Carrier Aggregation) which you would think would be good however on MVNO Lyca it looks like the 5G icon on IPhone has disappeared which as its not 5G SA I suspect the 4G bands and 5G bands are overlapping or being aggregated in some way, Field test mode does not advise anything unfortunately, and noticed APN settings have disappeared recently (unsure if linked).

My concern is how do you identify the fundamental technology since LTE CA has been introduced and there is no easy indicator at the moment?

Has anyone noticed LTE CA being introduced causing a similar issue?

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

I have recently noticed that EE have introduced LTE CA (Carrier Aggregation)

EE had LTE Carrier Aggregation about 2018... its not new in 2024. EE has sufficient spectrum they need to use CA as each carrier can only be 20 MHz wide.

My concern is how do you identify the fundamental technology since LTE CA has been introduced and there is no easy indicator at the moment?

Field Test Mode on iPhone. *3001#12345#* in the phone dial pad.

Has anyone noticed LTE CA being introduced causing a similar issue?

I've had 4xCA on LTE (4G) in my local mast since 2020. No EE 5G in this town. I'm an EE customer, not using an MVNO.

In Field Test, tap on Serving Cell Info, and then look for "Radio Access"; as long as that says LTE you are on a 4G connection. Then look at the Band Info, and it shows the first carrier.

If you want to see more about the CA, then go back arrow, and tap on ConnectionStats in the LTE heading, this will have more info, but its quite hard to debug. Unfortunately iPhones are not the best for finding out what your chosen network is transmitting. (An android phone with free apps can do better).

Given 5G is deployed in the UK in NonStandAlone mode, you may see the 5G section with Nr ConnectionStats. NR is New Radio, the actual radio link for 5G. With NSA, the phone will drop back to LTE when not actually transmitting/receiving, to save battery.

If the icon at the top shows 5G, but you see LTE in the Radio Access field, then you are on "fake G" which is common given the 5G indicator meaningless, sadly, by industry decision. See here:
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/your-5g-icon-is-virt...

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I've had 4xCA on LTE (4G) in my local mast since 2020. No EE 5G in this town. I'm an EE customer, not using an MVNO.

In Field Test, tap on Serving Cell Info, and then look for "Radio Access"; as long as that says LTE you are on a 4G connection. Then look at the Band Info, and it shows the first carrier.

If you want to see more about the CA, then go back arrow, and tap on ConnectionStats in the LTE heading, this will have more info, but its quite hard to debug. Unfortunately iPhones are not the best for finding out what your chosen network is transmitting. (An android phone with free apps can do better).

Given 5G is deployed in the UK in NonStandAlone mode, you may see the 5G section with Nr ConnectionStats. NR is New Radio, the actual radio link for 5G. With NSA, the phone will drop back to LTE when not actually transmitting/receiving, to save battery.

If the icon at the top shows 5G, but you see LTE in the Radio Access field, then you are on "fake G" which is common given the 5G indicator meaningless, sadly, by industry decision. See here:
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/your-5g-icon-is-virt...

Unfortunately Field test mode doesn't work on my IPhone 12, no stats at all, seems to be since an IOS update two years ago. I know it used to work however hasn't for a long time. If I remember correctly it was iOS 16 that broke it.

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

Unfortunately Field test mode doesn't work on my IPhone 12, no stats at all, seems to be since an IOS update two years ago. I know it used to work however hasn't for a long time. If I remember correctly it was iOS 16 that broke it.

17.5 out this week works on my 15 and friends 14... so I'd be very surprised if a 12 can't, as all these phones use Qualcomm radios. (12 was the first to switch back to Qualcomm to support 5G).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

Unfortunately Field test mode doesn't work on my IPhone 12, no stats at all, seems to be since an IOS update two years ago. I know it used to work however hasn't for a long time. If I remember correctly it was iOS 16 that broke it.

17.5 out this week works on my 15 and friends 14... so I'd be very surprised if a 12 can't, as all these phones use Qualcomm radios. (12 was the first to switch back to Qualcomm to support 5G).

What's interesting is that while the 12 can't the 6 can as I pulled it out of a draw to check

Odd! The 6 is ancient now and uses the Intel modem. No 5G of course.

6 can’t really do CA, the 6s can.

Do you have 24 hour clock enabled?

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you have 24 hour clock enabled?

I’d have thought most in the UK would as Apple defaults to 24 hour for UK English region.

True but it’s really the only setting that seems to break field test mode on iOS. Hence the check.

Whilst trying to avoid hijacking the post, it seems I’ve got the same issue.

I’ve always had carrier aggregation on lyca, however native EE will always show around 2x aggregated bandwidth. This isn’t the cause of the issue in my mind. All this means is data is faster on the main network (no shocker).

I run a Lyca sim as a second line (mainly for incoming calls by people I’d rather didn’t have my main line). I have lost 5G also, but there’s little documentation on field test mode that I can find. Is there something in there that could potentially indicate the reason why it’s no longer able to connect? Perhaps someone else on here can aid.

I just have no idea where to look for specifics as to why it fails. I suspect it’s the carrier profile amendment and likely it’s misconfigured. I just have no idea how to see where it’s going wrong. Pics of the 5G data from FTM:

https://ibb.co/WcShhmZ
https://ibb.co/pjV8755

On my EE sim it works in the same spot.

Changes noted:

Since 3G switch off, it started automatically acquiring the EE carrier profile. Prior it would not get a carrier profile. This means that it no longer shows as LTE but 4G. Prior it would show as LTE and 5G. The carrier profile (EE 58.0) also brings with it the option of WiFi calling, enabling this however doesn’t actually do anything. Strangely it doesn’t bring any error in the UI the switch just remains on and it never displays WiFi calling.

A positive of the carrier profile now being issued is that band 20 works.

Does this marry up with your experience?

For me it’s not a huge concern as I use it as a secondary line mainly for incoming calls, but this post has inspired me to do a bit of digging.

Do you have the 5G Auto / 5G On option in Mobile Data -> Voice & Data, allowing you to choose 5G Audio, 5G On, or 4G ? You might want to set it to 5G On for field test checks if you are in a 5G area.

With an NVNO its most likely you would be rate limited rather than protocol (CA / not CA) limited, as the main network sells data rate limited services (as does Vodafone).

Until Standalone Architecture (SA) rolls out, all 5G capable devices are connected to both NR and LTE, and so Field Test is extremely complicated. The 5G menus seem to appear even when you have no NR signal in town, as long as the right signalling block says to the phone “check for 5G”. Signalling blocks needs a rooted Android with expensive NSG tool, and then a lot of knowledge, used to be posted on Digital Spy’s forum, but most of those with knowledge have left. (Or left uni and got full time jobs).

Edited by jchamier (Mon 20-May-24 20:44:05)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you have 24 hour clock enabled?

I do not, let me change it to check, I change it to 12 hour as I work across multiple time zones with some countries being 12 hours either way so it makes it easier to calculate when on the Phone to customers.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Do you have the 5G Auto / 5G On option in Mobile Data -> Voice & Data, allowing you to choose 5G Audio, 5G On, or 4G ? You might want to set it to 5G On for field test checks if you are in a 5G area.

In my case 5G is always on, I do not believe in turning it off, I only have RAT Serving Cell Info available to me.
Screenshot

Please let me know what you think based off the screenshot, that is the only menu in field test mode after changing to 24 hours.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Changes noted:

Since 3G switch off, it started automatically acquiring the EE carrier profile. Prior it would not get a carrier profile. This means that it no longer shows as LTE but 4G. Prior it would show as LTE and 5G. The carrier profile (EE 58.0) also brings with it the option of WiFi calling, enabling this however doesn’t actually do anything. Strangely it doesn’t bring any error in the UI the switch just remains on and it never displays WiFi calling.

A positive of the carrier profile now being issued is that band 20 works.

Does this marry up with your experience?

I agree that this has occurred after the 3rd round of switch off, I was in an area that was turned off first then three more parts of the UK were switched off, it seems to be a recent issue and the same for the Profile

I have noticed a decrease in performance as I keep getting kicked off my mast outside my Window to one some way away down the A1 on 5MHZ Band 3, it is rather annoying as i keep getting flicked between two masts, its predictable as its normally as trains pass so you can guess about when it will be.

For some reason it doesn’t work unless it’s 24 hour. It’s been a bug since like iso 6 so I doubt it’ll be fixed.

I totally relate, working in consulting & retained a bunch of clients from when I lived in the US. Hence I'm aware of the issue given their standard is 12hr time.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

For some reason it doesn’t work unless it’s 24 hour. It’s been a bug since like iso 6 so I doubt it’ll be fixed.

I totally relate, working in consulting & retained a bunch of clients from when I lived in the US. Hence I'm aware of the issue given their standard is 12hr time.

That's fair, I never knew why it never worked, I thought it was an MVNO thing.

LycaMobile have issued a statement today

Thank you for contacting Lycamobile.

We are sorry to know that you are unable to access the 5G network.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the lack of 5G signal in your area.

Further to your email, we are facing some 5G issue in Lycamobile network. Our technical team is actively investigating this matter to ensure that any potential network issues are addressed promptly. While we work on resolving this, please be assured that our team is committed to restoring the 5G coverage at the earliest.

Seems they did a blind change again

Saw this after an ispreview post.

2 Lyca eSims here in a good EE 5G coverage area, Pixel 7 Pro and Px4a5g, neither have 5G on Lyca.

Happy to confirm as of yesterday the issue has been resolved, can anyone else confirm this to be the case for them?

I also noticed that IPv6 has been introduced at the same time.