Ideally a customer should check whether the phone is 4G enabled at the time of purchase. We strongly recommend that while making a decision about buying a mobile phone, you should check which network type (2G, 3G, 4G etc.) it supports. Buying an expensive phone and later on find out that it does not support the latest technologies could be very disappointing. But assuming that you have already bought a phone, how would you know if your phone is 4G enabled? This question often crops up in the mind of mobile phone users. Nowadays, a lot of people want to upgrade their mobile Internet connection from 3G to 4G. But to enjoy the speed of 4G on your mobile phone, you must have a handset that supports 4G networks.
Check if your mobile phone is 4G enabled.
How to Know if a Phone is 4G Enabled?
There is no general answer to this question. Different handset manufacturers make their phones in different ways. But you can try one of the following methods and we are sure that you will be able to find out 4G status of your phone:
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- Check the user manual that came along with your phone. Look for the specifications section in the manual booklet and see see what type of networks your phone supports. If it mentions 4G or LTE, you’re in luck! Your phone is 4G enabled!
- In case you don’t have a copy of the user manual of your phone, you can head to the website of your phone maker. They often make the PDF copy of the user manual available online.
- If that also does not work, you can go to GSM Arena website and search for your mobile handset. You will get the specifications. Here look for the Network section and see your phone supports 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE).
GSM Arena website gives you mobile phone specifications.
You can also look into the settings of your phone. Following are the steps about how you can check if your phone is 4G compatible. Please remember that different handset manufacturers make slightly different layout for settings.
Android phones
Go to Settings > Mobile Networks > Network Mode. Here you will see if your phone has the option of selecting a 4G/LTE mode. If the mode is listed, your phone is 4G enabled.
iPhone
Go to Settings > General > Cellular. Here if you see Enable 4G LTE option, your phone is 4G compatible. You can select this option to enable 4G.
Windows Phones
Go to Settings > Cellular + Sim > Highest connection speed. Here you should see if LTE appears in the list. If LTE option is there, that means your phone is 4G enabled and you can select the option to connect to 4G network.
Having a 4G enabled phone is not enough to use 4G services. If you’ve been a 3G user, you may have to upgrade from 3G to 4G. For this you should ask if your mobile connection provider is offering the 4G services. If they do offer 4G services, they may give you a new 4G compatible SIM Card. You would need to insert the new card in your phone and then you can use the 4G services.
If your cellular provider does not provide 4G services and you immediately want to use these services, you can always switch mobile service provider and opt for one who offers such services. By the way, did you know that even if you don’t have a SIM card (and thus an active cellular service plan); you can still do a lot of things with your mobile phone.
We hope that this article was useful for you. Should you have any questions related with this topic, please feel free to ask in the comments section. We will try our best to assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin!
Should I trust Vodaphone when they tell me I need a new phone in order to be compatible with the 4G and more network. The Sony spec for my xperia XA1 phone says it is 4G compatible, and has a 4G setting option (currently enabled). When I try to raise this with Vodaphone tech support the just say their system says it is not compatible (sounds like “computer says No” response to me”).
My phone says it uses LTE network, but Mint says that my LTE phone isn’t compatible with the 4G network. Could this be true? Or are they busy forcing me to buy a newer phone for no reason?
Hi, I have a T-Mobile android smartphone that is 4G LTE and my cell phone plan is with Consumer Cellular. They stopped supporting my phone and when I called them, to find out why, I was hung up on multiple times, when they would ask me to hold on. Then I finally got a girl who began the steps to reactivate my phone, but she asked me to hold on and then I believe accidently hung up. After many many hours of trying to get them to answer again, I got a man who said that he couldn’t get my phone activated because it wasn’t supported on the 4G network. He had no answer as to why, except to tell me it wasn’t a 4G. Since I had already used this same phone on my plan for 5 months, and it is definitely a 4G LTE phone. After 6 hours of this frustration, I finally asked if I could speak with his supervisor to try to get some information as to why my phone would not work. Nothing she said made any sense to me, since I was told, when I signed up for Consumer Cellular, that I could bring my own phone as long as it was a 4G LTE. The lady was very rude to me when I tried to explain to her that I have already used this phone with them for 5 months and it was compatible with her company. She just kept telling me that I need to buy one of their phones. By this time, after being very patient all day, with the people there, I was too frustrated to be nice anymore, so I told her that I’m not buying one of her phones because the one I bought before was a really crappy phone. I asked to speak to her boss. She stated that she had no one over her, that I could talk to. I then asked her for the name of the company owner, so that I could convey to him the way that I was treated. She wouldn’t give me that information, but then did say that she could give me the name of the CEO of the company. I took that and ended the call. I read everywhere that Consumer Cellular has fantastic customer service but that went right out the window today. When I first connected this phone with them, I had the most delightful person to walk me through it, so it’s a shame that this company doesn’t seem to hire nice people for their customer service anymore. Anyway, your article on how to know if a phone is 4G enabled, was so helpful. Using this information, even though, I already knew my phone was 4G, I began to doubt myself. until I used your instruction to check so thanks bunches for the information.
Have a new 4G ATT cell that won’t allow me to load my contacts. It won’t stop “loading”. What is the problem?