iPhone 4s lost ability to talk/browse internet while connected to 3g.
July 14, 2013 11:44 AM   Subscribe

Up until this morning, I have always been able to use my 3g network, make a call and browse the internet at the sametime on my iPhone 4s. This morning when I went to use my phone a message appeared (while connected to 3g) that stated, Cannot Verify Server Identity. Once I got that all figured out, the capability to use the internet while on 3g and talking on the phone was gone. I called Verizon and they claim this was never a feature on their iPhones and told me I must have a special phone. After some investigating, what they are telling me seems to be true, but I know that I have been able to do this the last year or two that I've had this phone. I did it last night while talking to my brother and relaying information that I had looked up for him. But! 8 hours later this feature is now gone and only works when I'm hooked up to my wireless. I'm just severely bugged that this is all of a sudden gone, when I can recall being in my car doing all this (safely parked) and talking to my husband while hes at work. What could have happened? Was I just imagining this for the last couple years or did they somehow take this capability away from me this morning?
posted by Sweetmag to Technology (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This has never been, and still isn't, a feature of iPhones on the Verizon networks. You have to have been using someone's WiFi when you were parked and didn't realize it.

I know that some carriers whitelist WiFi hotspot names and the iPhone will automatically join them when it sees one. For example, AT&T whitelists the "attwifi" name, which is present in Starbucks and a lot of chain restaurants. My iPhone never asks me if I want to join this network. I don't know if Verizon does something similar.
posted by sbutler at 12:45 PM on July 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


I've had a iPhone 4S on Verizon for just under two years and can second that this has never been a feature of iPhones on Verizon. I've never been able to access the Internet or 3G data while talking on the phone, unless I've been within range and connected to a wifi network.

I'm not sure what happened, and you're lucky your phone was able to do this, but I think the odds of your being able to get this functionality back are very low.
posted by andrewesque at 12:50 PM on July 14, 2013


Best answer: Cannot Verify Server Identity. Once I got that all figured out, the capability to use the internet while on 3g and talking on the phone was gone

what did "getting that figured out" involve? changing the APN under Cellular Data Network?

I'm guessing you were (incorrectly, from their perspective) attached to a packet data network that allows IP connectivity, and they've fixed their config to prevent you and others using a service that you aren't meant to.
posted by russm at 4:34 PM on July 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: I clicked on the Continue button that was on the notification and hit accept. It turned my 3g back on, but after that I wasn't able to browse the internet and talk while on the their 3g.

It was extremely irritating having the customer service rep act like I was a crazy lady imagining this feature that just never existed. Now when I try to connect to the internet while on their server a message appears telling me cellular data connections are not available during this call. I would just think that if I hadn't been able to do this, I would have noticed that message popping up somewhere in that 2 years.

I guess it I just got lucky and should be thankful I got to use it for awhile before it was taken from me... so sad right now.

Thank you, Russm. Your explanation of what could have happened made me feel so much better and not so crazy!
posted by Sweetmag at 7:38 PM on July 14, 2013


I was talking to a friend today, and he said that he used to be able to use the internet during a call on his Verizon iPhone 5 until some update came down in March of this year. Now he just gets an alert saying that you can't use the internet while in a call.



I thought the phone didn't have the antennas to do that, but he was pretty annoyed that it didn't work any more. So I guess that's more evidence that you aren't crazy!
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 5:27 PM on August 23, 2013


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