If you want to know the steps on how to make 4G and 5G faster on Android and iPhone then check this post.
Faster internet speed is a primary requirement for people, and to achieve that, people upgrade phones every year.
4G LTE and recently 5G has changed the way that people communicate.
Smartphones are now the primary means of communication and with fast internet, people can keep track of all things happening around.
Still this is not perfect, in some cases we notice a drop in internet in certain places causing the communication to break.
It becomes frustrating when we use our phones to stream content on the go. When the speed reduces, the content starts buffering.
There are various steps that you can follow to boost 4G and 5G speeds in Android and iPhone.
Before jumping into the steps for improving your 4G and 5G speeds, we need to know the reasons of speed reduction.
Why is my 4G and 5G so slow?
Primary reasons for slow network speed in 4G and 5G are the following
Congestion in network
4G being used by billions of users can create congestion in a specific area.
5G could solve this issue but still when a lot of people connect to the same tower, it could cause reduction in network speeds.
4G is a tried and tested network and in areas where billions of users have the same network provider connection, the network is needed to be split within all of them.
This could cause the speed of the internet to be shared.
When it comes to 5G, for now we have better speeds as it’s a new technology and there are not many phones that support 5G.
As the technology becomes common and more people get 5G phones, even 5G would have speed issues.
5G network would be definitely better in terms of speeds but when you consider range, 5G network would have some limitations.
It is a costlier technology due to the need of multiple towers in a short distance. 4G was better in this case because it needs only less number of towers.
Barriers and obstruction between the tower and the device
Another major cause of drop in 4G and 5G network is due to the number of building and trees in your area.
If you are living in a city, then you will be surrounded by multiple buildings and walls. This could weaken your signal before reaching your phone.
It could be reason for slow internet that you are receiving.
4G signal is better when it comes to wall penetration, but 5G is not that great with it.
So in western countries, multiple towers are placed in short ranges to get a better signal reception
In India, we use mm wave for 5G which support a longer range, still there could be issues with locations that have many users in a small area.
Issues with network provider
When it comes to slowness in 4G and 5G speeds, the major role is played by the network provider.
The network provider should be able to deliver quality 4G and 5G network signal. And also the hardware used for network should be good enough to support high demand.
Speed of the network is determined by the quality of hardware used in towers by the network provider.
When it comes to 4G and 5G services in India, there are two major network providers, Jio and Airtel.
Both have come up with their versions of 5G recently and presently the network coverage is being expanded throughout the country.
Smartphone in use
The final and the most important thing is the smartphone that you have in your hand. Based on the processor and the network modem built in your smartphone, the network reception may vary.
When it comes to Android phones with 4G and 5G, they usually have Snapdragon processor which support the 5G network.
In iPhone, Apple’s in house process the A14 or A15 supports 4G and 5G networks.
Apple earlier was using Intel modems, which had issues with network reception. Recently they have switched modems to Snapdragon, making the reception to improve.
Another thing to consider is the processor. Your phone processor should be able to handle the network speeds and also render content accordingly.
If the processor in your phone is slow, then your video and streamed content could lag.
Now we know some basic issues that could cause slowness in 4G and 5G in Android and iPhones.
How to make 4G and 5G faster on Android and iPhone
Let’s now check though some ways to improve the 4G and 5G speeds in Android and iPhone
As Android phones are more common, let’s check steps to improve network speeds on Android.
Ways to speed up 4G and 5G on Android Phones
Restarting your Android Phone
The most simple way to improve 4G and 5G network speed in any Android phone is to restart it.
The process is really simple.
- Press the power button for some time, you will see a power menu popup.
- Select the turn-off or Power off button.(You can directly press the reboot button as well)
- Wait for a few seconds.
- Your phone would turn off completely.
- Long press the power button for some time.
- The phone should boot up.
After the phone has completely booted up, turn on the 4G or 5G network and check for the network speed using the speedtest app.
Upgrade to the latest Android version
As Google and other Android phone manufactures, release regular updates for their version of Android, it’s good to keep your phone Android version up to date.
There could be bugs in the previous versions that could affect the network speed.
Read the update log and update the version of Android to fix any issues which could help in improving the 4G or 5G network speeds.
Clearing the App cache and System Cache
Cache files build up is another main reason for lag in phone and 4G or 5G network speeds.
Unwanted resources run in the background due to this sipping the data in the background.
This could cause reduction in bandwidth for the apps that you are using, causing delays and buffering.
To avoid this, we need to clear the cache memory of each app and also the entire android phone.
Clearing the cache of each app is easy by going to Settings > Apps > Storage > Clear cache and Clear data.
If you want to clear the cache of the entire phone, you can do it by going to recovery mode.
Each phone as a different way to do it. In general, we can do it with the following steps.
- Turn off the phone
- Reboot the phone by pressing volume down and power button for some time.
- The phone with turn on to recovery mode.
- Here you will find an option to clear cache of the phone.
Uninstall or disable unused apps
Another simple step that you can follow is to uninstall or disable an unused app.
In some cases, we download a specific app for one time use and forget it.
The app remains in the background and uses the data. This may cause sharing of bandwidth, ultimately reducing the network speed.
The easiest way to handle this issue is to go to setting and apps.
Select the app and uninstall it.
Using a network speed booster
With the use of a network booster app like Net Optimizer : Optimize Ping, you can easily boost your 4G and 5G speeds in Android.
The app will set the best setting for your phone to provide better download and upload speeds.
It also improves the coverage. If you are staying in a densely populated area or in a remote location, the apps like a network booster could help a lot.
Fast web browser
The primary way to browse the internet is using a browser. There are many browsers available in Android play store.
You should select a browser wisely, which will reduce the bandwidth usage and provide smooth browsing.
Some of the most popular high speed browsers are Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera, which you can download from the play store.
Modify the phone settings for better 4G and 5G
To get a stable 4G or 5G network, we should optimize our phone setting. There are separate options that we can set to improvise our network reception.
Disabling the Roaming feature
Roaming feature comes really handy when you go out of state. In some cases, when you travel, this feature can reduce the network speed.
It depends on the network service provider as well. If you feel that the 4G and 5G speeds are slower, then, consider disabling the Roaming feature.
To do this, you may need to go to setting of your phone.
Updating the network mode
This setting completely depends on the modes that your phone supports.
If your phone supports 4G then you should select that in settings and if 5G is supported then 5G should be selected in settings.
Doing this is really simple.
Now that we have checked through some steps to follow for speeding up 4G and 5G in Android, let’s now check on the steps to follow to increase network speed in iPhone.
Ways to make 4G and 5G faster on iPhone
All the latest generation iPhone supports both 4G and 5G networks. iPhones are generally known to perform well when it comes to network speeds.
Still, there are cases when they slow down and following these steps could help you boost the 4G and 5G speeds.
Upgrading to the latest version of iOS
Like Android, Apple releases regular updates for iOS. Newer versions would fix any issues related to the network by upgrading the modem firmware.
This could increase the speed of 4G and 5G in your iPhone.
To upgrade your iOS version, you may need to follow the below steps.
If you find any new version of iOS listed here, then do the update and restart the phone.
Once done, open the speed test app and check for the download and upload speed
Turn Off Background App Refresh
iOS has a feature to refresh the apps in the background. All the apps that are provided with permission to refresh in background use the data.
This could cause slowdowns in your network speeds, and also you may notice buffering in your video streaming.
It can be easily solved by disabling this feature. The background refresh can be disabled in individual apps.
Resetting the Network Settings
By resetting the network settings, you can make sure that all the settings are in default state and all things are right.
After resetting the network setting, you can check the network speeds by going to speedtest app.
To reset the network setting in your iPhone
Restart your iPhone
Restarting any device like an Android or iPhone would close all the unwanted background apps and also clear the RAM.
When ever you feel that your device network is laggy or is slow, you should consider restarting your iPhone.
To restart an iPhone, you may need to press the power and volume up button for latest gen iPhones.
You will see a screen. Slide the button on the screen and the phone will shut down.
Long press the power button again and the phone will start.
Try disabling the Siri Suggestions
Siri suggestion is a feature that could make your phone smart, but it also taxes your network in the background.
To reduce this, you may need to disable Siri suggestions.
The process to do this is really easy.
Conclusion
Network speed is very important in present scenario. People do payments using mobile on the go and also financial transactions are done through 4G or 5G.
A stable network give peace of mind and also surety while you perform anything over 4G or 5G.
In the world of online streaming of content, slow network can always be disturbing.
Here, we have discussed above how to make 4G and 5G faster on Android and iPhone with various changes in setting.
Hope this post helped you to solve your issues with the network.
Thanks for reading.
