3G faster than 4G / LTE?

[chomyn]

I travel to very rural areas from time to time, and a number of times I find I have good signal, good bars, I can place and receive calls and send basic texts (SMS), LTE shows on the display, but I have extremely slow or non responsive data.  I have an iPhone X and if I go into Cellular Data Options and switch Voice and Data to 3G, I can use data and was getting up to 15mbps (where on the LTE I was getting up to 0.5mbps or nothing at all) My niece who has the iPhone 12 did not have this option and was stuck with no LTE service. This concerns me two ways, (A) First why would I upgrade to a newer iPhone when I am going to get less coverage? and (B) when 3G is finally shutdown by Rogers am I going to lose service completely? I have heard when the iPhone X is running off HSPA+ data it still says 3G but it's actually 4G. Is there going to be an expansion of LTE coverage when 3G is shutdown or are we all out of luck and have to go to 5G? I have 5 LTE devices and I do not want to upgrade them all just to get 5G. All that is important is I have decent coverage and usable data speeds at a minimum of 15mbps.  Data is far more important than calling and texting.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

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[RogersTony]

Hello, @chomyn

We appreciate you posting your concerns about the wireless speeds you are seeing when connected to the LTE network. 

I know how important it is to have your data working properly. You can report wireless connectivity issues using the MyNetwork feature in the support section of the MyRogers app.

If there is an issue in your area you will be notified of possible maintenance of the cell towers that service your area. If there is not a known issue in your area you will be given the option to report the issue you are experiencing and provide additional details for our wireless network operations teams to review.

You can also check your wireless network status by visiting rogers.com/outage.

I hope this helps!

RogersTony