Signal issues

[Tarah Sorber]

So I received my 12 pro max yesterday. All is okay except for today when I went on a 2 hour drive. I know where I have service and where I do not. I noticed my phone isn’t regaining service after I lose it. It will just sit there with no service.

The same happened to me on my XS Max a couple years ago and then Apple sent an update to fix it because it was a common bug.

I also am not pulling any 3g in areas where I know it has 3g and my boyfriends 11 pro max (my old phone) has service.

Has anyone else noticed this issue? It’s frustrating because I have to restart the phone to regain service and receive my notifications.

No 5g around here at all. I live in mountains. I thought maybe it’s a 5g issue?? I don’t know

 

[imwjl]

A carrier issue?

Obviously little time with the phone but my 12 PM has been impressive wireless performance for WiFi, LTE and 5G. Same or better LTE performance at the data center compared to my XS Max, good WiFi, and I have 5 bars in 5G coverage map area where LTE was 2-4 bars in my house and neighborhood.

Good luck.

 

[Tarah Sorber]

Alright apparently this is an issue. I checked the Apple webpage and multiple people are having signal issues.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251968761?page=4

 

[Raneciansamaiya]

Alright apparently this is an issue. I checked the Apple webpage and multiple people are having signal issues.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251968761?page=4

I have Verizon and have had great to Pretty decent service on my 11 Pro Max in my home... Now with my 12 Pro Max I'm experiencing terrible service in my home. Glad to know is not just me. Thank goodness I use Wi-Fi calling at home!

 

[C6TX6]

Dropping calls/service is a normal thing here with TMobile "service".

 

[Lee_Bo]

Dropping calls/service is a normal thing here with TMobile "service".

Must be your area. Zero issues with T-Mobile in the 6 years we’ve been with them.

 

[Craig]

I am on ATT and live up in Northern WA State and was hopping for a better antennae on the 12 Pro Max than I did on the XS Max... but my signal still sucks. I took a call from our biz owner on Friday and I had to prop the phone on the window ledge to get a signal and put him on speaker. Even then it was breaking up. I may have to start considering a switch to Verizon.

 

[C6TX6]

Must be your area. Zero issues with T-Mobile in the 6 years we’ve been with them.

I've traveled around over the years, where TMO works it's great. But they have serious coverage issues compared to VZW. Having no service for fixe minutes on an interstate is not acceptable. But if they work out for you that's great because they are cheap and have good incentives.

 

[TechBob]

Dropping calls/service is a normal thing here with TMobile "service".

Respectfully, that is not my experience. That was true several years ago because T-Mobile had no low frequency bands and so coverage was spotty. But that was years ago. They have added band 12 and now band 71 and they can favorably compete with anyone regarding coverage and reliability. I moved my largest client (60 plus phones) to T-Mobile from AT&T. Saved thousands each month and they never looked back. AT&T has come back several times and tried to get the business back and the answer is "why?" They are a construction company, have workers all over the area and no issues. If you haven't tried T-Mobile in the last year or so, you haven't tried T-Mobile.

Also, they have an excellent 5G network developing as they implement the Sprint mid band frequencies. Forget all the Apple advertising of UW 5G. I live in the Chicago suburbs and I will never see that. mmWave (UW) 5G requires fiber to every block on every street in the US. Not going to happen. UW 5G doesn't travel, so it needs a tower on every block. T-Mobile has the most mid band 5G bandwidth of any carrier in the US. My speeds on my block in the last year have gone from 20 Mbps to 140 Mbps. T-Mobile says most should see 250 to 300 Mbps by next year. As I said, if you haven't tried them in the last year, you haven't tried them. I should add with the right device. Older phones, including iPhones, do not support all of T-Mobile's new bands. Earliest phone to support band 71 was the XS series. And of course, for 5G, the 12 series. It is a whole new ball game. Best regards.

 

[etad putta]

I've traveled around over the years, where TMO works it's great. But they have serious coverage issues compared to VZW. Having no service for fixe minutes on an interstate is not acceptable. But if they work out for you that's great because they are cheap and have good incentives.

So at this time do you have both Verizon and T-Mobile so you are able to compare the 2 side by side as you drive across the country? I have heard of something called "New tower construction"

 

[C6TX6]

I do have both.
Two phones and using e-sim (iPhone) and dual sim phone (international Exynos Samsung Galaxy phones).
Also here at home there is an issue where the TMO number won't make/receive calls on weekdays starting around 1600 and lasting through dinner time. And during that time calls that are possible have very poor quality despite good signal (-65dBm).

As far as recently, yes my first 5G experience was the One+ 7 McLaren phone. Quite lacking. The S20 Ultra 5G and (currently) the Note 20 Ultra 5G both have similar results. Speeds never really over 200Mbps down and 45 Mbps up and that's the best.

Last night with VZW on esim I got 150 down and 76 up. Ping of 7ms. That is a good quality connection. I haven't personally experienced 5G mm wave on VZW but I did see a friend's speed test near Capital Center Stadium and it was over 3.3Gbps down and 255Mbps up! That was Verizon on iPhone 12 Pro. That is wicked fast but if you move a block away it's back to LTE. Where I live we'll never see mmwave at home because we're past the range even if they had it on the road where our lane is.

 

[marcyjames]

So I received my 12 pro max yesterday. All is okay except for today when I went on a 2 hour drive. I know where I have service and where I do not. I noticed my phone isn’t regaining service after I lose it. It will just sit there with no service.

The same happened to me on my XS Max a couple years ago and then Apple sent an update to fix it because it was a common bug.

I also am not pulling any 3g in areas where I know it has 3g and my boyfriends 11 pro max (my old phone) has service.

Has anyone else noticed this issue? It’s frustrating because I have to restart the phone to regain service and receive my notifications.

No 5g around here at all. I live in mountains. I thought maybe it’s a 5g issue?? I don’t know

Same issue with me. I’m on Verizon network and my husband is on AT&T and he doesn’t have this problem.

 

[imwjl]

FYI, my 12 PM isn't having reception issues, and to some extent seems to get reception better but from my home office the XS Max LTE gets 40% to 100% more bandwidth in testing.

Submitting good test data to Verizon got me a trouble ticket submitted to engineering so consider stating what's going on with good methodology and info to your carriers if you have issues. It was done from Verizon chat and being logged in. It was clear they don't want an older phone and LTE outperforming 5G.

 

[imwjl]

Update: 170+ miles of travel yesterday got the new phone out of my metro area. AppleCare support chat for an AirPods problem got them running diagnostics on the phone when they asked "Is there anything else I can help with?".

My phone passed diagnostics but out of 5G map area and on rural Interstate with 2-4 bars LTE the new phone had fuzzy voice quality my XS Max did not have. Most but not all calls. In Milwaukee, WI metro area 5G map and 5G noted on phone it got the high speed 100 Mbps+ download it will not get in 5G map by home.

A work associate noticed voice quality was poor compared to my old phone in the rural LTE coverage on Interstate when her voice was crackly/fuzzy. The car use is same new VW with USB CarPlay.

This is not a deal breaker but something is not right in some areas with the new phone compared to the XS Max. Verizon has not yet responded to the open ticket.

 

[C6TX6]

TMO outage here. IOT devices on 2G GSM in and out, NanoCell flashing and phones that get service with 1-2 bars unable to send SMS or make calls. Great job!

 

[imwjl]

Update: 170+ miles of travel yesterday got the new phone out of my metro area. AppleCare support chat for an AirPods problem got them running diagnostics on the phone when they asked "Is there anything else I can help with?".

My phone passed diagnostics but out of 5G map area and on rural Interstate with 2-4 bars LTE the new phone had fuzzy voice quality my XS Max did not have. Most but not all calls. In Milwaukee, WI metro area 5G map and 5G noted on phone it got the high speed 100 Mbps+ download it will not get in 5G map by home.

A work associate noticed voice quality was poor compared to my old phone in the rural LTE coverage on Interstate when her voice was crackly/fuzzy. The car use is same new VW with USB CarPlay.

This is not a deal breaker but something is not right in some areas with the new phone compared to the XS Max. Verizon has not yet responded to the open ticket.

Update: I let my business account team know I have the open Verizon ticket and Apple ticket confirming phone passed diagnostics and now have response that engineering is looking at my issues. It happens to be my personal phone I use for work, but the Verizon sales and tech person assigned to our account know my phone is critical for enterprise support.

My guess is an elevated business incident if solved will still benefit everyone in the two areas where I have either slow 5G or scratchy/fuzzy voice calls. The phone worked so well and fast in a different city's 5G coverage that I believe it's a network issue.

 

[Craig]

My iPhone 12 Pro Max (Unlocked using AT&T)... signal is as bad or worse than my XS Max. I was hoping it would be better since I had such @#$# service, but I have to prop my phone up on the window ledge at home and put it on speaker to keep calls from dropping right now.

 

[Michael#IM]

Signal quality on the 12 pro max doesn’t seem as good as my old 11 pro max for sure. A stretch of road i travel frequently on i usually can stream music from Youtube via carplay no problem. But with the 12 pro max the music kept stopping and starting. Also i have noticed if i drop to a 3G area and then go back in to a LTE area it takes ages to go back to LTE. Also i have seen edge where i normally have 3G.

 

[imwjl]

My iPhone 12 Pro Max (Unlocked using AT&T)... signal is as bad or worse than my XS Max. I was hoping it would be better since I had such @#$# service, but I have to prop my phone up on the window ledge at home and put it on speaker to keep calls from dropping right now.

I'm going to call that a personal AT&T problem without knowing more. I work with and hang with people who have AT&T, fi, Sprint and US Cellular. Our company has phones on Verizon and US Cellular. In these parts same XS family of phones would have most all of their craptacular performance as a carrier issue.

Update on the actual problem. I was just on a clear call while driving. The phone was 3 bars LTE. It turned into crackly/fuzzy and I saw it was 4 bars 5G.