Iphone Xs LTE Signal Issue

I didn't do anything special, but with my 5th replacement, it's been 3 weeks now, and so far, the bars, which many says it's not an indication of problem or there is no standard for mapping, which may be the case, it's the first Iphone XS Max, that I could use without seeing a " Call Fail" message

Not sure if it's a coincidence, like I said in previous post, I got a Google Pixel to test to show them the problem and with this latest replacement, I have no problem with calls, even thought I still thinks the bar indicator should be look at, it's like having a scratch on your brand new car that you may not notice, but once you know it's there, it bugs you.

So hopefully it holds up now, but note to anyone that has similar problem, the only solution is keep record of your problem and keep replacing it until you get a working one, don't even bother like me, spend more than 100 hours on trouble shooting it without any assistance from apple and the end result would be the same, replacement.

I am not a professional, and maybe some of you guys are, but if I am doing testings at my own cost that are showing issues, I don't see how apple, as big as a corporation it is, isn't doing any of that.

I asked a friend of mine, with the same carrier, lent me his phone for a day now, he has an Iphone 8, same spot, it shows the signal bar is at 2, which is just like mine, but when I use the field test mode, *3001#12345#*, not sure if it's different for different model, I went to " Serving Cell Measurements", the "Measured RSRP" is at -70, where I checked the same on my XS, it's at -110.

I swapped the SIM, and it did almost the same,.

One thing I wanted to share is, one of the support tech tried having the LTE disabled on the phone, which seems to give full bars, or at least 3 bars, which I have been trying for couple days.

I don't know if it fixed the issue on calling, but interest is slow as shown in speed test, and a client texted me a SMS message, I am using both my wifi and data, it never came through, but just shown up this minute,

Google Pixel shows 2/3 in signal, not good, and not bad, so couldn't tell, but no dropped calls yet, as for the iphone, I am doing testing myself. Reset it as new, used for about a week, low signal still, but no dropped calls, slowly added apps I used before, no photo, emails account added back one by one, and experiencing dropped calls after.

So maybe one of the apps I am using causing this issues? but never seen this issues before, same apps,

Or could it be the memory of the phone is not holding up? I used 64GB phones before, but got the 256GB because previous phone close to max out on storage.

Time spent on testing is not long enough, I am just changing sim every other day to test, and only for about 2 weeks now.

It's going to take forever, and disrupting my business if I test the phone for more extensive time and without my other business apps and files, but so far, this is what i found.

1st phone: LTE Signal is weak, 1 bar, 2 bars, call dropped in the middle of conversation, System Failed message, last for a month before swapped

2nd Phone: LTE signal is weak, 1 bar, 2 bars, call not getting through, called myself on a different line and it's not ringing, at home. same address for 20 years. Not sure about dropped call, but apple advisor called me, I picked up the phone, shows connected, could not hear anything, only to find out on the very same call, the apple advisor's call went to my voice mail, even my call log shows I received the call, he left a message that shows the date and time which is exactly the same time I answered the call. Last for 1 month and a half

3rd phone, still LE is weak. 1 bar or 2 bars.

The improvements that I am seeing is, at times, I see 3 or 4 bars with the second replacement, but not for long.

Works that have been done:

1. Reset network setting, done almost every time spoke with support,
2. Reset phone to factory, done multiple times, reset it as a new phone with new apple ID, without back up, all same issue
3. Changed SIM about 5 times, all the same.

The only weird thing is, by disable LTE on the phone, it seems to increase the signal to 4 bars right away, and stayed on 3 to 4 bars for most the time, but not sure if it improved the actual receptions, because calls that I am getting when not on LTE, I can't hear other side properly, cutting in and out.

When staying on LTE, the phone could get 4 bars for the first couple hours, then went back down to 2 after.

It's not the bars that I was concerning, it's the calls that got dropped, and calls that not getting through. I don't know if that's the resulted from the weak signal, but those were my issues, and I could only link those issues to the weak signal if apple can't tell me what's going on.

I will be fine with 1 bar if I don't have those other issues.

I brought the issue up with my carrier first and then apple, so both parties are working on this issue. The carrier indicated 3 possibilities, which Apple agreed, 1-phone, 2-network, 3-Sim Card,

Apple did all the diagnostics at store or over the phone, all shown tests past, phone is good, especially after the first replacement, like you said, the likelihood of 2 devices having the same issue, is low.

The Carrier said will sent crew to test the tower around me, not sure if they did, but came back said, nothing wrong with tower, I am the only one have that issue around my area for over 2 years, again.

Last one is the SIM, Apple store tested the SIM, shows 1 or 2 bars on my own phone, shows 4 bars on Apple store phone, so there is no explanation what so ever, the problem is there, replace

So now, both parties denied anything wrong with the product or service, and I am stuck with all the repetitive trouble shooting and at the end, get a replacement

I don't know if people are not aware of it or what's wrong, I have 2 lines, 2 identical phones, the other one also shows 1 o r 2 bars, but my wife never complaints about dropped calls, maybe she is on social media most of the time, so ppl will not no problem getting hold of her, but I am using my for business, clients call me all the time.

I am getting a google pixel in couple days, and by then, it will basically tells me whether there is issue with the phone or network, all I can say is Apple finally got back to me, engineering is aware of the issue, had gotten lots of calls, and the reason why my case stopped and nobody replied or responded to any of my calls is, engineering hasn't figured out what exactly causing the issues, so there is no conclusion yet. But the fact is, there are lots and lots of calls on these issues.