Since the day I got my 11 Pro Max, I’ve been unable to get LTE (or 5GE, as AT&T calls it) almost anywhere. In the rare instances that I do get a connection, as soon as I enter a building, it’s gone.
My first step in trying to resolve this was to call AT&T, but they immediately told me that they had already gotten “thousands” of calls about this issue with the 11. He didn’t specify Pro or Pro Max, he just said 11, but “thousands” was the word he used, which I’m assuming (hoping) was hyperbole. He said there was nothing they could do and that I needed to go to Apple.
I brought it to the Apple Genius Bar and they replaced my SIM card, but that did nothing. So I made another Genius Bar appointment, and they replaced my phone. I’m sorry to say, however, that the new phone has exactly the same problem.
In cases where I really need to use cellular data (because there’s no Wi-Fi available), I turn off Enable LTE in Settings, but that works only slightly better. Then, after a short period of time, it no longer works at all, and I have to restart my phone.
So I made yet another Genius Bar appointment, but the person with whom I met basically blamed it on AT&T and said I need to deal with them. (I pointed out that that’s where I began, and that they sent me to Apple, but that meant nothing to him.) He claimed that he wasn’t aware of this being a widespread issue. I pointed out that there are additional pages dedicated to it on the discussion forums every day, but he completely dismissed that.
So now I have a $1,600 phone that only connects to data on Wi-Fi. I’m going to wait until iOS 13.2 is released and, if the issue persists after updating, I’m going back to the Genius Bar and demanding a new phone (the last guy I dealt with wouldn’t even consider it), since some people have seen the problem resolved with a replacement.
I bought the original iPhone, and I’ve upgraded every year since. I’ve never had a major problem like this with any prior phone, so this situation is extremely disappointing, to say the very least.
