iPhone 12 losing service

Phones have to operate the way cellular carriers tell them to.

Cell towers tell a cell phone to use frequency X.

If the tower is not properly set up to use frequency X, the call will fail.

No device can decide to just use frequency Y despite being told to use frequency X, or that device will not be allowed onto the network by the cellular provider.

Apple has zero control whatsoever about what cellular providers tell phones using their network to do.

If you choose to blame Apple, that's fine; a simple Internet search shows many tales of similar issues with phones from other vendors.

Same here. Cellular reception on Verizon has improved drastically the last week or so, and I’m rarely experiencing signal loss. I’m on a launch day iPhone 12 running the latest iOS.

The change happened with no intervention on my part, further proving this is a carrier issue.

I could not believe the number of me too replies…Is it a problem world wide do you think?All towers and a matter of time for the towers to be upgraded?I had the problem for a very short time and I live in a more rural area but no problem now…so I do not believe it is the iPhone.

My iPhone 12 Pro Max I purchased less than or about 6 months ago has the same issues as stated in the above forums. It loses service and even when I have a strong signal it responds slow and takes forever to load. I have been out on a boat In a lake where service is spotty. My brother and father, both with older iPhones have service and I have none. Not even text messaging. Data is definitely nonexistent but, to underperform the older models is just ridiculous. It has never really loaded fast for some reason. The newest thing is when I take a screenshot it takes about three seconds before it shows up in the bottom left corner of my phone. For something I pay this much on it should be working in tip top shape. The carrier doesn’t discount for crappy coverage due to faulty phones. I believe that should be the manufactures responsibility. Perhaps they should refund the cost of service until the phone’s issue is identified and fixed.

I’ve been reprimanded for my comments not being pro Apple. So please could you tell me if I Should contact my service provider? Have you heard of anyone getting their 12 max pro to perform better and get better service by your suggestion? Why doesn’t it affect older models? My family’s phones are older and get better coverage in low coverage areas with the same provider.

Same issue here in Brazil. It looks like it only affects iPhone 12. And only in some locations (antennas, radiobase stations). Other iPhones work in those antennas and iPhone 12 work in other antennas. The carriers and Apple should face the problem and fix it quickly.

I have said the same thing but the moderators here delete my comments that hint that apple and the carriers should correct the issues. I have not heard yet what I can do to get this fixed. They say call the carrier but I don’t know what to tell them. Moderators are against anything anti-Apple. I love apple just want my phone fixed.

They did.

Sadly when carriers do not support the standards they claim to, they can often be slow to fix their issues as they usually require sending crews out, which is pricy.

Apple has zero sway over what carriers do.

So what can we as consumers do? Like what would I need to tell my carrier in order to get better service? Is it right that they charge full price when my service with the iPhone 12 isn’t as good as with the iPhone XR

You can call your carrier and (politely) complain, but I can virtually guarantee they will just blame Apple instead.

Sadly, all cellular carriers are big corporations, and as such the loss of a few (or few thousand) subscribers is in the noise for them.

They likely won't bother to address the issue until the number of complaints reaches some unknown threshold that makes it worth rolling a truck.

That’s awful. Is it because of the 5G? I mean I would expect the LTE or just the regular signal to be the same if not better than the XR but that isn’t the case. It’s all technical above my understanding. What changed from the old phones to the new phones that created this issue. As I have seen here there are a lot of complaints.

The iPhone 12 supports more LTE bands than prior phones did.

When a base station controller sees a device that can use those bands, as fewer devices support them the controller will be more likely to assign the phone to use those bands to avoid congestion.

However, if the cell provider hasn't seen devices use those bands, it may not have taken the time to optimize those bands as much as those that are more heavily used.

For example, for the iPhone 12 Pro:

FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)

For the iPhone 11 Pro:

FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 66, 71)

So as an example, if you have an iPhone 11 Pro, you may see no issues whatsoever using the 11 Pro but no signal with your 12 Pro if the base station controller assigns your iPhone 12 Pro to use FDD-LTE band 28 or 32 and the tower isn't properly configured/optimized for them.

Whoa, that is getting really technical. How do we get it to where the iPhone 12 Pro receives better coverage and doesn’t get assigned an unused band? I just dislike that the newer phone never seems to have full bars and even when it does it seems like the data is slow.

Dang. So, I am not the only one. Whew. I just got a new 12 mini from VZW a few days ago. I love the iPhone, but not its VZW service in my rural home area. Lots of low signals and "No Service" (can't even do phone calls and SMSes). Older iPhones (6+, and 11 Pro Max) can because of 3G (CDMA). Even 1X if it is really bad. No 3G and 1X from VZW for 12 mini. Only 5G and 4G LTE. :(

It's fine outside of my rural home area though like in the local busy city, stores including VZW's, etc. VZW store's helpful people found no issues over there even after removing and inserting SIM cards in both my old 6 + and new one.

Hello:) I too have an iphone 12 mini 256gb in white. I live in a very rural area and I have to say I have not had any problems with reception. I am also with Verizon. No dropped calls and no slow speed. I have never had a No Service issue either. If I had I would most certainly say so and get something else. In my case the phone has been great and I would buy it again. I only hope that by the time I need a new phone that a small size like the mini will be available as I don't want to carry a large phone. I really hope your issue is solved.

~Katana-San~