Poor signal with iPhone 12 Pro Max

Is this happening with the 5G on or does it happen if even if you turn the 5G off? Could be poor 5G in your area if that’s the case so you might for the time being want to opt to use the LTE signal only. Not a great thing to have to do when you wanted the benefits of 5G but there seems to still be a lot of inconsistency in 5G service in a lot of areas unfortunately. I haven’t had any issues with either of the 12 Pro Max devices in my home but service is pretty strong here. Since you mentioned the signal was never all that great even on your wife’s phone (but at least better than you are experiencing) it might be a good idea for you both to utilize WiFi calling when possible too so your signal is more reliable.

i went to the apple store and they ran diagnostics on my 12 max. All was well. The tech turned o. Tower roaming and turned off 5G. 5G is not ready for prime time except in very large cities. Medium size cities are still far from fully operational. Sonce doing those two things the reception has been much better. However no where near as good as the 8 Plus that was my previous phone.

I changed carrier from Bell to Telus. I should of know better, It’s the phone not the carrier. I had tested my daughters Telus SIM Card and sons Roger SIM card in my first iPhone 12 Pro Max but my neighbor has great reception with Telus. Never thought to ask what iPhone she had, guess what older model. Moved my husband on the same plan. Cost me $$$ to switch carrier! Same problem poor reception, drop calls, customers can’t hear me, driving same issues, customer can’t hear me or when I try to place a call “states no reception in area.” It’s in a population area with cell towers. Had phone replaced, probably a recycled iPhone 12 Pro Max someone return, it was refurbished with same issues. Same problem!!!!!!!! Called Apple Care, diagnostic, took the phone to a authorized dealer to look at. At least the Technican told me the truth. It’s hit or miss with the phone. It has been a steady stream of same issues from second day the phone was released is what she told me. Apple Genius store won’t tell me this, just blamed it on the carrier. She told me one guy switched out his phone 4 times before he got one that worked. iPhone 12 pro max is costing me fortune. My husband has old iPhone 10 LTE full bars, next to mine iPhone 12 Pro Max 1 bars on LTE. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is crap. I’m sure there are some good ones, maybe different serial numbers manufactured at a different time. I have tried all three major carriers in my area. Back to Apple, I’m demanding a brand new phone in original box none of this refurbished recycled crap. It’s the phone problem. I know how everyone feels. It’s been a nightmare with this model.

If you really want to know, I've explained it several times.

Basically the iPhone 12 supports LTE frequencies older iPhones did not.

The cell tower's base station controller sees that and assigns the iPhone to one of those frequencies.

If the controller isn't properly configured, or perhaps the antennas aren't, you can easily have a situation where an iPhone 11 shows full bars and an iPhone 12 sitting next to it reports No Signal.

It's because the base station controller assigned it to a frequency the tower doesn't properly support.

We've seen on several occasions that someone has managed to get the right person at Verizon to pay attention and suddenly after tower changes with no updates in carrier settings or in iOS revision, suddenly their iPhone 12 works perfectly.

Thank you Dogcow-Moof! You are exactly right. Finally my issue has been resolved— Verizon activated my phone utilizing the E-SIM. As a result, they said, “the phone/SIM cards/network could not communicate.”

what a mess.

Good Luck to all.

What does your cellular carrier say about it?

You cannot directly compare two phones like that because you don't know what your local cell tower is asking the phone to do.

There are a range of frequencies that the cell tower can ask the phone to use, and it may be asking your iPhone to use a frequency it is incorrectly configured for. This would cause your iPhone to fail when a different phone has no issues.

For example, the 11 Pro Max supports FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 66, 71).

The 12 Pro Max supports 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).

So the cellular tower may ask an 11 Pro Max to use band 30, but since a lot of devices use band 30, it may ask a 12 Pro Max to use band 32, as relatively few devices can use it so it will be less crowded.

But if the antenna for band 32 isn't optimized it also means the 12 Pro Max will see little to no signal while the 11 Pro Max will have no issues.

I'm not saying that is what's happening, but it's one way issues could be occurring.

Sadly, it's pretty much up to your carrier, as I suspect it's still a matter of your local cell tower assigning your 12 Pro Max to a frequency the tower does not handle well due to configuration, local conditions or whatever. Because the 12 Pro Max can handle that channel, it's being assigned to that channel and your experience is the result.

For example here are the FDD LTE frequency bands supported by both devices:

• XS Max: FDD LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
• 12 Pro Max: 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)

If the cell tower base station controller sees the 12 Pro Max can use band 28, which will be lightly congested as not many other phones use it, but there are issues with those frequencies due to tower configuration, foliage disturbing propagation, etc., you'll see your XS Max have no issues but your 12 Pro Max will drop the signal. When it rejoins the network, the controller will again see "Oh, a device that can use Band 28" and… rinse and repeat.

It's really cellular carriers trying to wash their hands of the issue and leaving customers stranded if you will as a result.

To "fix" this your carrier would need to send a tech team to the site, run tests on that band, notice that certain bands have issues and either fix the issue at the tower if possible, or program the controller not to assign devices to that band - all of which require an expensive crew to go out to the site and spend time there. This is also why when that does happen, suddenly the phone starts working with or without a carrier settings update but without an iOS update.

Here's the problem:

You were on Bell, and were experiencing issues on Bell's network likely due to Bell's configuration of their towers.

You switched to Telus, who… partners with Bell and uses Bell's cellular network.

So though you switched carriers, you're still on the exact same cellular network with the exact same issues (emboldening mine):

TELUS and Bell achieve their out-of-region coverage through a reciprocal network sharing agreement referred to as multi-operator core network (MOCN). Basically, both companies share their radio access network but operate their own network cores.

More than just co-locating on the same tower or sharing backhaul facilities, network sharing gives customers of either company access to the same antennas and eNodeB base stations at each cell site in their respective networks.

The two companies share their 3G and 4G RANs in different parts of Canada. TELUS builds cell sites in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, in Windsor, Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario, and in Montréal, Québec City and the Gaspé Peninsula in Québec.

Bell builds out its network from the eastern part of Canada to the midwest except for Saskatchewan, where SaskTel owns the RAN that it shares with both companies. Bell also has some cell sites in British Columbia, mainly in Vancouver.

This way Bell customers in Vancouver use TELUS’ RAN. In major easten cities like Toronto, TELUS customers use Bell’s network.

Such an arrangement is feasible because both companies share all Canadian 3G and 4G LTE licensed frequencies except 2.3 GHz that only TELUS uses.

The companies operate independent EPC and IMS core networks that authenticate user SIM cards, track usage and billing, complete calls, deliver text messages, and connect data sessions to the Internet.

Even without a contiguous national network, MOCN allows each company to claim their 4G LTE Advanced services cover over 95 percent of Canada’s 37 million people.

TELUS and Bell are building 5G on that same footprint with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung supplying the same equipment to both networks. 

https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-wireless-network-sharing-canadian-style/

You will not receive a returned phone as a warranty replacement.

The technician was not accurate, it is not "hit and miss" with this phone, it's used with no issues by hundreds of millions of people (seriously) daily across the world.

You can't directly compare signal bars between phones because it all depends upon what frequency the cellular tower has told your phone to use, and since your iPhone 12 Pro Max can use frequencies the iPhone X cannot, it's very likely the cell tower's base station controller assigned your iPhone 12 Pro Max to one of those frequencies as they are likely to be less crowded than the frequencies common to multiple older devices.

You can "demand" a brand new phone if you like, but under the terms of the Apple warranty you will not necessarily receive one (it's also the case with all other phone vendors):

If during the Warranty Period you submit a claim to Apple or an AASP in accordance with this warranty, Apple will, at its option:

(i) repair the Apple Product using new or previously used parts that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability,

(ii) replace the Apple Product with the same model (or with your consent a product that has similar functionality) formed from new and/or previously used parts that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability,

(iii) exchange the Apple Product for a refund of your purchase price.

Legal - iOS Warranty Canada English - Apple

The LTE portion of the iPhone 12 is one of the best on the market, it's your carrier's tower configuration that is messed up.

The iPhone 12 has support for more LTE frequencies than any previous iPhone.

I've explained before, the problem is the iPhone 12 supports more and newer frequencies than older phones do.

The problem is some carriers have not properly optimized their towers for those new frequencies, so when the tower assigns the 12 to use them, it may see poor signal or none at all. The iPhone can't do anything about that, it has to use the frequency the base station controller tells it to.

Older phones using the older frequencies work just fine, but when the tower sees the iPhone 12 can handle the newer frequencies, it will send it there as they will be much less crowded as few phones can use them (yet) as compared to the other more heavily used frequencies.

You are blaming the phone for a carrier issue Apple cannot do anything about, as even they do not have the leverage to make a cellular carrier do anything.

After contacting APPLE support, for the 2nd time, about the issues with this phone’s dropped calls and bad signal, they finally sent a new (not refurb) replacement. Signal went up- Call quality went up - dropped calls were slim to none! And I didn’t have to change carriers! Gee, looks like I was right all along. Perhaps there was a bad batch of phones out there with crap antennas!

…and it does.

Even my 11 Pro Max dropped calls on occasion, my 12 Pro Max has not dropped even one call since I activated it three months ago.

Many have reported there is a new Verizon carrier settings update, 45.5.7, that is beginning to roll out across the network that has solved this for them.

Update your carrier settings on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

There is no solution to this problem - I have contacted Verizon and tried everything there is to try on every forum and it boils down to the IPhone 12 5G service being absolutely horrific. This is by far the worst phone I’ve ever owned ... my service is always stuck at 1 bar anywhere I’m located in my apartment - and if it’s in my pocket or I walk into certain areas - I lose service completely and it won’t come back unless I restart the phone or switch airplane mode on and off ... I have already done the troubleshooting through Verizon and Apple ... I cannot believe I had to pay over $1000 for something that can’t make or receive phone calls or texts ....

iPhones sell for a good price on eBay and then you can buy another Android… problem solved.

It’s not a snarky comment - obviously aren’t going to be happy with your iPhone so why put yourself through that?

No one product is right for everyone’s needs, that’s why companies offer a choice.

I went to a Verizon Corporate store and they installed a new SIM card. It’s only been a couple weeks, but I actually had cell service on my trip to the Oregon Coast. I am hoping this will fix the the problem.

You didn't read my previous response stating LTE/4G isn't directly comparable in that manner because the iPhone 12 supports more LTE frequencies that the tower may not be properly optimized for, and the phone has no control over which frequency it uses, it's assigned them by the tower's BSC (base station controller.)

If the BSC assigns your phone to a frequency the antenna/tower/BTS isn't handling properly, you're out of luck until your cellular provider fixes it.

In this way you can easily have an iPhone 8 with full bars next to a properly functioning iPhone 12 with none at all through no fault of the iPhone 12 whatsoever.