Poor signal with iPhone 12 Pro Max

Yup, me too.

I upgraded a couple weeks ago, so my preteen could have an older phone (7plus) and my teen could have my phone (XR).

Live rural, used to poor signal and 1 bar, but Ive never had 0 bars and call failed… everywhere in the house.

If I go outside, I get dropped calls but at least they’re connecting. I don’t receive nor can I send text messages either.

New SIM card.

7 plus and XR work as normal.

Carrier is NOT the problem. Apple is. The Antenna and AGC on these phones are awful. If you put it in a "Clean" test environment, works like a champ. In the real world it's a dog. The wave of the future is to test on the consumer.

How can you say it’s Verizon?

We have 3 older iPhones in the house.

My old phone, XR, works.

Dad has 8 plus, works.

Daughter, 7 plus and it works.

My shiny, brand new, 12 pro max…

cannot receive text, calls fail, drop calls, no data signal.

mug everyone else’s iPhone work and mine won’t, then that means it’s the phone, not the carrier alone?

I saw earlier post that apple letting Verizon sell the 12 to everyone knowing the 5G won’t let it function in rural areas?

This makes them both accountable?

I just wanted an 11 but didn’t see it was available thru Verizon, they pushing the 12?

I am an artist, who posts on social everyday, sells online… so the camera on the 12 pro max is what sold me… fabulous, but if I can’t text or call clients, dropped calls, I look real unprofessional, not Pro at all.

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.

I understand, but you can remain upset and rant or you can try to do something about it, and the only way to do the latter is to either:

1) Complain to your cellular carrier

2) Change your cellular carrier

You can also sell your device and purchase a different one; whatever you need to do to meet your needs.

I plan on purchasing something different as soon as I can afford too. $1200 was a really large expense for me. I saved up for a couple of years for this purchase. I have complained to my cell carrier. They replaced my SIM card. I live remotely and have no choice in my carrier. I have complained to Apple.

[Edited by Moderator]

I think your problem is due to RF receiver installation in iPhone11 and further.

We have iPhone8 and iPhone11 in our house using the same router/modem. However, all the connection tests proves that iPhone8 is much better. I would like to invite iPhone engineering team to observe really what happens. Technical support testing does not include our problem.

By the way, iPhone11 cell/gsm data connection is pretty good. I think that is due to frequency of Cell/gsm network.

It is the phone 100% plain and simple! Not AT&T; Not Verizon or any other carrier. Wi-Fi calling should boast a 50% boost and barely gets 1 to 2 bars when my other phone got full potential. How can the problem be the 5G when you can turn that off and still have the same issues? It is the phone in its entirety. It needs to be recalled and repaired, which Apple never does. I miss calls frequently. My signal is 1-2 bars when others have full on same service. Even with full bars, I'm told I have missed calls. Some times my phone calls sound robotic. I hate Android but this $1400 may have just been the last mistake I make with Apple Corp. FIX MY PHONE!!!

So I have seen your explaination several rimes. But never explained why a the latest Samsung Galaxy never has the same problem. If you can explain that then I might have a shred of belief it is the carrier. Also the iPhone problem is over all carriers, so i guess you think apple knows bettter than all the carriers.

First, at least users with the Galaxy S21 have reported similar issues.

Second, it would depend on which Galaxy; it’s like stating something about iPhone performance.

From what I can find, these are the FDD-LTE bands the iPhone 12 series supports that the Galaxy S21 does not; that means if the tower assigns your iPhone to any of these frequencies and it is misconfigured or not properly optimized you could in a worst case conceivably see full signal on an S21 and no signal on an iPhone 12:

14, 18, 19, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 42, 46, 48, 66, 71

This blows me away... I just upgraded from an IPhone 8, and I had better service and internet speed with the 8 as I do now with the 12 pro max. Very strange... doesn't make too much sense, I hope they fix the problem ASAP. It is affecting my work.

Call your cellular carrier and complain; no one else can resolve this issue.

However, since you just upgraded, if you are still within your 14 day return window, you may be able to return your iPhone 12 for a full refund and purchase something else.

Numerous dropped calls does not necessarily indicate an issue with your phone, you will see the same issue if your carrier is having issues, as in this case.

AT&T's forum means little to me as I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and fellow employees at my company have literally hundreds, and none of them have performance or signal issues on AT&T.

If Verizon refuses to fix their network, what other solution would you advise? It's not the phone, and Apple can't force Verizon to do anything.

So you are then left with only the things you can do, which are:

1) Change cellular carriers

2) Get a different device

Now I know Verizon is fixing it on some towers over time, so there's always possibility #3, call them on a regular basis to complain.

But if you need a solution today, the only answers are the two I listed.

Thank you uwood-2! I second your opinion on this.

Same issues that I have been complaining on AT&T. I see subscribers having problem on Verizon are being suggested to move to AT&T and Subscribers having problem on AT&T are being suggested to move to Verizon, irrespective of Apple care centers findings about the dropped calls. Apparently, switching a carrier is not the resolution.

What else could we do in order to get this fixed when out of device returning period? Any suggestions are welcome.

Could you please direct me to a post where someone having an issue with AT&T has been directed to switch to Verizon?

For that matter, how about where a Verizon user was told to switch to AT&T?

I have said that the vast majority seeing these issues are Verizon subscribers, and that to resolve the issues you may need to switch carriers.

I've also said the vast majority of AT&T subscribers have not seen these issues.

However, there are more than two carriers extant.