iPhone 5S 4G/LTE signal issues

First, get a new sim card from EE. If no change, make an appointment at any Apple store. Your phone is under warranty, take advantage of it. The genius bar has the ability to see if your phone is working properly or not.

I have a 5s on EE ive had nothing else but trouble with the phone searching all the time,ive missed loads of calls,im back in london apple store again next week , i cant see the point of a mobile thats useless,if my phoe is found to be ok yet again ,it will be byebye EE and back to the old faithfull 02,as i find EE like taking the money off you but are not bothered in helping if you have problems.

Its called good customer relations NOT

My 5s worked fine for six months and then it went into constant searching mode. It happened suddenly. I spent a lot of time using VOIP with OOMA on my iPad talking to Verizon. They went through the usual routine of havering me first do a simple reset, then a complete reset. Nothing improved. I then called Apple Care and got someone more knowledgeable. The Apple Care person suggested pulling out the SIM card and cleaning it with a dry cloth. I did as suggested and this worked for about a day. Back to searching. I went to a few Verizon stores to exchange SIM cards. Unless the store is an actual authorized company store the employee will want to sell you something you don't want. After exchanging the SIM card at a authorized official Verizon store I got a signal again. But it didn't last long.

Apple Care told me that if I go to a company ( non franchise) UPS location they will put the phone in a package for me and it will be sent to Apple for repair. This, I was told may take 5 to 7 business days to be returned.

Another possibility is to go to an Apple store ( 90 miles from me!) and see a genius. Supposedly they know what to do and will handle it from there. Apple's warranty is said to be one year for mechanical and electrical problems that are deemed to be Apple's fault.

Since I mainly bought this phone to make and receive calls I went ahead and ordered a cheap flip phone to take with me on trips. You can get one on Amazon for anywhere from 6 to 15 bucks and get prepaid Virgin Mobile service for maybe about 20 bucks for 50 minutes plus or minus. It seems absolutely nutty to pay 300 bucks for a 32 gig Verizon phone plus 150 bucks a month for no service AND then buy a cheap phone just to actually make calls!

I'll try to update this later.

Update: went to a few Verizon stores trying to get a replacement SIM card on the theory that the SIM card, itself,was my problem.

Finally went out of the way Apple store. Barely made my appointment. The local genius was able to diagnose the problem quickly. A faulty SIM card reader. He eliminated the possibility that the problem was the antenna because the iPhone could get wifi. Replaced the 5s with one that looked brand new, but doubt it. Up and running in about five minutes from icloud backup. Apps finally downloaded when I got home and connected to my wifi.

Happy now.

A few bothersome things.

Some apps need sign in again with passwords. A real pain. Even after restoring from iCloud.

Apple Care could have ID'd the problem a bit more quickly, but hard to do over the phone.

About all Verizon can do is suggest resetting.

Avoid going to franchised Verizon stores that are not official company outlets for anything. They will try to sell you things you don't need.

It's still a good idea to take a cheap prepaid phone with you on trips. An alternative is to take an iPad with a VOIP service like OOMA. That way you can have a giant iPhone.

The good news is that this signal episode removed the complacency I had since this was the first magor problem with either an iPad or iPhone. It gave me a chance to renew acquaintance with the plethora of features,switches,etc..