Phone saying 'searching', restore did nothing.

3 days ago I was on a phone call when my phone battery died after being at 1% for a while. When I plugged it in and it turned on again, it said 'searching' up at the top where it usually tells me my provider and how many bars I have. It has been 3 WHOLE DAYS and I have tried updating to the newest IOS, newest carrier settings, restarting the phone and even resetting it and nothing has helped. It is so inconvenient, I don't have a car and rely on the online bus schedule to get me around. Apple support says to just give them a call - as if it's that easy! I have no access to my cell phone, as after I restored it, I can't activate the bloody thing to even connect it to wifi and use it normally. There was no damage to the phone that spurred this to happen - I simply plugged it in where I was sat.

I have followed all of apple's advice yet there is absolutely nothing of use for this situation and the poxy company doesn't do email (which seems idiotic, but at this point I have lost all my faith in Apple. Everyone else on my plan has no issues, all able to use data and celluar functions.

Thanks for any help you can give me - I guarantee it'll be more than Apple!