iPhone 17 Pro Max - Signal Strength

[Baldie1977]

I purchased the iPhone 17 Pro Max on Friday.  The signal has been fine but I went to work today for first time today since owning this phone and I now get barely any signal.  My iPhone 14 Pro was fine in this location I had 2 bars and all apps requiring data worked.  My iPhone 17 Pro Max has 1 bar and I get told I have no internet connection.  Is anyone else having this issue.

I have done all the normal things deleting Nord VPN, resetting network settings etc etc.  Nothing works.

[hotpot01]

Thanks, the above  are 2 phones within the house.

In comparison my 17Pro is below which seems (if I'm correct) seems to have appaling  signal judging by the SINR figures.

My understanding is around 5dB for SINR is relatively good, and minus numbers are very poor.

Mine at over -30 seems shocking, I have tried this at various locations and it's never seen better than -20.

[nazam-malik]

iPhone 17 pro buffering forever even one worded WhatsApp message don’t get downloaded in many areas where my iPhone 12 Pro was working excellent 

[hotpot01]

I've deleted my eSIM as suggested by EE and have to go shop for physical SIM, put my SIM card back in my 13 Pro and it's perfect, then when back in the 17 Pro terrible.

I have 2-3 Bars but no data, I only have data when on 4-5 bars when near a mast on the 17. There is certainly issues with the phone, spoke with EE who want me to use my other phone to see if the SIM card is the problem although it's new and fine in old phone, they have extended the return period for another 14 days as I've had the phone 2 weeks now.

They also booked my in Apple Store for tomorrow to have the phone checked and suggested software issue and want to reset the phone but this is really too much inconvinience for me with a new phone. 

Could you please try field mode 

type.   *3001#12345#*       into the phone and dial to see what results you have compared to mine.

[bristolian]

One earlier reply mentioned WhatsApp and other social media not working - on the face of it, this could also be content lock. Testing other non-social media websites (BBC News as good as anything) would rule this out.

The post with the two side-by-side views is intriguing, there may be something here. EE operate both 4G & 5G across multiple frequency bands, it's therefore perfectly normal for two different phones to show different bars depending on band selection.

Taking 4G as a working example, B3-1800Mhz is EE's base deployment, with B1-2100Mhz & B7-2600Mhz used as capacity layers, B20-800Mhz a coverage-layer. Similar principles apply to 5GNR, with 700Mhz being the coverage layer, and 3500Mhz being another capacity layer. Broadly speaking, lower frequencies give better coverage but trading off against capacity and thus data performance. Higher frequencies do the opposite. Add in 5G/4G selection when not in SA mode, and the on-screen bars are only part of the picture.

Thus the screenshots on the 12.23pm post are interesting - on the face-of-it, B3 is providing good service so it would be odd to see a phone preferring a weaker B20 carrier.

[hotpot01]

May I ask you opinion on my problematic iPhone 17 which has the data issues and poor signal.

This is most places barring near a mast with full signal. Does the poor SINR levels suggest a phone issue.

Been a EE customer many years with no issues until recent handset upgrade, I frequent same places daily with work and noticed the poor signal instantly due to lack of data and no internet connection. 

Initially had eSIM and changed to physical Sim with no improvement, physical Sim is fine in spare phone.

Thanks 

[Hosegood]

Depressingly I think we need to hope Apple are working on a fix and that a software fix will sort it.

[Pickle1985]

I’ve been having this exact problem, as soon as I got new iPhone 17 pro max the network signal as been dire especially at home when I’ve always had great signal. My wifi signal is full, strong but my low network signal sees to affect this. All my other devices work fine on my wifi. It seems the network or iPhone is affecting my ability to use internet on my phone?

[Rach_H · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pickle1985,

Welcome to the Community!

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with your connection. 

Our Network Checker will let you know if there are any issues in your area which may be causing this, and you can also report any issues that you may be happening. 

If there is nothing showing then you can speak with our Technical experts and they will be able to take a look into this for you.

Rach