Emergency Calls Only

cg504

Hello,

On both my daughter's phone and mine, when we go off Wi-Fi, our phones switch to "Emergency Calls only". She has a Samsung Galaxy S22 and I have a S23 Ultra. My wife, who has an iPhone 15 Pro, is not experiencing this issue. I have tried the following:

- Reboot the phone

- Toggled airplane mode

- Went into the bootloader and cleared the cache

- Turned the eSim off and back on

- Reset mobile network settings

- Cleared cache and data in the Sim Toolkit. Then rebooted device.

Device shows full cellular signal.

Please let me know what can be done to remedy this issue, as it seems to be either Samsung or Android specific and started today.

cg504

OP Here - This is the Solution.

TL;DR, it's the LTE extender, not the phone. All details below, including resolutions.

I am the OP. I signed in as a Verizon customer last time, now this time, it made me choose an ID again. Anyway, here is what happened, and the ultimate resolution. I hope it saves someone a headache or ten.

I also noticed that when I left my neighborhood, my phone would go to no signal and would need to be rebooted to get signal.

This issue ended up happening to all three of our phones, which use e-Sim:

• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy S22
• Apple iPhone 15 Pro (my wife said it wasn't happening, but misunderstood what I was asking her. When I went and looked at her device, it was happening to her too)

I called support before I knew about the Apple device. They had me do the following, all of which did not matter. So if you are having the exact same issue and they ask you to do the same, save yourself the hassle.

1. I went into the bootloader and cleared the device cache and reset mobile network settings before calling support.
2. Update OS on each device (it was already up to date). For giggles, I also made sure all apps in the Google Play and Samsung stores were updated
3. Reset All Settings (NOT factory data reset)

After about an hour on the call, support said they had to escalate the issue. They also said that I could try going to my local Verizon store to see if they could help me more quickly. I decided to go to the store while they escalated the issue because I didn't know how long support would be and I need to have cell service at home.

I went to the store, but I decided as I was about to walk out the door to grab the LTE extender that Verizon provided me. The extender was a replacement for an extender that went defective after about 7 months. I'd only had this one for about a week, if that.

Once I unplugged the extender, all our phones showed one bar of cellular connectivity, and they all were connected to the Verizon network. We were able to call and text.

I took the extender and the two Samsung phones to the store. Because this was an extender that support provided me because I have bad cell service, and not one I purchased, they couldn't swap it out at the store. They called support on my behalf to try to troubleshoot the issue and get a replacement device. 90 minutes on the phone later and support commits to replacing the device. A week later, and I get a "we think your issue is resolved" text, but never a replacement.

So, folks, the resolution for me was simple. I switched carriers to one that costs less, and in my opinion has better technical support. I'd been with them for about a decade before switching to get a free phone. They also have 5 bars of service in my house. I'm no longer seeing red, but instead am seeing magenta. What drove this decision:

• Additional information from the store that when Verizon switched to Samsung tower equipment in the area about 2 1/2 years ago, there was an issue that (per him, according to Samsung) required a technician to climb each tower and perform a manual update that takes up to 8 hours. He also noted that the service has been much worse since this happened - dropping from 5 bars in the area to 1-2 in many spots. Given the shoddy support, follow-up, and this information that VZ hasn't been able to fix their own towers for over 2 years, I was given very little faith that the either the tower signal would or their support would improve.
• The other carrier has a thing where you can try their data for free for 3 months. So I did, and had 4-5 bars of 200-500mbps data.
• The competing carrier was able to pay off the EIP on my wife's phone ($800) and waived activation.
• The competing carrier was ~$30/month cheaper for us, and has free int'l data.

If you want to stick with Verizon, I think you'll likely need to get a replacement LTE extender, before you do, you could try a factory reset on the extender though, just in case you get lucky and that works. More info (links open in new page):

• Perform a factory reset on your LTE extender
• Setting up your LTE extender
• Samsung Press Release on Towers
  • This is just showing what was done. A quick search online of something like "samsung c-band tower issues verizon" will show more folks asking the same question about service and more anecdotal evidence of people being told about the Samsung tower issue from Verizon engineers and staff.

I hope this helps folks.