Often my phone won't connect to cell service, especially after leaving Wifi and switching to cell.

[philduncan7331]

My Galaxy A50 that I purchased through Xfinity seems to work fine when I am in range of WiFi, but as soon as I leave the house/office my phone will not connect to cell service automatically.  In the area of the screen where it shows the cell signal strength, it shows a prohibited symbol (O with a / through it).  Toggling airplane mode on/off does not help.  Rebooting the phone rarely helps. The best solution I have found is to power the phone off for at least a minute and turning it back on.  Only then will it connect to cell service.

But even then, the cellular service is not good.  Rarely will I get four or five "bars" and the phone works normally.  Most of the time it is one or two "bars" and the phone will no send/receive texts or calls, and the Internet does not work.  Then the prohibited symbol will come back.  Sometimes it will reconnect automatically and give four or five "bars" again, but sometimes I have to force it by powering off and on again.

I am in a metropolitan area with plenty of Verizon towers in the vicinity.  I even have a family member in the same area with the same model phone and they don't complain about any cell coverage problems.

What's wrong with my phone?

[ComcastLolli]

Hello philduncan7331, thank you for reaching out to us on the Xfinity Mobile Forum. I am sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with your network connection. I would love to help.

Since you've already gone through most troubleshooting, I just have a few questions for you. Have you checked your device settings to ensure mobile data is not turned off? Have you reached out to anyone for assistance? I would like you to try to refresh your network, this may help with the connection issue. Please follow the below steps;

1. Turn on the device by using the Power button.
2. Now swipe up the screen and from Main Menu select Settings.
3. In the next step select General management.
4. Then you should choose Reset and Reset Network Settings.
5. After that tap Reset Settings.
6. At the end choose Reset.

Once you've completed this, please let me know what happens. Please feel free to send me a private message, if this is not successful I will need to gather some information from you to proceed. 

[philduncan7331]

I just did the network reset procedure you described.  It doesn't appear to have helped.  Mobile data is turned on.  I have tried to toggle that setting off and on again but it doesn't help.

Also, since posting my initial message my phone started doing something else.  Two time yesterday while the phone showed the prohibited sign (no signal) I had a notification on my phone that basically said "call or visit Xfinity to activate your service" like it was a new phone.

I powered it down and back on and the message went away.

Is this a SIM card problem possibly?

[ComcastLolli]

Hi philduncan7331, thank you for the update. I am sorry you are still experience this issue. It sounds like it could be a SIM card issue. Have you tried to pop your SIM card out and reinsert it? If you have not let’s try it.

First, please power down your device completely. Remove your SIM card and wait 2 to 3 minutes before reinserting it. Please reinsert the card, and ensure that it is sitting nice and snug in the SIM card tray. After you power your device on let me know what happens.

[philduncan7331]

I did as you said and it didn't improve anything so I went to the Xfinity store.  The rep said he thought it could be a SIM problem so he gave me a new one.  This also did not improve anything.

Even with the new SIM card, my phone is still doing the "ready to activate your service?" notification.  I just did a test to see if I could recieve a call while this message is displayed.  It would not connect the call, even with my cell phone being on Xfinity wifi with Wifi-calling turned on.

But if I restart my phone, it starts working again (at least over Wifi calling).  It still doesn't work if I leave Wifi coverage unless I power down the phone for a few minutes and then power it back on.

This phone is basically useless right now...  Can it be replaced?  It is only a few months old...

Already tried:

Safe mode

Toggling airplane mode/mobile data

reset network settings

Clear cache partition

Upgraded to latest software

Turned wifi calling off

New SIM card

[ComcastLolli]

Good Morning philduncan7331, thank you for your update, and all the troubleshooting information you’ve provided. Since you’ve replaced the SIM card it seems this is a device issue. It definitely can be replaced if you are within the warranty. I will be happy to look at your account to see what options are available.

Can you please send me the following information in a private message so that I may access your account; your first and last name, the full address for your residential service, the last 4 digits of the credit card on file, and finally, your mobile number?