The so-called scratchgate fiasco may have drummed up a lot of attention when Apple released its latest iPhones, but I was dealing with another issue after switching to the iPhone Air.
In my first couple of weeks using the slim phone, I had trouble placing and receiving calls. There were also periods in which I completely lost service, even after turning my phone off and on again.
After digging online, it appeared others were experiencing similar problems. Phone Arena pointed to Reddit threads in which iPhone owners cited cell signal issues, regardless of whether they have service with Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. I transferred my Verizon service from my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the iPhone Air, and only started having issues after doing so.
Watch this: iPhone Air Review: A Joy to Hold, at a Cost
Just as I was about to resign and switch my service back to my older iPhone, Apple rolled out an update with iOS 26.0.1 that’s designed to fix the problem. According to the release notes, Apple says this update will fix the fact that “a small number of iPhone users may be unable to connect to a cellular network after updating to iOS 26.”
iOS 26.0.1 should fix cellular network issues, among other problems with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The outages I experienced were sporadic. One day, my friend texted that she was trying to call me, but it wasn’t going through; I had to redial a few times before I could reach her. The same thing happened with a handful of other calls I tried to place. On another day, my mom tried contacting me repeatedly, and was sometimes directed straight to voicemail — as were a couple of other calls. I only became aware of these failed call attempts because someone informed me about them later; there’s no way of knowing exactly how many rings I actually missed.
The most frustrating instance was when I was out shopping with my friend and I lost service for several hours. My phone remained on SOS mode, even after I restarted it, and I had to hunt for in-store Wi-Fi just to text her my exact location so she could find me. (We both have Verizon, and her iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is still running iOS 18, had no issues.)
I asked my CNET colleagues if they’d faced similar problems, and it appears my experience with the iPhone Air was an outlier. My iPhone 17 hasn’t had any issues, nor have Patrick Holland’s iPhone 17 Pro Max or Jeff Carlson’s iPhone 17 Pro.
When I saw iOS 26.0.1 was available, I updated my phone immediately. So hopefully my mom won’t think I’m ignoring her calls anymore.
