AT&T Issues Urgent iPhone 18 Pro Max Warning Over Cellular And 911 Glitches
The first signs of trouble popped up on the ATT subreddit, where a new iPhone 18 Pro Max owner shared that the phone would constantly drop into SOS mode, which indicates a loss of service. After insisting on escalating the issue with AT&T customer support, a representative shared that “this is a known issue that AT&T and Apple are currently investigating.”
Other users chimed in sharing a similar experience, including a text message AT&T is now sending customers regarding the situation. The messages says, “Action needed: An important Apple software update for your iPhone 18 Pro Max is available. Some phones may be unable to complete calls/text/data, including to 911. Update to iOS 27.0.1 immediately — Settings > General > Software Update.”
Unfortunately, updating to the latest version of iOS 27 doesn’t seem to be doing affected users much good. Several AT&T customers posted in the thread that nothing has changed after downloading and installing the update, with one even remarking that they signed up for the beta of the next version, 27.2, in hopes of getting a resolution.
Interestingly, Apple decided to use two different cellular chips in this year’s Pro models. The standard iPhone 18 Pro uses Apple’s own C2 chip, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max is equipped with a Qualcomm modem. While this seems like it could be the culprit, if this were a chip issue, Pro Max owners on other providers would likely be facing similar problems, so this is probably just a software gremlin.
Hopefully Apple and AT&T can get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later so customers can go back to enjoying their new device.
