No 5G? Your Verizon iPhone 13 May Need a New SIM Card

The iPhone 13 is, for some people, their first Verizon 5G phone, so it's no wonder they may want to take it into the fast lane. Unfortunately, I've been getting reports through email and social media over the past few days of Verizon users seeing no 5G at all.

There's nothing wrong with your phone, and it doesn't need a software update. Using my own knowledge of Verizon's systems, I have three possible solutions, and they all have to do with Verizon's network provisioning system.

You probably just need to get a new SIM card.

A SIMple Plan

GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile have a longstanding culture of knowing that their SIM cards may be put into random devices. Verizon comes from a different culture where it assumes a tighter tie between device and SIM card. So sometimes straight-up swapping SIMs between Verizon phones just doesn't work.

This often has to do with various flags for various features in Verizon's system. But the upshot of it all is that even if you have a 5G service plan, a SIM that was in another device may not be entirely happy in your iPhone 13.

There's a solution for this. If you bought your phone with a Verizon SIM, you need to activate the new physical SIM using Verizon's app or website, use that one, and throw out the old one. If your phone didn't come with a Verizon SIM, call Verizon to get a new SIM overnighted or to activate your phone via eSIM.

Double Feature

An ongoing Reddit thread on the problem highlights another possible solution. Some people on the thread have gotten their service to work by having Verizon support remove every feature from their account on the old SIM, and then add all the features one by one on the new SIM.

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New Phone, Who Dis?

Verizon's system relies on having a database of specific phone IDs marked as "compatible." Occasionally, IDs for a few units can end up not in the database. That leads the network to basically say "who the heck are you?" and offer the device limited service. A quick search shows this having happened with an iPhone 11 on Verizon and with an iPhone 12 on Xfinity Mobile, which is a Verizon wholesale client.

In that case, use this online tool to check to see if your phone's IMEI number is in Verizon's database. Everyone agrees that US iPhone 13 models are approved and certified by Verizon, so one missing from the database is just a bug. If it's not in the database, that's the problem. Call Verizon and explain the issue; reps will probably need to file some forms to implement a fix.

PCMag iPhone 13 Special: Apple Event Analysis