Do i need a new sim for 5g verizon

1 minute read
Nov 18th, 2020 9:15 AM EST | Quick Tip

Now that 5G smartphones like the iPhone 12 line are in the hands of customers, questions like “Will I get 5G coverage?” and “Do I need a new 5G SIM card?” are on everyones’ minds.

5G SIM Cards

T-Mobile has been sending texts to customers to remind them to get a new SIM card. The carrier mentions that your current SIM card is 5G compatible but it’s not capable of accessing T-Mobile’s “Standalone 5G.”

Verizon’s FAQ page says if your SIM card is activated as 5G and inserted into a 4G LTE device, it can’t connect to its 5G Ultra Wideband network. If a card is activated as 4G LTE and inserted into a 5G device, it can access the 5G Ultra Wideband network but may not connect to the “future enhanced 5G network.”

Meanwhile, Verizon’s prepaid carrier Visible says customers will not need a new SIM card to use 5G service or a special phone plan.

AT&T’s website doesn’t mention 5G SIM cards at all, only telling customers they will need a 5G plan to use 5G service.

The bottom line is that right now you probably won’t need a new SIM card. Once standalone 5G has been achieved some time in the future, you may need one if you’re still using your current SIM card at that time.

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(Opens in a new window) 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(Opens in a new window) 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(Opens in a new window) and with an iPhone 12 on Xfinity Mobile(Opens in a new window), which is a Verizon wholesale client.

In that case, use this online tool(Opens in a new window) 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

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