Some iPhone 18 Pro Max owners on AT&T are stuck in a permanent SOS mode.

Apple and AT&T acknowledged the glitch and said affected phones need a physical replacement.

The status bar shows emergency-only service, and the phones do not join AT&T towers.

Airplane mode, restarts, and network resets do not fix it, the article says.

The fault is a hardware clash between certain production runs and AT&T’s network.

Apple said a standard iOS software update cannot patch the cellular fault.

Eligible phones under the standard warranty get a free exchange, including units bought from AT&T or other retailers.

The problem is described as limited to AT&T batches, not other major carriers.

Technicians advise a full iCloud backup before the defective phone is turned in.

Read the full article on the iPhone 18 Pro Max SOS failure and replacements.