Two identical liquid z630s ar not making cell network connection all of a sudden (since May 8, 2018)

Reva
Reva Member Posts: 1 New User
edited March 18 in 2018 Archives
My husband and I have identical Acer phones: Acer Liquid Z630s, (dual sim, replaceable battery), I have AT&T pay-as-you-go plan and he has Consumer Cellular.

Since May 8th (Wednesday), all connections through cellular network fail on both our phones: we are not able to make or receive calls or send or receive text, nor use cell data; just an exclamation mark instead of the signal bars on both the phones
(Till 7th, we were able to make and receive calls and messages; we both had very good data connection.)
All else (Wifi and other apps, camera) on the phones function fine, just not able to connect to cell network.

We have taken the phones to the AT&T corporate store twice since.
Below are the things they tried on my first visit on the 9th and the results:
1. tried a brand new SIM card on my phone on both slots -- problem did not resolve
2. switched the SIM from my Acer to one of their working phones -- they could not connect either; and so called their tech support and were told that their towers were being worked on and the service would be back up the next morning
3. performed a smart check on the phone

Since it did not resolve even after two days later, we took the phones in again today (11th):
4. switched an active SIM from one of their working phones to my Acer -- Acer would not make cell connection
5. reset my phone to factory settings -- still no cell network connection

So they diagnosed that it must be that Z630s is not equipped to pick up the new frequencies of the AT&T cell towers !!

This sounds reasonable: after ruling out physical issues like SIM slot damage (not possible that the two slots on both the phones are damaged at the same time), service interruptions (should have had connectivity when the service came back on), the possibility of an update corrupting and causing the issue (the reset should have resolved that).

Is anyone else with US AT&T service experiencing the same issue on their Acer Z630s? Is there any chatter about this issue and / or fixes you are aware of?

Thanks in advance.