By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have been in the market for a number of weeks now but some users are encountering a serious issue where the device disconnects from the LTE network. I have first-hand experience with this issue as my Pixel XL started intermittently disconnecting from the TELUS network in Canada. I noticed this when messages would not be sent and when streaming podcasts or news from the NPR One app would cease to play.
Various attempts to fix this on my part, including restarting the device, removing and re-inserting the SIM card, and even restoring the device after a hard reset, failed to fix the issue which has affected various users who are chiming in on a Reddit post.
My direct attemt to contact Google through their PR representative regarding this issue yielded no reply. Contacting Google via the support feature on the phone, the only response was to contact my carrier. I need to point out that I tried the same nanoSIM card on six other devices and it worked just fine. The issue doesn't seem to be unique to TELUS and Koodo. Some users on T-Mobile and Sprint are experiencing the disconnection issues as well.
Google has apparently been getting a number of complaints. Some users have returned their Pixels through a RMA return but report that they are facing the same issue as well. Google, it seems, has at least started to acknowledge the issue which compromises the Pixel's ability to be used with a network. Not being able to connect to voice and data networks is a deal breaker and something that even basic feature phones are expected to be able to do.
Google needs to acknowledge this problem and issue a software fix quickly.