In April 2026 Apple announced Tim Cook will step down as CEO on 1 September and hardware chief John Ternus will take over. While analysts debate whether Cook was a good financial steward, I have spent months with a far more basic problem: two iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max units that, after a tunnel or basement with no coverage, stay unreachable — apparent signal, data that looks alive, incoming calls that never arrive. I certified video evidence and raised the issue through standard support and consumer channels. This is my view of the Cook era: PowerPoint innovation, a Qualcomm modem that won't recover, and a legal dispute in progress.
1. A succession that doesn't fix the fundamentals
Cook has led for fifteen years. Market cap rose from roughly $350 billion to four trillion. Services revenue exceeds $100 billion. Apple's press release lists Apple Watch, AirPods, Vision Pro, Apple Pay, emerging markets and 500+ stores.
What the release omits is what users feel daily:
- Siri arrived late to generative AI, delayed Apple Intelligence, reshuffled AI leadership and ended up negotiating with Google Gemini for what it could not build alone.
- The iPhone has had the same industrial gesture for years: bigger cameras, faster chip, brighter screen. Revolution in a holding pattern.
- The electric car — a decade of rumours — was cancelled while Huawei and Xiaomi sold cars.
- Vision Pro is a technical marvel with few users and little content: hardware without an ecosystem.
- Chief design officer — Jony Ive's role — remains vacant.
Ternus is a serious product engineer. He shaped Apple Silicon and leads hardware. But if the culture he inherits is "ship it and bill it", the CEO face changes, not the technical debt.
2. The bug that turns a phone into an expensive MP3 player
iPhone 17 and 17 Pro / Pro Max (not iPhone Air) use a Qualcomm cellular modem. Apple's N1 chip handles Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth and Thread; telephony runs on different silicon. When the modem enters a corrupt state, it is not a "bad coverage day".
The scenario is trivial:
- Phone on 5G Auto.
- Enter a dead zone: basement, underground car park, tunnel.
- Device correctly shows No Service.
- Leave for known good coverage.
- Network does not recover. Only toggling Airplane Mode resets the baseband.
In Field Test (*3001#12345#*) it gets worse: the handset may show attached to LTE with reasonable RSRP/RSRQ while the status bar stays on No Service or data fails. Callers hear normal ringing; your iPhone stays silent with no missed-call log until you reset the modem.
Technically this smells like paging failure: registered but unreachable. Silent disconnection. For someone running a company with clients and field staff on seven-day schedules, that is not a cosmetic bug. It is a product failing its only non-negotiable job.
3. My case: purchase, replacements and documentation
In October 2025 I bought an iPhone 17 Pro and two iPhone 17 Pro Max at an Apple Store in the Murcia region, for personal use as a consumer. The claim targets the Pro and one Pro Max. I do not publish serial numbers, invoice references or device identifiers here; they are filed in the confidential court and consumer proceedings.
From the first weeks the pattern repeated: car park, tunnel, industrial site without indoor coverage. I'd exit and the phone stayed dead. I tested several carriers (Movistar, Orange, Digi). Reinstalled iOS. Reset network settings. Switched to LTE-only — reduces frequency, does not eliminate the fault. Requested replacement: same behaviour on the swap unit, even with signal that should have been more than adequate.
In late December 2025 I digitally certified video of the failure through an external timestamp provider and sent formal notice to Apple's Spanish retail subsidiary, requesting a technical fix or partial price refund.
4. Executive support and consumer mediation
I also had a prolonged exchange with Executive Relations (Apple's executive support channel in Europe). I reported the fault via Feedback Assistant. Communications with that department are typically marked confidential; I do not reproduce email quotes or verbatim content here. In summary, from my experience:
- The case was routed back to standard support, which had already failed.
- I did not receive a technical fix that eliminated the fault on the affected units.
- The corporate position, in general terms, was that no consumer-law defect had been identified.
I filed with the OMIC in Monforte del Cid requesting mediation. The company replied in writing within that procedure. I do not quote that letter verbatim (a case document). My reading, in general terms: no hardware defect was admitted and the observed behaviour was described as consistent with product design. If a mobile phone does not guarantee telephony in normal use, that distinction matters to the consumer even if the company sees it differently.
Mediation failed. Court proceedings followed.
5. Civil claim
I have filed a verbal trial claim with the competent courts in the province of Alicante against Apple's Spanish subsidiaries (and, if applicable, the international distributor). The claim seeks a price reduction for lack of conformity under Spanish consumer law. I do not publish exact amounts, case numbers or evidence lists here; that belongs to the court file.
The thesis, in short: a mobile phone that does not receive calls in normal conditions does not meet the essential purpose of the sale. If the manufacturer argues that behaviour is "design" rather than defect, the consumer is left without effective repair beyond the monetary route.
6. Am I alone? No — and that matters for collective action
Before suing I checked whether others saw the same. Yes — multiple countries and carriers:
- MacRumors — dedicated thread since December 2025 with dozens of posts. Same basement → No Service → no recovery → Airplane Mode cycle. A user in Valladolid on Movistar describes an identical underground car park. Another in Japan on docomo bought a second phone to compare. US users on T‑Mobile and AT&T report variants.
- Tech blogosphere — several sites published guides explicitly about modem recovery failure after total signal loss (separate from launch VPN bugs or N1 Wi‑Fi issues):
- fone.tips — separates the launch bug (partly fixed in iOS 26.0.1) from dead-zone → No Service with no self-recovery; owner reports through at least iOS 26.2 with no Apple release-note fix.
- The Droid Guy — dedicated guide on the iPhone 17 Pro modem not recovering after signal loss.
- The Droid Guy (No Service / SOS) — 5G → No Service → SOS cycles and modem reset workarounds.
- iTechHacks — signal and connectivity issues; modem firmware vs eSIM or antenna.
- PhoneRepair.co.uk (No Service) — software troubleshooting vs baseband board failure.
- PhoneRepair.co.uk (cellular data) — data that never returns after a dead zone and the
*#06#baseband check.
- Apple Support Community and Reddit — aggregated in launch-window coverage; "dead zone → No Service forever" appears alongside separate N1 Wi‑Fi complaints.
There is no US class action today specifically for this modem failure (unlike the $250M Siri/Apple Intelligence settlement on iPhone 15/16). That does not mean one cannot emerge: reproducible defect, essential function, multiple units and iOS versions (reports through 26.2 without a documented fix), and no effective repair through standard channels in my case.
In Spain my individual claim is underway. A group action would need consumer associations, more documented cases and shared expert work. If your iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max does the same after a tunnel or basement, you are not paranoid. Test it: do not toggle Airplane Mode; try receiving a call. Save Field Test and date. Isolated cases do not move Apple; correlated cases do.
Same issue? I need to correlate more reports — carrier, exact model, iOS version and whether the fault triggers after car parks or tunnels. Contact me via the form (subject line: «iPhone 17 modem»). Describe your model, when it fails and what you already tried. I am not a law firm, but I can cross-check with other users and point you toward documentation or consumer mediation where relevant. Spain and wider EU welcome.
7. Lost innovation is not a meme — it is a modem that won't wake up
Jobs nostalgia is easy and often fake. But there is a real gap between the Apple that bet entire categories and the Apple that optimises margin:
- Jobs sold "it just works". Many users' experience with iOS 26 and iPhone 17 is different.
- The company that owned the full stack now pays Google for AI and Qualcomm for Pro modems — while iPhone Air uses Apple's own C1 modem, another stack split.
- The company that boasted engineering quality routes unresolved hardware issues through executive support.
Tim Cook will leave with honours, board role and regulator access. Ternus inherits an Apple whose hardware still tops benchmarks and stumbles on details that matter: recovering network after a basement, shipping a Siri that does not feel like 2014, launching products people use rather than only buy.
I do not ask Apple to become 2007 again. I ask that a flagship phone receive a call when I leave the car park.
8. If it happens to you — get in touch
If your iPhone 17, 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max does not recover signal after a basement, car park or tunnel until you toggle Airplane Mode, or if incoming calls never arrive while the caller hears ringing, I want to hear from you.
Document before you write: video with another line calling, Field Test screenshots, carrier and iOS version. Keep support emails. In Spain, OMIC is usually the first step; civil court if needed.
Send your case through the contact form — put «iPhone 17 modem» in the message and, if possible: model, carrier, country, iOS version and whether Apple swapped the device. I reply when I can to add your report to the case correlation. No promise of collective legal representation (I am an engineer and founder, not a law firm), but every documented case matters.
I will post procedural updates when the law allows.
Legal note: opinion and personal account. This article does not reproduce private communications with Apple or documents reserved to court or consumer proceedings. Any reference to the company's positions is a summary interpretation of my experience and administrative steps. Apple and its subsidiaries are or may be parties in ongoing proceedings. Nothing here is legal advice.