Android 4.4.4 Dropping Carrier - Emergency Calls Only

[xDaxedx]

Specs
Note 3
OS 4.4.4

Issues:
About 3 days ago I noticed I was not getting calls and then noticed I would have a bunch of voicemails. I would try and call out and it would display dialing but no connection was made. At times I would dial and get "emergency calls only" displayed with no way out of that loop.

Spoke to AT&T a few times and they tried doing some stuff behind the scenes. No change.
Went to AT&T and they were basically clueless. They can tell you about a phones features but technical ability was not great. I had them add a new sim.
The AT&T logo disappears off the home screen and so does the 4G logo.

Resolution Steps
I have researched this for a few days and have saved my phones data and restored to factory. That worked for a bit. I also notice that if my phone is charged closer to capacity it seems to stay connected longer. When it dips into the 20%-45% battery area I seem to have more issues.

I pulled the sim out and tossed it into my iPhone 4s and that worked fine. This basically eliminates anything account or network related I believe. My wife also has a Note 3 and hers works fine. My Note 3 was current for all software but I am not sure if hers is current.

It really seems like this is a hardware/software issue. My phone is in an Otter case and has not been dropped, tossed, exposed to water etc. If you google "android 4.4.4 emergency calls only" there are tons of examples going on.

I have a warranty with Square Trade and have a new phone on the way but this still kind of irritates me because my 1 year warranty expired about 2 weeks ago. Not to mention the fact that there are no guarantees that this issue will not happen again with the new phone.

Has anyone found a fix for this? I would like to cancel the new phone that is coming in and just fix mine.

Thanks!

 

[Rukbat]

First thing I would try is putting a piece of masking tape on the back of the SIM (not the side where the gold contacts are). The socket may be a little loose. (1/1,000" can make a difference.) If that's the problem, it would cost to fix, so back up everything and restore to the new phone.

It could also be a bad SIM. Try your SIM in your wife's phone. (The Note 3 and iPhone sockets are built differently.) There's no disconnection problem with 4.4.2 that I've heard of (and that's almost certainly what she's on by now - with baseband NC2), and neither my wife nor I have had the problem.

 

[xDaxedx]

First thing I would try is putting a piece of masking tape on the back of the SIM (not the side where the gold contacts are). The socket may be a little loose. (1/1,000" can make a difference.) If that's the problem, it would cost to fix, so back up everything and restore to the new phone.

It could also be a bad SIM. Try your SIM in your wife's phone. (The Note 3 and iPhone sockets are built differently.) There's no disconnection problem with 4.4.2 that I've heard of (and that's almost certainly what she's on by now - with baseband NC2), and neither my wife nor I have had the problem.

Thanks Rukbat, I had AT&T replace the sim and used it in my iphone 4s for a day without issue. Right now it has been fairly stable but I do not have high hopes. I might try and downgrade to 4.4.2 if I still have issues. Hopefully there is a post on flashing the firmware on here somewhere. My wife's phone is on 4.4.2 and since hers is stable, that might be the best way to go.