I don’t think I need statistics to tell you that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the most desired in the entire S25 family. It’s how it is year after year because when people spend their money on flagships, a lot of them want the very best that they can get at a reasonable cost.
Unfortunately, for those who have pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from certain US carriers, namely Xfinity and Metro by T-Mobile, and have received them already, you might have noticed a problem. S25 Ultra users on those two networks are simply unable to activate their devices, and the carrier is to blame.
S25 Ultra Users on Xfinity and Metro Will Have to Wait Before They Can Use Their Phones
Even though the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is slated for general availability on February 7th, some users who pre-ordered the devices through carriers have already started getting their hands on them. That was certainly earlier than most people expected. However, for today, let’s focus on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which certain Xfinity and Metro by T-Mobile subscribers have started to receive.
Remember when I said that the Galaxy S25 Ultra was getting into the consumers’ hands a lot earlier than was expected? Well, it was apparently a lot earlier than the carriers themselves expected. Xfinity and Metro by T-Mobile users who have gotten the device already are simply unable to activate them as it seems the carriers haven’t updated the network software to support the phones.
The reports are coming from Reddit, with enough users stating the same experience. Sure, the carriers might have been blindsided by the early shipping, but it still isn’t a good look. In the case of Xfinity, customer support has stated that the device will be supported on its network by February 5th. Considering that it’s five full days away, that’s a long amount of time not to be able to use your brand-new phone.
The Issue Primarily Seems Limited to Those Using eSIMs
If you’re an Xfinity or Metro user and you’re not facing this problem, there’s a likely reason why that’s the case. It seems like the issue is mostly seen with those using eSIMs, and that’s not too surprising since a software issue seems to be the culprit. With an update, the carriers should be able to get the appropriate software support in place.
Some S25 Ultra Users Are Able to Bypass the Issue By Luck or With Workarounds
However, even with this current issue, some users are finding ways to get around the problem. For some users on Metro, it seems that the issue could potentially be fixed as of right now, as a few were able to get their plans activated without much hassle. For one user, reaching out to customer support allowed them to get the activation done through an agent.
One user reported that accessing the activation page through Desktop Mode on their phone’s browser made it possible to get the activation done without an issue. That was for Metro, however.
It generally seems like Xfinity users are the only ones that don’t have a workaround in place. That February 5th date might be unshakable, unfortunately.
