Samsung Galaxy S3 Issues - No Network Connection! Please Help.

Question

I have had my S3 for a few weeks now with no issues.
Suddenly in the last two days, my phone is silent for a while, which is uncommon. I generally have a consistent stream of notifications, emails, texts, etc.  So when I picked up the phone, the 4GLTE signal is usually located, I saw a Ø icon.  I thought that was weird but thought maybe I was in a bad coverage area.  So I walked around outside the office building and got a notification when I clicked the Internet app, "No Network Connection."
Of course, I initially thought the SIM card was maybe messed up.  I restarted the phone, and all was well.  Then yesterday, the same thing!  Now this morning my alarm goes off at 4:30am like always - only I get up to get ready for the gym and I see it's only 3:30.  The auto-detect for time zone is wacky.
Upon googling no network connection with the galaxy, I see some S2 users had this same issue.  Is this a phone issue?  Network issue?  SIM issue?  It's done it twice in the last two days, so I don't know if I need to contact Verizon or what!
Thanks for any advice you can give.

Answer 1

It's really funny that anyone believes Verizon when they say an OTA is coming "soon" or "next month" or "next week".  They only tell you these things to placate you and get you off the phone.  They have no idea when an OTA is being rolled out!!!
Verizon is the absolute worst provider when it comes to timely phone updates.  How long did it take for Verizon to update the Nexus compared to the GSM version?  6+ months!! 
Be prepared to wait that long for an OTA to fix the dropped call issue, the data reception issue, the SIM card issue and the time zone issue.