Intermittent audio issues during phone calls - iPhone 13 Pro Max

I continue to have intermittent audio issues during telephone calls on my new iPhone 13 Pro Max (not even 7 months old) while using AirPods (I really do not think the AirPods are the issue as I just purchased a brand new pair of AirPods Pro 2 weeks ago). At random times during calls, the speaker’s (either myself but more often the person on the other end) voice goes from normal to a robotic-sounding noise with all words completely distorted for about 5-10 seconds. And apparently BOTH lines can hear it when it happens because two individuals confirmed they heard it right after it occurred during our calls.

It seems very unlikely that the culprit is the AirPods because I literally just purchased a brand new pair of AirPods Pro two weeks ago thinking that the AirPods were the issue. My previous AirPods were coming up on almost 3 years old so when this continued to happen, I just figured they were old and dying on me. But the same thing has happened to me multiple times on calls while using my brand new AirPods Pro. Plus, this never happened to me while using my old AirPods and my old iPhone X. 

To date, the only time this issue has not occurred during a call is when I took my AirPods out and started talking on the phone like regular, which is nearly impossible for me as my work often requires me to simultaneously be on calls + working on a computer for long periods of time. However, 99% of the time I’m on a call for longer than a few minutes, I’m using my AirPods. So I’m not sure how conclusive it is that it hasn’t occurred during a call without the AirPods. 

It doesn’t appear to have any pattern to it so there’s also no way of knowing how long into a call it will happen. Today (7/5) it happened during a 10 minute call with a client. Last week it happened twice during a 2 hour call (which I eventually took my AirPods out to prevent it from happening again). Some days it doesn’t happen during calls. And some days I just don’t have any calls. 

A few other details:

• I purchased my iPhone 13 Pro Max in December 2021 from Verizon. 
• My limited warranty expires December 2022 and includes hardware coverage and chat & phone support.
• My iPhone software is up to date (as of 7/5/22) - current version is iOS 15.5.
• I’ve restarted my phone. 
• I’ve reset my AirPods Pro.
• I’ve reset Network Settings.
• I’m working from home so I’m connected to my Wi-Fi all day. But my Wi-Fi Calling under Cellular is, and always has been, turned OFF (if that matters).