My area went live with LTE around 8/2012. I got my iPhone5 shortly after and enjoyed great speeds and coverage with LTE in my local area. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Now my phone cycles back and forth from LTE to 3G. When on LTE my speeds are still great (20-25Mbps up and 7-15Mbps down) and I generally get 3-4 bars at home as usual but the phone cycles back and forth to 3G/LTE every few minutes! Interestingly this started the day after a storm with a lot of wind so figured things may have gotten knocked about. I waited about a 1 1/2 weeks before opening a ticket with Verizon. Their answer was that I was in a "poor" coverage area and to turn off LTE on my to save battery life (I'd had also complained about serious battery drain because of the constant cycling). It makes no sense for them to say I am in a poor coverage area when I previously had great service and now all of a sudden it changed. I can drive to the Verizon store in town where there is 5 bars and it will still cycle back and forth. I can get within 100 yards or so of the LTE tower with 5 bars and a strong -60dBm strength and it still wont hold that signal and switches to a 3G!
I did think it could be my phone but it does it only in my local zip code (29461). Then I go to the neighboring city it holds a strong LTE signal and never cycles. I had a friend with the same phone came to my area and his phone did the same thing, so It is not a phone or SIM issue, its definitely a tower issue. The other interesting thing is that if I use the mobile hotspot, as long as I am connected to LTE and have activity such as a movie stream, it will stay locked on. As soon as stop any internet activity it will cycle over to 3G.
Not sure what to do here. I am not too happy with Verizon solution and I don't think those Wilson antenna boosters would make a difference since I do have a strong signal, its just that it is getting interrupted and the phone is switching back to 3G. I've been otherwise extremely happy with Verizon coming from ATTs terrible service, but this is really getting frustrating not to be able to enjoy the LTE service.
Thanks.
