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NYC midtown Horrible Data speeds and LTE MIA most of the time

Yujin

Hi,

I work in midtown Manhattan and commute from Sunnyside, Queens. I noticed that my iphone 5 has horrible data speedsin NYC, it was bad with 3G(fastest network my sweet cheeks). Heard great things about LTE and Verizon, but the problem in NYC is not phone related (android users also are slow and having issues). This seems to be the general issue with everyone i talk to, my phone goes from edge to 3g and edge and I'm on 45th and 5th ave. surrounded by windows. Phone calls work great and when i had a 3g only phone data was laughable at .1 mb. Now with LTE it is slower than ATT 3G (and that is saying something.

Anybody having issues like this? It is all over NYC, and unless you go away from the city where no one lives then you get better services..I was in Atlanta and the data speeds was AMAZING, come back to NYC and i just cant get the LTE signal to show up for days..I understand there was a hurricane, but this has been going on way before that and in fact, service seems a little better than before after the hurricane

If you are having this issue on any phone, please share your experience. I heard that Verizon may even waive the ETF since apparently they cannot fix this issue and is all over the NYC area. If you were offered a ETF waiver please share too.. I still have a 2 year contract, but canceling would be a last resort and it will mean getting new phones for all the family and we are so mad we are willing to do that, but the ETF is just armed robbery.

Comments

Goola

I can confirm the above problems as well. I work in the Financial District in downtown Manhattan and I've had terrible experience with data so far. The issues with data connection has been there for months, I've been with Verizon for a few years now and data speeds in Manhattan has been getting worse each year. I had an old DroidX (3G only) and the data reception were non-existent at times and most times slower than dial up. I had been running speed tests and not speaking from browsing experience or anything. The data problems got so bad that I suspected my old phone's antenna had given up. I switched to a Galaxy Nexus phone with the exact same results. Little or no data connection with extremely slow connection when it is present. 4G reception is the only time I get reliable data (although at 3G speeds) but unfortunately more often than not 4G is not available.

At this point, I know that I'm going to get terrible data speeds or no data at all when I see 3G on my phone. I've been out of contract for months now. I'm trying to evaluate other carriers but I do not know how well they fare in Manhattan. I've heard complaints from AT&T users as well, especially in the midtown area.

Prizm

I can confirm the awful speeds in Midtown.

I just got the iphone5 and the service for VZ is terrible in Midtown. As in non-existent on quite a few streets from 10th Ave at 42nd. All the way over to Bryant Park. Considering this is where I work, this may be a deal breaker for me.

This is like going back to the bad old days of Cell Service with ATT.

Verizon - you disappoint, in one of your largest markets/if not THE largest market on the planet. Step it up.

Ann154

Did you ever think that maybe the issues you are seeing are still related to damage done from Hurricane Sandy? The landline services that support all the cellular tower were severely flooded and now it has to be rebuilt to restore full functionality.

Prizm

I would attribute this terrible service to Hurricane Sandy. However, the complaints of awful service have existed prior to Sandy hitting. Coverage in the city is very spotty. Midtown is a nightmare. Next to zero service.

Yujin

That was what verizon said, but the service AFTER sandy is better than BEFORE sandy. And even now they said the signal is within marginal error...which is basically saying...our "marginal" error is what they can live with and not fix it...what ever that is.in any case, I'm sick of verizon and i switched from ATT and when i did their 3g was horrible, now their LTE is horrible. Good for calls, but most smartphones are meant to be more than just phones. cant wait for my contract to be over so i can move back to ATT, i have a family plan so is not as cheap as canceling one line and getting new phones...hope people read this and see what it is really about....

mivar

I got the iPhone 5 last week and can confirm similar experiences with VZ LTE. Should have read this forum and the various comments before i got the new iPhone 5. I am only getting 2 or 1 bars on LTE at work & home in Manhattan (5th and 23rd - as central as it gets). if I turn the LTE off and turn off all the notifications etc. i get 4 bars...not really a solution since i procured the iPhone 5 for the LTE service. Thinking of returning the phone. The store rep told me that I had 14 days. I am sure there some fine print that will hold me hostage.

If you have a iPhone 4S then think twice about upgrading to a iPhone 5. It might not be worth the hassle in NYC in my opinion.

Yujin

I was in the same boat, every one brags and praises verizon, but now i feel like their false advertising is not based on real world test, but testing on empty markets. If you can, return that phone, you may need to pay a restocking fee, but tell them you got not service, and even if you have to pay the restocking fee, better than give them a few thousand a year just for crappy speeds and bad service (even their reps tell me their network sucks).

I got fed up and while my contract is up next month (i will cancel it), i already switched to AT&T and their coverage and speeds is short of amazing. See my speed test below, taken on the same spot where i usually test my verizon phone (my office in midtown). I also tested them in the building's elevator (where never had a signal) and the speed dropped to 32MB down..not bad...i guess ATT really beefed up their network since the days of crappy 3G and dropped calls...

milan03

You do realize that you're on much emptier LTE network yourself? AT&T doesn't have nearly as many LTE users as Verizon currently has after 2 years of commercial availability. On an empty Verizon network, or even as recent as 10 months ago I used to max out sectors at just under 72mbps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwsM7eHRYE

But this is to be expected, I just hope that Verizon addresses this issue soon, with possible 40Mhz of AWS spectrum they own in NYC Metro. Since the network is Rel 8, maybe with parallel LTE Band for capacity for now, and possible aggregation down the road.

scott21

LMAO you ny people kill me.

4ktvs

I think Verizon is going to be stuck with 4G speed issues over the next 2-3 years. Due to mostly only having the 700mhz band. AT&T has the 700, 1700/2100 and now the 2.3Ghz bands to help. Sprint has the 1900mhz, 2.5ghz and 800 mhz bands.

I think even t-mobile will be in a better place (air space, not $ or any of that) with all the 1700/2100 band they have.

I have seen speeds as low as 200-300kbs down and 500kbs up in the RDU area over the last few days. ( It's not even nearly as big as NYC so yea.)

To the OP: Hope AT&T works better for you and man I wish I got speeds like that at home.

P.S Sorry Verizon did not work for you OP and any one else in the NYC area.

NYC_Husker

I've faced the same problem. Just got my iPhone 5 a week or so ago and find that the LTE service is worse than when I had my iPhone 4 on 3G service. The problem is worse in my office (midtown Manhattan) than at home (UWS), but I still noticed while traveling around Denver and the Rockies this past weekend that the coverage wasn't much better. What gives, Verizon?!

gmarch

Same here. I worked on the lower ease side (Barclay Street). 4G was spotty at best, and 3G would drop often.

I am now on the lower west side (Old Slip). 4G is completely non-existent. As for 3G, I rarely get a data connection for more than a few seconds before it drops.

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

bdoppelt

Same here. Although it seems its gotten a lot worse for me in the last month or so. ATT starting to look really good again, especially since they are getting the HTC one.

tmfster

Throw me in the terrible service boat as well.

When I called VZN and persisted, the "excuse" I was given was that there are multiple VZN customers in the area who are using signal boosters and pulling signal strength away from normal iPhone 5 users like myself.

I said that this is VZN's problem, not mine, and if they can't provide LTE service as advertised, then I would like to cancel my contract. They refused to cancel my contract on the call, however, I requested that they send the above explanation for the poor service to me in writing. The customer service rep agreed to send the excuse to me in writing, however, as anyone could have guessed, VZN has sent nothing thus far.

Has anyone had any luck on a resolution here?

tmfster

As an fyi, what compelled me to post on this board was a friend who came through with a ATT iPhone 5.

We did a side by side speed test.

My iPhone hit about 3-4 Mbps, which is my typical speed anywhere in Manhattan (I live on UES and work in Midtown). The ATT iPhone notched just below 30 Mbps. This little test has me fuming and it should have all NYC VZN customers fuming as well.

Verizon_Support

gmarch, no worries. I'm here to get you reconnected to our data network. Try removing the sim card briefly and placing it back into your device. Additionally, you will also need to power cycle your phone off/on. This soft reset will improve your data connection. Keep us posted.

LasinaH_VZW

VZW Support

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSUPPORT

milan03

I'm sure everyone has already done that, but thanks for the response. That's not gonna do much if there is capacity issue with Verizon's LTE in New York City.

tmfster

I agree with milan03.

In fact, not only did I do the above, but VZN actually sent me a new phone and SIM card. Obviously, none of this worked because it's a VZN service issue, not a phone issue.

gmarch

Being a technologist, I would really like to understand how removing the sim card and power cycling a device would fundamentally change anything. And, how is it any different from just rebooting? And, why would rebooting help? Is something downloaded when the device restarts? The phone is a computer. It operates by executing instructions programmed in the firmware and memory. Removing the card and replacing it doesn't change any of that. The analogy would be that when a light bulb burns out, you should try unscrewing it from the lamp and screwing it back in. It isn't going to help.

As such, I have never seen any documented information that shows this makes any difference, but I am willing to be enlightened.

Oh, and by the way, I do not recommend following the procedure you outlined as you described it. Unless the sim card is designed to be hot-swappable, the phone should be powered down before you remove it or else it could be damaged.

Thanks

gmarch

Oh - I should also add that if I walk 4 blocks north to the Verizon Wireless store on Water Street, I get a full 4G signal.

dmitriys

I just wanted to chime in here as well, as I am on 42nd & Lexington and sit in an office with a window on the 32nd Floor, and have absolutely horrible LTE service. I have at most 1 bar of service on LTE and the download speed is less than .5 mbps. Most of the time, I have to turn LTE off and stay on 3G, which is 3 bars at best and has even slower speeds.

It has been this way since the beginning of March and I have called VZW and spoke to a tier 3 specialist to get this resolved. He said it may be a tower problem and they will not fix it unless more and more people call in and report the problem.

Verizon: PLEASE ASSIST.

Forum Members: PLEASE CALL IN AND LET VZW KNOW.

takiman

I am on 54th and 6th and have been having the same issue since the beginning of February. I get less than 0.02Mbps download and upload on speed tests. I spoke to Verizon about this and they said it would be fixed within two weeks.

timmiii888

LTE speeds and reception is extremely bad in Midtown Manhattan as well as Astoria Queens. The best I ever get in LTE signal strength is 2 to 3 bars out of 5 and there has been a definite speed decrease in the areas which I travel to most since I signed up in November 2012.\

In addition, my sms are heavily delayed. People are receiving them minutes to hours after I initially sent them out.

JosephAdes

I am a computer consultant and travel all over NYC midtown (some areas in downtown as well)

Since day 1 of using LTE - right when iPhone 5 came out - speeds were fine, but terrible indoor and in-building coverage

Not even a year later - impossible to make use of the LTE network. I carry a second iPhone on me which uses AT&T LTE and always have 4-5 bars of usable service, inside and outside, even in basements.

When voice over LTE comes out - forget it. This will be a repeat of the issues AT&T had in 2010 with dropped calls left and right

Was in times square outdoors on 42nd street and 7th ave - did not get more than 2 bars of service! Is this a joke??

3G indoor coverage is no better. Better than LTE by far, but 80% of the places I go to - unusable, vs AT&T which works perfectly

And if you thought midtown was bad, try downtown. Midtown looks like god when you compare it to downtown.

One thing is clear, my days on verizon will be numbered. Probably switching to T-Mobile soon unless Verizon can compensate me for the fact that I can't use the phone more than half the time I make an attempt to do so.

Shame on you verizon

PS - I know that the issue isnt with my phone because when I had a verizon ipad (I switched that to AT&T few months ago) I had the same issues, and my business partner uses the galaxy s3 on verizon LTE and has the exact same issues.

Intocable

i work on 34th street and 7thave and i get 3G and 1X all the time. 4G is non existent.sometimes 4g pops up and is unbearable so i forced 3g through the phone info app on google playstore. 3g is actually faster on manhattan believe it or not. at least to check emails and browse mobile sites.

Verngrey

Getting less than stellar speeds as well here in williamsburg / north brooklyn ny, it started off great when I first got the service back in october 2012, always had 25 down 23 up etc, the last month & a half I can barely get above 11 or 12 down and barely 6 up. Its ridiculous considering we pay top dollar, for a supposed top of the line cellular & capped LTE data network.

JosephAdes

Are you kidding me 10-11 down you think thats bad?? Try no more than 3 down and .5 up!! Pretty much all over midtown. Slower than AT&T 3G!

lem0nayde1

I'm suffering the same fate.

My iPhone 5 was fine when I first got it, but in the last two months I've noticed that I rarely get LTE anymore. I live in Astoria and it used to work really well, but now I am lucky to manage 2-3 bars of non-LTE service. When traveling around the city, I'll get occasional pockets of LTE (Union Square and Upper West side seem decent, Midtown has always been a nightmare for connecting), but even that is not happening as often.

Worst still — I've recently started working just above Battery Park and the situation is dire. I get a connection so slow that I can't do anything on my phone that is data or voice related. I might as well leave my SIM card at home.

It's a huge monthly expense for such poor service. I'm desperate enough that I guess I'll make the dreaded call to Verizon customer service. If I can get enough reception to do it.

timmiii888

***UPDATE***

I spoke to customer service over the phone and they suggested I get a new SIM card. OK... I went to the Verizon Wireless store on Canal St. and got my SIM card replaced free of charge; problem still persists. No surprise there... It's definitely not my iPhone5 because I can go to Ktown (32nd St between Broadway and Madison) and I'll get 4 to 5 bars constant and the speeds tested to be around 14 tp 16Mbps down.

LES, Chinatown, Park Ave (around 27th St.) and all along 42nd St. the LTE service is horrible, 1 to 2 bars constantly. The speeds are from 0 to 2 Mbps at best and ping can be from 60 to 130. This was definitely not the case a few months ago...

unknown

Same issues here...
Reference my post here: https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/959125#959125d

We are definitely not alone in this, see all posts I reference there as well. It also seems VZW isn't doing much (I did the same sim card nonsense as well).

mgerbasio1

I'm also having network issues.

aal34

I work and live in midtown, near 53rd and 5th and 59th and 6th. I just got the Samsung S4, and the LTE service is horrible - almost unsable. I've done speed test and I'm getting 41 to 73kbps in my office. Outside, walking on 5th ave, I got maybe 508kbps. My friends on Tmobile were getting 3000kbps to 5000kbps - topping out at 15,000 kbps - on the Samsung S4.

I just spoke to Teyeh, manager at the 57th and 6th ave Verizon store, and he said a senior verizon VP was at their store and raise the slow data issue. Supposidely, he said it was reported 5 to 6 days ago, and Verizon is working to fix it. Having looked at the prior post from Nov 2012, I'm not sure that this is just a one-off situation. However, if you're lucky, maybe whatever fix they're doing will improve your service. I've been a Verizon customer for over 10+ years, and seriously considering the switch to Tmobile or AT&T. I still like Verizon, but they need to better communicate their known issues to customers. I suggest we all call and complain, until they fix it.

anonymouslurker

aal34 wrote:
I work and live in midtown, near 53rd and 5th and 59th and 6th. I just got the Samsung S4, and the LTE service is horrible - almost unsable. I've done speed test and I'm getting 41 to 73kbps in my office. Outside, walking on 5th ave, I got maybe 508kbps. My friends on Tmobile were getting 3000kbps to 5000kbps - topping out at 15,000 kbps - on the Samsung S4.
I just spoke to Teyeh, manager at the 57th and 6th ave Verizon store, and he said a senior verizon VP was at their store and raise the slow data issue. Supposidely, he said it was reported 5 to 6 days ago, and Verizon is working to fix it. Having looked at the prior post from Nov 2012, I'm not sure that this is just a one-off situation. However, if you're lucky, maybe whatever fix they're doing will improve your service. I've been a Verizon customer for over 10+ years, and seriously considering the switch to Tmobile or AT&T. I still like Verizon, but they need to better communicate their known issues to customers. I suggest we all call and complain, until they fix it.

Your friend gets faster on t-mobile because they have very few 4G LTE customers. Don't expect it to be that way for long same thing goes for at&t. Verizon is having capacity issues because it has tons of customers using it's 4G service. Good news is if you have a Galaxy S4 or Lumina 928 both are capable of receiving signals from the AWS spectrum Verizon will be deploying for LTE in areas like NYC by the end of the year.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, began selling two phones this month that can take advantage of the company’s next network upgrade, which promises to more than double Internet speeds. Nokia Lumia 928, which went on sale this month, and Samsungs Galaxy S4, which debuted last week, are the first phones built with components that let them work on Verizon’s Advanced Wireless Service airwaves,.

The two models are among seven AWS-capable devices that Verizon Wireless has started selling in preparation for a new network on the AWS spectrum. The upgraded service -- which relies on long-term evolution, or LTE -- is scheduled to start in major cities, including New York, in the next few months.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-28/verizon-galaxy-s4-is-first-phone-to-work-on-next-network.html

JosephAdes

For the price we are paying, to have it fixed by year end is ridiculous. I just ported my number to AT&T and I am wishing I ported it the moment the iPhone 5 came out - instead of sticking with Verizon and paying full price to keep my unlimited data. My unlimited data was rendered useless because the phone would never work in manhattan nor would it work indoors in most of the places I go to within NYC.

Once AWS fixes the capacity issues, something should be done to address the indoor coverage issues. AT&T and tmobile keep setting up new towers all over, and Verizon is not following suit. Where is all that money going? Shareholders pockets rather than making the required investment??!

Ridiculous.

anonymouslurker

JosephAdes1 wrote:
For the price we are paying, to have it fixed by year end is ridiculous. I just ported my number to AT&T and I am wishing I ported it the moment the iPhone 5 came out - instead of sticking with Verizon and paying full price to keep my unlimited data. My unlimited data was rendered useless because the phone would never work in manhattan nor would it work indoors in most of the places I go to within NYC.
Once AWS fixes the capacity issues, something should be done to address the indoor coverage issues. AT&T and tmobile keep setting up new towers all over, and Verizon is not following suit. Where is all that money going? Shareholders pockets rather than making the required investment??!
Ridiculous.

And when more people on at&t get LTE enabled phones you are going to run into the same issue. And it's not about "fixing" anything. Oh and Verizon invest plenty. Try reading. Firstly they are adding AWS ability to 5000 towers and adding microwtowers also to help for those that don't have AWS enabled phones and for improving indoor coverage. That costs money. Oh and just adding LTE to begin with cost tens of billions. That AWS spectrum they are going to use, they paid $3.6 BILLION just for that. So saying Verizon doesn't spend on investment is not only wrong but an ignorant thing to say.

So good luck with at&t. I say in 6 months when Verizon has upgraded the NY area and more people are clogging at&t's network you will be sorry you went to at&t.

anonymouslurker

Oh an I don't want to hear about how great t-mobile is. They don't have a SINGLE tower within 50 miles of my location.

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