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4G LTE: Washington DC - Horrible Service and Speeds

I live in the Georgetown / West End Area of DC. I make my way throughout the city on a daily basis. My download speeds have tanked from 20Mbps to 0.30Mbps. It doesn't seem to matter what part of DC I am in my download speeds don't seem to improve. I am connected to Verizon's LTE network with 3-4 bars and still my download speeds are crippling slow. Has anyone found a fix to this? I am thinking of switching services but want to know if there are any fixes before I switch to ATT. I have 2 iPhones and an iPad and they all have this issue! Any help?

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Comments

Trish672

I work right across the street from Metro Center and I can say that speeds are absolutely awful. Speeds range from .1 to .3 Mbps if I'm lucky to connect at all. If AWS doesn't improve things I'll soon be switching to Tmobile or AT&T.

Nitspatel

Ditto I have the same issue in washington DC metro.. Check out my thread... https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/806838

MD76

I'm having a terrible time using 4G LTE in downtown Washington on my new iPhone 5S. Located at corner of 12th & E St NW, zipcode 20004. At most I receive 1 bar and the speed is so slow as to be useless. I've had to turn off 4G LTE to use 3G, which is working (but I paid to upgrade to iPhone 5s from the 4 specifically to get access to LTE). Based on all the threads on here, this appears to be a widespread problem with the VZW LTE network in DC, regardless of the device used.

MD76

I just spoke with customer service at *611 about the very slow LTE service in downtown DC (near Metro Ctr) using my new iPhone 5s. Nice fellow but he was not able to help -- I was basically told that with more people moving on to the 4G LTE network, speed is affected at times. It's pretty clear that VZW needs to fortify its 4G network in DC. Otherwise, it will start to lose customers to Sprint, T-Mo and AT&T.

jrindc

Yesterday at 20th & K Street, the heart of the business district of DC, I got 300 kbps. That's kbps, not Mbps. And wouldn't upload at all -- was simply unusable. This is not a temporary situation. Had a 5S phone for about 2 months, but I don't know why. LTE is not slow, it's not working in DC.

Nitspatel

So got an email from Verizon wireless today saying my ticket is resolved. No explanation whatsoever. No information about what was the issue and what they did to resolve it. And still I am getting these hopeless speeds as of now.

jrindc

At 20th & K Washington DC, Dec 5: I'd upload a screen image of Speedtest but I can't from my phone. I got 173 kbps download and 2 kbps upload. So turned off 4G and guess what -- 735 kbps down and 264 kbps up. Again, that's well less than 1 mbps but it's something. 4G LTE is broken.

phositadc

Verizon supposedly did something to fix this. http://gizmodo.com/verizons-lte-just-three-times-faster-in-a-bunch-of-big-1477818374. Can anybody confirm improved speeds in Washington DC?

Nitspatel

I have been keeping track and as of now, no improvement on my phone. Between 11:30 AM to 7:00 PM, the phone is unusable in DC.

jrindc

speedtest LTE.PNG speedtest 3G.PNG

Dec 17 2013: first test is 4G LTE (see top) and second is 3G (LTE disabled). 20th & K Street, Washington DC

jrindc

Good news for 4G Verizon LTE. Something has changed dramatically -- 32 Mbps down, 6 up. wow. 20th & K DC, Jan 28th.

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Ann154

The AWS frequency (band 4) might be up and running in the area a if your phone supports the frequency.

jrindc

I think you're right. I have an iPhone 5S and I just found out the 5 series does support AWS. I'd never heard of AWS til now much less that Washington was about to get it. This is a big deal - it's faster than my WiFi speeds at home.

Ann154

jrindc wrote:
I think you're right. I have an iPhone 5S and I just found out the 5 series does support AWS. I'd never heard of AWS til now much less that Washington was about to get it. This is a big deal - it's faster than my WiFi speeds at home.

This press release discusses it. http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2013/12/verizon-wireless-4g-lte-three-year-anniversary.html

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