4G and it's problems. President's Mandate of comunications as Utility.

[OCLIP]

Many of the signal propagation problems that you all see with 4G, could be mitigated if Verizon techs could tell you how it works, and suggest that you all get better antennas, for one. Or whatever they would like you to do. The wind, the rain, the sun, and many other weather and climate and solar factors affect your signal propagation, on the two 5Mhz frequencies (MIMO) of 4G. The software to run digital  MIMO is very complicated, but operates seamlessly, usually, and in civilization where you have many towers around. In the Rural parts of the country, where we are dependent on just one cell site/tower, we must have cross polarized antennas to get signal from the single tower. Software cannot switch us off to another tower seamlessly, or at all. So we loose signal, because maybe the wind is blowing, and the dust attenuates or diffracts one of our frequencies and there is no other tower to transfer the lost signal to, or whatever. It is frustrating. I'm sure it happens all over depending on terrain and many other factors. I run a pantech USB modem, in a stationary location. It has two co ax jacks in it. The question I see is--- which jack is better?  Well, Cross polarized antennas have two antennas and two co ax cables which must plug into two jacks. Now you will get 4 bars of signal strength. How you do this on a smart or cell phone, I don't know. But the extenders and jetpacks have small cross polarized antennas, and that's why, unknowingly, the techs et al from Verizon, try and 'sell' you these units. I wouldn't buy one. When I learned how 4g works, a cross polarized antenna was what was  appropriate for my usb modem, and I've had no problems with signal propagation since. I've had other problems with vz access mgr and data usage notice, but not signals. MIMO is what gives 4G it's LTE, if you will. Someday the LTE is forecast to go to 3X3, 4X4, 5X5 MIMO.  MIMO is what gives LTE its great bandwidth and speed. MIMO= Multiple In Multiple Out= multiple frequencies. An example of other technologies which are MIMO are your Bluetooth modems and gear. The multiple frequencies of 4G are 5 Mhz bandwith. Whereas 3G has one frequency of 20 Mhz bamdwith. It's a whole different ballgame. The software to run this is, and in digital, is daunting. My personal feeling is that Verizon will go down in flames before  they will be able to design and manage 3 or 4 by, MIMO. Even at the top levels of communications, it is becoming more and more recognized that digital MIMO communications is not all it's cracked up to be. That's why analog radio, ie Ham Radio among others, carries commo during emergencies when there is no other backup. I'm not here to plug Ham Radio, I'm here to advocate for more education about 4g, so you all can have the instant gratification that your smart phones on 4G can work at, at their full potential, around verizons great network. Yes, it is the best network in the country.

The potential is there, educate yourselves. I have been on a personal 'crusade' for the last 2 yrs, as I have had problems with Verizon, to advocate the Verizon 'phone room techs' to get their supervisors to educate them on how 4G works, so they could explain it to their customers.  All  I know for sure, is that I have a cross polarized antenna set, cost $70, and my usb pantech modem works flawlessly. I could see the improvement. Dealing with Verizon on these issues is like dealing with the government. The phone techs at the bottom, who we all talk to, are the nicest people like you and me, but at the top it's all about money, "Don't interrupt our opportunistically priced revenue stream." " Sin and avarice has ample wages, but the truth goes begging"  I will leave the 'Utility' issue alone for now.