Has 4G slowed drastically since last week for you too?

[CoreySimo]

Traditional internet is not offered at my house so I tether via USB. I used to have no problem with this since I got a decent signal to my house.

I'd search things, look up news, go on youtube, facebook, and forums.

Last week my speeds went from about 1.5mbps down to about 25kbps. I have no idea why and it has left me frustrated and pretty much internetless.

There are two towers within range of my house and I drove by both of them to find that they are outputting less speed now even when I'm near them. I tried with both my phone (LGG2) and my wife's Samsung S6, and we used to get about 40mbps while near the tows and now we're seeing about 6mbps. I did the same experiment while I was at work 40 miles away in the suburbs of Minneapolis and I saw ~6mbps where it's normally blazing fast.

I also know that the towers are owned/run by two different companies, which leads me to believe it's a Verizon thing.

I pay for 30GB per month so I can use my phone's internet, is this something that's hooked to my account, or has Verizon changed something recently?

I am very confused about why this would happen all of a sudden.

Thanks,

Corey

[vzw_customer_support]

We only hope to change things for the better, CoreySimo. Let's work on getting you back to the speeds you need! What zip code are you located in that's decreased so drastically? Does your device still display LTE for the signal strength or does it change to 3G or even 1x? Are your calls or text affected as well?

JenniferH_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[CoreySimo]

Hello Jennifer,

My zip code is 55069.

I am staying on 4GLTE but I went from two bars down to one at my house. Even when I am very close to the tower, it still isn't going as fast though.

I downloaded an .apk that shows me the dBm, signal %, and connected towers. It looks like I am getting -110dBm, 75-90% signal, and only one tower (from my house). The .apk is called OpenSignal (for anyone interested).

Also, my talking has been worse. I used to be able to go to most rooms in my house and now the talking starts to sound robotic if I'm not in the room with the most service. Even then, I did drop a call yesterday.

Hopefully this information helps and we can come up with a solution!

Thanks,

Corey S.

[vzw_customer_support]

Those were great details! Thanks, CoreySimo. There have not been other reports of customers in the area noticing a drastic difference as you've mentioned. I do see the coverage in 55069 can vary and may be especially weaker indoors. As spring comes foliage may add to the difficulties along with the terrain in the area. Our Network Team does constantly work on our network to find ways to improve areas and limit these factors that are beyond our control. You mentioned, however, that you tested this about 40 miles away and had a similar experience. Has anything changes on your phones? A new case or or update or application perhaps? It may sound simple, but have you tried to power down the phones and remove the SIM (carefully) for about 30 seconds to restart the connections to the network?


JenniferH_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[CoreySimo]

Hi Jennifer,

I was also thinking about foliage coming in with it being spring time, however it was more like a switch was flipped. We had been using the internet quite a bit that week using the hotspot USB, and then it just stopped. I thought something was wrong, so I went to do some speed tests and they showed very slow speeds (and took a long time to load the page).

Both my wife and I have not had any changes to our phones (cases, screen protectors, SIM cards, etc...).

Also, I do not think the landscape has changed at all since the state owns most of the land between us and the tower, and the rest of it is farm land.

I have tried restarting the phones and turning them to airplane mode and back, but I have not tried removing the SIM cards yet. I'll try that tonight.

I have also noticed that the upload speeds on my phone (while at my house) are still very high and it only seems to be the download speeds that have dropped.

I'll keep trying to collect more data on what could be causing it.

Do you happen to have a map of the closest towers? I know where two are, but I was wondering if you had all in the area along with if they do 4GLTE or only 3G and Voice.

Thanks again,

Corey S.

[vzw_customer_support]

Thanks for all your efforts, CoreySimo. The steps you're taking will certainly help to find a resolution. The exact location of our towers would not be able to be shared but there are some towers that have not been updated to LTE service in the 55069 area yet. If you have a general idea of where the towers in your area are located, can you think of anything hat has recently been built between you and the tower? Do you have any neighbors that have recently moved that may have had a network extender boosting signal or even a new neighbor with one that could be interfering?

JenniferH_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[CoreySimo]

I'm sorry Jennifer, I was away for work the last week and a half and didn't have a minute to reply.

I haven't had any new neighbors, and I can't think of anything that has changed. It does seem like later at night (past 9:30pm) my internet seems to get better. My signal doesn't change, but it seems like the data is more steady. And using speed test websites, it seems to sit between 200-250kbps. That's still not anywhere near my 1.5mbps I was getting, but it's better than the 25kbps I get through the day.

There isn't anything Verizon is doing to lower data during busy hours is there?

Thanks again for the help!

Corey S.

[vzw_customer_support]

That's quite alright Corey. We appreciate your response. You may be getting better speeds at night because of less persons accessing their services at that time. I live right across from a Forest Preserve and therefore signal is not always the best in my area due to that alone. Now that the neighborhood kids are out of school, I have also noticed a considerable drop in my data speeds during the day however it picks up after 11pm at night and therefore I queue my show downloads for after that time.

Have you tried refreshing your SIM, by removing it and re-inserting it?  http://vz.to/1I6j2Ky If not, try that and then wait 5 minutes for it to properly establish on our network and perform about 3 new speedtests back to back.

Keep us posted with the results.

EbonyR_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[CoreySimo]

I suppose that makes sense that the towers could be a bottle neck to the amount of kids back from college for the summer, but I feel like that is a crazy change in speed still. If it went from 1.5mbps, down to 1mbps during 'peak hours', that'd make more sense to me. I can try this weekend to test speeds at say 2am to see if they are back to my 1.5mbps speed. I just feel like something drastically changed.

And if the towers are bottle necking the connection to everyone, is there a plan to upgrade these? Is that even Verizon's responsibility? I'm guessing the towers aren't actually owned by Verizon?

Also, for the SIM card reset, I did take it out before while the phone was off. Am I supposed to turn the phone back on with no SIM card, or just simply take it out of the phone for five minutes while the phone is off, and then put it back in the phone and reboot?

Thanks for the help,

Corey S.

[EvstersTech]

TThe same issue is happening here as well. It started approx 2 days ago. Happening with LTE service on iPhone, iPad and a jet pack,unit.

zip code 59427

time has been evenings, early am (3-4am'ish)'regular mornings so I would not think its additional users being these varied hours.

my download speeds are maybe 0.5 megabytes and upload in the 6 megabyte range. Prior to this I,would have gotren 8 to 10 megabyte downloads. I'm guessing I connect to the tower near rr tracks that I have line of sight to from my house

advice? Please check....     Thanks

[CoreySimo]

Well I'm glad it's not just me then. And you're a good 1000 miles away from me.

EbonyR_VZW, are you sure something didn't just change? And if you find out something did, are there plans to change it back?

Thanks,

Corey S.

[vzw_customer_support]

I want you to have the best possible service Evsters! I understand how important it is to make sure you are able to browse the web freely. What is the make and model of your devices? Does this continue when you leave the area? I currently don't see any issues over here. Is anyone else in the household having issues?

AmberF_VZW Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[EvstersTech]

Devices -

iPhone 6

iPad Mini 3

iPad Air 2

Hotspot Mifi 6620L

All devices have unlimited data plans through our WSCA gov't contract.

I happened to bring other peoples district devices home last night to test out - last night top download speed according to the speedtest app was .58 Mbps down 6 to 7 Mbps upload (regardless of which device - showing 4 to 5 bars signal strength on all devices) - this morning I was getting around 1.25 Mbps down. So extra users might explain last night/this morning difference but not near what I had last week when 8 - 10 Mb download would have been common and I've seen up to 15 Mbps download speed.

This morning and 45 minutes later - same devices in zip code 59417 (with only 1 bar/dot signal strength) I'm getting 9.33 Mbps download. This location is 35 miles away from where I live so I would assume different tower(s) being utilized.

So I would have to make assumption something is wrong with your facility/tower in the 59427 area and I would guess the tower down off of  Railroad Street since I have line of sight to that tower or the issue was fixed in the past hour. Won't know until I get home tonight.

I have another district device in zip code 59411 (45 miles from 59417) at our school up there and it will commonly pull 15-18 Mbps download speeds - better than any DSL line service (since I can't get DSL in that location). I have not tested the above devices when at that school but I would expect similar results.

Thanks, Ev

[Egasca]

Same thing happening here.  Although it's only affected my phone linked to my unlimited data plan. Upload speeds can be as bad as 0.02mbps that's not even 20kb!!!! Wtf verizon. The plan hasn't even used over 2.0 gigs for this billing period.  Verizon definitely flipped a switch and is keeping it on the hush hush.

[CoreySimo]

Weirdly enough, my internet was back to normal this weekend. I was only on it for about an hour at most, but it was performing how it used to. I'll see if this was a fluke, or not in the next week or so. I'll be out of town on work most of this week, so I might not have an answer until next.

[CoreySimo]

I take that back. I was home yesterday for a good hour (6pm - 7pm between trips), and the internet was terrible.

[UncleBuck30804]

Corey,

I'm in zip code 71019. Over the past year my phone service with Verizon has become noticeably sub-par. I used to have 4g at my house. Now I'm lucky if I can make a phone call without it being dropped. I've called to complain numerous times. I've been told a different excuse every time I call. To many people are using the internet in my area causing a weaker than normal signal, Verizon is working on a tower in my area, etc.etc.etc. The last time I called I was told that a note would be made, that my call was the first complaint they had received in the area. I said no its not, I've called numerous times. The service has gotten so bad that I can't even make a phone call at my office without it being dropped and my office is near town. They talked me into purchasing a Samsung booster to help with my problem, and now my phone shows full service while at the office, but I still can't make a phone call. I went and purchased a spare phone from AT&T and I have no issues with that phone at my office. They are also in the process of putting up another tower in my area as we speak. Once the tower is up, I will be swapping all of my company phones to AT&T, its bad business when you spend over $10,000 a month for company phones and can't use them.

[vzw_customer_support]

We do appreciate your loyalty UncleBuck30804 and would miss you if you left!I would like to further review your account and give you a clear answer. I have sent you a private message so I can assist.

AmberF_VZW Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[UncleBuck30804]

Amber to be honest my service has been a disappointment for a year now. I don’t know what Verizon changed but something happened. I’ve had my business account set up with Verizon for over 6 years and never had a problem. In the past year I have had to add phone boosters to every truck in our fleet so our employees could have the phone service to do their jobs. I had to add a Samsung booster at my office to try and help with the lack of phone service and dropped calls, which didn’t help. I was told you were working on a tower in our area, but its been a year and it hasn’t changed at all. I thought that it might have just been my old model phone. But I went Friday and picked up a Samsung Galaxy S6. Its worse now than before. My company has almost 400 employees and most of our phones are Verizon, if this issues isn’t resolved soon we will be looking for a new service provider.

Thanks,

Rob [removed]

“You get what you inspect, not what you expect!!”

Personal Information removed as required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service

Message was edited by Verizon Moderator

[vzw_customer_support]

UncleBuck30804,

We want you to enjoying being in the VZW family as must as you enjoyed it when you frist started service. Have you had the opportunity to respond to the private message from Amber as previously requested? We want to get to the bottom of your issue.

LindseyT_VZW Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[anywhodee]

I have noticed the same.  Especially the last couple of weeks. If i even get a signal any more. half the time i have no bars where I used to get full bars. Not to mention Verizon went completely down the other week.  For real? What the heck is going on.  My lines are slowly coming out of contract and i am debating on whether or not i even want to renew them.