Map shows 4G coverage, phone won't connect, VZW denies coverage

[gobucks821]

I'm unable to connect to 4G in Oxford, OH zip 45056. Latitute 39.50098, longitute -84.73662. Their 4G map shows that address is within their coverage (not extended network, but their own 4G LTE network). And it's showed that for at least 2 weeks.

I talked to Tier 2 Sunday night. They just got back to me saying our tower doesn't have 4G yet...the @VZWSupport people just said the same thing.

Anyone else in an area without 4G where the map shows coverage?

[mr23frahee]

Here in Michigan, LTE turned on last week here in the Saginaw area. I live in Freeland, just outside Saginaw, which is completely covered on the coverage map. I have yet to have my Bionic connect to 4G anywhere around my house. Pretty disappointing, Im hoping the actual coverage matches what the map shows pretty soon. If not, seems a little like false advertising.

[budone]

Have you turned on the 4G radio on the phone????

[gobucks821]

Yep - the 4G worked just fine in three other 4G markets, just not here. The tier 2 technician had me try disabling and re-enabling it, remove SIM card for 20 minutes, etc. Nothing worked, so he submitted a ticket for VZW to research. They later replied that my tower isn't 4G even though the map is throughly saturated with 4G, right down to my specific address. Strange!

[AntonioC_VZW]

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mr23frahee wrote:

Here in Michigan, LTE turned on last week here in the Saginaw area. I live in Freeland, just outside Saginaw, which is completely covered on the coverage map. I have yet to have my Bionic connect to 4G anywhere around my house. Pretty disappointing, Im hoping the actual coverage matches what the map shows pretty soon. If not, seems a little like false advertising.

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Hi mr23frahee,

I understand your desire for 4G coverage in your area and your disappointment for any confusion with our coverage map. Please note that our coverage map point out some extended coverage within the 4G coverage and this extended coverage does not guarantee 4G signal and 3G will most like be present in 4G extended coverage. This is noted in our 4G coverage map.

To confirm the coverage type in your particular address, please do the following:

Visit the 4G LTE Website

Click on the WHERE IS 4G LTE AVAILABLE? link.

Enter your complete address including house/apt number and street address.

Click the AM I COVERED? link.

Click the VIEW COVERAGE link.

Zoom out twice on the coverage map.

Map will display coverage in two tones of red, one for 4G network and another for 4G Extended network.

4G signal is not guaranteed in 4G Extended network as noted online.

[rpgj]

On the coverage site, after being "congratulated" for being in a 4G coverage area, I performed each step you outlined in determining which tier of 4G coverage I fall under for my Oxford, OH address.

I am clearly in a 4G (not extended 4G) coverage area, yet I still do not have 4g on my Thunderbolt.

Can you tell me or direct me to someone who can explain this discrepancy and when Verizon will actually have 4G in this location like they are advertising?

EDIT: I actually went ahead and called Tech Support and was transferred the next level of support and submitted a ticket and now am waiting for a call back in the near future.

This tech confirmed that I was in a 4G (not extended 4G coverage) area. 

I've never had trouble connecting to 4G in other markets and always get a clear 2-3 bar signal strength out of 4.  My network settings are confirmed where they need to be.  Nowhere in Oxford can you find a Verizon 4G signal. 

It was attempted to be explained to me about something with the university's tower and Verizon contracts, etc. as to why we don't have 4G.  That point is moot because Verizon is clearly advertising to customers in this region, two-thirds of whom are young adult students who'll clearly avail themselves of 4G devices. I wouldn't buy that, or that I was in a valley, near a river, near an edge of a 3G zone (which I'm not) or anything.  That's not the point.

I know it's not been to long ago that the coverage map has shown any address in Oxford as being in a 4G coverage area because I checked earlier in the summer.

It would really be to Verizon's best interest to remedy this problem by upgrading the towers (because they clearly are not).  Else, Verizon is falsely promoting/marketing a non-existent product just in time for the start of a new school year and an influx of new students probably looking for hot, new Verizon 4G devices.  A competitor has 4G coverage here already, apparently.

Kind of hard to Rule the Air, when you have to breathe the same ol' 3G air but are being told otherwise.

At worst, revise the maps and give us a ballpark figure for when 4G will be delivered here.  Short of that, call tech support, and have a ticket submitted.  I'm not sure what the threshold is for garnering their prompt attention, but that may be all we have left, short of social media awareness.

Nonetheless, I'll reserve judgment myself and allow Verizon time to provide a rationale for their marketing and non-delivery of promised goods (4G).  I've more or less been satisfied with the level of service I've received with any issues to date.  Best case scenario is that they've just jumped the gun on the promotion of the coverage and are or will scurry to update the towers here.

[budone]

Dont know if you read the disclaimer on the 4G coverage page before entering your info.

These Coverage Locator maps depict predicted and approximate wireless coverage. The coverage areas shown do not guarantee service availability, and may include locations with limited or no coverage. Even within a coverage area, there are many factors, including customer's equipment, terrain, proximity to buildings, foliage, and weather that may impact service.

[rpgj]

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budone wrote:

Dont know if you read the disclaimer on the 4G coverage page before entering your info.

These Coverage Locator maps depict predicted and approximate wireless coverage. The coverage areas shown do not guarantee service availability, and may include locations with limited or no coverage. Even within a coverage area, there are many factors, including customer's equipment, terrain, proximity to buildings, foliage, and weather that may impact service.

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Thank you, but I did more than read the small print; I finally called Verizon and spent a good 30 minutes of my day addressing this.

The small print misses the point.  What's the point in painting so many different shades of red and disseminating it for public consumption when you have an ENTIRE CITY indicated in 4G coverage when it is not?  Why pump out a map with "predicted" coverage when it indicates you ARE covered and even the tech tries to explain it away as if there was coverage?  There isn't even LIMITED 4G coverage because THERE IS NO 4G COVERAGE.

Or should we suppose  everyone's equipment is to blame? (Which if you own a Tbolt, may be the case.....show me proof that 4G is on here and I'll get my "equipment" issue addressed).  Or some inexplicable anomaly of terrain (which doesn't currently seem to affect 3G)?  Last time I checked there were no skyscrapers in northwest Butler County, OH.  Maybe it's that gargantuan, 5 square-mile LEAF blocking the signal.  I am waiting for someone with enough meteorological sensibility to explain which particular weather phenomenon prevents one entirely from receiving any signal signal...4G notwithstanding (outside of actual destruction of a tower by wind/lightning/hail....even this Feb's ice storm of 3/4 to 1" accumulation didn't impact signal).  I can NOT get a 4G signal pretty easily at times even in clear weather in Cincinnati.

The point is someone at Verizon is either fine with communicating coverage where there is none or they are in the process of rolling it out here.  As a customer, I should get to know one way or the other and prefer not to bank on this being addressed on its own.  But as I said, I offer the benefit of the doubt until there is none.

[vf1000ride]

Same problem in the Pataskala Oh area with 4g.  Maps show I am well within the 4g prefered coverage with almost a mile before dropping into any extended areas and on most days I get absolutely no data coverage.  My Thunderbolt hunts around between zero data and 1x service.  Voice calls and texting works great.  It is going on 3 months now that Verizon denies issues in my area.  I have had the phone replaced once and the sim replaced twice.  They have come to my area and done tower surveys and signal strength checks and they continue to maintain the signal is good.  I have restarted the whole process again to have them come to my physical address and check signals here.  Not that it would matter because I can walk the entire subdivision and never get a stable data connection.

[Doc832]

The Coverage map shows full coverage in many areas around me that DO NOT get any 4g. I had spoken with several reps from VZW and they keep telling me its an apporoximation of what they "Expect" to have. However, they are 12mi off in several areas.

I am sure the scale is over inflated to help sell cells... Not very nice, I would have waited to get my 4G knowing it would not be in my area. 4 G has been less than reliable even in strong 4g Areas. ITS the marketing.

[Paul77]

I have the same issue in Columbus Ohio 43217 i have the droid charge.

[Paul77]

Does your 4g go away after you pick up the phone and start using it.

[Merrick]

Verizon is becoming famous at exaggerating their actual coverage. They have shown coverage in my town for awhile now and it's still a complete dead zone.

[extraspot]

My city started to get 4G about a month or so ago, and it has been spotty at best.  I think I had it for about 30 seconds at my house the other night.  That was the first time I had here, and I haven't seen it since.  I can get it in some parts of town, but not others.  And while I can get it in my office on the 7th floor, when I hit the 4th floor, it flips to 3G; yet if I go three blocks, I can get it at street level.  Go figure.  It also regularly switches between 4G and 3G.  And today, it was 1X, when I had service at all.  Regardless of where I was in the city, I had data service for about 15 minutes out of 12 hours today.  Verizon is clearly tinkering with it quite a bit as you never know what you are going to get from one day to the next.

[Fatdog1028]

I empathize with you rpgj. I live in Carson Ia (51525) and we are only 3g. I commute to Omaha to work daily and it has 4g coverage. In my house, the 3g is so weak it is almost nonexistent. I look forward to getting 4g, but their competitor will most likely get it first. I am really close to terminating in Feb when my contract expires. Us cellular has a tower next to my house. I am sick and tired of paying $93 a month for service I can't use.

[retired2000]

Ummm.  Yes, I'm a newbie to this forum.  I just posted something.  The header came up but no text.  ?????

[retired2000]

Aha.  Do I have to do a 'preview' before posting?  I did that with the last post and it worked.  Not intuitively obvious.  Now I'll see if I can recreate the first post.

As we traveled this past summer in our motorhome I was always happy to see 4G available when we arrived.  I even saw it in the most unlikely places, like Summerdale, Alabama which is a boondocks kind of place.  It doesn't show 4G on the VZ map but there it was. 

However, we are back in Port St Lucie, Florida and still no 4G service.  Very disappointing.  One would think VZ would run 4G up along the entire Florida coast.

[nwkthompson]

Everyone keeps pointing out the small print as a justification for not having a 4g signal. If that's the case then Verizon could just say that the whole country is covered with 4g. When people call to complain they just point out the small print that says you may not be covered. Verizon's coverage maps are a joke. Plain and simple. Buffalo Niagara just got coverage yesterday and it is pathetic. Nothing in Niagara is covered (maybe a square mile so they can say it's there). I drove around the city today and there is only about 10 miles of coverage and only a small fraction of that has a good signal. As for things interfering with the signal, how is it that they can have 4g in NYC but not a suburb? If you can do it there you can do it anywhere.

[Doc832]

Well most of the area they show as covered around me has NO 4g. I understand that is the case in many of the cities. I just received and Email telling me of the cities they are opening up to 4 g and laughed. You should fix what you have before you make more mistakes. They talk about expanding coverage in some areas that they say already had 4g on the map. Canton and Akron Ohio are one such area.

Love the lies and marketing issues.

[rpgj]

So I've gotten all the way through and gotten tickets for inquiries to be made on behalf of VZW engineers (or some tier of their field techs) to check for 4G signal in Oxford.  I get a return call a week later stating they have verified a "weak" signal in Oxford.  "Weak," but it is "there" they said. 

Pure tripe.  There is no 4G signal here.  Forget small print, they are outright lying or have a parabolic antenna about 20 feet in diameter amplifying a signal from miles away.  Of course, there's no way to verify who "confirmed" 4G in Oxford or if anyone actually did try.  Pure obfuscation, actually, when you consider that the next round they take me to is to put in another ticket to change how the map generates coverage for these geographic locations, indicating 4G where there is none.  It was confirmed to me that a request had been made to change the map to a more accurate depiction of coverage.

That was two weeks ago, and I go to generate the map, and sure enough, it still shows Oxford covered in glorious 4G.   I'm 99% sure nothing will change.  Utter fabrication and stupendous, recalcitrant ignorance of honest marketing is the fare for American business customers.  They just don't care. 

Change the map, and I'll change my opinion.