Local channels broadcasting from different county. Help!!!

Verizon customer service and local store are unable to help me. My local channels are being broadcast from a different county. My address is correct everywhere. My 30 days have passed for a refund. Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you fix it?

Accepted answers

smith6612

Many streaming services use Geolocation based on where your IP address is believed to exist. A way to check this is by using the MaxMind Demo site to see where they believe your IP is located: https://www.maxmind.com/en/locate-my-ip-address

A possible way to tell your Streaming service where you are, is to sign into it from a device with GPS such as a smartphone, while it is connected to your home Wi-Fi. If the channels come up correctly, and assuming the streaming service is wise to this, your TVs on the same network will take on the correct location. I've heard YouTube TV tends to behave like this.

The problem happens because Verizon's 5G service uses Dynamic IP addresses from a large pool of IP addresses. Cellular networks are often designed in such a way that the cellular core / cellular backbone for your area may cover multiple counties. Typically, the core for the network is established at the nearest major city to you. All of the counties covered by the same core, likewise, have customers obtaining IP addresses for their home Internet service from the IP address pool assigned to that core. Services typically figure out where IP addresses reside over time by gathering data from devices from GPS, nearby device scans (like Wi-Fi networks in range), and so on. Maintaining this location in an accurate manner also requires IP addresses to remain assigned to the same connection for a long period of time. Sometimes, ISPs tell Geo-location services where IP addresses reside, and this also helps prevent this sort of problem.

The reason Cable, DSL, and Fiber providers don't suffer from this issue as much, is because they typically situate their core network closer to where their customers live. Such as by having a hub site somewhere in town which provides service to all customers for that town. Subsequently, they have smaller IP address pools assigned to these local hubs to hand out, and the Geolocation for the IP addresses in the pool can be generalized to be located just to that town. Cellular networks have to allow phones and devices to seamlessly move from tower to tower over a wide area (a county or two) without disconnecting, so the core network ends up covering a much larger area.

Verizon's 5G service often assigns a new IP address each time the modem connects to the network, as the process of connecting to the network creates a "session." Disconnects and reconnects happen, and can happen often or sparingly. Wireline providers using Cable and Fiber technologies, typically assign IP addresses to the router connected to the modem. If the router goes offline for an hour or two, the provider can keep the same IP address assigned (even if it is dynamic) for a while, since wired Internet connections don't come and go as often as a cellular device does.

Sorry if that is confusing, or a lot. But I hope it explains what is going on, and why it happens.

All comments

smith6612

Sorry if that is confusing, or a lot. But I hope it explains what is going on, and why it happens.

FlatheadR

This is a very good explanation of what is happening. However, it is not limited to multi-county and can be multi-state. I live in western Montana and my IP address keeps reverting to Denver, Colorado. This is extremely annoying and inconvenient. When I shop online, it may default to a Denver retail store but it's usually not terribly hard or time-consuming to change it to the retailer's store closer to me in Montana. Where it gets especially frustrating is when I turn on my TV expecting to watch a show on YouTube Live TV on a local channel. My local channels are constantly reverting to Denver and then I get a playback error if I try to watch that channel. Then it takes at least 5 to 10 minutes and jumping through a lot of hoops to fix this, during which time I've missed the first 10 minutes of the show I wanted to watch. This can happen daily. Verizon says it's not their problem and YouTube says it's not their problem. I understand why YouTube Live TV does this - in its settings my Home Area is always correct but the Current Playback Area relies on the geolocation of the IP address and constantly changes back to Denver. How hard can it be for Verizon to assign IP blocks that geolocate correctly? The part that really upsets me is that when I chatted with Verizon they insisted their service was working correctly and when I requested this problem be escalated, they replied that they would not do this because they don't have an escalation process. That's unacceptable customer service. Needless to say, I'm about ready to dump Verizon Home Internet. I'm curious if lots of people are having this same problem, and if so why I'm not hearing an uproar about it or why Verizon isn't losing lots of customers over it.

Verizon_Support

Hello. Thank you for reaching out to us on this platform. To better assist you, please tell us a little more. When did it start? Did you move the device to a different room or address? Have you tried to restart your device or followed troubleshooting steps?

~Maria

Myatoto65

I have the same issue. I got Verizon internet recently and it changed my Hulu address. Now I only get local channels from Charlotte NC and I live in Spartanburg SC. The same issue happened last year when I got Verizon for the first time, and I disconnected right away. This is a deal breaker for me. I thought Verizon had fixed this problem. Is there any solution to this issue, besides changing back to my old internet provider?

Verizon_Support

Hi Myatoto65. All are streaming services are awesome yet on-demand vs live-streaming to not operate the same. This issue is a limitation of how streaming providers use IP addresses to verify customer location, not the Verizon Home internet issue. Here is the resource Hulu has published to address Live streaming.

https://help.hulu.com/article/hulu-manage-home-network#set

Please let us know if you have additional verizon questions or concerns we can address. We are here to chat!

-Deb

Verizon_Support

Hulu + Live TV

To correct location settings in Hulu + Live TV:

Step	Action
1	Use a mobile device with the cellular data/Wi-Fi off to sign into the account at hulu.com.
2	Click on the profile icon.
3	Select account.
4	Navigate to the Privacy and Settings section.
5	Click on Set or Change Home.
6	Save the new location. Note: If not successful, visit help.hulu.com and select Contact Us (at the bottom of the page).

Visit Hulu Help Center - Manage your Home network for Live TV for more information.

finnmania

Thank you for this information. It somewhat helps with my problem. I live in Columbus, Ohio but my IP address has me in Cleveland, Ohio. I've tried doing a reset on the box but that hasn't helped.

Unfortunately, tech support isn't available when I'm at home for them to 'see' the problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

jenniosu

I’m in the Columbus area and have the same issue - getting Cleveland local channels and commercials. I have Hulu streaming and it doesn’t let me change my home location, will only go off the home wifi.

Verizon_Support

Hello, jenniosu. Help is here as we want you to enjoy your channels. Have you contacted Hulu directly for further assistance?

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-227029/

-Natasha

Cardsfan61

Same thing here, we’re located in Springfield, MO, we do get our local stations over DirecTV but we will randomly get ads out of St Louis, and when shopping online it shows the store locations in St Louis.
whatismyip shows us as being in St Louis.

mjoinsd

I live in San Diego County and I keep when I watch my Samsung TV TV plus whatever it's called it's always you locating me to Los Angeles area and I would really like to see the San Diego area broadcast instead

Also on my websites and stuff where I do order stuff to be delivered from time to time it defaults me up to Anaheim, which is where the other guys link above demonstrated my Geo location to be actually.

This has happened ever since I got Verizon Internet, although once or twice for a week or two I did get San Diego channels, but then all of a sudden it revert back to Los Angeles

In addition, I keep having system disconnects and having to reboot the system frequently that's rather annoying

I did talk to Verizon about it on a couple of occasions early when I first got the wireless Internet service, but they denied being able to be able to do anything about it

And on a final note, I can log into Hulu with my Verizon Hulu package, but I cannot log into Disney+ or ESPN plus Not that it really matters

Verizon_Support

Hi mjoinsd, so sorry for the trouble you’ve been having. Please respond to the private note I will send in order for us to find a resolution. -Red

Verizon_Support

We're just checking in to let you know we're here to help with your service concern. Please let us know if you still need assistance.

-Art