Verizon and Rural Home Internet

[Alex43001]

I recently had a very unsatisfactory experience with Verizon and was looking for advice.

I live in a rural location and my current ISP provides only 10Mbps DSL. With the 5G rollout and some serious quality of service issues with my DSL service, I reached out to Verizon to see about 5G Home Internet  service

Note: I have poor 4G in my house and no 5G . However, about 180' from my house I have 5G (2 bars, 60Mbps) coverage so I planned a fair amount of DIY work for a 5G install which would include equipment and supplies provided by me. I have stayed with Verizon for 20+years in spite of abysmal coverage at my home because of their great customer service and nationwide coverage.

After eventually reaching the Home Internet people, a very helpful agent noted that I was not in the 5G service area but he was able to send me a gateway to try out. Unfortunately, he sent the one-piece router which precludes an outdoor install.

I called Verizon to ask them to send the outdoor device (one of the agents called  it a LV65). The agent refused to send the other device and upon escalation, I ended up in a long and fruitless conversation with a supervisor who clearly did not have a customer-centric mindset.  The message was that Verizon was not interested in allowing me to attempt to try their service even if I put in the extra work and expense. I spend about $3000 per year with Verizon and have been with them for over 20 years.

Rural residents have substantial challenges in obtaining certain services and wireless Internet is a great opportunity. I am shocked and very disappointed with Verizon's failure to engage and now am looking at other options for ALL of my wireless needs.

Has anyone had success solving this kind of problem while staying with Verizon?

[smith6612 · Accepted solution]

Verizon might not have enough LV65 to provide them standard. Try asking for the "Window mount" unit for C-Band areas. It's possible the depot won't send one until your home qualifies for 5G Home, since the Askey "Cube" router is also used for the LTE Home Internet service.

As for what the phone shows, 5G may just be low band 5G. Home Internet needs C-Band, and phones will show that as UWB (if your plan supports UWB that is). Without C-Band, the Home Internet is limited to 50Mbps down, 10Mbps up, and there is a "content" throttle of 10Mbps which applies to video.