No 5G in a 5G UW coverage area

[SynthpopAddict]

I have a Samsung Galaxy A14 5G and came to Verizon from another provider 2 months ago.  My 5G was always on for the 2 months, but now it's suddenly gone to 4G LTE mode all the time.  I am in Austin, TX inside the 5G UW coverage area.  Tried live chat and got an empathetic representative who suggested several things, none of which worked, but never really got an answer to my question.  Have network reset my phone, checked for software updates, restarted phone several times, took out SIM card and put it back in, no joy.   After some period of time, the person then tried to upsell me on a more expensive plan than what I'm using now, which is simply annoying.

To make things worse, my phone immediately got around 15 robo-texts from Verizon all saying I could login to my account on the phone and update my preferences or whatever after the chat ended, and clicking on the link there gives me a message "You are experiencing slow data speeds and may have timeout errors" blah blah.  One robo-text I'd understand, but 15 of the same all in a row buzzing my phone nonstop?

Because I don't use my phone all that much for anything, am I simply being deprioritized on the network, or is my phone acting up and I need to get a new one?  So far my phone works for everything, albeit in LTE mode, but it's disappointing that I paid for 5G service and can't get it anymore.  Can anyone get me a straight answer?

[vzw_customer_support]

Making sure that you receive the best available service in your area is a must, SynthpopAddict. We understand your concerns regarding the change you noticed with 5G in your area and your device, and we'd love to take a closer look and find out what's going on. To better assist, we'll be sending a Private Note.

~Izzy

[SynthpopAddict]

OK, will check back.  Don't see a PM in my inbox right now.

[SynthpopAddict]

Yes!  I finally got an answer to what's going on!  There is currently an outage in this part of town and it must be affecting the I35 corridor southbound as well, because I began noticing the issue 2 days ago and it began to get worse.  So if you're in south Austin, TX or the towns southbound along I-35, they're working on it and you need to check the network outage FAQ which I'll be doing and restart your phone periodically so when the outage gets fixed, your 5G will come back. 

The person who kindly answered my PMs figured it out eventually.  Thanks Verizon CS, I know it's a tough job, but really appreciate it.  Sure didn't want to have to leave for the "Pink Logo" carrier with the funny, but really obnoxious ads. 😉

[SynthpopAddict]

OK...after over a week with still having this problem, I've got to wonder if it isn't an "outage" after all, but simply that the network is so congested over here?  We do have 3 major universities plus a large community college system all within 40 miles of each other, and it is the season right before final exams, never mind that we've got holiday traffic coming into town and people wanting to get started on holiday shopping.

Just a suggestion, Verizon, but what about upping your network capacity?  At least being on Verizon isn't as bad as the MVNO I used to use, where if the network got too busy, the MVNO customers would sometimes get booted off the system completely and have no service.

[vzw_customer_support]

We understand the importance of reliable coverage. Please message us directly to speak with an agent so we can assist you with your service concerns.

*Carl

[SynthpopAddict]

I'll give Verizon credit for quickly responding to forum posts and PMs, as well as sending me an email asking if I got a solution to my issue.  And all the CS reps I've spoken with have been pretty professional.  But after several hours of chatting with assorted CS folks either through the live chat function or through PMs over a number of days, I now think I'm just getting the runaround.  From reading between the lines of assorted messages/chats, I do not believe there is anything wrong with my phone despite everyone I've talked to trying to troubleshoot some perceived "problem" with my phone.  Rather, it is that I'm a prepaid customer on a basic plan and therefore not  important.  And no, I don't need to be on unlimited because I don't live on my phone. 

This is disappointing, but the competition charges more which is about the only reason why I haven't left for another carrier since I'm getting a loyalty plus an auto-pay discount. Never mind that the other guys would (also) much rather sell their higher-end plans, which tells me that I'd likely get pushed to the bottom of their pecking order in their network too with a bare-bones plan.  But if I ever get into the habit of using my phone for internet access more often, I may very well be out of here. 

Sorry Verizon, but why don't you work on improving your network capacity instead of trying to convince me that it must be me and not you?  I could go on, but will probably be wasting my time.

[Thetallman72]

I have been having the same issue the last 3 weeks.  I live right off of I-35 just south of you, in the New Braunfels/San Antonio area.    I'm not a prepaid customer.  I have a contract with Verizon and I still can't get help.  I'm wondering if a network hub, or tower went down somewhere and they just aren't telling us. 

[RiGemi]

I’ve noticed this today. I’m only getting LTE coverage even after resetting my phone several times. I can’t even get a representative to help. So annoying. 

[SynthpopAddict]

I'm starting to wonder if Verizon gives 5G service continuously for an "introductory" period when you first sign up, and then after that period expires, you go to whatever the "normal" conditions would be.  At least it isn't just the prepaid customers who are having this issue.  From what I can tell, the entire network in this area is soooooo congested nearly all the time that data barely runs at all.  Ookla speedtest app says I get as little as 0.14Mbps download at times, and this was just 2 days ago early in the evening.  Sometimes I win the lottery while at work in San Marcos, TX and my 5G light comes on...and then it's more like 33-35Mbps down, but that's few and far between!  The only time I can get any usable speed at all is very late at night, when my LTE comes back at 12Mbps down and 2-3 up.

On another note, I saw something on Google which says Verizon is upgrading their 5G service to expand the coverage area so more people can get the home internet service.  Would sure hope this helps the ATX metro area because there's no way I'd sign up for Verizon's home internet even being within the coverage area right now, and our phones sure need help with the data!  I have seen posts on Reddit from as far back as 2 years ago saying data was slow on Verizon.  At least my call quality is still great, haven't had any dropped calls.  But thank heavens for cable internet and that I live on my PC, not my phone, or I'd have gone to T-Mobile already (but their closest Go5G high-band 5G tower is 2 miles away from me, so it's more like "came and went" where I wouldn't pick up the signal from them either).

[Thetallman72]

I travel regularly from San Antonio to Killeen.   Also to Roundrock and Jarrell.    Doesn't matter if I take the 45 toll or just stay on 35 the whole way. I won't get 5g until getting to the Belton area.  In fact, as soon as I get past the northern most part of San Marcos, I hit a spot where there is no service at all. 

And I've had the same customer service experience as you.  The first 2 were just bots that tried to get me to upgrade to the Verizon cloud and factory reset my phone.   (I already have the Verizon cloud ironically)  and as soon as I would day no they would just stop responding.   Finally got a real person,  who was polite and tried to be as helpful as they could, but they couldn't really tell what was happening either.   

I've been private messaged on here now by customer service after responding to you, so I guess we will see how this one goes.  Maybe it's a different Level of customer service that has more info.  Fingers crossed. 

[SynthpopAddict]

Best of luck to you, Thetallman72.  Sure hope you don't get disconnected after a couple hours in chat, or get sent to the other chat thing they have where I got shuttled to a new person every 20 or 30 minutes and then the new person coming on maybe knew what was going on or didn't. ☹️

[RiGemi]

I recieved one message privately from Verizon and haven’t heard word since. Meanwhile nothing changed in my reception. It’s been a week now

[SynthpopAddict]

@RiGemi, did you reply to the private message itself?  I did get some CS reps to chat with some weeks ago when I answered their PMs.

[RiGemi]

Yes, I did reply to the original private message and sent a follow up message. No response since 12/4

[SynthpopAddict]

What a shame.  Apparently Verizon has forgotten they need customers? 😞

[prvzw]

I found this thread while searching Verizon 5G in Austin...we live in west of Mopac and recently notice all our phones at home no longer have 5G connection, just 4G. We always had bad signal at our house but at least was 5G. Verizon is not saying anything.

[vzw_customer_support]

I really enjoy when my device connects to 5G UWB service near me, and would also share your concern if it wasn't doing that in areas I knew I had previously, Thetallman72. I'm sorry to hear that you have not been able to get help previously, and you're definitely in the right place for help today. Please be on the lookout for a private note from us, so we can better assist.

-Joseph

[RiGemi]

What has been the most frustrating is that in now month that I have not had 5G in places where I have always had it since I’ve had this phone, it that Verizon has had no explanation. I’ve been told that the data portion of my plan is the reason, which is not true. I’ve been told that I’ve used all my full strength data for the month, also not true. I’ve been told they cannot guarantee reliable service indoors, but the problem appeared out of the blue.  No one has had an answer because I honestly don’t think they know why it has happened. They have suggested to restart my phone and all the mundane tech support “tips” they have and nothing has worked. In Hartford CT I have never had LTE since everything transitioned to 5G. And let’s not talk about how I don’t even get 5GUW at all anywhere.  I’m not prepaid. I’ve been with Verizon for at least 5 years. 
apologies are great if they come with changed behavior….or in this case service. Over a month and less than quality service is less than acceptable. I’m paying for something I’m not receiving and nothing can be done? That’s what is the most frustrating. Must do better!

[SynthpopAddict]

I've posted about this in other threads, but there must be several different factors going on.  Not only does everybody have a cell phone, but mobile devices in general have gotten a lot more sophisticated in recent years to where many of us now use our phones or other mobile devices as our primary internet access point (not me, but that's a long story).  With data demands increasing all the time, the cell towers are probably running at capacity a lot more often than they used to, hence 5G access getting harder to obtain.  The pandemic must have surely messed things up somehow with network upgrades taking longer either due to lack of personnel to maintain the network as much as before and/or supply chain issues with getting parts.  Things have been slowly improving in my neighborhood very recently, so those of us who have suddenly lost 5G access may simply need to be patient and things will improve.

An interesting observation I've noticed is if I go to the Check Network Status thing and enter my address, nothing comes up, but if I simply enter the city, then the message about "voice, data, and text are limited" does appear for areas I've noticed slow data speeds.  I've gotten this to appear for 3 different cities/towns in which I know my data runs slow.  So Verizon is probably aware of the sore spots in their network, but doesn't want to say more since it's proprietary information?  And as big as the network is, you have to imagine there's always something broken somewhere...

"Regular" 5G is of the low-band variety, and is actually not that much faster than LTE, assuming the LTE network isn't congested.  So if speed testing gives you reasonable data speeds - you really only need about 20Mbps down to get most apps to run without a bunch of buffering or other hitches - LTE will work for you.  There's always switching to another plan if you feel that you're paying too much, or porting out if things really are bad.

Nearly 1gig data speeds in NYC on Verizon...wow, I'm impressed!  Verizon does own more mmWave spectrum than the other carriers the last I'd read about it, but they can't put that everywhere because it doesn't travel very far.

Hang in there if your calls and texts are otherwise good!

Postpaid on "T-Maybe": 20-30 Mbps down on 5G, no signal strength indoors, drove full 19 mile commute each way checking data speeds, always the same except one small town with severe congestion where 5G was running at 2Mbps down.

Ported back to Verizon Prepaid 3 days later: 5G light came on and I got 45Mbps down.  Yesterday hit the sweet spot for 5G in my neighborhood and got over 100Mbps down!  Yeah, OK, I don't get 5G all the time due to data prioritization, but that other place needs to brag less, methinks.

[Illinger]

@SynthpopAddict I have the identical issue as originally reported here, where I had a perfect UW signal everywhere in CT and even as far north as central VT, and about a month ago I (may have started earlier I wasn't paying attention) I now only get LTE.  Also, this is on the identical phone you have; bought mine in May or June. 

Most of my state is suburban, so my two cents here is whatever is going on it isn't necessarily congestion.  (Your specific area, though, you're  probably on to something with the campuses nearby.)

About to start my journey talking to tech support.