The West Side of Chicago

Hi,

Every day I take the subway to work, along Lake Street in Chicago. West of Austin Ave., it's ok. But when we cross into Chicago, it's bad service all they way to downtown. I get very erratic Internet on my Hatspot.

I used to have AT&T and it was fine.

Is the west side of Chicago some sort of 5G Verizon desert?

It's been a couple of years already. I expected it to get better, but it never does. I got off of AT&T because my daughter's phone didn't work inside her high school, but now I think I may need to switch back to AT&T to get better service.

Thanks.

Accepted answers

Verizon_Support

An erratic hotspot, where the connection keeps disconnecting or the speed fluctuates, can be frustrating. Several factors can cause this, including device-related issues, network interference, and even data usage limits. You may need to check to see if you can change the frequency on your hostpot to 2.4 ghz. -Ross

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-206965/

Moderator:

If your signal is weak in certain areas, it could be due to an issue with your device, a large obstruction blocking the network or difficulty the signal has penetrating indoor walls.

A good rundown of these factors and our best solutions can be found here: https://www.verizon.com/support/signal-concern-resolution/

If you still require assistance or have any questions, please contact us for support.

All comments

Verizon_Support

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-206965/

Moderator:

If your signal is weak in certain areas, it could be due to an issue with your device, a large obstruction blocking the network or difficulty the signal has penetrating indoor walls.

A good rundown of these factors and our best solutions can be found here: https://www.verizon.com/support/signal-concern-resolution/

If you still require assistance or have any questions, please contact us for support.

SynthpopAddict

Maybe your hotspot device doesn't like the spectrum Verizon is using? If it doesn't support 5G UW (either n77 or n260/n261) then that's going to be problematic.

greygnome

OK, thanks for the help people. But no, it's not my hotspot. It's not some weird radio issues that follow me around. It's literally:

I fire up my hotspot on the train at Austin and Lake. I had east. Around Cicero, things start to go downhill. My laptop doesn't work well. My phone- if I'm watching video- will stutter.

The problem continues until a little east of Morgan, maybe Clinton, and then it clears up.

Later, I go home. Again, fire up my hotspot. Although honestly it's not hotspot related. It could be video too but I think there's more buffering so it's not all the time. But it IS noticeable. Anyway, I connect my laptop to my hotspot downtown. Then, near Clinton or points west, it gets bad. It's erratic all the way to around Cicero-ish. Then as I near Oak Park it clears up.

It's consistently the west side of Chicago. It's not downtown. It's not Oak Park. It's that geographical area. Otherwise, my hotspot is fine.

There's something awry in the west side of Chicago and I wonder if it has to do with the fact that there's not a lot of tech geeks living there? Dunno. But I'm going to try AT&T. I've been waiting for years for it to get upgraded or something but no go.

I am typing this from my laptop in downtown Chicago. I had no doubt that it would work. And it does. Every time. West side of Chicago? Not so much.

BTW, that's not the only technical glitch. I wasn't logged in when I first started typing this, and Verizon disallowed my posting and completely deleted it. Fortunately, I pasted to an editor as I had a hunch. So I was just able to paste my text back in here. But I think Verizon needs to up its technical game.

I'm in IT, I do troubleshooting all the time, and the West Side of Chicago is just bad. Sorry folks.

greygnome

No. It's geographic. West Side only.

greygnome

It likes it. Works everywhere else but the west side. And it's not limited to hotspot. It's just that my terminals don't buffer as well as, say, videos or Spotify.

greygnome

Pings also show bad drops. It starts exactly where I say, and stops exactly when I say. Every day, for the last two years.

Verizon_Support

Thank you for those details about what you have been experiencing when using your hotspot. May I ask what hotspot you are using? -Dee

greygnome

AUGH! This webpage's "Reply" button will react but if the backend logs me out, this page gives me an error and wipes out my reply! I got caught this time.

Verizon, you have more technical issues you need to overcome.

Anyway: I have ping issues directly from my cellphone out to for example google.com. I can watch videos _fairly_ well, but that's because they buffer. If I try to move forward past a buffer or if I try to load a video, the West Side is also bad about that.

I originally zeroed in on my hotspot but that was probably a mistake. It's my main use case, but if we remove that layer from the problem space, the underlying problem becomes clearer. I have problems on the West Side that I don't have elsewhere on my commute.

I have an Apple iPhone 14, and I use Apple's hotspot. Pings from my laptop to my hotspot are rock solid, between 10-20 ms if I recall correctly.

Verizon_Support

We are here to support you. Sending you a private note now.

-Cryssie

SynthpopAddict

You mentioned the service issues happening while you're on the subway on the west side of Chicago. It's been decades since I visited Chicago, but I remember the subway trains would sometimes be above ground and other times, underground depending on location. Wireless technology has changed a lot over the years, but unless there are cell sites placed in subway tunnels underground, seems like you'd have service issues there? 5G doesn't travel very far, which can be another problem. Or if the towers out there are heavily congested a lot, then it's going to make everybody's service slow down some. Depending on what service plan you have, you can be subject to some level of deprioritization.

SynthpopAddict

@greygnome
wrote:
AUGH! This webpage's "Reply" button will react but if the backend logs me out, this page gives me an error and wipes out my reply!

I access the forums via my PC using fully wired cable internet, and don't get logged out unless I log myself out. If you are being randomly logged out while on cellular service, makes me think your device must be losing service at times, hence dropping the internet connection?

Verizon_Support

If it is geographic, we are already aware. Did you try adjusting the gigahertz on your hotspot?-Ross

Verizon_Support

We understand thank you for the additional details. Does this improve once you leave that location?

~Gina

greygnome

Aware for two years? Any idea when it will get addressed?

What good would adjusting my hotspot do if it demonstrably works well? I'm afraid I got us off-track with this hotspot bit. The thing is, the hotspot is mostly unusable do to the nature if it not being able to cache as much as, say, YouTube. So it's more noticeable. But I can't do a lot of seeking in YouTube or other video apps either.

greygnome

Heh yeah you're right. I mentioned "subway" because I didn't want to say "El" because that may not mean much to non-Chicagoans. But then I mention that I'm on the West Side, traveling from Oak Park, and I expect people to understand Chicago, and to understand that this means I'm above ground.

Anyway, it's the El and it's the Green Line. If towers are congested then that would be an explanation but it would not explain why it works so well in Oak Park or in downtown. Like I say, it picks up around Morgan.

Maybe 5G doesn't have a lot of range and that could explain it, but I take the train all the way from Morgan around to Washington/Wabash and my pings are consistent.

greygnome01

Hi, so this is the OP again. I had to bail from Verizon. I discovered that there are not many towers on the West Side of Chicago. Not compared to T-Mobile, which Google Fi uses. And it's working amazingly well. I have 5G all they way to downtown and pings are solid in the 25-40ms range, mostly in the mid-upper 20's.

It seems clear to me what the issue is (fewer towers), T-Mobile works great, and there is little financial or time incentive for me to spend it trying to debug Verizon's issues (see the first clause of this sentence). So I'm sorry but I have to go. Bye.