Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
jk81
Enthusiast - Level 1


I'm receiving way weak LTE web browsing signal in the Wilsonville, OR area (97070).  In the morning it works great but after 10:00 AM, it goes in the can.  Anybody else have this same problem in this area?

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

jk81 I'm showing you should have a consistent signal in that area. Are you having trouble with your voice or data services?
TrinetteW_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
jk81
Enthusiast - Level 1

Yes, on my Data service.  I'm not sure if its because of the building that we're in since the data signal has been poor for the last few months.  I've asked a couple of friends in the building about their data signal and theirs have the same problem as mine.  They both have Samsung devices so I know it's not just my phone.

Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
Dm3k1
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have also had the same problem since switching to Verizon. Constantly 1-2 bars, browser doesn't load - takes way to start a call. On 3G (LTE disabled) 4 bars. - also same in areas in downtown Portland (my work 421 SW oak st) - really not good for supposedly the better network. Going to try out for a few weeks more, but not promising.

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Is the 3G data working fine or is that also slow? Sounds like your towers or area may be congested.

While on a slow LTE connection, please get this info for us:

Open the phone app.

Dial: *3001#12345#*

Click "Serving Cell Info"

Note down the band. The band will be Band 13, Band 4, or Band 2. If the band is Band 2, please let us know whether the phone shows 5Mhz, 10Mhz, or 15Mhz for the downstream/upstream bandwidth.

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
Dm3k1
Enthusiast - Level 1

So the band originally shows 4 then switches to "83887272" - download and upload bandwidth both listed a "unknown"

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
Dm3k1
Enthusiast - Level 1

So the 3G is also "slow" but is more consistent than the LTE. I did a speed test just to try and I was 1.39 down and .24 up, with LTE managed to get 4.6 down and .04 up (which I think actually is a result of no connection for the majority of the upload test).

This is a fairly populated area, we are less then a mile from I-5 which should be blanketed in the Portland Metro(?) I don't think this is normal?

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

So Band 4 is the newer "XLTE" Spectrum Verizon started rolling out a year or two ago. This operates on 1700/1900Mhz and usually runs with a "10Mhz" bandwidth. It has far less range than the traditional LTE network, although it is supposed to offer better speeds due to the fact that it can travel less. If you're on Band 4, that should be an indicator that the tower isn't too far away.

To know the true problem, we would need to get some numbers from Verizon as to how many devices are on the tower, how many devices per sector are connected, and what channel utilization is. Additionally, information on how much backhaul is going to the tower. That will of course be confidential, but here's some things that need to be considered.

  • Each cell phone tower has a maximum number of devices which can be connected to it. As you add more devices, the tower will hit an equipment limitation as to how many devices can be on the tower at one time.
  • The device limit applies to each cell sector. If a tower is heavily loaded on one side because of a large number of devices being connected, that side will suffer whereas the rest of the tower is unaffected.
  • Wireless becomes less efficient the more devices connected, even if the devices are not transmitting data. There is a lot of overhead associated with keeping wireless devices connected, which grows with more devices.
  • LTE and CDMA both rely on "Fair access" timing. This means, as more devices are on, timeslots allocated to each device for transmitting/receiving become smaller. This is why sometimes you'll notice voice quality problems on heavily loaded towers, or data that is super super super slow, despite having low ping (60-80ms to most servers).
  • Many towers are fed by Fiber connections which are usually under provisioned to the full capabilities of a tower. This means that if a tower has Band 4 (XLTE), Band 13 (LTE), and Band 2 (PCS XLTE, 20Mhz), this allows for "Up to" 300Mbps of capacity on a sector for LTE. If PCS operates at 5Mhz as it is in many markets, The max capacity is "Up to 185Mbps." Add in your 3G, assuming it operates on a single band, which is 2.8Mbps, and your 1X which is approximately 90kbps. This means that assuming a tower has four sectors, the tower must have 1.5-2Gbps of Fiber connectivity to be fully provisioned. This is very expensive (Especially since Verizon doesn't always own the Fiber going to the tower - part of that is their blame).
  • City areas often mean better performance because there are more towers in a small, compact, complex space. Wireless can propagate in all sorts of ways which can cause interference one day, great performance the next. The high density of devices in such a small area, also makes wireless perform less efficient.

Now, that's a short list of all the things that could be going on, so here's the easy/tedious part for you.

  1. Gather some speed test results, and obtain what band you're on (As you've found, Band 4 is connecting in the problem area, meaning the tower isn't too far away!).
  2. Visit Verizon Wireless's Live chat service, and report slow speeds and unreliable connectivity. Indicate your speeds are below the advertised 5Mbps-15Mbps down, 2Mbps-5Mbps up claimed by Verizon. Provide a speed test history to the rep (they may not be able to view it, but they can document it!).
  3. If you can provide days of the week and times of when the wireless service performs poorly, please provide that.
  4. Provide the location of the slow performance.
  5. Provide what band you're connecting to.
  6. Retrieve the network ticket number from Verizon's chat, and be sure to follow up on that. Do not allow them to close the ticket without them providing you a solid understanding of why it runs slowly where it does. If Verizon engineering feels they can come up with a solution (perhaps the tower has broken equipment or needs adjusting, the ticket should stay open until adjustments are made, and measurements can be received from you and other customers connected to that tower.
  7. If needed request Verizon to stop by and perform an RF Analysis of the area. This is the expensive and "last resort" way of figuring out what's going on if Verizon claims the tower is working fine. Sometimes it takes a good spectrum analyzer on location to figure these out.

Of course, do understand above all, that Wireless is a shared medium (fueled by magic ;P), and can vary from day to day no matter how well Verizon tries to account for it. That is why many of us argue against wireless to the home (Verizon LTE Connected in this example) - it's too unreliable. Wireless takes a ton of time to plan, engineer, and build correctly. If Verizon is adding capacity to the tower you're on, it may take some time until they have it working 100%.

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Re: Poor LTE signal Wilsonville, OR 97070
THE_TALL_GUY
Enthusiast - Level 2

This is still an issue that needs resolving.

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