Charge dropping 3G service: "Network not available"

[Booch]

First off, some of the other posts were a little similar but not entirely.  I live about 200 miles from any 4G service, so it is not an issue dropping off between 4G and 3G.  I also do not have Wi-Fi enabled, so it is not an issue between the switch between Wi-Fi and 3G.

Between 2-3 times per day, my Charge loses its 3G coverage and I cannot get any data transmission.  I have figured out that if I restart my phone, I will have my 3G data back again.  However, this is not a long-term solution and is very annoying.

I have had my Charge for a week with the constant dropping of my 3G.  Today, I finally got tired of it and thought there was maybe an error with my phone.  I went to my local Verizon store and they replaced my phone.  To my surprise, after having my new replaced phone for only about 2 hours, it has dropped the 3G data again.  My phone is showing 4 out of 5 on the bars, so I know I am not in a low coverage area.  I am getting very frustrated as I've tried talking to the local reps at the Verizon store and they are clueless.  I called the national Verizon help line and they were not aware of any problems, so it didn't help me out.

I would appreciate any help from Verizon (or any other posters) that might have ideas.

I have seen some of the poor responses from Verizon "tech support" on some of the other questions.  Telling me that I can return the phone plus pay a restocking fee is not an appropriate or reasonable answer.  If someone can actually help, it is appreciated.  Otherwise, I guess I will continue trying to catch someone's attention.

[mpbclutch33]

Not to jinx us, but does the problem seem to have gotten a little better in the last day or so?

[BobMano]

No, I still have the problem as I'm typing this.   I don' t have juicedefender or any of those battery saving apps.   I'm in a 4G area and the phone switches to 3G after a minute or two into using the data.   My friend who uses thunderbolt has 4G all day, so it can't be the coverage.

VZW cust support's suggestion of resetting the phone (and wiping all the data along the way) or to exchange the phone is just frustating.   I've lost hope on the issue getting fixed; having lost the unlimited data plan on AT&T, i guess i'm stuck till a new phone (galaxy s2, where are you) comes along that works as advertised.

[DanV]

Since I did my uninstalls, I've had pretty much uninterrrupted 3G or 4G.  It may be a coincidence.  Certainly better than the 2 minutes of 4G and no 3G whatsoever I was getting before.

[vidguy7]

It could be getting a bit better for me, but it's too early to tell.  I've had periods like this before where I think things are improving.  I think it's very much a function of where you are when accessing the data.

[curtisdr]

I'm in Iowa (3G only) and hadn't had problems for over a week, until late last night. Then no connection. I couldn't use the phone so I decided to just shut it off and skip the frustration.

[vidguy7]

---

curtisdr wrote:

I'm in Iowa (3G only) and hadn't had problems for over a week, until late last night. Then no connection. I couldn't use the phone so I decided to just shut it off and skip the frustration.

---

Yup.  I knew I spoke too soon when I agreed with the other poster that things had gotten a bit better.  Today, from about 11:05 until 11:45, no data...NOTHING.  This with a CDMA signal of -75db and an EVDO signal of -65!  A full set of bars and no data.  Reboot, nothing, uncheck data and recheck, nothing, go in & out of CDMA/LTE mode, nothing.  Unfortunately I didn't have someone with a 3G phone around to see if they got data, but every single time this has occurred, the 3G-only phone did get data. On and on she goes and where she stops nobody knows...surely not VZW.

I'm becoming more and more convinced this issue will never be solved and the phone is just a piece of sophisticated junk.  The only solution will be the next phone that actually WORKS and a dispatching of the Charge to Ebay.

[homestar1217]

I'm having this issue as well.  For the last 2 days I haven't been able to access data at all without Wi-Fi.  The 4G wouldn't connect for more than a couple of minutes, and once that signal was dropped 3G/1X would refuse to connect, even when switched to CDMA only mode. 

Now it seems literally as I'm posting this the phone is picking up a great 3G signal, which leads me to wonder if the towers in my area were being upgraded or something along those lines.  I have no idea what was going on.  I thought maybe it was something wrong with the phone and performed a factory reset to no avail (I knew that would be the first thing I was told to do anyways). 

I don't know what it was causing my problem, it wasn't a problem at all until 2 days ago, and it appears to have at least resolved itself for now.  If there's any way to fix this with a patch I can only hope that Samsung is working on it day and night!  My hopes aren't high on that though...

[JoeNe]

I switched to Verizon in mid May and started with a Charge.  I had some problems with it so I switched to an LG Revolution.  2 Revos and lots of frustration later Best Buy switched me back to a Charge which I have had for several weeks now.  Compared to the Revo the Charge has fewer issues overall. 

I have also had a company issued Verizon Blackberry Tour 9630 for the last 18 months.  

I have been in somewhat of a unique position that I have had the experience with the BB for 18 months, as well as the Charge and Revo over the last 2 months.  In my experience I have noticed that the BB will occasionally drop data or switch to 1X in places I know have good 3G signal.  I notice the same behavior with the Charge and I saw it with the Revo.  It seems that this has been an issue for about 6 months or so.  I don't really remember data issues with the BB prior to then.  One thing I will say though, is that I am not constantly paying attention to the data service on the BB since I only use it for work related emails, texts and calls.  With the Charge I pay closer attention because of the much higher data use.

I am not trying to justify data issues with VZW, but I don't think the problem is inherent only with the Charge.  It seems a bit more systemic than that.  I do not live in a 4G area so all my experience with the Charge and the Revo, as well as the BB have been in CDMA only mode.

Unlike others I have not experienced a data outage of more than a minute or 2.  I travel for my job and cover Nebraska, western Iowa, Kansas, and eastern South Dakota.  Sioux Falls, SD just got 4G, but I haven't  been there with the 4G device since they added the service.  I will be there in 2 days and am looking forward to checking out the speeds.

[vidguy7]

JoeNe, thanks for the feedback.  I would tend to agree with you if on many occasions I didn't have my wife right next to me with her VZW Iphone.  During these 'no data connectivity' sessions, my wife would have no trouble at all receiving data on her Iphone.

I think this goes beyond a VZW network problem.  If it was a network problem, we'd have countless people with all types of VZW smart phones complaining about this and that doesn't seem to be the case.

[timnyc]

Yes, here in midtown manhattan, new york, ny

4g is great

3g is still abysmal as in .17-.68 MAX when in 3g mode (late nigt after midnight 1Mbps sometimes)  BUT often goes off or on to 1x and then only turning airplane mode off and then on seems to help

Samsung told me to do the soft (with battery removal)  then hard reset but 3G is terrible and 4g is not always needed so this seems to be a 4g-only model perhaps.

I HAVE 2 days to exchange this. I wanted dta plan so it might be crazy cause i really like this phone but it sounds like all 3 4G phones have mega issues, but I am feeling it might be best to get the thunderbolt and giant battery (arrrgh i better go revisit the Thunderbolt forum) just to be able to have the internet access i need versus my beloved droid that cannot do 3g fas for some reason often going down to 1x always during the greater workday

is this fixable Verizon? I saw a VZW rep ALex or ALan in the 4G forum here trying to help someone maybe he or someone can help us out here with the 3g/1x slownesss prob

[WCMack]

DEar timnyc,

Did you experience poor 3G speeds with prior phones? Could it be the network where you are?

Also, if 4G comes in great, why would you want to worry about 3G reception? Is it a battery issue? There are extended batteries for the Charge, so you might want to consider that if this is the problem.

[vidguy7]

---

WCMack wrote:
DEar timnyc,

Did you experience poor 3G speeds with prior phones? Could it be the network where you are?

Also, if 4G comes in great, why would you want to worry about 3G reception? Is it a battery issue? There are extended batteries for the Charge, so you might want to consider that if this is the problem.

---

He'd worry about 3G because in many 4G areas in N.Y., you can go down 1 block and have 4G, go up the next block and have 3G...or NO G.  The "NO G" is the real issue here and it's endemic to many areas and many Charge owners.  There is no sugar coating this issue.

[timnyc]

thanks vidguy7

may i ask if you think i should get thunderbolt or droid x2 as all droid x friends are way happy?

maybe i should buy thunderbolt to ensure 4g plan 

no iphone for me for now til later generations......

[vidguy7]

Tim, really hard to say. I'm reluctant to recommend any 4G phone on VZW to any of my friends until we're 100% certain what the cause of these data dropouts are.  My gut tells me it's the phone or the phone combined with the current state of VZW 4G in some areas.  I don't venture on to the TB threads, so I don't know if those guys are experiencing these same issues.

I do know that on two occasions when this issue was new to me, I visited a few VZW stores and saw this problem on both the TB and the new LG as well as their Charge demos.  One of those stores was in a 3G-only service area.

For myself, I don't think I'd buy another 4G VZW phone until I was assured that this issue no longer existed.  The upcoming Motorola Bionic might be the best hope for 4G, but I'll bet it will come with its own issues.

I don't know what to tell you, but to be perfectly honest, you'd probably be safer with a 3G phone.

[timnyc]

i worry because

A. it is the primary (in addition to screen vbrightness and wifi off etc) way to save battery on a 4g phone

AND i travel up and down the HUdson and The Cape of Cod, and more where there is definitely no 4G 

and no my friends with iphones and droid X's are running abundantly fabulously right next to mine even when stable at home in midtown manattan !

ok let me see the rest of your reply as i am in a rush at lunch but thanks4now looking forward

to the next 72 hours of forum discusion (not just here) until June 22 -- the REAL deadline date

[timnyc]

oh yeah and it goes to 1x not staying in 3g pretty readily while trying to study online with browser in 3g mode that usually says 3g wuth a D under it on top of screen

[jeff351s]

My Charge works awesome in 4G markets.  However in my current location for the last few months I only have 3g signal, data is so poor that the phone drops data before the market can install updates.

Calls and text is about all I can do with it. Other VZW phones here work fine. So yeah, this phone has some issues.

[paperclips]

Ha well besides the lack of data, mine's recently been sounding high pitched alarms in the earpiece most of the time when i make calls (also when listening to music) until i hang up or force restart. So now there's no picture messaging, data OR phone calls. The droid charge is a dud phone.

[hubbalance]

Sorry, I am all new to this smartphone thing. I keep getting "network unavailable" - that means i can't connect to the Internet? I am in a 3G area, bordered by a 4G area. Does it have to say 3g or 4g in order for me to access the internet? I am trying to add facebook.twitter apps and it has literally taken me 10 minutes because the Internet keeps going out????

That was a selling point of this phone - my old one never had any issues with the Internet. If I can't reliably access the Internet then what is the point? Do I have the wrong settings?

I read this thread but I am horribly confused.

Oh and my husband had an iphone, and it has no connectivity issues.

[vidguy7]

The infamous 'no data' can occur whether your showing 4G, 3G, 1X or the 'mystery' full set of bars that shows no indicator of what it is.  This is unfortunately the state of these 4G VZW phones.  I wish I could give you a more hopeful answer, but you won't find any on this or the many other forums where the many frustrated people complain.

You'll also notice a lack of participation by VZW employees on threads like this, because they too have no answers. 

If you want my advice, try the phone extensively for the next several days and if the problems continue, return the phone and get a 3G only phone.  Those phones work, the 4G phones don't work consistently for many many people.

[Booch]

Hubbalance--When you get the "network unavailable" message, that basically means you do not have an internet connection.  Many other people are having the same issue and a temporary fix is to restart your phone and it will usually pick up the signal again and you can go about your business.  However, this is just a temporary fix as I have this happen to me several times per day.

This is a flawed phone.  I hope there is a fix sometime in the future, however the Verizon support has been very poor in communicating with their loyal customers. 

My recommendation is to either get a different phone if you are in the 14 day return window or keep your fingers crossed that Verizon and Samsung will address this issue.

We are being held hostage by the Verizon contract to not switch carriers.  However, I know we could get out of our contracts if we were to pursue the issue as Verizon is in obvious breach.