4g LTE is a joke-period

[rdoine]

Again tonight after getting off a plane in my home town, I have been unable to make calls our send texts for close to two hours. I am ready to throw the samsung charge and vw lte in lake michigan. I never know when I get off a plane if I'm going to be able to conduct business or sit on my butt for an hour or more until the phone and system decide to work again. I cannot be the only user with this problem. I never had a problem on the 3g system with my droid.

[deloswilbur]

I am not trying to further offend you, but if you rely on phone for business I would go back to 3G.  Verizon is only carrier to offer 4G where I live and as such I am holding out that they will fix the network.  However there will now be a need to have internet at my house for work for another person, I have advised them to get 3G through another carrier to ensure some redundancy.  Verizons 4G and the devices that go with it are purely all in Alpha stage right now....well technically that's not true as if they were in Alpha they would be working harder to fix the problem, maybe they are in Zeta meaning they have given up on fixing and now are trying to just lock in a many contracts and new regions as possible....

[rdoine]

You're probably right but these phones are supposed to switch to 3g when 4g isn't available.  The sad thing is that I got off two planes in two 4g areas.  I had at least 3 bars while in the airports and could not make or receive calls or texts.  That's bad.  After I got out of the airport and to my house, I had 4g and 5 bars but still could not make calls or text.  There is obviously a problem here and the sooner Verizon acknowledges the problem and gets it corrected the less griping there will be.  And, I plan to continue to gripe.  I've been with Verizon since before there was a Verizon and I'm one unhappy long-term customer at this point.  Thanks for you input.  I appreciate it.

[MichiganMike]

I couldn't agree with you more. I am a pre-Verizon customer. They used to be a solid company but the are crumbling more and more each day. It is a pity that they are so far behind the rest of the world. 4G was nothing more than a gimmick. It barely works and the phones are garbage. If your reading this DO NOT UPGRADE to 4G. Waste of time and money.

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rdoine wrote:

You're probably right but these phones are supposed to switch to 3g when 4g isn't available.  The sad thing is that I got off two planes in two 4g areas.  I had at least 3 bars while in the airports and could not make or receive calls or texts.  That's bad.  After I got out of the airport and to my house, I had 4g and 5 bars but still could not make calls or text.  There is obviously a problem here and the sooner Verizon acknowledges the problem and gets it corrected the less griping there will be.  And, I plan to continue to gripe.  I've been with Verizon since before there was a Verizon and I'm one unhappy long-term customer at this point.  Thanks for you input.  I appreciate it.

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[Protege]

There is going to be that time where a new technology launches and it has a couple of qwerks.  Did anybody do anything to troubleshoot their own issues yet? 

On my thunderbolt, I toggle airplane mode or go to settings > wireless and network > mobile networks > network mode > and then switch to cdma, then back to LTE/CDMA.

It might be worth giving a shot, as it may help resolve some of the conflicts you are having.

Just trying to be helpful, and with all things new and fancy, eventually they get better. 

I'm sure as other carriers launch their networks, they will run into similar issues as well.  Can you blame big red for biting the bullet for the entire industry right now? (rhetorical, I'm sure the reponse is "yes.")

Just my 2 cents 😃

[rdoine]

Four days this week with minimal issues.  Best run I've had so far.

Thank you "WillWho" for the feedback from Verizon.  I found that information somewhat refreshing and helps me realize I'm not completely nuts.  Or, well, maybe I am.  But, not about the Verizon 4g issues.

[toughbook]

Geez of pete Michigan Mike! I hope you are not a VZW customer. If so you really are nuts. If you are not a VZW customer and you come on here just to spread the "Bad Word" you really gotta get a life.

WillWho, that was a very good post. I could not agree with your statements anymore.

[willzzz99]

They are having problems that are MOSTLY solved because they are doing 2 things:

1. CDMA and LTE are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES OFF TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGY TREES. CDMA is CDG based (CDMA2000) and LTE is GSM based (GSMA), VZW is using bridging technology called eHRPD to bridge the EVDO rA and LTE technologies by overlaying their EVDO core with a GSM LTE EPC one.

2. LTE like all 4G technologies requires fiber+possible microwave (rural areas) back-haul. They need to get fiber to a cell site with-in 60 miles of a cell-site. You get the best performance on fiber and it's the easiest. Of course the urban areas are getting it first, faster cheaper ROI (return on investment) and also the fiber is already there from a fiber supplier (Cable, ILEC, IXC, Indy provider, etc, etc.).

3. It looks like VZW is FINALLY working out its bugs on the system. I'm glad for that!

[rdoine]

Sunday, 4:45pm. Again without the ability to make any calls. For the second time today. 3 bars and 4g indicated but the phone will not dial any number I enter. And, I'm stuck trying to call the airline because of a missed connection and I can't use my phone. This is beyond ridiculous. I don't have time to stand in line at the verizon store every time this device doesn't work. Is anyone else having this much trouble with the droid charge and the vw 4g network?

[DC5_K20Z1]

Rdoine...my wife and I are having problems with our droid charges. When we call eachother our anyone here in arizona it seems...our call will cut out and the other person can't hear us and the timer keeps counting, so we must call back. Our calls will last anywhere from twenty seconds to two minutes or so and then the call gets messed up and then people can't hear us or we can't hear them even though the call is still being counted. So we have to hang up and call again and go through the same thing. I called a family member in california on their verizon wireless cell and we talked for over an hour without any problems. It sounds like there is a problem with the 4g towers interfering with 4g phones in certain cities. A guy in the droid charge forum said customer service at a verizon corp store said employees at that store with the droid charge were having this issue too and that they are working on the issue. I want to know when this us going to be fixed. Can a verizon employee please talk about this issue and shed some light on this issue to us frustrated high paying customers please? This is only fair we pay alot of money for this service. We deserve some answers!!!!

[rdoine]

DC - I agree there is a problem and I wish someone at VW would acknowledge the issue and at least assure us that it is being addressed.  In the absence of that, I am left to assume it is my incompetence or the droid charge.  I don't believe it is the former.

On a more positive note, I've had one whole working day when I did not lose the ability to receive or make calls.  Of course, I happen to be in Lincoln, NE today and all they have is 3G, according to my phone.  But, at least it worked all day, so far.

[IKnowSomething]

I have the Droid Charge as well and I travel through out the west coast. I havent experiened the issues you have but one little tip I wanted to mention is that if traveling in and out of 4g areas seems to be your issue you can go to settings > mobile networks > system selection > and set the phone to cdma (3g) mode as oppose to LTE (4g) mode. I also do this to save battery life and just toggle back and fourth based on what I need my device to do.

[rdoine]

Thanks, Iknowsomething.  When I have experienced the inability to make or receive calls, I have tried the tip you mentioned with no change in behavior.  

I have now had no issues for several days while in Nebraska and now in Alabama.  A test will be when I land in Michigan again tonight.  Will I be able to make and receive calls when I walk off the plane in Detroit?  We'll see. 

[rdoine]

Just returned from another week of moving around the country. 

Lincoln and Omaha - No issues whatsoever.  Dallas - No issues whatsoever.  Mobile - No issues whatsoever.  Memphis - No issues whatsoever.

Land in Detroit, receive one call and then I can't make a single call for the next hour or so.   Then, I'm driving through an area where I never had trouble on my Droid 1 and my call drops and I cannot make a call for the next 30 minutes.  All this while the phone indicates full 5 bar signal and 4g.

It's very strange that I get to my home area and my troubles start again. 

But hey, I had four days of trouble free service.

[DC5_K20Z1]

The issue seems to be fixed so far here in phoenix arizona. Made calls yesterday without the dead air issues....but it could return......hopefully not though.

[willzzz99]

The most likely issue!? The "people" are adding network capacity and it's only a temporary thing. You were caught in a bad time when VZW and their contractors are installing/tuning LTE.

[rdoine]

That sounds like a reasonable possibility.  But, why would Verizon not just acknowledge the issue and be done with it.  Anyway, I hope the problem goes away.

[deloswilbur]

Frankly by this point I think the whole company just needs to go away.  I am so sick of fighting with this stuff...

[reddeviltj]

I'm out here in rural farmland of SE Michigan and VZ is the only internet that I've been able to use in the last 4 years.  We had satellite and that was ridiculous.  We used the VZ aircards for 4 years and I just bought my MiFi last Thursday.  We're not in 4G territory yet but this 3G is the best I've experienced in years.  I've been a VZ customer since 2001 and have never been let down by them.  

[rdoine]

Thanks for your comment.  I've also had Verizon for years.  In fact when I moved to Michigan in 2000, I was with a company that eventually became Verizone. 

That being said, I have always had great service from Verizon over the entire USA and Canada.  But the switch to this new 4g phone has been a nightmare.

Again today, I lost service for about 30 minutes.  No calls in or out and the indicator showed 4g and a full 5 bars of signal.  But not ability to get anything done.  Then, a quickly as I lost service, it showed back up again.

That can't be right.

[toughbook]

How would you like Verizon to admit it? Should the technicians stop what they are doing and call you to let you know they are getting ready to work on the system to better serve you in the future? I firmly believe that if your case is the norm that Verizon would not be around. Maybe you have a bad device? Maybe you are simply in a dead zone? Stop and think for a moment, maybe it's your end that has the problems? Do you know someone else around you that has a Verizon phone to compare with? Try that next time and see what happens.

I don't seem to have any problems.

http://speedtest.net/result/1418682460.png