Extremely slow LTE service in San Francisco

[sekarb]

I have an iPhone 5 with Verizon postpaid contract plan [unfortunately].

The data speeds have been miserable last several months. Most of the time, my download is less than 1mbps and upload will be like 30kbps.

Right now, I am near the city hall area and my speeds are 0.03mbps down and 0.03mbps up. and yesterday was 0.04mpbs down and 0.10mbps up.

I went to the verizon store and it works fast inside since they have repeaters in the store. They said the phone appears to work fine and said it depends on the area..blah..blah..basically they just stopped short of admitting their network sucks in SF.

I'm extremely disappointed with the service considering how much they are charging me for it.

I think Verizon should give a discount or let us terminate the contract without the Early Termination Fee. I would be happy to go back to AT&T. They have much faster speeds here and lower fees.

Anyone else having such slow speeds in SF? Feel free to share it here..

[Daveyo]

My LTE speeds in SF Zip code 94103 are just beyond bad.  Often times data is just non existent.  We have several phones on a family plan so switching is not simple but I'm contemplating anyway because the current situation is intolerable. 

Interestingly, checked LTE vs. 3G on my new iPhone 6 and 3G is a bit faster!

Check out this LTE "speed" test (yes I confirmed I was on LTE)

And here is 3G!!!

[wfitz1964]

I have had three dropped calls poor LTE service in Castro valley.  I'm in the valley of the uninformed . I see att building cell towers like gangbusters. I see verizon has cell site permitted .65 mile from me but nothing is being done.

[melvy]

It's gotten so bad that I stop believing when my phones says I'm on LTE. In most of Castro I will have 3-4 bars and yet can't get any data. Other parts of the city I get 3g like speeds. My phone can't take advantage of their new XLTE spectrum, but the fact still remains Verizon's data is horrible in SF. At&t is looking sweeter every day that passes - not to mention At&t users get reception while going thru sunset and downtown tunnels! Come on Big Red...who cares if you have LTE everywhere if it's crappy where you spend majority of your time.

[Ascotlad]

Verizon - I have been a loyal customer for many, many years.  But I concur with these observations.  In the past several months, something has happened to the data in my neighborhood on my Verizon LTE.  It was happening on my iPhone 5S and is now also happening with my iPhone 6.  There's a problem with data in the Castro.  For example standing at Castro Street near Market, all the way down Castro to almost 20th Street.   Full LTE signal, but virtually zero data.

Please respond to this thread, with estimated investigation and fix schedule.

[Ascotlad]

I have reported the LTE data problem in the Castro, using the Chat function.  I encourage you to do the same.  The agent says it will trigger a network investigation.  They asked for an address, my phone number/email and said it will take 48-72 hrs to work through their system.

[dbrooks83]

I have to agree. I used to live by the ballpark and everything was fine. I moved to Polk Gulch in August and it's a dead zone. I mean like .5 mb/s download kind of dead. Polk and Geary to Franklin all the way up past California... That whole rectangle... nada! The financial district is ok, but I've also seen similar poor results in the eastern half of the Marina and also along the Delores corridor (18th and Delores). It seems that most of this poor performance has also occurred in the last several months. Heard something about Verizon selling spectrum off so it's network isn't as fast now in SF, but can't find anything online to confirm that.

I know that my phone is older (Galaxy S3) and can't take advantage of XLTE, but after reading some of these responses, I'm not sure that's the issue? Seriously considering switching to T-Mobile when I get a new phone in December, and I'm a legacy unlimited data customer. Although what good is unlimited data if you can't use it?

[Ascotlad]

I have a case open with Verizon.  It's hopefully being worked on.  I have been doing more tests using speedtest app.  In my neighborhood, either it reports a problem with Network Communications, or it fails the initial latency test.   Let's see what they figure out in my hood.  I would encourage everyone to use the Chat feature to report the same problem.  Let's get LTE data working in our neighborhoods.

[fozhao]

Having the same issues here. I've tested it in various locations in the Bay Area, the only place I've seen usable LTE speeds are in apple stores and Verizon stores. Verizon, time to get your **** together.

[wwits]

There is not been any response from Verizon on this issue in over a year.  There are several threads online their forums about this, and it seems like their reps have just started ignoring these.  The reps I get connected to via Verizon's chat feature just say "The map says you get great 4G coverage" and tell me they will report my issue to technical support.

How can I fix slow data and disconnection problems in the SF Bay Area?

LTE- San Francisco- Speeds are horrible

Silicon Valley, home of the SLOWEST 4G LTE Verizon data speeds

San Francisco 4G LTE almost non-existent (94115)

I live with two other people who are using AT&T in 94114, not too far east from Twin Peaks, and they get great speeds down in my house.  I get <2 Mbps down in most places in the city (Upper Haight, Castro, Lower Haight, Mission, Noe Valley, Hayes Valley, Western Addition, Tenderloin, SOMA, the list goes on...) and have resorted to just using 3G around all of SF and wifi at home and at work.  When I pop over the bridge to Berkeley, great speeds if I switch LTE back on.

I get that this is about congestion. The question is what is Verizon doing to fix it? Nothing.

When I inquired about getting a discount on my bill and a rebate from Verizon because I am paying for service that I am not getting, they said that because I'm using data I'm going to be charged for it, despite the fact that Verizon advertises 4G speeds and I have to turn off LTE to even open my e-mail or look up a restaurant on Yelp. Pretty sad customer care. I have had a mobile phone with heavy data for 10 years and in that time used all 3: VZW, T-Mobile and AT&T   VZW takes the cake for false advertising regarding their coverage map and Zero customer support on an issue that affects so many.

[wwits]

I am thinking of buying out the rest of my Edge contract and jumping to AT&T, but AT&T currently has a 21 day leadtime on ordering the same model phone I have now.

I have experienced all these same speeds. Most of the day I'm on wifi either at work or at home, but Verizon's data speed is insanely bad in most parts of the city (Cole Valley, Castro, Haight, and Mission).  In the financial district where I work they are decent but not worthy of bragging about - just better than 0.05 Mbps which is what I'm used to on LTE.

Before upgrading to the iPhone 6, I was still using a 4S and 3G speeds were definitely faster than the current LTE speeds in SF.

[mikeluscher159]

Likely area congestion.

Is your area a XLTE city?

iPhone 5's don't have AWS/(Band 4) which is what VZ uses to beef up congested areas.

5C's and up do.

You can either upgrade, or if another carrier is better in your area, jump ship.

[dlowrey99]

i 100% agree.  the marina and lower pac heights are complete dead zones.  riding in a cab/uber from one end of the city to the other results in several periods of no data flow.  reception seems to be fine, but data trickles or stops.  even in the financial district (normally ok) i'm having trouble streaming video right now without pauses every other second.

one would think verizon would put more effort into providing better coverage in the most tech-heavy/savvy city in the nation.

[melvy]

upgrading doesn't seem to help too much. said he has a iPhone 6 (which should take advantage of Verizon's AWS spectrum) and is still not getting the LTE speeds one would expect from Big Red. I didn't want to take the chance, and ended up switching to Ma Bell for the Note 4. I'm paying less and getting better service...go figure.

[rayndrahps]

I downloaded 4G LTE Switch (which was created because another one started having malware or requested a bunch of features, so this one, for now is pretty free of unnecessary items) from the Play store.  Being able to force my phone to 3g is fantastic since I can actually use it again.  The LTE works fine by PacBell Park, but while I have 4-5 bars of signal strength in places like the Castro (from Castro and Market down to Castro and 19th, Hartford over to whatever the street past Collingwood is) loads slowly, and by slow I mean 5 minutes between clicks on stuff and at worst times out entirely.

The other really bad area I've noticed is Church and Dorland Ave up to 20th and Church and over to Valencia.

I re-tested after downloading the app that allows me to force my Droid Maxx (Capable of XLTE so it's not that) and the things I was trying to do on LTE load near instantly on 3g since the data needs of the apps I'm using are miniscule.  I've reported this to Verizon but of course never hear anything back from them.  I'm just chiming in hoping that this and other forum posts get seen and have more and more people echo the ever increasing horror story of LTE on Verizon in San Francisco.  I'm available for an upgrade, as much as I hate AT&T I might have to move over there myself.

I should mention I handle about 40 Verizon lines for my company and most of my users are reporting dead zones like this all over SF as well as all the people I play Ingress with (which is probably the best way to find data outages more than any other application on the phone right now due to being a GPS based video game where you have to go all over the place.  Never thought I'd be using it as a tool for finding out where Verizon's data coverage is crap.)

If anyone wants me to post Speedtest pictures, I can make that happen, but I think if you're here in this thread you're in the same boat already.

[rayndrahps]

Other area's with little to no data:  Market St & Octavia St. down to Duboce Ave. and Elgin Park over to  Laguna St. and Waller St., then also Haight St. and Market St.

[srs232]

How were you thinking of collecting the dead zones? There's a website named Wireless Coverage Map & Carrier Reviews - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tracfone which allows you to upload screenshots which show speed tests and may be a good resource for tracking the problems.

[Intrepidwon]

Unbelievably poor LTE reception on my new Note 4 in SF. I was super excited to sign up for Verizon service and transfer from AT&T just a couple months ago. I find it shocking that Vzw would allow these dismal conditions in a major market. It took me 4 minutes just to sign in to post here. My speed tests confirm what you all are reporting. And I still have my AT&T phone for another few weeks before I can close that account.  But now I am seriously worried as the speed on that Note 2 is pretty amazing, both here in SF and in Santa Rosa, btw. Additionally,  while in the Eureka Arcata Humboldt Bay region recently,  I noted that AT&T had really stepped up service in the valleys around suburban Eureka, though Vzw is still better, but not by much. Resting on our laurels, are we, Big Red? That's dangerous,  and quite the bummer. Step up or many of us will step away, ETF or not.

[Sunflower415]

I just upgraded 2 weeks ago from an Iphone 4S (using 3G) to an iphone 6 (using 4G).   Imagine my disappointment when I  not only didn't get the faster speeds I was promised, but also couldn't even use my phone in most places!  Using data, or trying to use an app such as Hangouts, check out Facebook, or look up something on the internet doesn't work about 75% of the time.    I called Verizon and they said, "No network problems in your area...downtown SF has great coverage", They would tell me to troubleshoot a few thigs and then tell me it was fixed and try it out for a few more days, and call back if it wasn't working.   I'd try it out for a few more days and still could not use my phone....at work (in PAC Heights, at home (near Union Square), in downtown SF, or in Inner Richmond...basically most everywhere I went, I would have trouble with my phone connection.   I'd have my Apple 3G work phone with me (because I needed a back up for  when my NEW phone was't working), and my old 3G work phone was WAAAYYY fast and worked ALL the time!    My work phone (3G)  would have 4 bars and my new 4G phone would have one bar.   I finally figured out a way to switch to 3G on my phone, so it does work on the 3G network, but I upgraded because I wanted the supposedly "FASTER and RELIABLE 4G network".   Come on Verizon, this is DOWNTOWN San Francisco!!!!  I could understand if I was visiting my family in upstate NY, but this is DOWNTOWN San Francisco!!!   What is going on???    I've been a customer of yours for 15 years because you always had the most reliable network....but no more.   I am looking to switch, and will make it known to others how bad the service is if I don't get a resolution soon!

[Irie1]

Verizon, are you reading this thread? Is anything being done about it?

[Ann154]

Irie1 wrote:

Verizon, are you reading this thread? Is anything being done about it?

Verizon reps aren't reading this thread because it wasn't marked as a question by the original poster.