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Natural disastors and Deprioritization

This morning my neighborhood lost power during a tropical storm. After the power went out I noticed that even though i was still on the Verizon network and could make phone calls, i had no, ZERO, cellular data. I couldn't even open the verizon app. After a little research I saw some people talking about having your data turned off during time of network congestion if you are on the basic "GoUnlimited" data plan. HERE IS MY QUESTION: if a Verizon cell tower is down due to a power outage, from something like a hurricane, and all traffic is being directed to a different tower, will the network register that as congestion and deprioritize or throttle data to some plans? This storm wasn't bad but what about the next one, if i have no data i can't get weather updates. Are the de-prioritization rules ever suspended?

Comments

Verizon_Support

That is a great question, and I can understand your concern, MajorMink. If you are redirected to another operating tower in your area, that can cause congestion, yes. Depending on your plan, your service can be queued behind other traffic. It all depends on the amount of traffic on that specific tower. This is all speculation of course until I have more information and tools at my fingertips. Let's start off by gathering some basic information first. What is your zip code? Have you since restarted your phone? What does your phone display in terms of a signal(4G/LTE, 3G, 1X)?

JoeyM_VZW

MajorMink

My home zip is 23455, I am at work now and have power and wifi at the office. At the time my signal said LTE. 1st thing i did was completely power off the phone. (Iphone 11) when i powered back up no change. Even my text messages were failing to send until I turned off i-Message. I also woke my wife up and confirmed her phone had a cell signal but no data whatsoever

Verizon_Support

MajorMink, thank you for providing your Zip Code. As someone who relies on their wireless service, I know how inconvenient it is for you not to be able to use your service. I thoroughly reviewed the area you are in and found no service issues or alerts to report. Are you still having data issues? If so, please provide us the make and model of your device.

-JacobG_VZW

MajorMink

Thanks for looking into it. Once power was restored and we had our home WiFi signal again we didn't have any other issues. But I wasn't trying to report an outage. I was asking if the reason we had cell signal didn't have any data during the power outage was because we were being de-prioritized since we are on the Go-Unlimited plan? And if that was the case, can we expect that in the future during other natural disasters or moments of wide spread power outage?

Verizon_Support

We are glad to read that the power has been restored and that you don't have other issues currently. Was data the only service impacted? What about texts or calls?

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