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

[c1ph3r2u]

NW 1st St. & Trimble area in San Jose, 4G LTE data speeds have been <0.5Mbps down & <0.2Mbps up for over a week.  Switching phone to 3G yields similar, slightly faster data speeds.  Same results on all of my coworker's phones (Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S4, iPhone).  My phone has normal LTE speeds at home 10 miles away.

I can't find any other way to report this issue online.  I attempted to call *611, but gave up after waiting 15 minutes on hold. 

There should be an easier way to report service outages!!!!!

[c1ph3r2u]

Really, only 20?!?!  Do you have a link that goes into technical detail about how 20 data users is all it takes to cripple a tower?  As far apart as the CDMA towers are, that seems like a very low user count.  Too easy to create DoS...[cringe]

[c1ph3r2u]

Received more phone calls from Verizon Customer service this week.  All representatives were professional and friendly. One wanted to discuss upgrade options for my account while I had trouble controlling my laughter.  I explained to her that Verizon has the worst data network in the San Francisco Bay Area (after Sprint of course) and I'd be nuts to retain Verizon as my service provider.  I directed her here...

Another representative informed me that the issue at Oakridge Westfield mall in San Jose was tested and confirmed as a trouble spot.  They will be working on a new tower there; again ETA unknown, but very likely at least one year or more.  He also indicated that Verizon is committed to fixing all of the locations that have issues.  Too little, much too late for me unfortunately as all the necessary improvements are at least one year out.  Shame too as the new Verizon Droid Ultra Max Dev Edition sure looks amazing.

Regarding the issue near 1st St. & Trimble in San Jose, I found a coworker on AT&T to test their 4G speeds during peak business hours.  They were getting very similar speeds as coworkers on T-Mobile, 1-3Mbps down, 1Mbps up, ping <90ms. Verizon is still 10% of those speeds and Sprint 1%.  Seems as though GSM phones have the advantage here with more towers to load balance. 

[c1ph3r2u]

Just a quick update in case it can be helpful to others...

My colleagues and I have had good success in switching our LTE phones to only use Verizon's 3G network.  We have had them configured this way for a few weeks and have seen much better network stability (albeit much slower), longer battery life, and less occurrences of our phones attempting to burn a hole in our pockets while attempting to retain a connection to the overloaded Verizon LTE towers. 

So while Verizon can claim an obnoxious "FIRST!" on a LTE rollout posting, their 3G network remains their most robust and reliable network for Silicon Valley.

[paul-bslee]

I am happy to see someone working nearby!  I work in the area near Trimble and also have the terrible 4G connection near work.  My phone, Galaxy Note 2, doesn't have the option to go to 3G, so it stays at 4G and doesn't give data.  Perhaps similar to your case...  

[c1ph3r2u]

@paul-bslee

This issue impacts all Verizon LTE 4G users during business hours in the 1st St. & Trimble area.  The Samsung R&D center nearby is saturating the local LTE radio tower.  Sprint users are significantly impacted as well.  Colleagues with GSM based carriers are only seeing slightly slower 4G speeds in this area.

See if the info from this XDA thread to put your Note 2 into 3G only mode works.

[Shalade]

The last 3 nights from 11 PM to 5 AM I have 1 bar of 3g or no signal what so ever, attempts to talk to verizon representatives resulted in them giving me no answer other than to wait it out.  WTF verizon.

[californiatrav]

No improvements in Silicon Valley and so many problems that it's difficult to report them all.  There really should be an automated tool or app!  Basically during my entire Caltrain ride between Menlo Park and San Jose I have 2-5 bars LTE signal but data typically does not work at all or is <0.5 Mbps.  Voice works fine but data is NOT what I am paying for.  Seriously considering whether it's worth paying the early termination, selling my phone and getting an AT&T phone.

[c1ph3r2u]

Game Over!

I'm done.

I've tried to be patient.

I'm on my way out. 

My Verizon contract expires this week and I won't be staying.

Why?

Verizon has an unjustifiable premium pricing for such poor actual service.  Since I've last posted to this thread, I've found at least 10 more new Verizon data black holes in Silicon Valley.  This is so tiresome...

Image test results info:

Results below are from the golden triangle area of San Jose  taken at 9:43am on 12/13/2013. 

Verizon Nexus reporting 3 bars of LTE service, Nexus 5 reported 1 bar of LTE on T-Mobile. 

Multiple Verizon devices from different manufacturers and O/S report similar results from this location.  Same applies to T-Mobile & AT&T devices.

I wish for the other contract inflicted Silicon Valley Verizon customers the patience of the saints, because who knows when this will get fixed.  Verizon's latest update did nothing for Silicon Valley. (http://gigaom.com/2013/12/05/verizon-quietly-unleashes-its-lte-monster-tripling-4g-capacity-in-major...)

Cheers!

[baekacaek]

I recently switched from a 3G phone (iPhone 4) to a 4G phone (LG G3) and now I'm having this same exact issue. I actually work at the Samsung R&D center located on W Plumeria (though I had no Idea that my coworkers were overloading the towers).

At work, I'm getting download speed of 0.1 - 0.3 Mbps.

In the meantime, on my T-Mobile work phone, I'm getting 10 - 30Mbps download speed.

I can't believe that the last post in this thread was 8 months ago, and this issue STILL hasn't been fixed. Very disappointed.

[aadamowski]

And, after almost 4 years have passed since the original post, it seems like the situation did not really improve. At least where I'm located, which is South San Jose:

Slow to nonexistent data coverage in South San Jose, CA - along Curie Dr and Cottle Rd.

It's also still true that Verizon does not support any effortless way for customers to simply report service outages and coverage gaps. This should be a simple form on the website and in their mobile apps.

It's XXI century, and nobody (especially when working in Silicon Valley) has 45 minutes to waste on a call center phone call simply to tell Verizon that their service does not work somewhere.

[WhoaIsMe]

Here we are a year later and nothing.  Data rates at 0mbps and ping times of 1.6 seconds. (?)

How can this be?  Verizon needs to fix these holes.