Since updating my phone ages ago, my Note 3 has yet to have decent signal reception despite all attempts at remedying it. The highest I ever get is 3 bars, and I live in and frequent areas completely covered under Verizon's 4g coverage map. Text messages and MMS especially take forever to send, or fail altogether; calls take time to connect and when they do, quality is poor; frequent dropped calls when used for work - simply unacceptable. Any time I venture more than say 20 minutes North, my phone will drop to zero reception, not 4g, not 3g, nothing. I've been around other Verizon customers who had full service, where in the exact same location I get dropped calls and no network, whatsoever. I've also had the same issues while traveling in even more populated areas, Orlando, Hermosa Beach/LA, and Portland.
I've tried pulling the battery, pulling the SIM, switching between global and LTE/CDMA, SIM card replacement, and finally gave in and tried a factory reset today. Waste of everything, as my signal quality has dropped to 1 bar at best. Is there any actual fixes, aside from the tried and (false) "have you tried turning it off and back on again?", or are we doomed to suffer in shoddy reception pushing us closer and closer to switching networks?
Phone: Note 3 SM N900V, non-rooted, 5.0 w/ all current updates
Home Zip code: 48026, frequent Detroit Metro area with the same reception issues
Maximum signal strength: -111 dBm, average around -125 dBm or worse
