NO CELL SERVICE northern Granville County, NC

[swb56]

We have no cell phone service between Oxford, NC , going up highway 96 north to the Virginia state line.  Zip code 27565  There is a 9-1-1-cell tower on the Charlie Stovall Rd, and we've heard that Verizon has access to the tower, but it "has not been turned on."  Our friends with AT&T have great service.  The Verizon customers in this area are very disgusted and many are planning to drop Verizon as soon as their contract is up.  When can we expect to get better service?  We cannot even use our cell phones from our homes, much less on the highways in this part of the county.  Thanks for looking into this.

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

swb56,

I understand how important reliable service is. I've reviewed the area you've mentioned and do see some areas of opportunity there. We're always working to improve and expand our network. We'll let you know of any improvements as soon as we can. In the mean time I can suggest a Network Extender as an indoor solution in this area; http://vz.to/IHRT6h

TrevorC_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[swb56]

That's the same response we've been getting for several years. The area in question is not isolated - hwy 96 north is a main highway through the county - it's ridiculous with the cost of  Verizon cell service that we're getting NO SERVICE here.  Verizon will be losing customers in Northern Granville County if there's not an improvement very soon.  Thanks.

[swb56]

Here we go again. We talked to two Verizon men at the cell tower this morning on Charlie Stovall Road. They said they "just turned it on..not five minutes ago." He said he had a full signal on his phone. I still didn't have a signal AT ALL. He asked what kind of phone I was using. I have an iphone 4s. He said the problem was probably my old phone not working with the new signal.  Apparently the iphone 4s does not receive the LTE service. If I have to buy a new phone, I'll just switch cell phone providers and get a better deal than what Verizon gives me  - there's no incentive for loyal customers to stay with Verizon anyway)  But even though I don't have the newer phone, we should still get service for the enormous bill we pay every month. After talking with my neighbors who have the newest phones, they told me their cell service is no better than it's been in the past.  So upgrading my phone is not the answer.  I'm a very rational person and generally can come to an understanding when dealing with providers for other services, but not this time.  I'm sure a few disgruntled customers in a rural NC county is no big deal to your mega-company anyway.   My only recourse now is to end by association with Verizon as soon as my contract expires, and I'm sure many of my neighbors will do the same. We have HAD IT with Verizon.

[swb56]

The Network Extender you mentioned above will not work in this case.  You can't "extend" a network when you can't receive the signal.

[vzw_customer_support]

We always want you loving your services with us swb56. We wouldn't want to see you go with another carrier. We are constantly working to improve our services throughout the country. Is this area the only location you have service issues? Does it improve when outside of this specific area?

NicoleB_VZW
Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[swb56]

There is a 15 mile stretch of Highway 96 north (a heavily travelled road

through the county) from appx. 5 miles out of the Oxford city limits to the

Virginia state line where there is no service. Outlying areas from this

highway do not have Verizon service. There is a 9-1-1 tower just off of

highway 96 in the effected area, and it's our understanding that the

Verizon transmitter is on that tower - just not turned on. I'm not sure if

this is accurate. There is a cell tower appx. 10 miles from here, but the

signal is not strong enough for those of us living in this area.

Yes, the service is fine where we have a strong signal...but this is a BIG

AREA that does not have a signal at all.

On Sun, Oct 25, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Verizon Wireless Customer Support <

[smith6612]

Just a note - Verizon has already begun the process of dismantling their 3G network in favor of an all LTE Network. In some areas such as mine, the 3G data spectrum on PCS 1900Mhz is being refarmed (aka reallocated) to additional LTE capacity. In a few years, many of us also expect Verizon to begin asking customers still on 3G phones to purchase new devices, in order to allow them to sunset the old CDMA network.

Many new towers Verizon is deploying are being deployed LTE only. Newer phones which support Advanced Calling / HD Voice / VOLTE / whatever you want to call it, will be able to make use of these towers for data, voice, and text, with improved audio quality. The iPhone 4s is expected to lose software update support in iOS 10, at which point it may be time for an upgrade. The VOLTE enabled iPhone 6 would also be inexpensive being purchased off of Swappa by that point, and would work great with Verizon.

[pherson]

Then switch. Problem solved. The iPhone 4 or 4s is an old device.

Best wishes at your new carrier.