Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

I live in a flat, suburban neighborhood that Verizon claims is solidly in the middle of a huge 4G zone.  However, I almost _never_ get 4G... and when I do, it's only for a few minutes (or seconds) and usually in the middle of the night... when I'm upstairs. 

In fact, it's uncommon to get 3G around here.  It's mostly 2-3 bars of the 1X network.  What a joke!

Calls sound terrible.  Calls drop... repeatedly.

If I go outside, it's only marginally better. If I walk down the block... about the same. 

My whole area, for several blocks, is simply NOT getting 4G in any meaningful way. 

Verizon is not providing anything even vaguely resembling the service they claim.

Will this ever change?

===

Yes, I've tried all of the recommendations. No help.

We even now have an Extender in the house.  Better? Not really. Barely.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
DigitalRules
Specialist - Level 1

Unfortunately you seem to be in a weak area for Verizon coverage. While Verizon does have the best overall coverage in the US, there will always be pockets where another provider may have a stronger signal. This is true for all providers depending on the area.

If in your shoes, I would look for a provider that has the most robust signal at your home & the areas you frequent the most. There are a lot of options out there these days. For example, Google Fi has the ability to switch between Sprint or T-Mobile depending on which signal is best at that moment. The downside is only 2 phones will work with their proprietary system.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

Here's an example of the super-awesome reception I get when I'm in the same room as the signal booster/extender.

Also, the only reason my battery still had that much power remaining is because I'd charged it earlier in the day. If I don't do that when I'm at home most of the day, then my battery will be critically low by the evening because the phone keeps struggling to find a signal.  Lovely.Verizon-Sucks-20160203.jpg

Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627.  Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

The weeks and months pass by... and still I experience horrible reception, terrible sound quality, and multiple dropped calls every single day. 

Today it was at least 4, maybe 5 dropped calls... right in the middle of a conversation.

In addition, there was some additional weirdness where it showed I had four or five bars (of 1X network, of course) but could not actually place a call.  Instead, I once again got some prerecorded message about the call not being able to be completed, and then some meaningless reference to Switch #xxxx.  Thanks, guys.

And then some other really nifty times where the call showed as connected, both parties had answered, but neither could hear the other.  That was really fun.

The response from Verizon, to date?  They sent me a single, private email saying they wanted to know more about this issue.  I responded, asking them what additional information they needed and how I might be of assistance.

Since then... NOTHING.

Very impressive, folks.

Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
DigitalRules
Specialist - Level 1

Have you experienced this on more than one phone? Any other Verizon users in your neighborhood having issues?

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yes, the issue occurs on on all three Verizon phones in my household -- Samsung Galaxy S5 (x2) & S6.

I haven't queried other Verizon users in my neighborhood, but I can confirm that there is poor-quality wireless signal throughout my neighborhood, not merely in my household.

Thank you.

[personal information removed as required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service]

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
DigitalRules
Specialist - Level 1

I suggest trying;


-Turn OFF Advanced Calling (VoLTE) under Mobile Networks in the settings menu

-Make sure you are set to LTE/CDMA (NOT Global) as well.

Let us know if this helps.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627.  Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

OK, I made sure the phone was set to LTE/CDMA.

And I disabled Advanced Calling.  (Because why would anyone want to use that?)

It's been a few weeks, and I can confidently say that I'm now experiencing fewer dropped calls.

But only fewer.  I still have no shortage of calls drop out, mid-sentence.  There are still conversations where I have to call them back several times in order to complete our discussion.

And the audio quality varies from "acceptable" to "barely understandable," with fluctuations occurring throughout the call, from moment to moment.

And it's certainly a good thing that I don't have to rely on this network for any sort of internet connectivity at my house -- it is utterly useless for such purposes.

So, thank you for your recommendations regading my phone... they did provide a slight improvement. 

Unfortunately, however, the root cause of this problem does not reside in my phone.  It is, instead, rooted in Verizon's failure, to date, to deploy adequate cell towers in my area.  I hope that this might change some day.

Thanks.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627. Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
DigitalRules
Specialist - Level 1

Unfortunately you seem to be in a weak area for Verizon coverage. While Verizon does have the best overall coverage in the US, there will always be pockets where another provider may have a stronger signal. This is true for all providers depending on the area.

If in your shoes, I would look for a provider that has the most robust signal at your home & the areas you frequent the most. There are a lot of options out there these days. For example, Google Fi has the ability to switch between Sprint or T-Mobile depending on which signal is best at that moment. The downside is only 2 phones will work with their proprietary system.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627.  Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Grumpy_MF
Enthusiast - Level 2

Well... today, while sitting in the same room, less than 10 feet from the "Network Extender," my call once again dropped at least three times (maybe, four) in the course of less than an hour.  On one attempted redial, I received the pre-recorded "Your call cannot completed at this time."

(Yes, that's the "Network Extender" that Verizon had the gall to make me pay for as I attempted to somehow find a way that I might overcome their steadfast intransigence to providing even a semblance of the service they quite clearly implied could be expected in my very flat, suburban neighborhood.)


So, your recommendation is that I should discontinue my service with Verizon and instead switch to one of their competitors?


(And does it matter that this is a business account with at least a dozen phones?)

DigitalRules wrote:

If in your shoes, I would look for a provider that has the most robust signal at your home & the areas you frequent the most.


Sincerely, what would be your recommendation as to the best way to acquire reliable data regarding that matter?  Obviously, I would be foolish to trust any of the claims offered by the providers, themselves.  Must I rely upon anecdotal evidence provided by, at most, one or two neighbors? (Neighbors whose judgement and analytical skills I have no particular reason to trust!)

I assume that, if I follow your advice regarding carriers, there will be no fees or penalties for "early termination" since Verizon is here the party that has failed to live up to its contractual obligations?  And how about a refund on that nearly-useless extender?

Oh, well... I just wish things were different.

Truly, I do appreciate your advice and recommendations.

But I'd certainly prefer if Verizon would just live up to its claims of great network coverage -- particularly in my area, where their ongoing claim of providing a solid 4G signal is simply not true... not even sorta, kinda, maybe close.  And they know it.

Seriously, within California, the population density of my county is second only to San Francisco. And we have more total people in the county than nearly half of the states in the US!  Is it really too much for me to imagine that Verizon might actually deploy sufficient additional equipment into the field so as to provide meaningful wireless coverage?

Or, in the alternative, for Verizon to stop publishing knowingly false & deceptive information regarding their services?

I mean, it's not as though they'd have any technical trouble collecting and publishing honest, accurate information about their signal strength & quality for almost any given area, y'know?

If you have any additional thoughts, recommendations and/or updates, I'd honestly be happy to listen.  But I recognize that, at this point, it is unlikely there will be any meaningful improvements to the situation.

Thank you for your time and efforts.

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Re: Consistently Awful signal quality in 92627.  Will Verizon EVER upgrade service to level they claim?
Brew1971
Enthusiast - Level 1

I never paid for my extender from verizon, get a refund. It doesn't help anyways. They need to fix and upgrade their towers.

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