Charge dropping 3G service: "Network not available"

[Booch]

First off, some of the other posts were a little similar but not entirely.  I live about 200 miles from any 4G service, so it is not an issue dropping off between 4G and 3G.  I also do not have Wi-Fi enabled, so it is not an issue between the switch between Wi-Fi and 3G.

Between 2-3 times per day, my Charge loses its 3G coverage and I cannot get any data transmission.  I have figured out that if I restart my phone, I will have my 3G data back again.  However, this is not a long-term solution and is very annoying.

I have had my Charge for a week with the constant dropping of my 3G.  Today, I finally got tired of it and thought there was maybe an error with my phone.  I went to my local Verizon store and they replaced my phone.  To my surprise, after having my new replaced phone for only about 2 hours, it has dropped the 3G data again.  My phone is showing 4 out of 5 on the bars, so I know I am not in a low coverage area.  I am getting very frustrated as I've tried talking to the local reps at the Verizon store and they are clueless.  I called the national Verizon help line and they were not aware of any problems, so it didn't help me out.

I would appreciate any help from Verizon (or any other posters) that might have ideas.

I have seen some of the poor responses from Verizon "tech support" on some of the other questions.  Telling me that I can return the phone plus pay a restocking fee is not an appropriate or reasonable answer.  If someone can actually help, it is appreciated.  Otherwise, I guess I will continue trying to catch someone's attention.

[Ray999]

In my office which has poor 4G, I set my mobile networks to CDMA mode to deal with issues like you are having. It doesn't seem to drop like it did when I was on LTE automatic. Sometimes it drops to 1x but I still get my email.

[vidguy7]

In my house, my Charge can not reliably hold on to a 4G signal.  I just looked at an in-depth VZW coverage map by street.  Despite the fact that my area shows as solidly 4G (not fringe or 'expanded'), the phone often drops out of 4G in my house and into either 3G or 'no connectivity'.  Yes, you can reboot, go in and out of 'airplane mode' and whatever else will knock the phone back to 4G, but that doesn't last very long.

This whole thing is very disappointing.  It's great when the 4G is solid, but if you can't hold on to a 4G signal in a solid 4G area in a wood frame house, not a steel frame high rise, you have to scratch your head and ask if it's worth it.  This is to say nothing of the 'no connectivity' issues I get periodically in my house and other areas that are solidly 3G.

Since the recent EE4 update didn't seem to fix this issue to any great extent (from my experience as well as many others I've read about in other forums), I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the issue is in the chipsets being used in these 1st gen phones. I obviously could be very wrong about this, but at some point you think this is not a software issue and more of a hardware issue since all the 4G phones seem to be afflicted this way.  Of course your results will depend on the area you live in.  I used to think it might have just been the towers not properly telling the phones how to switch in to and out of 3G and 4G areas, but now who knows?

The more I see this, the more I read about the other 4G phones from other owners, the more I think 'not ready for prime time'.  I'm really not sure I could, in good conscience, recommend a 4G phone to someone at this point.

[Booch]

Again, this morning after turning off the LTE and only being on CDMA, I lost my 3G again.  Where is the Verizon help?

[vidguy7]

I hate to be the pessimist, but I don't think there's anything they can do given the current state of 4G hardware on Verizon.  I think that some people in some areas (with weaker 4G signals or tower issues or who knows what?) will see this with ALL 4G Verizon phones.  Some people have no idea what we're talking about, since they live in solid 4G areas where they might not ever see these issues.  But if you happen to live in an area where this hardware issue is manifested, you're out of luck. Your phone will go from 4G to 3G to no G and no data.  A shopping area right near me shows it's solidly in a 4G area (not marginal, not 'extended', solid 4G) and there is simply no 4G coverage there...at least on my Charge.  Are these Verizon maps extremely optimistic or are they accurate and the phones are simply not behaving properly?

To illustrate this issue even further, yesterday I was at the Verizon store in Massapequa on,  L.I., N.Y.  They had 2 Charge demos there, one had the EE4 update and the other did not (it was on the phone but not yet installed).  I walked into the store and I had 3G on my phone, no 4G (again, another 4G area).  I went over to the first Charge (with the EE4 update) and it showed 3G, not 4G.  I looked at the other Charge which did not have the EE4 update installed, and it showed 4G.  Go figure.  I don't think this had anything to do with one phone having the updatae and the other not since I don't think the update really did anything related to this problem...at least in our area and certainly not on my phone.  Interestingly, the TBolt next to the Charge that did show the 4G showed no 4G, 3G or even 1X, it just showed one bar of 'something' but couldn't connect to data.  Eventually it switched over to 4G with 1-2 bars.  Notice a trend here?

I showed this to the tech and he scratched his head and had no answer.  He was very nice about the whole thing, but just couldn't offer an explanation.  He did a battery pull on my phone and when it booted back I had 4G.  Well no surprises there, I can do that too and have done that a number of times.  But honestly, how many times a day do we need to do a battery pull to get 4G coverage that is advertised as being 4G? We also noticed when we went back to the demos that the Charge without the EE4 update was going through the update process, so someone started the update cycle.

Worse yet, what do we need to do to get data in those 3G areas where a 3G only phone has no issues and the Charge drops to 'no connectivity'?  It seems to me that these 4G phones are exceedingly 'delicate' and just don't handle these signals very well and certainly don't handle transitions from one signal to the other very well.  In my own house I can go from 4G to 3G to 1X to no data in a minute.  Why? I have no idea.  My wife's Iphone on Verizon surely doesn't behave this way.  No way no how.

[paperclips]

I have actually had the same problem as you... I'm guessing it's a problem with the phone itself (weak antenna?). My mother and I have recently purchased Droid Charges, and have never gotten good 3G or 4G coverage, despite the fact that we are in different areas, and me in New York City (should have coverage there...)! Wifi is disabled, data roaming is on (tried data roaming off as well) and 3G/4G only works if the phone is rebooted constantly.

The 3G signal only seems to last a good 10-20 minutes after the phone is rebooted, and then suddenly cuts out, regardless of where we are with the phone. After repeated calls to Verizon to get the phone to work, they deny hearing about this problem with other phones and have had us reset and restart the phones multiple times, fixing the problem for maybe 20 minutes after each phone call. We visited the Verizon STORE in addition to these phone calls. Apparently many customers there are coming in with similar problems: 3G service dropping out everywhere. 

Anybody with any other model of Android phone seems to get consistent and speedy 3G service. We tried calling so many times, the most anybody's done was deny this problem exists and have us reset our phones too many times...After maybe two weeks of phone calls (and the end of the 14-day "worry-free" guarantee) Verizon came to the conclusion that we live in a no signal area...despite the fact that I work in Manhattan, and the town and home my family lives in can give strong signal to any other Droid on the Verizon network.

Extremely disappointing, faulty device, and poor customer service on top of that. Hopefully we can get a refund for these. Seems as though any efforts to actually get what we are paying for on our bills seem futile...

Wish you all the best with getting this fixed!

[vidguy7]

Verizon should then corrrect these 4G maps. If they eventually came to the conclusion in your case that you live in 'no signal area', then correct the maps to show that!  So Manhattan is a 'no signal' area?  And then your family lives in a town that other 3G Verizon phones have no problems with?  Again, do we all see a pattern here?

In some areas there is simply no denying the new 4G phones are not working properly and we have no idea why.  It could be poor receivers in the phones, something not right with the towers instructing the phones on how to switch the signals, a combination of these or who knows what?

Whatever it is, the Verizon customer is the one who suffers in the end.  We are told our 4G phones can get 4G signals and many times they can not despite the map showing clear 4G coverage.  Rebooting phones multiple times a day is not the answer. Resetting phones every time you call tech support is not the answer. This really needs to be corrected.  In the interum I will not recommend to anyone that they delve into these 4G devices...certainly not in our area.

[Booch]

Thank you for the replies in this thread.  It is extremely frustrating and I guess it is maybe a little comforting to know there are others experiencing it with me.

It is dissapointing the lack of response from Verizon (including this thread--where are you?).  I just want to know that if this continues for another couple of weeks that I can swap out my phone and get something else.  After the two week "worry-free" time after having a phone is obviously not long enough.

I think this phone a lot but there are some serious issues with either the device or network.

So far, Verizon deserves a letter grade of "F" for their lack of support.

[vidguy7]

I think they participate in threads for which a known solution exists.  Their lack of participation in this thread may tell you all you need to know.  Either they have no clue as to what's causing this or know and realize there is nothing that can be done since it's a hardware issue.  If it's an area network issue, then that's something they should share with us to let us know there is hope.

I've seen other people mentioning they've experienced issues in the Long Island area.  But again, this may merely show that these phones are not as sensitive to 3G/4G signals in the 'less solid' areas and that simply manifest the phone's weakness.

It's really ashame since I really like the Charge and if they could solve this problem, the phone would be a winner IMO.  I can work around the battery issue with either the heavy duty battery or two slim batteries.  But I just don't see a 'work-around' for the reception issue.

[paperclips]

I sure hope we can get a solution to this problem.

I would call in!

I heard Verizon say over the phone that they cannot address this as an "official problem" until enough people call Verizon in to complain about the problem so until then they're not going to address and treat it. I think calling in would mostly likely be a viable option for getting help for this in addition to forums like these (though they say they don't consider problems found on forums as "real" problems). They haven't helped much AT ALL when I've called (they just have you restart the phone...), but hopefully this will change with more feedback on this subject.

And yeah I'm on Long Island, in an area that has pretty good 3G for any other Verizon customer.

I do like the phone and it really is a shame that it's most prized feature, 4G that is, is a sham. It's a $300-600 phone for god's sake. Other than that, great display, haha!