Mobile data is SHARED. Which means the more people connecting to the same tower the slower your connection is going to be. Especially if those others connecting are doing things like watching streaming video. So being in the middle of a decent sized city yes it would be expected that there would be congestion issues. Each tower has 3 sectors, each sector can only handle a max of 400 users. How many Verizon customers in your general area are trying to connect to the same tower sector as you in the middle of the day? Probably more than 400. Also each sector can only handle 150 Mbps MAX among all users. So if you have 400/150 Mbps that 375 kbps. So if you person 401 or more then you probably won't get any connection at all until someone else stops using the network. This is why unlimited data isn't so great. Those people don't care, they'll stream video all day long. They don't have caps to worry about so they couldn't care less if it impacts YOU.

So there isn't really any "fix". Other than to add more spectrum which is pretty much years down the pike for several reasons. Verizon is also installing microtowers in many areas. I doubt Boise, Idaho is high on the priority list though. Once again that's a solution that will take years to accomplish.

ALL carriers are going to have this issue as more and more people upgrade to smartphones especially 4G smartphones. As I said solutions are YEARS away.