I am experiencing the same issues in both midtown and downtown Manhattan and Verizon support has not helped me to resolve these issues.  I have gone through all of the troubleshooting steps, and at one point a Verizon representative reset my carrier settings from their end but this only helped momentarily, and now i'm back to failing MMS, the inability to open web pages or use apps which depend on an internet connection, etc.  On Friday I did a speed test and the result was 14kbps down.  That is entirely unacceptable for the monthly fee I am paying ($90 after employer discount) and my contract is in effect for another year.  I refuse to put up with this kind of service any longer, and I also refuse to pay an ETF because my Verizon service went down the toilet through no fault of my own.  Until a few months ago, I had very few service interruptions; now my wireless experience has become one huge service interruption.  I see 1x on my phone daily, and that's not what I'm paying for.  More frustrating still is reviewing this thread and finding that so many users are experiencing the same problems, yet Verizon representatives would rather blame our non-faulty devices than acknowledge their service issues.  At this point, I want to get rid of Verizon since this issue is clearly not being resolved in a timely fashion, and I will go through whatever channels necessary to ensure that I am not subject to the ETF.  My position is that Verizon is violating their end of the agreement by failing to provide adequate and reliable service.