Does anyone notice a decay in Verizon cell broadband?

[LarryFlew]

Hate to diss V as we are original customers from the 80s (when cellular one in MN to V in 2000) but our typical winter strength used to be 3 to 4 bars of 5 on my phone but now it's 1 or 2 and sometimes calls don't work. Unlimited data is speed of molasses.

[NLOVNIT]

I thought about switching to Spectrum wireless (see their commercials all the time on TV & we already have Spectrum for our IP), but after finding out they lease from Verizon Network, well pffffttt what's the point? I'd be just going from the frying pan into the fire.

Lori-

[Jchemie]

If you think your service is bad, then don’t get T-mobile for service if you are a camper. They are great in any city and on the fringe of the city, but out of town it just goes kaput. I’ve been to camp grounds where there are even signs at the check in offce that say “T-mobile doesn’t work here. Borrow our office phone”. Sad. They are now touting the 5G stuff (whatever that means I have no idea) but it isn’t any better in my experience. I live in the county 6 miles as the crow flies from the major town and service is sketchy on a good day. Verison is the best cell network out here at my home, most of my neighbors switched to it. The T won’t work even with their booster unit in my house. But for some dumb reason I’m still with the T service. Gotta land line instead.

[richndonna]

Yes for a couple years now it’s been going down hill fast.

[lyfesaver]

Verizon has been over-subscribing their 4G LTE and so-called xLTE for the past couple of years. After 19 years with them in the desert southwest, I made the plunge to AT&T. I kept one Verizon phone, a Galaxy S10 Note, on Verizon. I get between 300kbps - 11Mbps down on that. I get between 53Mbps - 127Mbps down in the same places using my iPhone 11Pro. Both phones share identical technology. In fact, I switched the iPhone from Verizon. Perhaps Verizon is hoping people will stay with them until 5G rollout. I’m not looking back.

[freestyle_freddy]

Just like you, we travel all over the US & have had Verizon MIFI & ATT Mobley for several years. I have not noticed what you're experiencing regarding Verizon. I have noticed an improvement in ATT coverage, but not a decrease in Verizon's coverage. There are a few places around the country where ATT has coverage & Verizon doesn't, like the southern end of Evergaldes NP & a few areas in south Texas. We do use the Wilson/WeBoost Drive 4G-X booster which is a big help.
I did experience something strange a couple of days ago that is somewhat related. We are in the desert 20 miles north of Yuma, AZ where both Verizon & ATT coverage is sketchy, even with the booster. I use Chrome as my browser, but by laptop came with Edge, but I don't use it. Out here I was losing virtually every page I tried to load on the internet & was getting very frustrated. I happened to notice Edge had just come out with their latest version, Edge Chromium. So, out of desperation, I loaded the new Edge. I was shocked at how well it worked compared to Google Chrome. For the last few days I've switched back & forth between Chrome & the new Edge browsers. I lose virtually every page I load on Chrome within 10-30 seconds or they won't load at all. I've had absolutely no problem loading pages on Edge Chromium & haven't lost a single page. I've tested it with both VerizonMIFI & ATT Mobley & our Verizon phone as a hot spot. Has anyone else experienced this?

[NLOVNIT]

Please keep this topic on Verizon. If you want to discuss Chrome vs Edge, please start a new thread.

Thank you,
Lori-

[Bo]

I have a summer home in the Colorado front range and have been using Verizon as the only phone and internet service available for years. The last couple of years their signals progressively began dropping. I went from reliable 3G service inside to no internet service outdoors. I upgraded to a 70 db booster with an external yagi. I first had this on the roof and got 4 bars 4G. Then signal dropped some more and I placed the antenna on a 35 foot tower whose base was at roof height. Good 4G again. Signal dropped again and I upgraded to two cross polarized yagi antennas. When I was last there I got 4G upon initial connection but within one minute signal dropped to "no signal". I have spent over a year working with Verizon with no improvement. I get varying answers but it seems they claim each tower is limited to a certain power and the power is distributed among the number of users at any given time so the more users the lower the signal each gets. I was also told that all money was being put into %G upgrade and not to expect any upgrade to 4G performance. Come summer I will be looking for another carrier, Sprint looks like the only posssibility at this time.

[picker]

They are gradually degrading 4G service in hopes that you will buy the more expensive 5G setup.

[FreshAir]

I haven't read all posts, apology if this has been covered. Last two years my phone degrading to terrible service., can't under stand each other, dropped calls, all the BS. I had a complaint problem call log that would take Verizon an hour to review.

I had the S5 Android and found out last month that in last of 2019 it was was no longer supported by Verizon with it's CDN??? So what! my problem existed before then. I had upper level support & managers all in on this. My S5 had been replaced within last two years because of quality problems. Well, recently, after spending hours & hours on repeated problem calls a Customer Support Agent again said, "your phone is still covered 100% by warranty, why don't we just replace it?"

WOW! What a Novel Idea! Replaced and now absolutely perfect quality. They replaced my S5 Samsung with the S7. I have always known there is someone out there that has the correct answer. Your problem, keep looking until you find them.

However; I do believe Verizon quality has been decreasing overall.

[arboldt]

We've been FT 3 1/2 years; DW and I intentionally have different carriers. For the first 3 years, she's had Verizon and I had AT&T. Particularly in non-urban California, Arizona, etc there were many areas she had signal (VZW) and I didn't; maybe 1/2 dozen places I had single (ATT) and she didn't.
I became frustrated with lack of signal so much, so last fall I changed to T-Mobile. So far, I've had great signal -- in Brownsville TX I have much better signal (T-Mobile) than DW (VZW).

I suspect Verizon service has become a victim of its own success.

[Hicks3456]

Funny you asked this. I have been in my RV for two weeks in Sacramento area and have a Verizon mifi. The first 4 days the signal was strong and internet fast. Then after that it lost signal strength for no particular reason. It has not returned. Tomorrow I am moving South and will watch what happens to signal strength at other locations.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by picker

They are gradually degrading 4G service in hopes that you will buy the more expensive 5G setup.

Since their 5G is not operational in the vast majority of areas, this is hardly the case. What likely is true is that their new investments are all in 5G and none in 4G.

[Gary.Jones]

Marc

I can understand that logic, but the issue that I have noticed, and is my point, is that signals in areas that used to be bullet-proof, are now marginal or worse. There is a process going on which is leading to a degradation in coverage in areas that used to be good. So it is not simply that AT&T is getting better, but that Verizon is getting worse. There is simply no good explanation for signal strength to fall off precipitously inn the distance of 2 miles of unobstructed space in the desert around Las Vegas for example other than low antennas (eg limited coverage at 800 and 1800 MHz, which are "line of sight" frequencies) or significant reductions in transmitted signal power. 5 years ago, tall towers every 20 miles along interstates provided wall-to-wall signals in the middle of nowhere and tall building mounted antennas in major urban areas provided wide excellent coverage. Now, not so much....

Sounds like lots of people are "seeing" a change.... I'm just now wondering what is producing that change. Hoping we might have a retired Verizon tech/engineer on here that had the facts.

Gary