Does anyone notice a decay in Verizon cell broadband?

[19jcm79]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Here is a specific example... I am currently in Gold Canyon at Canyon Vistas. This is our third visit here, once each winter for the past three years. Gold Canyon is just east of Phoenix and generally in the Phoenix, Apache Junction area and I always had 3-4 bars in the same location I am in currently. This year, Verizon is 1 (sometimes 2 bars) and my MIFI is virtually useless at this location.... weak signal strength and long times to access internet sites, etc. Calls from inside the coach are often dropped. In contrast, my mobley which I virtually never used in the past but kept paying for service because it was so reasonably priced (grandfathered) is now my "Go To" device for broadband. This is a major turn around in cell service in this location.

Bad tower, malfunctioning transmitter, redirected to more distant tower and others I have not thought of, are all likely reasons, but it sure is different!

Also, this is the fifth year that we hosted Quartzsite. We had 65 coaches registered. I have typically told owners in advance that both Verizon and AT&T service were bullet proof at our location in Quartzsite and that owners who do customer service work while traveling or other real-time phone or internet work as part of their employment need not worry as they could continue to do their job at our location, is no longer true. Last year, one of the coaches had to leave in less than 12 hours as he could not work with the Verizon service he had, and this year, we lost no one, but my personal cell and broadband service on Verizon was terrible and I was using the AT&T Mobley for broadband and was dropping cell calls frequently on Verizon. Now, I was told that Verizon used to bring in mobile cell towers for the RV show but they don't do that any more as its too costly..... don't know if true, but also could explain signal strength and broadband pipe size at that location.

Gary

I am currently in Apache Junction Az. The Verizon service here is marginal at best. 1 bar, maybe 2. Opening e-mail or internet is very slow, and often fails. FaceTime is not good either. Very disappointed in Verizon service here.

[19jcm79]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Someone above gave me the excellent idea to download a signal strength and performance app from the Apple store, and here is quantification of what I am talking about. Now remember, this RV park is east of Apache Junction by a few miles in essentially flat desert terrain. Signals here used to be 3 to 4 bars minimum all the time (in previous years). Now, 1 or 2 bars and broadband so slow it is essentially worthless on an unlimited/unlimited/unlimited phone or MIFI...

Ping Duration Upload Download
.117 .6M .6M
.478 .8M .2M

Which is essentially useless level of service

Gary

I’m in Apache Junction, and agree 100%! Verizon is almost useless here.

[Nikiski two]

Verizon is junk in our area of Texas. Over the last two years we have gone from 4 bars down to 1 or 2. Our house WiFi has dropped to dial up speed. When I called about the problem the company rep replied with "Well if your not happy go to another service". I would switch in a heartbeat but AT&T is real weak in my area.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by 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

Gary, I don’t think they took down their old towers, do you? More likely increased usage by the public, both in numbers of devices and streaming, etc., that their new investment did not keep up with. If you previously saw 4 bars with 50 people using a particular cell, it seems reasonable to me that with 100 people now using it, the signal may be reduced in power to 2 bars to keep the number from growing even further.

[Newmar2856]

5G is going to take a while to roll out due to the need to have many nodes vs large towers. The telecom companies are having to work with City’s and County’s for access to light poles and traffic signals to place the devices. I can’t imagine, at least with current technology, that rural areas will see 5G for an even longer time. As someone stated, cellular companies are pulling down 3G, which covered broader areas than LTE, so for the time being things aren’t getting better.

Also, iPhone has yet to release a phone that is 5G compatible so you’ll be upgrading when the time comes to take advantage of the new network speeds.

[DSL417]

2.5 miles from the strip in Vegas. One to two bars of wholesome Verizon”service”. Obviously, if you take their money, you owe them service. NOT. And when “indirect TV” transitions off the satellite to internet streaming, you think it is going to get better. JMHO, we are already down the rabbit hole and better is a long way off.

[brobox]

This post has explained a lot to me on the problem I have had for the past 2 years at my S&B with degrading Verizon service. I have made numinous calls to Verizon and have been told that our towers are overloaded during Snowbird season. It's been pointed out that a signal is a signal no matter how many people use it.....OK, but the signal has dropped in bars, from 3 to 1 for whatever reason.

I think Marc explained my situation perfectly. More people, no improvement in the 4G towers to accommodate them. Instead the effort is going into 5G. How many of the reps that I have talked to at Verizon, could or would explain this?

Moving forward with this. I get my local at my S&B on an OTA antenna do to constant rain fade in FL and DISH blacking out locals during contract negotiation. Currently all OTA stations nationwide are having to give up their frequencies to 5G. I have already had to re-scan CBS and ABC has taken the move to install a new multi million dollar antenna that will carry their new assigned frequencies and channels. ABC has been interrupted off and on for 6 weeks, with 9 days being completely out. It looks like there is a lot more to the 5G switch than we are aware of. Not only here, but from the reports on this post, it is all over the country.

Sorry for the long post, but it might explain the Verizon problem that others are experiencing. We can probably forget about any 4G improvements and just have to wait for the changes just like our local ABC service went through. Here is a brief explanation from our ABC station being more transparent than Verizon.

https://www.abc-7.com/story/41555851...enna-no-signal

[Gary.Jones]

Chuck

Very interesting post. I was aware that there was a need for additional space for 5G frequencies, but did not realize how extensive that was. I think there is also a great deal of money involved in selling those new fequencies to the highest bidders. However, I did not realize the scale of the change and how deep the change was going to penetrate into the television spectrum. I also did not understand the level of cost that would be involved to put this into effect.

I am now convinced that the decay in performance is something that has been planned for and the companies are doing intentionally. This is not a local problem.... this is a national problem. Wonder why they didnt feel the need to talk about these changes more fully so that we understood that here was going to be "pain" before there would be relief.

Now I am at Oasis RV Park in south Las Vegas. This park has pretty good service, and it is close to much of the downtown strip area. You can see the big hotels from here. However, my service is one and two bars. Big change.... big change. At the "M" (Las Vegas Motorcoach Park), it used to be full signal strength and its a mile or so from here line of sight.

This has all been very informative.

Gary

[brobox]

Gary, this post filled in a lot of blanks and connected the dots for me. It was a good subject that hit close to home (litterley) for me. Now the question comes up...are we going to have to be replacing our current equipment with 5G to get decent signals? Or will enough go to 5G that it will free up bandwidth on our 4G hotspots?

[NLOVNIT]

Originally Posted by brobox

......are we going to have to be replacing our current equipment with 5G to get decent signals? Or will enough go to 5G that it will free up bandwidth on our 4G hotspots?

That's what I'm wondering. Even when 5G is out, how many will be upgrading their cellphones right away? I've got a Moto z4 that can be upgraded (purchasing an add on) to 5G but I don't know if I'll be a first adopter of it when 5G comes to my area. I would think there will still be a LOT of people still on 4G, clogging up the pipeline.

Where I live, people are moving in at a record pace. 25 years ago, we had 1 high school. Now we've got 4 & there's going to be a levy increase request on this Fall's ballot to pay for yet another high school. Even a decade or so ago, cellphones weren't had by everyone in a family. Parents=yes, teen kids=yes, little kids=maybe. Now, everyone in a family, even pre-schoolers have a cellphone. So it's no wonder my signal strength has gone from 3-4 bars to 1-2 bars.

Lori-

[MoHoGo]

It has never been very good.

[MRUSA14]

I think 5G will take a lot longer to arrive than most people expect. It uses short range cells which means that where one 4G cell serves an area now, 5G may require as many as 5 or 10 cells. That’s an awful lot of installations, and locations must be found and leases negotiated for all those new cell sites. In rural areas there may never be full 5G coverage because there is nowhere to put all these cells in the wilderness, and not enough usage to justify the installation anyhow. You will likely be using 4G in many places for many yesrs.

[brobox]

Totally agree Marc, I don't see how it can happen as fast as my service deteriorated. I am hoping that enough of those that have to have the latest and greatest that wait in line all night to be the first, will move and it frees up 4G again.

[DSL417]

As stated earlier, Las Vegas Motorcoach, one mile from Oasis...I haven’t had more than two bars Verizon in at least three years. And poor response time.

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Chuck

Now I am at Oasis RV Park in south Las Vegas. This park has pretty good service, and it is close to much of the downtown strip area. You can see the big hotels from here. However, my service is one and two bars. Big change.... big change. At the "M" (Las Vegas Motorcoach Park), it used to be full signal strength and its a mile or so from here line of sight.

Gary