Major data issues in Raleigh/Durham

**ncwildcat** · 05-26-2011, 11:11 AM

Horrible data in Raleigh/Durham for weeks now...constantly dropping data on my t-bolt. At first j thought it was the bolt, but my Inc and x also keep having major network issues. Most of my coworkers use Verizon and all have experienced similar issues. Does anybody have any ideas as to why? I called Verizon and they said the area has degregated service, but I have no idea what that means

**FrankXS** · 05-26-2011, 11:14 AM

The one time I had a reboot was when I was traveling, and stopped in Durham - about 12 days ago.

-Frank

**Droid38** · 05-26-2011, 12:50 PM

I live in Apex and work in N Raleigh. I have noticed data issues as well and spend way more time on
1X then I ever did with my OG Droid. I also have way more issues with dropping calls. I have been wondering if it is a eHRPD issue.....

**PJnc284** · 05-26-2011, 01:05 PM

Working fine in Garner

**ncwildcat** · 05-26-2011, 01:42 PM

I live in Apex also, which is where I see be most problems. Don't think it is eHRPD as it has been effecting my sons incredible and wife's dx as well

**PJnc284** · 06-02-2011, 10:26 AM

Anyone having issues today? Can't get 3G signal without enabling Rev-A and 1X doesn't work unless I set it to LTE only. Thought it might've been Gingerbread related but restored all the way back to stock and still no cellular data.

**RkyMtnHigh** · 06-02-2011, 10:28 AM

degredated service means less-than-optimal...Tower issues most likely.

**mtillett** · 06-02-2011, 10:44 AM

Haven't experienced the issues myself - but FWIW I was in the SouthPoint VZW store last Friday and they said service has been poor b/c they were merging the old Alltel towers with the Verizon towers. No idea if that's accurate though...

**VideoEngineerAJS** · 06-02-2011, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by mtillett

Haven't experienced the issues myself - but FWIW I was in the SouthPoint VZW store last Friday and they said service has been poor b/c they were merging the old Alltel towers with the Verizon towers. No idea if that's accurate though...

Hmm... Alltel towers...

**suddendebt** · 06-02-2011, 03:11 PM

I have been having serious data issues in RTP since last week. Basically, my Bolt is current uselss (its a data only device). I called VZW and they said its a tower issue and the technician can't goto the site urgently since not many users reported. So if you guys are having issues, please call and report.

**jim302** · 06-02-2011, 10:13 PM

Make sure to call customer service and let them know what kind of problems you are seeing and the exact location. Get some trouble tickets open for your area so they know where the problems are. Customer service did say that they are in fact integrating the VZW and ALLTEL networks in Raleigh.

Also, our system ID has changed to 578 (this can be seen in the FieldTrial app). It used to be 69 for Verizon Wireless and 144 for ALLTEL.

I happened to see someone on one of the cell sites today. It looked like he may have been installing new antennas on the site, hopefully designed for 700MHz (which would mean LTE is coming soon).

**ncwildcat** · 06-03-2011, 11:03 AM

I have had trouble tickets opened for rtp and apex...so far no improvements over he last few weeks

**ncwildcat** · 06-07-2011, 09:01 AM

Has anybody seen any improvement?? I spoke with network level support over the weekend and they said that the network in the Raleigh/Durham area is receiving more complaints than any other area nationwide.

**PJnc284** · 06-07-2011, 09:24 AM

Seems to be working fine for me in Garner as of two nights ago. Finally managed to get and maintain stable 3G connection using eHRPD instead of Rev-A.

**dmcman73** · 06-07-2011, 11:05 AM

I'm in NY-Long Island and I am experiencing the same problems. Certain areas I will get great 3G where other areas I won't get ANY data connection, not even 1x and those are areas I've never had a problem with before. In the areas that there is no data connection, the battery in my phone drains real fast and the phone heats up while it tries hunting for data connectivity. This has been going on for 2-3 weeks now.

**suddendebt** · 06-13-2011, 02:44 PM

Anyone knows whats going on with Verizon towers in Raleigh. The data speeds are crap and constant drops. I have the ticket open for about a month now. Even my workmates who don't have Thunderbolt have serious data issues.

**ncwildcat** · 06-13-2011, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by suddendebt

Anyone knows whats going on with Verizon towers in Raleigh. The data speeds are crap and constant drops. I have the ticket open for about a month now. Even my workmates who don't have Thunderbolt have serious data issues.

They are doing some upgrades...I too have many tickets in...something with the old alltel towers...but yea its crap here

**ncwildcat** · 06-13-2011, 04:39 PM

They did say that we were supposed to have LTE live last month, but the tower problems have pushed it back...

**jim302** · 06-13-2011, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by ncwildcat

They are doing some upgrades...I too have many tickets in...something with the old alltel towers...but yea its crap here

Have you noticed phones flipping between a very weak and very strong signal? This seems to be a large part of the problem. It seems to be worse in some places than others. Northwest Raleigh seems to be really bad, but that's where I live so maybe I just notice it more.

My speculation is that they shut down some cell sites in areas where VZW and Alltel had sites very close together, and now the phone sometimes tries to connect to a more distant site than it should. If this is what is happening, it should get better once they are done with the integration.

Everyone that has problems, please keep calling customer service! Some reps want to deny that there are any issues in the area, so the more people that complain, the better. And if you find a good rep, get their direct number if you can. This way, you won't have to talk to someone different every time.

**PJnc284** · 06-13-2011, 05:30 PM

Luckily mine has gotten better over the last week here in garner. Before last Friday, my 3G was inconsistent and a lot of times I'd have no data at all but now it seems to be pretty solid. *knock on wood*

**jim302** · 06-14-2011, 07:39 PM

I've talked to a few helpful people in customer service, but unfortunately they don't seem to have access to much information about what is going on in this area. I think we can get an idea of what's going on here since we are all knowledgeable about the technology.

First, for a bit of background info...

I'm speculating that this is due to the Verizon and Alltel network integration. I was informed of the integration when I had a different but related issue calling certain numbers.

For those of you who don't know, the "800 MHz" Cellular coverage is divided into an A and B block. In Raleigh and most places West (except for a few parts of the mountains), Verizon had Cellular A block before the merger. East of Raleigh, US Cellular still controls the Cellular A block. In most parts of the state, except for some parts of the mountains, Alltel controlled the Cellular B block. There were (and still are) some exceptions.

After the merger, Verizon ended up keeping all of its Cellular A block licenses, and ended up with almost all of Alltel's Cellular B block licenses.

VZW and Alltel also had PCS licenses in most of the state, which helped to increase capacity, especially for EvDo, but that isn't particularly relevant for this discussion (yet).

Now, with that background information past us, if anyone is interested in helping out, please read on...

If you aren't in Wake, Durham, or Orange counties, there's no need to follow these instructions. They will not necessarily be accurate due to the above mentioned differences in licenses. If you are in range of a femtocell (network extender) or repeater, you will need to turn it off to get accurate results.

Don't use your Thunderbolt for these tests! Instead, use any old CDMA feature phone or smart phone, whether or not it is active on your account. These tests are not accurate for a 4G device. They could even cause problems with a 4G device, so be safe and don't even try it.

After reading the above warnings, do the following with a 3G smartphone or feature phone:

Dial *22800 (forces your phone to connect to activation on Cellular A) then press Send
Do not press any buttons
Note whether or not the call connects
Note the signal strength (if you know how to access the debug menus, also note the receive power in dBm)
Hang up, do not try to activate or update
Repeat the above steps once or twice just to make sure you get accurate results
Dial *22801 (forces Cellular B), then Send, then note the behavior as stated previously
Remember to power off your old phone to prevent any strange registration issues
If the phone drops to no service, don't panic - it will come back on its own after a minute or two.

Post the results here. If you get a weaker signal on one vs. the other, this could be a contributing factor to your problems. If one of them works but the other won't connect, don't panic - that isn't a problem. If they both act the same, that is probably OK too.

I'm trying to figure out if they might still be in the middle of changing things around. The results of this test should not be considered conclusive, as we are still dealing with limited information, but will at least give some indication into what might be going on.

**ncwildcat** · 06-14-2011, 08:23 PM

Will try this hopefully later this evening. I did have some nice conversation with a network supervisor who even called me back after doing research, and let me know that there is now a major ticket for the area as it has been noted that the service has been bad espicially recently. The ticket is still open at this point, but is at the highest elevated status. It is definatly a tower issue, and the above post about band a and b may actually be closer to correct than you think...

**jim302** · 06-14-2011, 10:29 PM

Forgot to include my numbers:

This was done from a Samsung feature phone... don't recall the exact model
*22800 (Cellular A): -101 dBm outside 0-1 bars
*22801 (Cellular B): -87 dBm outside 2-3 bars

Cellular A used to give me much better results.

Another phone simply fails to find anything 95% of the time on Cellular A (*22800), but it didn't have great reception in the first place. It sees around -95dBm on Cellular B.

If I have time, I'll test from my old HTC XV6800 and BlackBerry Tour tomorrow, unless postings in this thread or further discussions with VZW give a clear indication to the problem.