Why does my Verizon signal suck?

[sandra_17]

I've had VZW since 1996 (I believe it was Bell Atlantic at first). They sucked in my house then, and they suck now. Yet if I sit in my driveway and don't move 2 feet left or right, I have a full signal. Years ago I had to buy a 3G network extender. They wanted to charge me another $250 when 4G/LTE came to be. I stood my ground, got it replaced.

Then a few years ago VZW lost the lease on one of the three towers near my parents (then in their late 70's/early 80's) who were 60 miles from me, and they completely lost their already crappy signal. Told VZW my monthly bill for five lines (theirs and our family's) and a watch was over $500, for non-existent service in our homes. Said that this was now endangering the welfare of two elderly customers. They sent another 4G extender to them at no cost.

A network extender is not a signal booster. It is connected to your ISP via ethernet, and also requires a GPS signal for emergency 911 service. You are paying a small fortune for their service, and if they can't provide it on its own, demand they send you a network extender at no cost.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ung-4g-lte-network-extender-2/&token=UpaZGiPl

If the URL ^ doesn't display properly, copy below and remove the spaces:

https:// www verizonwireless com / products / samsung-4g-lte-network-extender-2 /

 

[jay887]

having the same issue but to be fair we had the same issue with tmobile in our house. we have to use our wifi however I personally believe it's our notes (for our situation). I say that because my daughter's have not needed to be on wifi to use their phone but yet my husband and I do (with VZ, with tmobile we all had to). I also had issues yesterday out and about running errands where I had all bars but no signal while my husband had no issues.

 

[Casey Cheung]

@all. How do I turn on wifi calling? I'm not sure if I have this ability for my un-locked Note 10+ phone. Where in settings do I go to verify this? As for phone calls, I'm more concerned about not being able to answer an incoming phone call due to poor cell reception. This actually happened to me recently. I answered an incoming call and kept saying hello, hello, hello, but the other person couldn't hear me and then hung up. I couldn't call back the person cuz of my poor reception. I rarely make outgoing calls. I just don't want to miss incoming calls. [insert sad face here].

I don't know why Verizon used to brag about having best cell coverage in their TV commercials. I would dispute that.

 

[haganjeff]

There is something more going on here. Samsung rep just confirmed they are having lots of issues with signal on Verizon Note 10's.. My signal was fine for the first 10 days.. Started having issues with my phone going into 3G and not coming out late last week. Have been on 3G and even 1X in places I have not been on before with Note 8 or this phone. I have an unlocked 10+ and simply moved my SIM to the new phone. Samsung wants me to go try a new SIM from Verizon and take it to authorized center for testing. I kind of coincides with last update. Wonder if that broke something?.. I will ask for a swap to a Verizon branded phone if this isn't resolved tomorrow.

 

[msm0511]

@all. How do I turn on wifi calling? I'm not sure if I have this ability for my un-locked Note 10+ phone. Where in settings do I go to verify this? As for phone calls, I'm more concerned about not being able to answer an incoming phone call due to poor cell reception. This actually happened to me recently. I answered an incoming call and kept saying hello, hello, hello, but the other person couldn't hear me and then hung up. I couldn't call back the person cuz of my poor reception. I rarely make outgoing calls. I just don't want to miss incoming calls. [insert sad face here].

I don't know why Verizon used to brag about having best cell coverage in their TV commercials. I would dispute that.

Verizon only offers wifi calling on select unlocked phones. I'm not sure if the Note 10+ is one of them. If you go into Settings>Connections the toggle will be there if Verizon hasn't blocked it.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Verizon only offers wifi calling on select unlocked phones. I'm not sure if the Note 10+ is one of them. If you go into Settings>Connections the toggle will be there if Verizon hasn't blocked it.

Oh cool. I do have WiFi Calling. I just enabled it. Had to enter my home/wifi address as a prerequisite. Does this mean even with poor cellular signal indoors at home, my phone can now receive incoming phone calls? Plus make outgoing calls too with the WiFi calling feature enabled?

 

[msm0511]

Oh cool. I do have WiFi Calling. I just enabled it. Had to enter my home/wifi address as a prerequisite. Does this mean even with poor cellular signal indoors at home, my phone can now receive incoming phone calls? Plus make outgoing calls too with the WiFi calling feature enabled?

Yup. It'll use your wifi instead of cellular. I forgot to mention if you tap on where it says wifi calling you can choose wifi preferred so it'll have top priority over cellular.

 

[7h3d34f0n3]

Verizon for me is ok at home great around town (Battle Creek, MI) and sucks@ work. I bounce between3G and 1x. when it gets really bad I would turn on airplane mode to save battery. I called and talked to Verizon and the only explaination they could figure is this. Imagine the closest tower has a let's say 5 mile radius and you are at 5.1 miles. Now you over load the tower the broadcast radius gets a case of shrinkage from being overloaded. Now you are not in the Coverage area. Not sure how accurate that is but it made sense to me.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I recall reading about so-called booster devices many years ago. $350 for a booster is an absurd price to pay to compensate for poor Verizon reception. I used to rationalize this as being "normal" because I knew others who complained about various dead spots with their AT&T iPhone reception. Still others I know complain about their Sprint reception. So I figured it didn't matter what carrier you're on, there will always be complaints about dead spots. But barely having 1 or 2 bars of cell reception while at home is sad. :-(

I had been an AT&T customer since they were Cingular and had no issues. All of a sudden in July 2018 I had no service at home. I was long out of contract and switched to Verizon where I have coverage. AT&T never offered an explanation or a resolution to my problem so I switched.

 

[mustang7757]

I'm having the same problem with my Note 10+ on Verizon. I can't even get 4G in my house. I do, however, have 3 out of 5 bars of signal. But it's evidently just not enough to light up the 4GLTE symbol next to the signal strength meter on the top bar of the phone.

View attachment 309352

That's some really good battery stats..

 

[Casey Cheung]

Yup. It'll use your wifi instead of cellular. I forgot to mention if you tap on where it says wifi calling you can choose wifi preferred so it'll have top priority over cellular.

Very, very cool! Wifi calling works for me! Now I see what all the hype is about, haha.

But I don't see any place to click on to choose wifi preferred. But no biggie, I'm happy to find out about wifi calling! Thank you!!!!!

 

[anon(10598448)]

Very, very cool! Wifi calling works for me! Now I see what all the hype is about, haha.

But I don't see any place to click on to choose wifi preferred. But no biggie, I'm happy to find out about wifi calling! Thank you!!!!!

Tap on the words Wi-Fi Calling where you enabled it to begin with, that will open the page to enable WiFi preferred.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Tap on the words Wi-Fi Calling where you enabled it to begin with, that will open the page to enable WiFi preferred.

Aaaah, thank you!!! I had to click further into "Roaming network preference" to get the choice to choose Wi-Fi preferred or Mobile network preferred.

 

[msm0511]

Tap on the words Wi-Fi Calling where you enabled it to begin with, that will open the page to enable WiFi preferred.

That's one thing I don't like about One UI. Samsung doesn't give any indication if a setting goes deeper than just toggling it on or off. I've found several settings that I didn't know had more options once I actually tapped on them.

 

[anon(10598448)]

That's one thing I don't like about One UI. Samsung doesn't give any indication if a setting goes deeper than just toggling it on or off. I've found several settings that I didn't know had more options once I actually tapped on them.

True. You just have to go exploring to see what you can find.

 

[bertsirkin]

I went to Verizon a couple years ago when I heard about the signal boosters and I was having the same problem with my Note 8. They told me they don't give out free boosters, you have to buy them for about $350, I think it was.

Forgive me if this has been answered, but I haven't read the whole thread.

I've always had bad Verizon service at my home. I used the original 3g Network Extender for years and decided to get the new Network Extender 2 (4g). I paid $249 for it, but couldn't get it working. I called Verizon and after going thru a lot of steps was told I didn't have to buy it, they provide them free. I was told to return my $249 extender for a refund, and they'd send me a new one for free, which they did.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the new one working either, and have since returned it, as Verizon's tech support, just gave up on trying to help getting it going. The tech support was horrible.

So, they are free.

 

[Casey Cheung]

There is something more going on here. Samsung rep just confirmed they are having lots of issues with signal on Verizon Note 10's.. My signal was fine for the first 10 days.. Started having issues with my phone going into 3G and not coming out late last week. Have been on 3G and even 1X in places I have not been on before with Note 8 or this phone. I have an unlocked 10+ and simply moved my SIM to the new phone. Samsung wants me to go try a new SIM from Verizon and take it to authorized center for testing. I kind of coincides with last update. Wonder if that broke something?.. I will ask for a swap to a Verizon branded phone if this isn't resolved tomorrow.

Will getting a new/replacement SIM card from Verizon help with cell signal? Maybe I should try that. Please update to let us know if that works for you. I've been re-using the same old SIM card for the past 2 or 3 phones, maybe that's a bad idea??

 

[Casey Cheung]

I went into a Verizon store and they gave me a new SIM card replacement. So fingers crossed for hopefully better cell signal at home.

 

[Casey Cheung]

I went into a Verizon store and they gave me a new SIM card replacement. So fingers crossed for hopefully better cell signal at home.

Here's another update. I am now home and testing out the cell signal with the new/replacement SIM card installed to my Note 10+ by a Verizon store rep. Guess what the update is? Zero, zilch, zip, nata...nothing new. My Verizon cell signal still sucks at home even with the new SIM card. [Insert multiple sad faces here]. Fortunately, wifi calling works for both incoming and outgoing phone calls!

 

[haganjeff]

Well, I got a new Sim this afternoon and things were great for a while, but I ended up in 3G on the way home and that never had happened on the Note 8. My phone also wouldn't connect to my Verizon Extender when I got home until I went to Airplane mode and back. Samsung scheduled me an appointment to test the phone tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I'm asking to replace this unlocked phone with a Verizon version.