Massive Verizon network issues with the Note 5 and VOLTE problems

[dswatson83]

I seem to be having major network related issues with the Note 5 on Verizon not present with the older Note phones.

Biggest issue is in the attached image where the signal completely drops to 0 (usually indoors with the phone in my pocket) and it will refuse to reconnect to a network at all...even when in a good signal area. I have to restart my device completely to get it to reconnect. The result is significant time with no signal, no income/outgoing calls, and significant battery use from the cell radio. Maybe wifi calling will help slightly. Is this a bug or something wrong with my phone?

2nd issue (I feel like reviews should have mentioned this) is that the Note 5 seems to only have 1 radio for CDMA and LTE which means on wifi the radio is still active resulting in more battery loss instead of less. My Note 3 would shut down the high power LTE radio while on wifi and keep only the low power CDMA network active which resulted in significant battery savings. If this is true, this is a big loss for people who spend their day on wifi as you are no longer gaining any battery savings from shutting down the LTE radio. Maybe wifi calling will fix this and allow the radios to turn off while on wifi since you can take calls on wifi (hopefully). Am I missing something on this?

3rd issue is that Voice over LTE sucks in bad signal areas and is now mandatory given the 1 radio for CDMA and LTE to have data while on a call. Again, I dont remember seeing this in the reviews. My area doesn't have great LTE coverage, especially indoors, which was never much of an issue because wifi is offered by most businesses and I was still able to make calls. There is often spotty LTE coverage when driving but it's not a big deal because I'm driving and would get to a good signal area in a min or 2. Unfortunately with VOLTE, spotty LTE coverage means dropped calls, not being able to make calls, and text messages going undelivered. It was bad enough I had to disable it and now I'm left with no data while on calls unless I'm on wifi. This is a huge problem for me! Before, I had 100% no issues with calls and occasionally weak data while on calls if I went to a bad signal area which was not a big issue since I'm not always using data while on calls. Now I NEVER have data on ANY call unless I'm on wifi. This absolutely sucks and I do not thing there is a solution for me unless LTE coverage gets better. I'm now thinking I have to switch phones (outside of the 14day window) or switch carriers as a result. Is there any solutions? Is this only my device? Thanks for the help!

 

[Climb14er]

Look for my thread of last month and working with the head system engineer of Denver at my house and neighborhood after working one to one with the VZ NRB in Texas directly.

VZ repositioned their frequency from the neighborhood antenna and moved me BACK to the more penetrating 700 band from the weaker 2100 AWS band.

In the meantime, turn OFF volte, move to LTE CDMA from Global and see if that helps.

It's clearly evident, at least for tests with my Note 5 and the neighboring tower, Volte and the weak ability of the Note 5 to capture the 2100 AWS signal lead me to a lot of massive audio problems and bad calls.

The dbm was increased by 14 moving to the 700 band.

Volte is in its early state after being introduced last year. It's part of VZ'S future but they are having issues... the Note 5 being one of them.

The newer tower's of VZ here in Denver are all 2100 AWS/LTE. Many of the older towers still run multiple bands. This will change in the future, much like the change from analog to dual band with digital to CDMA to LTE.

The newer phone's hardware and software need to be 'in tune' with the RF signals otherwise you'll have poor audio, dropped audio and slow data transfers.

My problem was recently traced to the change over to 2100 AWS... almost exactly to the time the transfer took place. Audio dropped, data speeds degraded, the overall performance of my then S4 was noticeable!

The Note 5's capture of the RF signal was worse than the S4's... before the band was moved lower.

 

[Almeuit]

3rd issue is that Voice over LTE sucks in bad signal areas and is now mandatory given the 1 radio for CDMA and LTE to have data while on a call. Again, I dont remember seeing this in the reviews. My area doesn't have great LTE coverage, especially indoors, which was never much of an issue because wifi is offered by most businesses and I was still able to make calls.

Most reviews didn't mention it since they would have to specifically be testing on a Verizon variant versus other carriers -- this is most likely the reason for no one mentioning it.

That being said -- ALL new Verizon phones will be this way. Verizon doesn't want people to stay on their CDMA network since one day they would love to shut that down and re-purpose it for LTE (basically so the network is 100% LTE). Technically all carriers are moving in this direction but it will definitely take many years before the old 3G (or "HSPA" for GSM carriers) are shut down since they do not want to just cut off customers who may have older devices (or at least not right away).

If you do not need mobile data while on a call (such as if you're on wifi a lot when making calls) turning off VoLTE will have your phone use the CDMA network for the phone call like in the past.

 

[waazzupppp]

Just a quick question on this one... Is this a Note 5 specific issue or would it affect other manufacturers/models like the HTC One M9? I was told by VZW to activate advanced calling to use simultaneous voice/data, but have been having this issue on my Note 5, but the M9's in the office haven't reported this happening... Anyone know if it is device specific?

 

[dswatson83]

It should be any device with 1 radio...not sure if the M9 has a separate CDMA radio. Without a separate CDMA Radio, you would need to enable Advanced Calling (VOLTE) to get voice/data at the same time

 

[cjsmoove]

I haven't had any issues with the Note 5, it's actually been good so far but I had all the above issues on my Note 3...

 

[1stGalaxyS3]

I completly agree with all the issues dswatson83 posted about, before when I had Lollipop on my Note 5 I would get horrible Cell Standby battery drain while on wifi (I also had Voice over LTE turned on). Now that cell standby drain issue is gone with Marshmallow but a new Wifi-Calling problem came!

I think after I turned on Wifi-Calling in my (stock android 6.0.1) Verizon Note 5 it crippled the whole use of wifi! Noting Internet related works in my phone with wifi on now, but everything works fine via Verizon lte. I have eliminated all other causes of this problem (checked home internet connection, checked to see if it was my home modem/router problem, checked if my phone's ip was being blocked, "forgot" the wifi networks and reconnected again). I even Backup & Reset my phone. Everything worked fine for a day, but as soon as I turned Wifi-Calling on (I need it because of low cell signal at home), same thing happened! Has anyone actually had wifi-calling on the Verizon Note 5 work right?