Why I regret switching to Verizon's 4G network

April 28, 2011 1:42 PM
Anthony Ha
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Verizon announced this morning that service has been restored to its 4G LTE network, following a nationwide outage that lasted more than 24 hours. I can vouch that it’s back, since I’m publishing this blog post using my Verizon 4G USB modem. And while I’m glad the network has returned, the outage has shaken my already wavering confidence in Verizon.

Some personal context: I was a happy customer of a Verizon 3G modem for more than a year when a salesperson persuaded me to make the switch to 4G. I was told that it would not only give me a faster connection, but Verizon would actually switch me to a cheaper plan to save me a few dollars a month. It seemed like there was no downside, so I made the switch. (Since the salesperson contacted me a few days before the launch of the Verizon iPhone, I wondered if the carrier was trying to offload some of its data-intensive 3G users to clear the way for the iPhone. When I I asked a Verizon spokesperson if this was true, she denied it.)

Since then, however, I’ve frequently regretted the move. Yes, the 4G network is faster … when I can actually connect. Unfortunately, the connection gets dropped frequently, or it fails to connect in the first place. That’s especially true when I’m on the move. Trying to connect while in a train or a car is almost as bad as trying to make a call in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood while on my AT&T iPhone. I never had any of these problems on 3G.

Now, you may just chalk this up as a personal grievance, rather than a broader issue with Verizon’s network. After all, VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi has a 4G modem from Verizon too, and when I complained to him he seemed slightly mystified. (I’ve also emailed Verizon to see if it wants to comment, and I’ll update if I get a response.)

But yesterday’s outage confirmed my sense that, despite Verizon’s statements to the contrary, the technology has some real issues. I mean, I may complain about unreliable service from AT&T, but during my time as a customer, I’ve never completely lost data usage for more than 24 hours. And while Verizon said that 4G users would still be able to make calls despite the outage, that didn’t do me a lot of good — I pay Verizon $60-ish a month because I need to be able to write and publish from anywhere, not “almost anywhere, assuming you’re not moving, and assuming we’re not having any serious network issues, which could last for a whole day.” Yesterday’s outage meant that I had to waste a lot of time wandering downtown San Francisco in search of WiFi, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

So while others complain that the Verizon iPhone doesn’t support 4G yet, I’m wondering: Can I have my 3G back now?

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  • http://profiles.google.com/jeremy.akers Jeremy Akers

    The 4G modems will connect via 3G if there is no 4G signal… So I'm not sure I understand why you want your “3G back” sine your 4G modem can still access 3G…

  • http://profiles.google.com/mukman17 Kevin Laverty

    Sorry, Anthony. I've used it on the Acela – East Coast Amtrak, in the lower level of Moscone in SF, in the Seattle area where I live and at CES in Vegas where it was the ONLY network that worked without fail, though even it slowed down to about 3M download speeds in some instances from a more typical 9-10M. So, if I can get a 17M/10M connection in the Moscone basement and it defaults to 3G when not in a line-of-sight relationship to my location, I don't know what I'm missing here other than the fact that Verizon had a 4G network outage yesterday. Stuff happens. . .

  • http://twitter.com/marxmatt matt marx

    agree with Kevin, 4G has been absolutely fabulous aside from yesterday's obvious mess

  • mbill

    Well, I could have written this, I'm having the same sorts of issues in the Chicago area with a 4G computer connection & Verizon. We have a house in the Chicago suburbs and a house in the boonies and wanted something we could use in those places and elsewhere. I had 3G for about 5 years and it pretty much worked without a glitch and was excited when 4G came out. Unfortunately (actually fortunately, although I didn't know it) 4G wasn't yet available for Macs (I'm on a MacBook) initially. When Verizon 4G for Macs came out a month or so ago, I signed up and ended up with the same sort of problems as the author. Getting kicked off, being unable to communicate even though connected (the dreaded “Connected – Dormant” message)…I've been back to Verizon four times with no real help. With basic connections, I just persist; with “Connected – Dormant,” I've learned to try to open 3 or 4 pages at once which seems to get the loading process going again. In other words, I work around the issues.Verizon would lead you to believe that you're the only one in the world with problems but, as they say in Porgy & Bess, “It ain't necessarily so…” I don't remember where I read it, but a guy in Phoenix also had the same issues, for example, and he said that he could see the cell tower from his house.

  • mbill

    Well, I could have written this, perhaps not as well, but I'm having the same sorts of issues in the Chicago area with 4G computer connection & Verizon. We have a house in the Chicago suburbs and a house in the boonies and wanted something we could use in those places and elsewhere. I had 3G for about 5 years and it pretty much worked without a glitch and was excited when 4G came out. Unfortunately (actually fortunately, although I didn't know it) it wasn't available for Macs (I'm on a MacBook) initially. When Verizon 4G for Macs came out a month or so ago, I signed up and ended up with the same sort of problems as the author. Getting kicked off, being unable to communicate even though connected (the dreaded “Connected – Dormant” message)…I've been back to Verizon four times with no real help. With basic connections, I just persist; with “Connected – Dormant,” I've learned to try to open 3 or 4 pages at once which seems to get the process going again. In other words, I work around the issues.Verizon would lead you to believe that you're the only one in the world with problems but, as they say in Porgy & Bess, “It ain't necessarily so…” I don't remember where I read it, but a guy in Phoenix also had the same issues, for example, and he said that he could see the cell tower from his house.

  • http://profiles.google.com/john.dalide John Dalide

    I switched from an iPhone (AT&T) to a Thunderbolt (Verizon 4G) and had nothing but 4G connection problems for the first week and a half. Cancelled Verizon on Tuesday after some pretty rude treatment from several customer service representatives and went back to AT&T. Never felt happier about being back with big blue.

  • brxbmrzfan

    I guess I am confused as well. You said 3G is perfect but 4G is problematic. But, I thought these devices were backward compatible. So, when 4G didn't work, why didn't 3G connect. Shouldn't the author explained this?

  • http://profiles.google.com/zithero Jordan Eilbert

    Part of the whole new technology is a term known as “Bleeding Edge.” For example: Tablets, 4G, WiMAX, and USB 3.0. These are all “Bleeding Edge” technologies that, believe it or not, run the risk of not actually making it past their launch. 4G LTE and WiMAX especially, when you look at them, either may not make it… if WiMAX prevails then the 4G LTE folks are out of luck. WiMAX does have the lovely bonus however of being compatible with a 4G LTE service… which is nice when considering the adoption of the technology.However when it comes to new tech I generally wait until the 3rd or 4th iteration of the device (The iPhone 1 was quite bad… what is the point of a smart phone that isn't at least 3g? in 2007 3G was pretty mainstream so I stayed far away from the crippled device. the iPhone 3G was in the right direction, 3GS was smaller and added multitasking, and now we're at the iPhone 4G – and it even has reception issues in its core design). So to be honest, usually best to hold off on these sort of things until they are proven. Just like I didn't buy a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player until HD-DVD was officially dead, just like I didn't get a smart phone until Android 2.2, just like I didn't get a PC with Windows 7 until a month or two after it's release.Honestly considering 4G's limited coverage and the fact it came live on Verizon only a few months ago you should expect issues with the service – if it had come out more than a year ago I'd say it's not acceptable, but this is very much what you get when you get bleeding edge.

  • http://profiles.google.com/michaelmawalker Michael Walker

    I just got a Verizon MIFi 4G LTE modem, and I most say, It has not worked once, in 4g it always go to 3 g. When the network went down, it was no Gee. Nothing came out. It did not work. I went to Verizon today, and was told the 4 G network is still down. I walked over to a thunderbolt phone, and it said 4 G LTE up. No one solve my problem. Then said, but it is working in 3g, I said, Yeah, but I am paying for 4g?

  • http://profiles.google.com/mukman17 Kevin Laverty

    Well, far be it from me to say that line-of-sight is the only factor, and I also have to assume the issue for the guy in Phoenix was based on his knowledge and presumed bar strength that the tower was one operated by Verizon Wireless. However, I live in a somewhat hilly area and 3G has always been spotty and 4G similarly so – but if I drive out to the main drag where the towers are, there's absolutely no problem getting the full 4G speed here in the Seattle area.As pointed out below, this is bleeding edge technology and so there will be glitches. Can't speak for the guy with the Thunderbolt, but when I told someone who lives in the NJ suburbs of NYC the speed I got on my 4G modem in SF , he told me he was getting faster speeds than the 17M/10M I quoted him on his Thunderbolt.Regardless, 4G LTE rocks at this point in my book in 4 different areas of the country where I've used it.

  • http://twitter.com/GeoffreyDennis Geoffrey Dennis

    I have had very similar trouble on two fronts. I just purchased the 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot by Samsung. I tried using it the same way I have used various Sprint hotspots over the years, as well as using my iPhone as a modem. While I was on vacation over the last couple of weeks in AZ I had repeated connection trouble. I would be on for a period of time (if I could connect) and it would then kick me off. I was able to connect about 50% of the time and rarely, if ever, without getting booted. There were times I would try connecting five or six different times and would be unable to connect at all.Also, it seems to chew up data by a factor of 10. It seemed to me that it used at least 10x the data that the 3G used when I used it in exactly the same manner as I had used my previous hotspots, for email, web browsing, and streaming an occasional Cubs or Bulls game via Slingbox (regardless of what you may think of the Cubs!) while I was on the road – in four short days I ran up a bill of $417.00. I paid $80 for 4 gig, and $10 per gig over the 4 – you do the math. I talked extensively to Verizon and they said they would educate me on how to use this device – thanks for the offer Verizon! Not their problem, although I used it exactly the same way I have used other hotspot devices, albeit 3G.Finally, it was not ready for release when I purchased it. In order to find out how much data I used via my VGonline I had to have a temporary password sent to my Verizon cell phone number – although this isn't a cell phone and couldn't receive a temporary password as it is a hotspot. Then when I did try to register my device it didn't show up on their list of devices, so I couldn't register. I am about to return the device and have my company eat the $170 fee – which is much less than my first bill!

  • bnowrooz

    I haven't had a bad experience with 4G. Unfortunately I was out of 4G-LTE coverage areas yesterday and didn't get to experience the outage. Since your 3G doesn't seem to work either I wonder if some of these problems are purely device oriented?

  • Riverside_John

    One day outage? In Inland Southern California, we were out for 2 full days. Only voice, and no excuses offered. It came back when I was about to reactivate my old reliable, Blackberry Bold.

  • http://www.GoPetFriendly.com/ Rod@GoPetFriendly

    We recently upgraded from Verizon 3G MiFi to Verizon 4G/3G MiFi (for Mac). We live in an RV and travel around the US. We expect to be on 3G network most of the time, but we had the 3G model since day 1 and thought 4G would be nice when we travel to cities that have it. It cost us about $30 to upgrade from old model to new.@Geoffrey – Have not seen any problems with our data use, and we have 10G plan. That said, I have not been impressed with connectivity. Another issue we've been experiencing is overheating, which causes the MiFi to turn off, and no one has mentioned that.We have about 2 weeks before our 30 days is up – debating whether to return to Verizon and go back to 3G model.

  • shockme

    I'm mostly experiencing a cycling between 4G and 3G and succeeding at neither. The only signal displayed is for weak 4G with 3G not even being attempted because it connects to 4G for several seconds before showing no service.Sprint's 3G EVDO is much more reliable than either their 4G or Verizon's 3G or 4G. When I am able to connect however, I'm very pleased with the download speed although it has never been more than 5Mbps for me anywhere in my 4G coverage area.

  • http://profiles.google.com/audreyshow Audrey Showalter

    Ha! I just received my Mifi 4510L today and they couldn't even get me connected AT ALL. I was getting local only whenever I connected. I was on the phone with tech support for about an hour and he finally said, let me check the 4g signal to be sure it's back up, I should have done that first, he added. He then told me it was still down all over the map. We don't even have 4g yet in this area or anywhere near here. I asked why the 3g wouldn't work (since it's suppose to be backwards compatible), and he said it just didn't work if the 4g was down as well. I have read all over the damn internet that 4g is back up, so why is this not working, I asked (without the damn. I was being pretty nice since I also just got a new DINC2 which put me in a good mood, because I figured at least I have one new working device. Thank goodness it doesn't use 4g as well though). He said he didn't know, that his computer was still showing outages everywhere. I'm sorry though, I just don't understand this technology, and I'm pretty tech savvy. I don't understand why these devices won't run 3g when the 4g is out (especially when it won't be running 4g here anyway). That was the whole reason I upgraded from the Mifi 2200. Since I was having issues with my old Mifi, I decided to upgrade to the newer model, just in case we get 4g here within the next 2 years. Didn't wanna be stuck with 3g when 4g became available. But to not get 3g at all when 4g is out sucks. I also mentioned to him how much it sucked that I would be losing out on my 15 day return policy since I couldn't even use the thing yet. He said they would take that into consideration if I decide to return it. So we have switched me back to my old Mifi 2200 for now, and he is suppose to give me a call when the 4g is back up and running, to try to get my new one working again. I'm tempted to just say screw it, and send it back for a new Mifi 2200.

  • http://profiles.google.com/ira.waldman Ira Waldman

    Been on the Northeast Regional Train from D.C. to New Haven with the Samsung. I'm on my laptop; my wife on IPAD. No problem with the latter, apparenly, though she is mostly playing scrabble. Me – I've been off and on my company Citrix network, that I just plain gave up. Device would read 4G when I would run my mouse over the wifi icon, it would tell me excellent connection at 18 of less mpbs. I don't think that is 4G. Also couldn't seem to keep a connection which could have been going to and from 4G and 3G. I have no idea. Never had any problem with my several year old USB 720 that I gave up for this? I did experiment with the Pantech 4G device through my office and thought it worked great, so, smart me decided to go for more flexibility with the Samsung device. Now maybe it will get better I don't really know. But why would my icon tell me that it is 18 mpbs when I'm supposedly operating on 4G?………But really, the intermittent interruptions when connected to my office is just totally unacceptable and if it keeps up I'll deliier it back to Verizon and try something els..

  • Jim Snowden

    It is actually kind of funny to see someone, anyone complain about Verizon. After all, Verizon was supposed to be the savior of mobile communications. It just joes to show you that despite their reputation, VZ sometimes misses the mark.I for one am excited about how AT&T plans to do LTE. First, since AT&T uses a different technology for their 3G, when you go outside of an LTE footprint for AT&T, you will drop down to a pretty zippy HSUPA+ service which can sustain speeds north of 10mb/s. In addition, the LTE to GSM 3G is more seamless and compatable so the connection will be more seamless and reliable.Finally, when AT&T begins to deploy their LTE wthin the next 3-6 months, they have a dual antenna, dual frequency methodology that will knock the socks off of any other LTE or WiMax device. The dual antenna approach will allow AT&T to transmit data over two requencies and “bond” them together with a device that contains dual antennas. This means, you can expect twice the bandwidth with those devices that deploy a dual antenna approach.I can't wait!

  • http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/10/e3-first-venturebeat-success/ How I survived my first E3 with technology failing left and right | VentureBeat

    [...] Arts, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (luckily Microsoft had some pretty hefty wi-fi that was stable.)VentureBeat’s Anthony Ha said he had plenty of issues with the service and said that he wanted his old 3G wireless hotspot back after switching over to a 4G hotspot. [...]

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