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Old 05-27-2019, 05:52 PM   #1
thinkxingu
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Default Wireless Service Options/Verizon Crapping Out

Hi! Every time someone has posted asking about wireless services in the Lakes Region for the last five years, I have replied with Verizon, but my wife and I have found a precipitous decline in our Verizon service at camp (Arcadia, Hanson Mill Road off Moultonboro Neck).

Anyone have comments or suggestions about this? It appears we have decent cell coverage (thought texts are sometimes slow), but data is no longer reliable at all.
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Old 05-27-2019, 06:51 PM   #2
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Having the same issue with Verizon. I’m in tuftonboro by camp Belknap ( 19 mile Bay Area) have had Verizon for years and had good service. Sometime over the winter the service has gone downhill. Very tough to make a call and have it not drop. Have to stand in a certain spot and not move if calls go thru. People call us and phones don’t ring on our end. Texting works though.
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Old 05-27-2019, 07:16 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SAB1 View Post
Having the same issue with Verizon. I’m in tuftonboro by camp Belknap ( 19 mile Bay Area) have had Verizon for years and had good service. Sometime over the winter the service has gone downhill. Very tough to make a call and have it not drop. Have to stand in a certain spot and not move if calls go thru. People call us and phones don’t ring on our end. Texting works though.
It's weird, if I put my address in, it says awesome LTE service, but the interactive map shows white (no coverage) where the address is

I noticed it starting last fall, but I just posted on my association Facebook page and a few people have said their Verizon service has been great, so I'm wondering if it's my phone, a Moto G5S Plus.

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Old 05-28-2019, 01:57 PM   #4
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Same issue out on Little Bear.


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Old 05-28-2019, 02:25 PM   #5
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.....and Long Island.
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Old 05-28-2019, 03:14 PM   #6
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Any idea how T Mobile is around the lake? Currently have two bars with ATT. Expensive


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Old 05-28-2019, 03:19 PM   #7
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Our Verizon service at home in west Alton degraded about a year ago, mostly on my wife's S6, less so on my S6. We visited the Wireless Zone store in Laconia to consider upgrading to S9 phones. We mentioned the degraded service to the tech who said that Verizon is in the process of modifying all the area towers in preparation for a version of 5G roll out. And that in the mean time service will degrade some. Who knows but FWIW that is what he said.

We did not upgrade phones then but just after the S10 release we went back to compare S9 vs S10. We each walked out with an S10e phone. No more dropped calls at home. Why? Don't really know, received signal levels are about the same. The s10 does have many more frequency bands.
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/co...nes/8997,10959

Here on Welch Verizon service has always been good.
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Old 05-28-2019, 03:19 PM   #8
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Default this might help

try rebooting your phone
or

to complete the Preferred Roaming List update:
Call *228 from your home coverage area.
When prompted, select 2 to update your phone's preferred roaming list. (This process may take up to 2 minutes.)
Once completed, a confirmation message will be played, and a message will display on the phone's screen.
Preferred Roaming List (PRL) FAQs | Verizon Wireless
https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...t-update-faqs/
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Old 05-28-2019, 03:31 PM   #9
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Planned obsolesence. With 5g rolling out soon they all want us to buy new phones. I'm planning on keeping my s7 for as long as possible, but sadly I need it for work so it has to be reliable.
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Old 05-28-2019, 03:48 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Slickcraft View Post
Our Verizon service at home in west Alton degraded about a year ago, mostly on my wife's S6, less so on my S6. We visited the Wireless Zone store in Laconia to consider upgrading to S9 phones. We mentioned the degraded service to the tech who said that Verizon is in the process of modifying all the area towers in preparation for a version of 5G roll out. And that in the mean time service will degrade some. Who knows but FWIW that is what he said.

We did not upgrade phones then but just after the S10 release we went back to compare S9 vs S10. We each walked out with an S10e phone. No more dropped calls at home. Why? Don't really know, received signal levels are about the same. The s10 does have many more frequency bands.
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/co...nes/8997,10959

Here on Welch Verizon service has always been good.
I noticed this weekend on Rattlesnake my old Tablet (verizon) was giving me trouble. I did re-boot and it seemed to help for a day then back to dropping it's signal. My Samsung S8 seems OK but something is going on. I just figured the cell towers we're being hacked and screwing things up.
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Old 05-28-2019, 05:03 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by witchboat View Post
try rebooting your phone

or



to complete the Preferred Roaming List update:

Call *228 from your home coverage area.

When prompted, select 2 to update your phone's preferred roaming list. (This process may take up to 2 minutes.)

Once completed, a confirmation message will be played, and a message will display on the phone's screen.

Preferred Roaming List (PRL) FAQs | Verizon Wireless

https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...t-update-faqs/
A couple people have mentioned this, but it's obsolete.

I have noticed my phone's signal reads consistently at -105 or so, which Verizon identifies as low or non-existent signal. I'm wondering if it's just my phone...

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Old 05-28-2019, 06:03 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WinnisquamZ View Post
Any idea how T Mobile is around the lake? Currently have two bars with ATT. Expensive


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The T-Mobile map shows great service, but people report not great service. I think I'm gonna stop at the new Verizon store in Center Harbor and go from there.

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Old 05-28-2019, 06:29 PM   #13
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Default Not at the lake...

While my story is not from the lake it may be relevant...in Nashua I had verizon in 2012 and had great call & data strength despite being in the bottom of the merrimack river 'valley'. Suddenly in late 2013 or so my data went to hell. All cals to Verizon said I am in excellent service according to the map. As it turns out Verizon was in process of turning their towers over to another company to manage. All it takes is for one lonely tower to get lost in the mix as I believe happened to me. Not enough users lost to worry about a partial neighborhood lost.
I did a test with an app and found a number of boosters, which are like mini towers, in the neighborhood but they didnt help.
We've now been happily an AT&T family since then.
Verizon lost over 18k of business just from us over that time. They just dont care about that little though.
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:43 PM   #14
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Default Verizon Service

I noticed Verizon service dropped considerably since the 4G roll out. I was told to get a new sim card at the company store (Concord Ft Eddy Rd). It's free!
It is an improvement. I also notice the store change the phone settings so that when the carrier's signal is weak and when you have wifi, the calls will go through their VOIP service. I notice on the bottom of my phone app display 'wifi calling' when that happens.
But that does not fix the poor service around Lakes Region!
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:03 AM   #15
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My wife and I both have T-Mobile and haven't had any issues. Only dead spot we've found so far is Lowe's in Gilford - strange. I seem to have a bit better service with my iPhone than she does with a Samsung, but overall happy.
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:05 AM   #16
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Have people around the lake called Verizon to complain and ask to file a formal report of the problem? If they get several reports they should look into it, especially if reported that it has changed from ok to poor service.

As an alternative, you can get a "network extender" (I have one at home), but most phones now support the wifi calling feature, which must be first enabled on your phone under "advanced calling" to be usable. Either can help.

https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...-calling-faqs/

Here is the information on the network extender (techies call this a femtocell, cellspot or microcell device) which seems to be limited for use only with 4G phones:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/prod...sku=sku2490003
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:29 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich View Post
Have people around the lake called Verizon to complain and ask to file a formal report of the problem? If they get several reports they should look into it, especially if reported that it has changed from ok to poor service.

As an alternative, you can get a "network extender" (I have one at home), but most phones now support the wifi calling feature, which must be first enabled on your phone under "advanced calling" to be usable. Either can help.
I got a Verizon Network Extender for the Florida house after repeated complaining to Verizon. They started at $250 and I protested that they are charging for a service that they are not providing and it was absurd that they wanted me to pay for the extender. Eventually, after numerous complaints, they gave it to me for free. It does improve the service at my house.

One thing to keep in mind if you get one: It will not hand off a call in progress to a tower. In other words, if you go out of range of the extender while on a call it will drop the call.

There was a Verizon problem last year in the route 11B Gilford area. When I called to complain Verizon said no one else was having the problem. I told them I could name 5 friends with the same service problem in areas that had always had great service, they still wouldn't pay attention.

I asked the friends to call Verizon when they dropped calls and Verizon finally fixed the problem. So, Verizon does check for complaints in any given area. It is important to take a minute to call them every time you drop a call. It seems that they only respond to multiple complaints.
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:39 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich View Post
Have people around the lake called Verizon to complain and ask to file a formal report of the problem? If they get several reports they should look into it, especially if reported that it has changed from ok to poor service.

As an alternative, you can get a "network extender" (I have one at home), but most phones now support the wifi calling feature, which must be first enabled on your phone under "advanced calling" to be usable. Either can help.

https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...-calling-faqs/

Here is the information on the network extender (techies call this a femtocell, cellspot or microcell device) which seems to be limited for use only with 4G phones:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/prod...sku=sku2490003

No need for a network extender if your home/camp has WiFi, but I agree with the WiFi calling suggestion.

For those unfamiliar with WiFi calling--it will route calls through your home WiFi automatically. Reception is typically excellent (and free!)

On iPhone--go to Settings/Phone/WiFi calling and turn switch to on. You should now have excellent reception anytime you are connected to a WiFi network.

On Android--have not done it myself, but my son says it works great
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Old 05-29-2019, 07:25 AM   #19
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Verizon has scheduled a call with me on Friday evening to check on things. I also have few people at camp coming to my place to see how their service is. I've been checking my signal on my phone, and I'm consistently in the -105 range, which is supposedly bad--either my phone's reception or Verizon's signal. Having other phones to compare with, along with Verizon's call, should answer my questions.

I'll report back, but in the meantime I'm still interested in hearing others' experiences with Verizon and T-Mobile/other providers.

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Old 05-29-2019, 07:39 AM   #20
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How do you check that range to get the 105 number?
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Old 05-29-2019, 08:05 AM   #21
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On Android:

Settings> About Phone> Status> Mobile Network Type

or

Settings> About Phone> Status> SIM Status
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Old 05-29-2019, 09:24 AM   #22
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Default What is a good dBm

I'm less than 2 miles from Verizon antenna in Alton Bay, great line sight except for a few trees. My strength is -101dBm 39 asu .
So what's a good signal? FWIW, because I'm close to running out of data and have my mobile data shut off until we get a little closer to our new billing period (left my wireless off for almost a week &#128521

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Old 05-29-2019, 09:55 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by upthesaukee View Post
I'm less than 2 miles from Verizon antenna in Alton Bay, great line sight except for a few trees. My strength is -101dBm 39 asu .

So what's a good signal? FWIW, because I'm close to running out of data and have my mobile data shut off until we get a little closer to our new billing period (left my wireless off for almost a week )



Dave
"Signal strengths can range from approximately -30 dBm to -110 dBm. The closer that number is to 0, the stronger the cell signal."

The strength curve, I've read, is an exponential one.

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Old 05-29-2019, 01:07 PM   #24
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As a broadcast engineer with a background in such things, I can say it is not unusual for one or more panel antennas on a cell site to fail. The site will then stop working or work poorly in those directions. The remote monitoring should alert the provider that there is an issue, but the critical word is "should".

There are failures that may not be remotely reported, and there may also be no one looking at the monitoring.

The squeaking wheel gets the oil. Call their trouble number early, call it often! Also, if getting nowhere, ask (tell) them to escalate your complaint.
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Old 05-29-2019, 02:21 PM   #25
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Thought I might help out with a few unanswered questions here:

Slickcraft: Big difference between the S9 and S10 is the support for Band 12. 13, 17 & 18 Most of the larger providers have picked up an allotment for these bands, it is in the 700MHz range. Much better building & foliage penetration. For example see this chart for a generalization of what providers use what band:
https://www.droid-life.com/2015/02/0...print-tmobile/


Verizon degradation: I don't know the model number of each of everyone's phone, but it was mentioned that Verizon is upgrading to 5G. Most towns limit the number of sector antennas a provider can have. It is possible Verizon is removing some of their higher frequency sector antennas to put in a sector their 5G will be compatible with, assuming their 700Mhz band will cover the loss of this sector replacement. Check out what bands your phone supports vs the provider above.

TMobile coverage: I have them, they work real well in Moultonboro. Going out 171, coverage ends at Tuftonboro 4 corners and resumes the closer you get to either: the lake, Rt 16 or Rt 28 (big dead spot). Center Harbor and Meredith are reasonable, down Rt 3 and 104 work for the most part. They don't seem to have a local roaming partner, unfortunately, so their dead spots are well, dead.

Network extenders: I have one, TMobile will give you one free ($25 deposit) if you have an account with them. I can get 1,000 feet from my house, before it jumps off onto a regular TMobile cell. Also, the TMobile extender will hand off to a tower or wifi, it is like a real cell site in your house.

LTE: As many know, I'm sure, LTE is for data only. There was a discussion on this thread of VOIP over wifi, many provideres and many phones support this. There also exists VOLTE, that is voice over the LTE network. Both your phone and provider must support this. Verizon supports LTE on many towers and if your phone doesn't support VOLTE, you might have a dead spot, whereas the Verizon map says you don't.

Cellular is a very dynamic arena.... some providers are rolling out 600MHz, TMobile has one in Maine on the NH border, but I can't get it at my house, lol
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Old 05-29-2019, 06:36 PM   #26
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Welcome to the Forum Wifi-1

And thanks for the knowledge help.
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Old 05-30-2019, 06:46 AM   #27
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Welcome to the Forum Wifi-1

And thanks for the knowledge help.
Thank you, and you're welcome
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