Verizon Cell Coverage

[dmjr]

Has anyone else experienced very poor cell coverage around the area this summer? Today I was traveling on both route 25 and route 25b in Center Harbor and I was not able to make a call or send a text until I got into Meredith.

[burgerunh]

Verizon Service on the weekends in the summer is terrible in Ossipee at Ossipee Lake.

[chachee52]

Originally Posted by dmjr

Has anyone else experienced very poor cell coverage around the area this summer? Today I was traveling on both route 25 and route 25b in Center Harbor and I was not able to make a call or send a text until I got into Meredith.

In Gilford all summer long it was 1-2 bars tops, it has always been 3-4 bars on our phones. My neighbors were all talking about it all summer how bad it was, even during the week days too.

[dickiej]

Would love to get off Verizon…haven’t spent much time researching just how and who is less expensive. Any suggestions?

[Fastfury]

Check your Verizon bill
They are charging more for 3g
They want you to convert to 5G and it's less $/ Mo they are starting to
discontinue the old network
They want you to upgrade to 5G



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[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by dickiej

Would love to get off Verizon…haven’t spent much time researching just how and who is less expensive. Any suggestions?

We had pretty good luck with AT&T before going to Verizon, but I'd probably try TMobile first—I've heard good things about them since merging with Sprint.

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[Newbiesaukee]

Verizon has been much worse on Long Island. In the past AT&T was nonexistent and Verizon seemed the best in our location.

[4 for Boating]

So I'm by no means an expert on this but I think there is a difference between the number of Bars (Signal Strength to tower- not typically impacted by the number of phone connections to the tower) and Congestion (where you may even have 5 bars and you cannot get any thing to go through - texts/internet/ browsing...

I'm not sure having a lot of people in the area (summer rush) would impact the number of bars but most certainly would impact the speed or lack there of a connection.

Reminds me of the old Foxboro stadium - would go to to a game and have 5 bars but could not send a single text the entire day while there = congestion.

Could be wrong...

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by 4 for Boating

So I'm by no means an expert on this but I think there is a difference between the number of Bars (Signal Strength to tower- not typically impacted by the number of phone connections to the tower) and Congestion (where you may even have 5 bars and you cannot get any thing to go through - texts/internet/ browsing...

I'm not sure having a lot of people in the area (summer rush) would impact the number of bars but most certainly would impact the speed or lack there of a connection.

Reminds me of the old Foxboro stadium - would go to to a game and have 5 bars but could not send a single text the entire day while there = congestion.

Could be wrong...

You are correct—it's called deprioritization. I discovered it a few years back when on prepaid Verizon and couldn't use my phone on weekends or during the day. At that time, carriers were being squirrelly with how they identified the process.

I don't know about other providers, but Verizon identifies this as "premium data." For example, on their top-level plan, customers get unlimited premium data, which means they will never be deprioritized when the network is busy.

The next levels down are up to 50GB of premium data, whereas the base plans have 5 (Start) and 0 (Welcome). Prepaid plans and MVNOs are prioritized below those plans.

This only applies when the network is congested which, in the summer, is almost always.

My experience this summer, though, is that the actual signal strength has been weaker than in the past. Places I would've normally had 2-3 bars were at 1 or no service. People have mentioned that may be a reflection of Verizon moving to 5G, which does not have the same penetration ability.

Does anyone know the best way to report these experiences? I'm guessing the more complaints they get, the more they're likely to address.

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[tis]

I have the unlimited plan and still don't have many bars. I can't download anything unless I am in the house (not sure if that's my phone or the service). But for 151 dollars a month it is frustrating.

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by tis

I have the unlimited plan and still don't have many bars. I can't download anything unless I am in the house (not sure if that's my phone or the service). But for 151 dollars a month it is frustrating.

$151 is for how many phones? We pay $150 for 4 phones w/unlimited data.

Remember, though, that "unlimited" may not equal "high-priority."

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[tis]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

$151 is for how many phones? We pay $150 for 4 phones w/unlimited data.

Remember, though, that "unlimited" may not equal "high-priority."

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2 phones. How do you tell unlimited from high priority?

[TiltonBB]

I am in Gilford and the Verizon service has been very good all summer. It does tighten up a little on concert days but it is certainly acceptable all the time.

I am on this plan:

Verizon Prepaid: 5GB plan for $40-25/month
The cheapest Verizon prepaid option is the 5GB plan, which starts at $40 but over time drops to as low as $25 per month. This plan will get you full 5G access but only a small allowance, which makes it preferable for light-users only. If you're mostly Wi-Fi bound, then this might be a good option for you. This also includes the use of your device as a mobile hotspot to share that data with other devices.
Intro price: $40/mo | After 4-mo: $35/mo | After 10-mo: $25/mo

I prefer the laptop and rarely use the phone for internet access, and when I do it is usually on wifi.

My recollection is that when I signed up it was for seniors only. (Unfortunately, I am over qualified for this discount)

The other thing I remember is it is prepaid. They get their money at the beginning of the month instead of the end of the month. Who cares? The net annual cost is still the same.

[Garcia]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

$151 is for how many phones? We pay $150 for 4 phones w/unlimited data.

Remember, though, that "unlimited" may not equal "high-priority."

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Not sure of you are aware/take advantage of it, but as an educator I get a small discount ($25/month? - can't remember exactly). I don't remember seeing it advertised; they brought it to my attention after I complained about the cost of my bill a couple years ago. I've been getting it ever since.

At the time, the discount was available to first responders as well.

[BroadHopper]

In my neck of the woods, I can only get 3G coverage. Been like that for a few years. I had LTE coverage and I don't know what happen. Neighbors and colleagues notice the same thing. Called Verizon a few times and had no luck. They would send a "truck to the nearest corner and check the signal strength" which was the standard reply. Also 'turn on wifi VOIP coverage'.

A number of folks with AT&T are having 5G coverage in the area, but with only 2 bars on average, better than what I have now.

Once I lose 3G and have no luck with Verizon, AT&T is the way to go. I thought they use the same towers.

[codeman671]

We had Verizon for years, the service got went downhill year after year and the pricing just kept climbing.

We switched to T-mobile last year and it has been much better, and is $150 less per month. A few dead spots to deal with but all carriers have that. There is a 5 minute dead zone on route 11 starting around the Hogs Pen heading north (although some days its perfectly fine?) and I usually drop out around West Alton Marina for a minute.

The worst dead spot is right at my house in Dover (wifi calling only) which has been frustrating, but in a week I will be a Gilford resident so it won't matter!

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by tis

2 phones. How do you tell unlimited from high priority?

They call it "premium data."

$150 for two phones is wayyyy too high.

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[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by Garcia

Not sure of you are aware/take advantage of it, but as an educator I get a small discount ($25/month? - can't remember exactly). I don't remember seeing it advertised; they brought it to my attention after I complained about the cost of my bill a couple years ago. I've been getting it ever since.

At the time, the discount was available to first responders as well.

I am and get it.
Our plans are $45/$35/$35/$35 and ~$15 in taxes, so the $20 teacher's discount makes it $145.xx.

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[VitaBene]

Originally Posted by dmjr

Has anyone else experienced very poor cell coverage around the area this summer? Today I was traveling on both route 25 and route 25b in Center Harbor and I was not able to make a call or send a text until I got into Meredith.

Donny, It is absolutely terrible! I cant do audio only zoom or teams calls all along 104 so sometimes have to stop at 93 for an hour to finish a call. I just upgraded to 5G iphone and no improvement.

[Heaven]

Originally Posted by Garcia

Not sure of you are aware/take advantage of it, but as an educator I get a small discount ($25/month? - can't remember exactly). I don't remember seeing it advertised; they brought it to my attention after I complained about the cost of my bill a couple years ago. I've been getting it ever since.

At the time, the discount was available to first responders as well.

I get that discount also, used to have 5 phones on my plan now i have only two, and I don't get that discount if I add another line. I can't recall why I get it. . . .

[thinkxingu]

Verizon was essentially unusable last summer and seems to have gotten even worse. Everyone I know is having the same issue.

We'll be signing up with TMobile this week.

Anyone having GOOD luck with Verizon?!

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[upthesaukee]

No issues in Alton Bay.

Dave

[DickR]

My wife and I (on Long Island) have Spectrum Mobile, which I'm told uses the Verizon tower network. We haven't noticed any degradation of service. Note that neither of us makes any real use of Internet via phone. We prefer a real computer for that.

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

Verizon was essentially unusable last summer and seems to have gotten even worse. Everyone I know is having the same issue.

We'll be signing up with TMobile this week.

Anyone having GOOD luck with Verizon?!

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In Tuftonboro, Verizon is generally good, but I think there are two dropout spots on 109

[chasedawg]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

In Tuftonboro, Verizon is generally good, but I think there are two dropout spots on 109

As residents of Tuftonoboro, we were looking forward to improved Verizon cell service with the 2 or 3 new Verizon cell towers that were installed last Fall and Winter as disguised as a very large pine trees in Tuftonboro. Yet our Verizon service is not any better on 109A or 19 Mile Bay than last year before the towers were installed.. We have the latest version of Verizon phones. We don't understand why our Verizon cell signal has not improved with this major tower upgrade.

[smith point boater]

Service is great here in West Alton. In fact in addition to our phones we just switched to Verizon internet service and dumped Breezeline entirely. HUGE savings and service has been excellent

[Excalibur]

Hi, I am in Gilford and had four bars of data on a 4G LTE I phone. I tried to Google something , impossible, no response at all from the Verizon network.

Pretty much once I am at the Lakes Region on my Verizon phone, I have to use the house WIFI for any data.

Of course right next to me, my sister has US Cellular and has no issue with data and has the answer before me.

When I was at the car race in Loudon, I noticed Verizon brought in extra antenna trucks. They obviously consider the lakes region back woods like with a low population and they forget about seasonal surge. So they do not have the bandwidth on weekends with the amount of users.

Of course my phone works fine near Boston where they have capacity.

I am going to switch ,since it is very frustrating.

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

Hi, I am in Gilford and had four bars of data on a 4G LTE I phone. I tried to Google something , impossible, no response at all from the Verizon network.

Pretty much once I am at the Lakes Region on my Verizon phone, I have to use the house WIFI for any data.

Of course right next to me, my sister has US Cellular and has no issue with data and has the answer before me.

When I was at the car race in Loudon, I noticed Verizon brought in extra antenna trucks. They obviously consider the lakes region back woods like with a low population and they forget about seasonal surge. So they do not have the bandwidth on weekends with the amount of users.

Of course my phone works fine near Boston where they have capacity.

I am going to switch ,since it is very frustrating.

What it sounds like is that you're being deprioritized—do you have a lower-tier plan?

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[SAB1]

Originally Posted by chasedawg

As residents of Tuftonoboro, we were looking forward to improved Verizon cell service with the 2 or 3 new Verizon cell towers that were installed last Fall and Winter as disguised as a very large pine trees in Tuftonboro. Yet our Verizon service is not any better on 109A or 19 Mile Bay than last year before the towers were installed.. We have the latest version of Verizon phones. We don't understand why our Verizon cell signal has not improved with this major tower upgrade.

Same here. After 20 years the service still is not great even with the new towers. I'll never understand how it hasn't improved...............

[The Real BigGuy]

I have Verizon (for 20+ years) cell coverage and have never had an issue. We started with it because no other cell provider had service in the Little Bear area. My daughter had AT&T and had to call me at the top of the hill in Wolfboro to meet her at the dock @ Pier 19 because once through the “burry” she had no service. She switched to Verizon later on. My son had Virgin Mobile and he found one spot at Pier 19 where he had coverage (literally a 20 ft circle) then nothing out on the lake. He also switched to Verizon.

I don’t know how other services are working now in the Tuftonboro area because most people I know are on Verizon or Xfinity which uses Verizon cell towers.


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[chachee52]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

Hi, I am in Gilford and had four bars of data on a 4G LTE I phone. I tried to Google something , impossible, no response at all from the Verizon network.

Pretty much once I am at the Lakes Region on my Verizon phone, I have to use the house WIFI for any data.

Of course right next to me, my sister has US Cellular and has no issue with data and has the answer before me.

When I was at the car race in Loudon, I noticed Verizon brought in extra antenna trucks. They obviously consider the lakes region back woods like with a low population and they forget about seasonal surge. So they do not have the bandwidth on weekends with the amount of users.

Of course my phone works fine near Boston where they have capacity.

I am going to switch ,since it is very frustrating.

Same here. No matter what time of day of the week, verizon has changed significantly in the last 3 years or so. It was once the only service that could get reception, now in Gilford, it is just bad.

[Skippermark]

Originally Posted by VitaBene

I just upgraded to 5G iphone and no improvement.

We have 5G Verizon but only get LTE in the Meredith area and that was unusable this weekend except very late at night.

I had 5G in Gilford on Sunday, and it worked ok but seemed slow when I sent a pic to my wife.

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by chasedawg

As residents of Tuftonoboro, we were looking forward to improved Verizon cell service with the 2 or 3 new Verizon cell towers that were installed last Fall and Winter as disguised as a very large pine trees in Tuftonboro. Yet our Verizon service is not any better on 109A or 19 Mile Bay than last year before the towers were installed.. We have the latest version of Verizon phones. We don't understand why our Verizon cell signal has not improved with this major tower upgrade.

I can't remember the details on how this works, but I vaguely remember getting a message years ago on a similar issue I was having--you want to make sure you have the latest software installed on those latest phones. Once that is done, you might try restarting your phones

[The Real BigGuy]

Originally Posted by Skippermark

We have 5G Verizon but only get LTE in the Meredith area and that was unusable this weekend except very late at night.

I had 5G in Gilford on Sunday, and it worked ok but seemed slow when I sent a pic to my wife.

A 5G phone has to be in the broadcast area of a 5G tower to have 5G service and, unfortunately, not all towers of any of the services broadcast 5G. The are starting to upgrade towers with the major cities, high volume highways, and places where there are large numbers of people (shopping centers, etc.). It will be a few years before all towers are upgraded.


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[thinkxingu]

After research (significant), my family signed onto T-Mobile this AM. We won't be up this weekend to try, but the coverage map looks good so .

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[The Real BigGuy]

I caution - don’t believe a provider’s coverage map! They are more optimistic than my dog as she waits to be fed.


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[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by The Real BigGuy

I caution - don’t believe a provider’s coverage map! They are more optimistic than my dog as she waits to be fed.


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Absolutely agree, but it was just one piece of my research. The other pieces: talking to a few traveling salesmen who use both Verizon and T-Mobile, friends who have visited and have T-Mobile, and people in our association.

All combined, it's about the best chance we have at getting service where we don't currently.

Next step? Internet/WiFi at camp, which I'm fundamentally opposed to.

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[The Real BigGuy]

Good luck! I’m sure it will work out. I was opposed to internet, my wife didn’t want a microwave, & I didn’t want TV. 30 yrs later, we have them all.


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[thinkxingu]

This weekend will be our first with the new T-Mobile phones/service. We ended up with S23 Samsungs and, so far in our southern NH/northern MA travels, service has been stellar.

I will say that T-Mobile customer service is pretty incredible—the woman who sold me the phones called me the other day to make sure they'd been delivered and to offer her help with getting them started.

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[LakeTimes]

Verizon Wireless in our area (Southern NH) has been terrible and we've been contemplating switching as well... When I spoke to VZ Wireless about this, they said the issue in Southern NH has been they are swapping over Towers to 5G Ultra Wide which will take well over a year... That said, I'm still not convinced once all towers are upgraded that service will actually be better..... thus I'm just waiting for more pain...

Curious to hear how T Mobile works in the lakes region (or where it doesn't work well) as we are typically all over the lake like a pin ball

[swnoel]

I enjoy reading posts where someone is complaining about poor service then ask who provides a cheaper service!

[rsmlp]

No issues. There are some spots driving down the Neck near JoJo's but generally fine. Have had VZ for over 15 years. Our 5 kids also have VZ and all over the country. I haven't heard anything negative.

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by rsmlp

No issues. There are some spots driving down the Neck near JoJo's but generally fine. Have had VZ for over 15 years. Our 5 kids also have VZ and all over the country. I haven't heard anything negative.

Really? Reddit is full of frustrated Verizon users: https://tinyurl.com/mshbx3ef

Now, that being said, all providers will have dead spots/weak areas, but Verizon's (current) issue is/appears to be two-fold: 1. Their rollover to 5g is slow and affecting 4g coverage and 2. Their network just doesn't have the capacity to handle summer Lakes Region capacity.

As I mentioned before/above, AT&T, with the first responder network being open to consumers when unused, seemed to have plenty of capacity—it just didn't work at my wife's school.

We confirmed yesterday that T-Mobile works at her school, so that hurdle is cleared!

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[WinnisquamZ]

Have had T-Mobile the past three years here in Laconia. Dead spot along the Meredith line. Heading up towards center harbor a bit. No complaints


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[thinkxingu]

Ok, from Nashua to Tilton House of pizza and back on 93 to Arcadia there were three low/no-service spots but not long enough for Spotify to cut out (1/4 mile or so?).

Two were along the stretch of 104 between the exit 23 off ramp and just before downtown Center Harbor.

Here at Arcadia Campground, we've got 3 bars of 5G, and it's running fast.

This and next weekend, and 4th of July weekend, will be the real test to see how the network does when congested.

I will say that after a week of use, I'm very impressed with TMobile and am—so far—really happy with the change.

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