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Comments on news posted 2013-01-10 08:33:33: Speaking at CES this week, Verizon stated they began this new year with 473 LTE markets, covering 273.5 million potential customers. ..

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JigglyWiggly
join:2009-07-12
Pleasanton, CA

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JigglyWiggly

Member

meanwhile at att

meanwhile at ATT...
no LTE in Fresno or Merced
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

next big noticeable step

Actually they will be rolling out LTE over 1700/2100 MHz later this year. I call that a big noticeable step before VoLTE in 2014.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

You know...

At this point, I'd rather go back to 3G/HSDPA+ with either AT&T or T-Mobile and drop Verizon since 4G LTE is one hell of a battery hog at this moment.

Most of the phones contain first or second generation LTE modem chips which drains your phone's battery like nothing I've ever seen before.

And besides, I live in a market that's supposedly all upgraded and that according to Verizon, I should have 4G LTE everywhere. Not so. I've been into areas of my market that are quite affluent and where the people have money. 4G LTE coverage? Nope, only 3G.

And 3G is next to useless, speeds such. I drop calls all the time. I practically have to stand on one foot and whistle Dixie for a call to not drop. Verizon of course tells me that I live in a "marginal signal area" and that to correct it I have to buy some $100 box I have to connect to my Internet connection.

So wait a moment... I have to buy something to correct a problem with YOUR network? Sorry, that doesn't work with me.
trparky

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Re: meanwhile at att

In most cases, 3G HSDPA+ gets the job done.

It has the same bandwidth capabilities of LTE, granted LTE has lower latency but you can deal with that. But there's another big plus that HSDPA+ has over LTE... no battery draining side effect.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

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Re: You know...

I haven't seen the battery draining issues with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Perhaps the newer radio firmware addressed the problem, but my phone drains at about 1% to 1.5% per hour (according to BetterBatteryStats) when it's idle on LTE.

The real battery hog with this phone is when it's in a 3G-only, or worse, fringe LTE area where it flips back and forth. If I neglect to disable LTE when I'm in a 3G only area it will completely drain the battery in a matter of hours. I presume that's the phone trying to find an LTE signal over and over, rather than backing off when it can't locate one. Of course, the flipside to that is it almost instantly picks up LTE when I enter a coverage area.
JBT
Premium Member
join:2002-12-06
Odessa, FL

JBT

Premium Member

We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

In the last month or two the coverage has really sucked. Drops to 3G frequently, or coverage dies completely. Its not just my phone either I asked our Helpdesk at work and lots of employees have been reporting it through out the city.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky to Crookshanks

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to Crookshanks

Re: You know...

said by Crookshanks:

The real battery hog with this phone is when it's in a 3G-only, or worse, fringe LTE area where it flips back and forth. If I neglect to disable LTE when I'm in a 3G only area it will completely drain the battery in a matter of hours.

That must be my problem. My Galaxy Nexus phone can drain the battery in no time at all on 4G LTE. I can watch the percentage drop by a digit every five minutes on LTE. Must be because I live in a "marginal signal area" according to Verizon.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

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Re: We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

Mine is rock-solid in Wilkes Barre PA, will only drop back to 3G if I'm indoors somewhere with marginal signal, and in those instances 3G doesn't exactly well work either. Nothing VZW can do about construction materials that attenuate their signal...

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
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Re: You know...

I did exactly that, I went to prepaid, both to save money and because Verizon phones get extremely slow updates and bad battery life and as long as their phones have to have CDMA and LTE on at all times, for voice their battery life will in general not be as good as GSM carriers.

For myself I can't complain about coverage it's better than anything around here , I won't even consider Verizon until they release LTE only phones with newer chipsets and VoLTE.
But even then I don't think I'll want to start paying double for my wireless plan again.

AT&T's coverage is pretty much the same as Verizon's around here, except we have no LTE and T-mobile's coverage while not as comprehensive is very good.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to trparky

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to trparky
Disable LTE and let it idle on 3G. Not much else you can do about it. They don't promise coverage everywhere, at least they're being upfront with you about your particular location.

You can find used Network Extenders on eBay for <$100. That's what I did to deal with the black hole (no carrier has coverage) called my hometown. It sucks, but we're in the middle of a valley shaped like a soup bowl, alongside about a dozen other households, so it really wouldn't pay for any carrier to erect a tower just to cover us.

Also, check out the BetterBatteryStats app, specifically use it to look at partial wakelocks. It's entirely possible that you have apps running in the background that are killing your battery. I found a few that were hurting me, most I could keep by tweaking settings, but I uninstalled a few that couldn't be fixed.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

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to trparky
said by trparky:

At this point, I'd rather go back to 3G/HSDPA+ with either AT&T or T-Mobile and drop Verizon since 4G LTE is one hell of a battery hog at this moment.

If one is to believe at&t they should have most of their areas covered with LTE within the next year.

Most of the phones contain first or second generation LTE modem chips which drains your phone's battery like nothing I've ever seen before.

I don't have such issue on my LG Lucid which isn't exactly high end. Also if you're not using data then turn off the 4G.

And besides, I live in a market that's supposedly all upgraded and that according to Verizon, I should have 4G LTE everywhere. Not so. I've been into areas of my market that are quite affluent and where the people have money. 4G LTE coverage? Nope, only 3G.

Actually Verizon says it will have it's entire 3G footprint covered with 4G by the end of 2013. All MARKETS will have some 4G by mid 2013. My area has 4G, but not every TOWER in my area has 4G. Bit a difference.

Also coverage is not guaranteed indoors and the coverage maps can not take into account things like building and trees that may block a signal.

And 3G is next to useless, speeds such. I drop calls all the time.

3G is for data. Calls go out over 1X.
88615298

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Re: We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

said by Crookshanks:

Nothing VZW can do about construction materials that attenuate their signal...

People seems to think so. They think mobile communications work by magic or something.
88615298

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Re: You know...

said by MovieLover76:

For myself I can't complain about coverage it's better than anything around here , I won't even consider Verizon until they release LTE only phones with newer chipsets and VoLTE. But even then I don't think I'll want to start paying double for my wireless plan again.

A LTE only phone would mean you couldn't call anyone as calls currently go over 1X. You know you can always turn of the 4G.
88615298

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Re: meanwhile at att

said by trparky:

In most cases, 3G HSDPA+ gets the job done.

It has the same bandwidth capabilities of LTE, granted LTE has lower latency but you can deal with that. But there's another big plus that HSDPA+ has over LTE... no battery draining side effect.

At&t calls HSDPA+ 4G not 3G. So right there they are being deceitful.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
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MovieLover76

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Stop belaboring a 2 year old issue, the ITU redefined 4G to include WiMax, HSPA+ and LTE and in real world use, HSPA+ can provide speeds that are close to LTE, just look at T-mobile data speeds, and it consistently outperforms WiMax, which was the first 4G

Technically speaking none of those meet the original definition of 4G, which only LTE-advanced meets.
MovieLover76

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Re: You know...

That's what VoLTE is for, Voice over LTE.
It will slowly replace the older cdma network, and Verizon's timetable to deploy it is sometime in 2014. I don't plan on going back to Verizon any time soon, I did state until they release, which implies in the future. not the current state.

LTE only phones will eventually come to Verizon, that's why they are covering 100% of their 3G footprint with LTE, becuase CDMA and LTE together is really a cobbed together mess technically.
MovieLover76

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Re: We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

It's actually true, their are actually materials that will literally block all wireless communications, while those aren't used in construction often, their are some that are fairly good at it like brick.
I live in a brick apartment building and all of the major carriers provide 4 or 5 bars outside my apartment and 0 - 2, occasionally 3 inside, all my friends bitch about the signal in my apartment. Using Lower frequencies like Verizon does will help, but it can't magically work it's way through every material. I actually just purchased a repeater to put in the window to fix the issue.

If you live in a fringe area, they probably should put a new tower in there somewhere though. In general I would recommend against signing a contract with a carrier who tells you your in a fringe area, many times your can get out of a contract if it's discovered later.

It isn't magic, but it is science and most electromagnetic waves can be blocked by some materials and they can't change that fact.

shortyd999
join:2008-10-21
Birmingham, AL

shortyd999

Member

LTE

My experience with VZW LTE on my iPad has been nothing short of great. Works perfectly. Although I will say those few times when it does drop to 3G its a very noticable difference in terms of speeds.
GH
join:2006-01-01
Gladwin, MI

GH

Member

Coverage maps

If you look at the current 4G coverage maps it sure seems like the have a lot of work to do in the next 6 months to get all the 3G updated to 4G
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

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Re: next big noticeable step

Particularly since their 700MHz network is starting to creak under the load of 50% of their data traffic, at least in some areas.
JBT
Premium Member
join:2002-12-06
Odessa, FL

JBT to MovieLover76

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to MovieLover76

Re: We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

I suppose it could be the sheet of glass and the 700ft of air between me and the tower causing the issue. Unfortunately when I go out on to our 4th floor patio to remove the glass barrier I still have the issue.
It has been worse all through out the city in my experience either way.
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

bs

I call bs on this.. They upgraded the towers around me that I am actually getting service from to lte, yet my area which is currently serviced by 3g is only labeled in the extended area... As people have been experiencing with home fusion, extended area doesn't always mean your covered.. but, i'm gonna guess they are gonna blanket claim it all anyways.. Like ATT did with their coverage maps a while back...

Metatron2008
You're it
Premium Member
join:2008-09-02
united state

Metatron2008 to trparky

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Re: meanwhile at att

You mean hsdpa can do 30/12 like Verizon has done here for over a year?

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

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Re: We've had Verizon LTE for awhile in Tucson but...

I wasn't said your particular issue was related to building materials, simply that the comment that building materials can cause attenuation is true, it can be the cause of signal issues.
Not that it always is, equipment on towers can be the issue, poor coverage can be the issue, etc.
MovieLover76

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Re: bs

I think it's market coverage, every market has some coverage. they said they'd be filling in areas throughout 2013. So yea it's a big of snakeoil, but that's every carrier with market coverage claims.
MovieLover76

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Re: meanwhile at att

I switched from Verizon LTE to T-mobile HSPA+ and I usually get between 6 - 16mbps and I'm only in a HSPA+ 21 area, users in HSPA+ 42 areas frequently see speed over 20mbps.

Even in my case, in real world usage, I never notice the difference, even for the time I had the two running side by side.

The only exception might be for very large downloads, the additional speed would help you there. But I myself connect to wifi when I have a very large download, I did that even with Verizon LTE because I didn't want to waste my precious data allotment.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

Verizon 4G LTE was fast when it was first introduced in my area. I'd see speeds upwards of 15 Mbps. Now that more people are using it I barely see 6 Mbps on LTE, most of the time I see only 4 Mbps but even that's a stretch. YouTube plays video with constant buffering, I can't get through a single video without buffering at least four times during playback.

Verizon has been seriously neglecting their network in my area. Worst of it all, they don't seem to care.

Dropped calls, slow data. They don't care.
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

I'll be seriously looking at either AT&T or T-Mobile when my contract is up in mid-2013.

Does anyone know how roaming works with T-Mobile and AT&T?

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

MovieLover76

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roaming on AT&T in most areas is not usually needed , because of the size of their network. But in places they lack coverage you can generally roam to another GSM carrier and use is counted just like regular usage on AT&T

T-mobile roams a lot and doesn't have the comprehensive coverage AT&T does, but in some areas coverage can be very good, I use it myself. They have limits on data roaming with vary depending on your plan. Much of T-mobile's roaming is 2G only or throttled to 2G speeds.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Does anyone have any accurate coverage maps for Cleveland, Ohio?
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