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CJ777
join:2004-10-05
Los Angeles, CA

CJ777

Member

Verizon sucks in my part of LA

At home I have full signal, yet my download LTE speeds average .90 to 2 Mbps max. It's way too over saturated. I have a Galaxy S3 and don't get the newest bands but you would think the last frequency changes they made would have helped to unload more of the saturation.
YDC
join:2007-11-13
Hewlett, NY

YDC

Member

Something of interest may be those bars you see. They usually represent the beacon you connect to. If the beacon gives you 3 bars that's great. The site is not user saturated and has not retracted too much if you are a distance from the tower and see this. It means NOTHING as to whether it is data saturated. The big problem is you may be in an area where there are 4 overlapping sites, but since you latched onto a strong beacon, you stay there. The other 3 sites may have no data going through them but you'll never see them. The networks need to be made smarter, so they can distinguish between congestion and no congestion and bounce you accordingly as needed. You may do better on a site that only has 2 bars by you (-120db) than 3 bars (-90db). Granted, at -120db you will not get great speed, but it could still be better. The downside of this is your battery will drain faster. More highly directional cell panels would solve a lot of this congestion. That should be the next step I think, but those panels are triple the cost as you would need a lot more of them and a larger transmit array to support it. Then again, you would not have to add another tower. Lots of options. None taken. That's the problem.
YDC

YDC

Member

Let me explain a bit about interoperability as well. When you have various technologies linked together, hand-offs between these devices and the devices that connect to them (your phones for instance) have to be seamless. If not, your call or data drops. Also, the manufacturers have a way for you to interact with their products. These ways are NOT always the same. I'll give you an example. In the big land line days, the AT&T 5ESS switches were used for a long time past their usefulness due to configuration issues. In the 5ESS world, you could connect with a simple modem to make changes. Those switches were so large that you ran out of space to house them. A DMS series switch from Motorola would save you a city block in some instances, but the switches were not able to be managed without special software, which was costly. So, to save money it was easier to build a fortress than to rent a closet for a DMS switch. So, 5ESS remained long past it's sensible lifetime as a telco switch. Now, you can have 320 PRI lines in a box the size of a college refrigerator. Things change, but greed slows down that path a lot. There was a standard at least. The SS7 signaling saved a lot of headaches connecting the two varieties of switches until other hand offs were established, with the exception of call forwarding. That took a little work. So, there you have it. Telco in a nutshell. Problems abound, solutions do not without catastrophic cost increases so old tech holds on for too long... and we have to live with it until it dies. with cell this is a bit different as the technology changes so fast no one has a chance. Still there are solutions. They just don't deploy them until it becomes an issue where their ROI is nulled many times over.
CJ777
join:2004-10-05
Los Angeles, CA

CJ777 to YDC

Member

to YDC
I've done some tests and there are only 2 possible sites I connect to when at home. One is a mile away the other is about ½ a mile. l had much higher speeds about a year ago in the same area. This is why I blame it on congestion. Oh and I normally only connect to one of the sites about 70% of the time.
YDC
join:2007-11-13
Hewlett, NY

YDC

Member

No doubt it is congestion. You might do better on the site you rarely connect to is what I am saying. The networks are not smart enough to solve this problem. Also if you split the cell with highly directional antenna paddles you can increase capacity enormously. That just never happens though.
CJ777
join:2004-10-05
Los Angeles, CA

CJ777

Member

We use Nortel switches here in the LA market. Not sure if it's related or not. The other site has slow dl speeds as well. I walked right under it and it was shitty too. Late at night the speeds get better but not by much. Since my phone doesn't support the new AWS frequencies is probably why I am screwed! Anyways after my contract is up in a few months I am done with Verizon. I unfortunately worked for them for 5 years as well and I don't like the way they do business. They rape all the new phones that come out, stripping them of features that the manufacture intended and not to mention all their nasty bloatware they add. It's no wonder people are forced to root their phones. And I still have unlimited data so any new phone I get, I will make damn sure it is no longer with them or AT&T, the 2nd most evilest telco out there.
YDC
join:2007-11-13
Hewlett, NY

YDC

Member

Nortel is the DMS series. My mistake. I was off somewhere on that one.. lol. Yes, I agree the telcos and even the dotcoms are going crazy lately with loading crapware and more just to make a buck. There are problems that this is even allowed. Some day we may get back our rights and these monster companies will be gone. Until then, good luck getting anything real here in the states. Third world countries have better service, and give the customer respect.

Best, Al
CJ777
join:2004-10-05
Los Angeles, CA

CJ777

Member

said by YDC:

Nortel is the DMS series. My mistake. I was off somewhere on that one.. lol. Yes, I agree the telcos and even the dotcoms are going crazy lately with loading crapware and more just to make a buck. There are problems that this is even allowed. Some day we may get back our rights and these monster companies will be gone. Until then, good luck getting anything real here in the states. Third world countries have better service, and give the customer respect.

Best, Al

You got that right about this country and our terrible infrastructure. Asia and parts of Europe are way ahead of us. Oh and I worked for Pacific Bell awhile back and when SBC (The "new" AT&T) took over, everything went to hell.