What's the deal? This is the third time this month. I have not regretted my switch to Verizon because service and coverage has always been great until now. I still don't regret it...yet. But they need to get their shiat together or I might have to exercise some good old fashioned capitalism and take my money elsewhere.

More like "Rule the err," am I right? Up top.

Not to worry, they'll hit you up for a $2 fee for not letting them grab your money each month automatically.
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=9549

taurusowner: I might have to exercise some good old fashioned capitalism and take my money elsewhere.

To who? AT&T? Talk about amateur hour.

T-Mobile? Their network is great where it is built-out.

Sprint? Wouldn't you end up roaming on VZW once you're out of town?

I'm only still with AT&T because I have a grandfathered unlimited international data plan. Without that I would have taken my company's six lines to VZW a long time ago.

No problems in the Allentown metro area.

I'm assuming this is what I was running into yesterday and maybe a bit the day before where my 4G dropped to 3G then dropped altogether?

I use my wireless hotspot for internet when I'm on the go or at home and having it drop altogether is a real pisser. Sadly I'm 6months into a two year contract but maybe be reconsidering when it's time to re-up at the end of this.

More like "drool the air" amirite, guise?

EW!!! Some of it fell on me! *wipe* *wipe*

Kar98: Not to worry, they'll hit you up for a $2 fee for not letting them grab your money each month automatically.
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=9549

And if the data outages keep happening, expect Verizon to institute a data outage fee.

It seems like Verizon's service outages are almost always Midwestern and East from there. No outages or even spotty service for me of any kind, ever, in the entire 15 years I have been with Verizon on the West coast (aside from the usual dead zones lacking cell service of any kind in some of the remoter areas). Even during the massive blackout here in So. Cal/San Diego this last September Verizon service was up and running for me.

brap: They're my interwebby provider. Service has been spotty to nonexistent.

Verizon Wireless =/= Verizon... eventually they do come together near the top, but the networks are separate...

I'm switching to Boost Mobile. Seriously. Prepay used to be ghettofabulous (with the attendant bad pricing) but it's $50 for unlimited everything. I asked my buddy if there are hidden fees (no), checked out his phone (mid-range Android for $199) and figured it to be a smart move. Verizon is dry-farking me to the tune of $109, and it's not unlimited. Then it throws my pants back at me and tells me to leave, but not without paying $2 to open the front door.

Rule the fail?

brap: They're my interwebby provider. Service has been spotty to nonexistent.

I know they have non-FioS plans available (whether it's dish based or some other provided rebadged), but their FioS service has been outstanding.

The only issue I've ever had with verizon, and always, even back when I had their DSL service a way back, is their technical customer support SUCKS. God help you if you have a reason to contact them that goes beyond billing.

dickfreckle: I'm switching to Boost Mobile. Seriously. Prepay used to be ghettofabulous (with the attendant bad pricing) but it's $50 for unlimited everything.

The old AT&T prepaid pricing, when they were still on TDMA, wasn't bad. Since T-Mobile introduced $100 for a thousand minutes, expiration period one year, to be extended by another year for $10, prepaid pricing has been better than postpaid. And their new monthly, no contract plans kick ass.

State_College_Arsonist: No problems in the Allentown metro area.

I think it's mostly their 4G LTE service

I use Verizon and my phone works just fine. I just wish the neighbor would got off the line...

Here's a question to the farkers out there:

When my contract is up I plan on leaving AT&T and going somewhere else. I live in a suburb of Saint Paul and routinely travel to Chicago (mostly near O'Hare), Miami, and the Duluth area.

The plan is to continue using iPhones and my contract is up at about the time they announce the new version. So the plan is to buy an unlocked unsubsidized phone and do a month to month with Verizon or Sprint. I lean towards Spring because of their data plans, but I don't know how the coverage is in other areas. What do you think?

dickfreckle: I'm switching to Boost Mobile. Seriously. Prepay used to be ghettofabulous (with the attendant bad pricing) but it's $50 for unlimited everything. I asked my buddy if there are hidden fees (no), checked out his phone (mid-range Android for $199) and figured it to be a smart move. Verizon is dry-farking me to the tune of $109, and it's not unlimited. Then it throws my pants back at me and tells me to leave, but not without paying $2 to open the front door.

My cousin has Boost and his signal is shiaty in his apt in Chicago.
/Don't know if Boost use Sprint's normal towers

It's the only explanation that would make sense to me at this point.

MightyPez: The plan is to continue using iPhones and my contract is up at about the time they announce the new version. So the plan is to buy an unlocked unsubsidized phone and do a month to month with Verizon or Sprint. I lean towards Spring because of their data plans, but I don't know how the coverage is in other areas. What do you think?

Unless you're leaving AT&T because of the terrible network you could investigate h2o wireless - it's an MVNO on AT&T's network that has some fantastic unlimited deals and the SIM will work in your AT&T locked iPhone from what I understand.

As far as going "unsubsidized" on Verizon or Sprint - it is not like doing this with a GSM carrier - it is my understanding that both VZW and Sprint will *only* activate a device they have sold even if it is compatible with their network.

Here in Boston, I can only get a maximum of 1 Mb download speed and my connection gets dropped at least once a day. Multiple calls to tech support have not fixed this, apparently there's work being done on the lines a few blocks away, so these interruptions are going to continue for the next sixth months.

I just got off the phone with Comcast to buy from them. When your service is so poor that Comcast starts looking good, you've got problems.

MightyPez: Here's a question to the farkers out there:

When my contract is up I plan on leaving AT&T and going somewhere else. I live in a suburb of Saint Paul and routinely travel to Chicago (mostly near O'Hare), Miami, and the Duluth area.

The plan is to continue using iPhones and my contract is up at about the time they announce the new version. So the plan is to buy an unlocked unsubsidized phone and do a month to month with Verizon or Sprint. I lean towards Spring because of their data plans, but I don't know how the coverage is in other areas. What do you think?

I make an annual trip to Chicago to stay visit a friend. I've never had service issues anywhere I've been while there. Though I am mostly near Navy Pier/Grant park area.

drjekel_mrhyde: I think it's mostly their 4G LTE service

No problems, LTE included. My Nexus is tooling around the net just fine.

slykens1: Unless you're leaving AT&T because of the terrible network you could investigate h2o wireless - it's an MVNO on AT&T's network that has some fantastic unlimited deals and the SIM will work in your AT&T locked iPhone from what I understand.

As far as going "unsubsidized" on Verizon or Sprint - it is not like doing this with a GSM carrier - it is my understanding that both VZW and Sprint will *only* activate a device they have sold even if it is compatible with their network.

Good to know. I assumed unlocked meant unlocked, but naturally US carriers have their own definition.

I guess the service on AT&T really hasn't been bad. The only problems I have really had were when I travel outside of Duluths metro area (but this is once a year) and when I'm in downtown Chicago the data service is less than useless.

I checked out H2O and the prices look great, but their data plans listed the top tier as 1gb, and then 2gb in the "more details" section, so that's a tad confusing.

I suppose the other option is to keep my grandfathered unlimited plan and stick with AT&T, just buying an unsubsidized phone in the future.

Kar98: Not to worry, they'll hit you up for a $2 fee for not letting them grab your money each month automatically.
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=9549

It's funny to me that this is passing largely unnoticed by Teh Intarwebs. Verizon picked a good week to drop that info.

One horrible PR guy is rude to a customer, and maybe 10,000 people don't get a $10 discount on a PS3 controller? ARMAGGEDON!

Verizon just deciding to steal $2 a month from millions of customers for no damn reason whatsoever? Yawn.

rudemix: I make an annual trip to Chicago to stay visit a friend. I've never had service issues anywhere I've been while there. Though I am mostly near Navy Pier/Grant park area.

Oddly enough those are the areas I had the MOST problems with on AT&T

jayhawk88: Kar98: Not to worry, they'll hit you up for a $2 fee for not letting them grab your money each month automatically.
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=9549

It's funny to me that this is passing largely unnoticed by Teh Intarwebs. Verizon picked a good week to drop that info.

One horrible PR guy is rude to a customer, and maybe 10,000 people don't get a $10 discount on a PS3 controller? ARMAGGEDON!

Verizon just deciding to steal $2 a month from millions of customers for no damn reason whatsoever? Yawn.

I considered submitting it to Fark, but the modtards only ever greenlight the most boring, trite, beaten to death fark-meme-ish stupid ass headlines, so I didn't bother.

Kar98: I considered submitting it to Fark, but the modtards only ever greenlight the most boring, trite, beaten to death fark-meme-ish stupid ass headlines, so I didn't bother.

But if they didn't do that, how would I know the current state of cancer research?

All I know of this thing is the "Rule the Air" billboards around Philly. All the people pictured on the billboards look dark, unshaven and sleezy. It repels me. Don't want to associate with them....

Day late, Subby.

When everybody rules the air, nobody rules the air.

No 3G or 4G for me, no internet whatsoever.

I used Sprint before Verizon, Sprint currently uses Clearwire and there is no comparison between Clearwire and Sprint LTE, Sprint is much faster and more reliable.

I didn't realize Clearwire was such shiat till I moved to Sprint.

TravisBickle62: I used Sprint before Verizon, Sprint currently uses Clearwire and there is no comparison between Clearwire and Sprint LTE, Sprint is much faster and more reliable.

I didn't realize Clearwire was such shiat till I moved to Sprint.

Sorry I have a cold and am not thinking to good, I mean to say that Verison LTE is much faster and more reliable than Sprint Clearwire, and that I didn't realize Clearwire was such shiat till I moved to Verizon.

this just in: technology isn't impervious to breaking.

hopefully they figure out what caused the problem and take measures to prevent it happening again, but if you expect any company or tech to be infallible you're just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Wondering if anonymous is mad about today's announcement of fee increases.

I know Verizon Mobile is separate from FiOS, but I too was having problems yesterday with my interwebs like other posters have said. Certain sites would load fine as usual, but some, including Fark, were super slow or didn't load at all. Everything is fine now, but it was strange. Otherwise I've been very happy with their service after switching from Comcrap.

I can see a VZW "Largest most reliable 4G network" from my office parking lot. I have read up on the LTE transition to see if I can figure out why my personal VZW phone loses data service but my work Blackberry doesn't. Seems to be the LTE modems default to eHRPD, but the plain 3G devices are still using Rev. A. EvDO.

Where Verizon is messing up, from my perspective, is not putting service outage info on their website, and /or sending free texts to their 4G customers when they think the system is back up. Also, putting troubleshooting and workaround links on the 4G section of their website would probably save them a bunch of hold time and CSR overload.

Instead, they say the 3G system is still good, but people with LTE phones who don't know or won't look for workarounds on other sites get all mad because they have no data signal.

Then when the system does come back up, they use Twitter to "announce" it. Hey, Verizon: I. Don't. Use. Twitter.

All carriers have little outages (a neighborhood, small city) every now and then. Never really been reported on much. They just happen and get resolved quickly. Verizon did have that major regional outage earlier in December, which is worth noticing, but this little outage is nothing. There were probably similar localized issues on other carriers at the exact same time, but they didn't make news. My guess is that it will be fun for the media to make fun of Verizon for a little while and then we will never hear about it again.

Unobtanium: I can see a VZW "Largest most reliable 4G network" BILLBOARD from my office parking lot


/FTFM

TheSelphie: I know Verizon Mobile is separate from FiOS, but I too was having problems yesterday with my interwebs like other posters have said. Certain sites would load fine as usual, but some, including Fark, were super slow or didn't load at all. Everything is fine now, but it was strange. Otherwise I've been very happy with their service after switching from Comcrap.

I am on At&t Uverse and around 7pm central yesterday alot of websites would not load or took forever. Maybe some problem with some backbone tubes somewhere

drjekel_mrhyde: TheSelphie: I know Verizon Mobile is separate from FiOS, but I too was having problems yesterday with my interwebs like other posters have said. Certain sites would load fine as usual, but some, including Fark, were super slow or didn't load at all. Everything is fine now, but it was strange. Otherwise I've been very happy with their service after switching from Comcrap.

I am on At&t Uverse and around 7pm central yesterday alot of websites would not load or took forever. Maybe some problem with some backbone tubes somewhere

Yeah I was thinking it was more a website issue than Verizon. Good to hear, thanks for the post.

To make it even better, Verizon announced today a 2 dollar charge for the "convenience" of paying your bill online.

drjekel_mrhyde: My cousin has Boost and his signal is shiaty in his apt in Chicago.
/Don't know if Boost use Sprint's normal towers


Depends on the type of phone... If it has the walkie talkie function, it is using Sprint/Nextel's iDEN network... if it doesn't, it's on their CDMA towers... if you're not sure... does his phone make his electronics go nuts when it rings or gets a text? (things like fritzing out, resetting, etc, not like the sound associated with GSM traffic) If it does, it's iDEN.

All was fine here last night.

I'd have an update for tonight, but I threw my Droid X2 into a wall drunk last evening. Now I'm waiting on my insurance-phone to make it's a way here by way of farking carrier-pigeon.

*waits for Verizon to announce a $2 service outage fee*

Morrius: I just got off the phone with Comcast to buy from them. When your service is so poor that Comcast starts looking good, you've got problems.

Personally, Comcast everything but internet is terrible. Phone: terrible. Cable: terrible. Customer Service: makes the last two look good. Internet: Slightly faster than I paid for, and most of their outages are just the DNS servers going kerplunk, so use Google DNS instead(8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4) and laugh at everyone else (or go to everyone else in the building and charge a $20 fee to "fix" it).