Verizon Data Outage?

[LuN3yDaV3]

This happened to me on my droid last week. I spoke to a tier 2 tech from verizon and he suggested doing this:

1. Take out the battery with the phone ON.
2. Wait 5 minutes, put the battery back in and POWER ON.
3. (for verizon) Dial *228 and update roaming capabilities (this is option 2 on the automated machine)
4. DONE!

He suggested that if that does not work, back up all your settings, then do a full system reset
Settings > Privacy > Factory Data Reset

and if that does not work, it's the phone that is the problem, not the network.

Again, this is for my DROID

Or skip all that and he can just pay his bill on time. If we want to have nice things (like the Droid), there's a price attached.

 

[LrdElderon]

This happened to me on my droid last week. I spoke to a tier 2 tech from verizon and he suggested doing this:

1. Take out the battery with the phone ON.
2. Wait 5 minutes, put the battery back in and POWER ON.
3. (for verizon) Dial *228 and update roaming capabilities (this is option 2 on the automated machine)
4. DONE!

He suggested that if that does not work, back up all your settings, then do a full system reset
Settings > Privacy > Factory Data Reset

and if that does not work, it's the phone that is the problem, not the network.

Again, this is for my DROID

That's just a tech reading from the how to manual and it absolutely can be the networks problem and not the phone. Sure that can help sometimes, but not all the time. For instance in my case, my phone works absolutely fine if I go anywhere but in about a 1.5 mile radius around my subdivision there is a dead zone that used to have perfect coverage (which btw was fixed magically today after I complained yet again for the 2nd week in a row).

Crap happens, verizon likes to think their crap don't stink but sometimes they are the problem. a tower can go on the fritz, power outage to a transmitter, maybe the orientation or angle of signal broadcast changed slightly... who knows. or perhaps another wireless company is messing with signals and it's interfering with verizons...*shrug*.

But don't take the techs word that it must be your phone if his howto manual doesn't fix the problem. I had to do a phone exchange and it turns out my phone was working perfectly, it was their network that was not functioning correctly.

and yes of course make sure your bill is paid too!
also of note from what I've read on various places, updating your prl with *228 ...etc doesn't do anything really unless you either move to a new location or have had the phone for a very long time and never updated. it's for roaming anyways so really it shouldn't affect anybody unless they roam. any new verizon towers are automatically detected and added from what I've read. *228 is just vzw's little placebo number for people to dial. that's what i've read anyways.

 

[Benton]

The *228 option 2 paid dividends for me last week when traveling by car from Winchester, VA to Charlotte, NC. While traveling south just after passing the peak on I-77 my phone lost signal, then regained but now was displaying I was now on "Extended Network", biggest nuisance is I lost my Navigation since I do not take data off my "Home" network. I continued driving another 20 miles south toward Charlotte and noticed I continued on the Extended Network so pulled over to see if I could figure out what happened. I powered the Droid down, pulled the battery, repowered the Droid and still on the "Extended Network". Out of things to try I did a *228 and took option 2 to update my PRL even though I had done this the night before from home. This update brought back my home network, I was back on data Navigating my way to the hotel thinking wtf was that... After my meeting in Charlotte the following day I took the same route back toward home and once again at the peak on I-77 I shot right back into the Extended Network realm. This time rather than stopping and without missing a beat I dialed *228 and took option 2, update complete and viola Home Network again. Never lost a PRL before, certainly not without a hard reset but twice and in the same spot makes me think the integrity of the PRL is vulnerable and loss of data connection is a symptom of this. At least the *228/2 solved the issue for me.

 

[Pdigg]

Funny, I was traveling the same stretch of road as you (trip from Atlanta to Pittsburgh), and when dialing *228 while on "extended network" it woukld not connect me to Verizon.
I think it was telling me I was reaching US Cellular or something.

 

[DROIDMASTER]

good over here in co.

haha go rams

 

[LrdElderon]

The *228 option 2 paid dividends for me last week when traveling by car from Winchester, VA to Charlotte, NC. While traveling south just after passing the peak on I-77 my phone lost signal, then regained but now was displaying I was now on "Extended Network", biggest nuisance is I lost my Navigation since I do not take data off my "Home" network. I continued driving another 20 miles south toward Charlotte and noticed I continued on the Extended Network so pulled over to see if I could figure out what happened. I powered the Droid down, pulled the battery, repowered the Droid and still on the "Extended Network". Out of things to try I did a *228 and took option 2 to update my PRL even though I had done this the night before from home. This update brought back my home network, I was back on data Navigating my way to the hotel thinking wtf was that... After my meeting in Charlotte the following day I took the same route back toward home and once again at the peak on I-77 I shot right back into the Extended Network realm. This time rather than stopping and without missing a beat I dialed *228 and took option 2, update complete and viola Home Network again. Never lost a PRL before, certainly not without a hard reset but twice and in the same spot makes me think the integrity of the PRL is vulnerable and loss of data connection is a symptom of this. At least the *228/2 solved the issue for me.

sure it has it's uses and your example shows what I was talking about, you traveled quite far out of your normal zone so you ended going off of the vz network onto another carrier (thats the extended i believe). updating the prl helped you by updating the towers from other companies that vzw has peering(piering?) contracts with. I think that's how it works. Maybe I read how prls work wrong but I think that's it.

For most people that stay relatively close to their home a prl update would not have any effect after they first get the phone, unless some major tower sharing changes occur? So dial away I guess, it probably won't improve your connection at all unless you go roaming quite a bit.

 

[KZIWarrior]

Data working fine in TN

NOT in Nashville... Been crappy all day. Lots of outage and very slow most of the day. Good thing I have Wi-Fi.

 

[tats_06]

So...it's my phone that keeps loosing data...VZW sending me replacement. Yesterday was without data for hours...today on and off. Have to reboot to get it back, then disappears after 20-30 minutes again.

 

[LrdElderon]

So...it's my phone that keeps loosing data...VZW sending me replacement. Yesterday was without data for hours...today on and off. Have to reboot to get it back, then disappears after 20-30 minutes again.

Would you post the results of your new phone, as in did that fix the problem? I'm still not conviced it is a problem with your phone. I had wildly flucuating signals also and they tried to blame my phone and it ended up being their network. I'd have full connection that drop to no service, then get connection then go to 1 bar, then 3, then none, then 4... sounds kinda like you maybe. Except my data was always unusable. ahh well. just curious if the new phone actually fixed it.

 

[buellboy9]

No 3G coverage here in Brentwood, NY. Started around 10:00 AM, and still nothing. Reports say it is a nationwide 4G outage, but my phone only does 3G. I usually have a good strong 3G signal here at my desk, too.