Welcome to Our WirelessAdvisor Community!

You are viewing our forums as a GUEST. Please join us so you can post and view all the pictures.
Registration is easy, fast and FREE!

Join Now

After outage, usb modem can't get signal, but phone works

Discussion in 'Verizon Wireless Forum' started by littlekites, Aug 12, 2009.

  1. littlekites

    littlekites New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2009
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    North Carolina
    My Phone:
    EnV Touch
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Verizon
    Hi everyone,

    I've been steaming about this for a while, and I hope someone here can help. I currently use a UM175 for internet usage through Verizon at my house. I also have a Verizon cell. On July 25th there was a tower outage for the entire day. My phone was not affected, just the internet. The following day when the tower came back up, my internet speeds were much higher than normal. This lasted a couple of days, then the speed and connection stability rapidly started to decline. As of August 5th, my internet has been dead. The signal strength is downright horrible now, at -110dbm, with a ping of about 1024. Verizon replaced my modem, which didn't help, tried telling me it was my equipment - not when it doesn't work on 4 separate pieces of equipment, it isn't - and is now admitting that maaaybe there was a problem at the tower. It took me several days of frustration to get to this point, and now I'm at their "7-10 business days and we'll get back to you" point. I am frustrated as heck right now, as I have little confidence in their support given what I had to go through to get to an engineer. (the engineer that called tried telling me it was because I was an old Alltel client at first. Yeah, I don't think so.)

    Here's the thing - I have a signal for my phone. *Why doesn't my internet get one now?* Previous signal strength for the internet was between -75 and -85dbm with a ping of 170 (and even better when I hooked up an external antenna), and then PFFF. Gone.

    Anyone have any suggestions/ideas as to what's going on? I'm dying without my internet here! (and also, posting this from work. Shh!)
     
    #1 littlekites, Aug 12, 2009
  2. TelcomJunkie

    TelcomJunkie Bad Handoff Investigator
    Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2006
    Messages:
    1,355
    Cell Tower Picture Gallery:
    151
    Likes Received:
    20
    Location:
    The 4145
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Big Brother
    The CDMA voice signal is transmitted separately from the EVDO one, hence the addition of the two different signal strength meters on newer VzW phones. Reliable phone service doesn't mean good data connections anymore (Unless you use 1XRTT still).

    A RSL of -110 on your EVDO card is horrible and it leads to a real simple diagnosis, either your modem went completely ____ up, or it's a tower/network issue. Since they replaced your modem, I'd strongly wager an issue with the tower. To get it fixed, the issue really has to get to the right department and it's never simple getting through the telephone CS brick wall.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    #2 TelcomJunkie, Aug 12, 2009
  3. littlekites

    littlekites New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2009
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    North Carolina
    My Phone:
    EnV Touch
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Verizon
    You aren't kidding about that CS brick wall. I can't tell you how many I've talked to that have told me my IE settings are wrong. I've found, on the EVDO.com forums, a user that appears to have had the same problem I am. Someone on the forums looked into it for them and said "you didn't have a tower down just the span to the EVDO hardware at cell". Sadly, I have no idea what this means, but I posted there as well in the hopes someone else does, and can tell me what I need to do about it.
     
    #3 littlekites, Aug 12, 2009
  4. TelcomJunkie

    TelcomJunkie Bad Handoff Investigator
    Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2006
    Messages:
    1,355
    Cell Tower Picture Gallery:
    151
    Likes Received:
    20
    Location:
    The 4145
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Big Brother
    What they mean by span, is the connection between the cell site hardware and the switching facility that processes the calls. In your situation, the site would have at least two spans going to it, one for voice and one for EVDO. There could be a problem with the EVDO span, the hardware at the site itself or an issue on the backend. All you can do is call and keep reporting poor coverage issues, I won't even mention the phone too much and if they aren't helpful escalate it to a supervisor.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    #4 TelcomJunkie, Aug 12, 2009
  5. littlekites

    littlekites New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2009
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    North Carolina
    My Phone:
    EnV Touch
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Verizon

    I did try to escalate it and they told me I couldn't do that unless there was a ticket. Except there's supposed to BE a ticket, yet no one can tell me what it is.
     
    #5 littlekites, Aug 13, 2009
  6. RadioRaiders

    RadioRaiders RF Black-Belt
    Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Messages:
    3,074
    Cell Tower Picture Gallery:
    1
    Likes Received:
    464
    Location:
    Undisclosed
    Wireless Provider(s):
    GSM / WCDMA /LTE
    I'm always stunned how little CS (Customer Service) is coordinated with the NOC (Network Operations Center), not necessarily in verizon, but with ALL cellular operators. That's something that really needs to be improved. If a cell/site is down somewhere, or there is some other network interruption happening, CS should be informed immediately, because they will be feilding calls from customers who are affected by this. CS can't always just keep telling people to re-start their phone or to exchange it for a new one :rolleyes:
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    #6 RadioRaiders, Aug 13, 2009
  7. littlekites

    littlekites New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2009
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    North Carolina
    My Phone:
    EnV Touch
    Wireless Provider(s):
    Verizon

    It seems like such a common-sense thing to arrange, yet NOBODY seems to do it.
     
    #7 littlekites, Aug 13, 2009
  8. bikebryan

    bikebryan Senior Member
    Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2007
    Messages:
    531
    Likes Received:
    16
    Location:
    Northeast Kansas
    That's because it's not as easy as you seem to think it is.

    Many times the problem is fixed before it can be posted. Other times the site goes down but nobody notices UNTIL customers start calling in. CS will troubleshoot as best they can then escalate to TS. TS does their thing and it finally ends up as a reported outage - but by that time the problem may have been noticed elsewhere and already fixed.

    Also, how do you notify every CS rep? Trust me, they can't do it via email as reps seldom get to look at email between calls (usually too busy). There are usually reported outage pages and alerts but they only look at those systems on an as needed basis.
     
    #8 bikebryan, Aug 14, 2009
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page

Copyright 1997-2023 Wireless Advisor™, LLC. All rights reserved. All registered and unregistered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
WirelessAdvisor.com is not associated by ownership or membership with any cellular, PCS or wireless service provider companies and is not meant to be an endorsement of any company or service. Some links on these pages may be paid advertising or paid affiliate programs.

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...
    Dismiss Notice