NORTHEAST U.S. -- Certain VZW phones are roaming all of a sudden? Or??

Been living here and using VZW for many months. 32+ months, at least.

First phone (history): Stepson tripped and fell into the ocean with his enV2 in his pocket. Immediately removed the battery, but to be safe, he had to swap phones because we need to let it dry for a few weeks after I rinsed his phone with tapwater (can't kill a dead cellphone, right?). Anyways, VZW account rep walked us through reactivating a Voyager Titanium that had been taken off a VZW plan, and afterwards, calls and texts went to his number. A day after reactivation, his calls are announced as "restricted" when he calls my or his moms VZW phones, and the Titanium only displays roaming. *228 always fails (we get a US Cellular message). Same house where his enV 2 was always on network (but as I mentioned it is drying out right now, so....).

Second phone: Mom called VZW on her current enV Touch to reactivate that Titanium under her sons number (Titanium was her prior phone), and for the next 24 hours, her phone was fine.... until today, when her phone starts randomly showing roaming in locations where she never roamed before. I can say never roamed before for 2 reasons: MY phone never EVER roams at all, she is roaming while standing just 3 feet away from me and there I am, I'm NOT roaming, the other reason is that SHE has never roamed before. Not sure why this started happening just 24 hours after reactivating the Titanium.

Third phone, my enV Touch: I've never seen roaming on my phone, not even when both the above phones show roaming and they are only within 20 feet of me.

The only thing I can think of is a botched reactivation for the Titanium, possibly causing a technical whacking that possibly clipped her current phone (possibly because reactivated phone had once-upon-a-time used her number, etc.) but I know that is pretty far of a stretch :loony:

anyone think I need to call VZW for a correction? Family experience with VZW tech support is pretty abysmal, so a repeat call makes some sense.

 

Apparently this is a local network issue.

Earlier today, I had decent amounts of the normal dual service (evo and 1x), on "Verizon Wireless", as my display put it. Right now, midnight, I'm watching my phone say I only have 1x, I'm using "Extended Network", and my strength varies from zero bars to 2 bars, within a few seconds, and nobody is moving near the phone.

Is there something being serviced in the area of Prospect Mountain in Alton, NH?

 

Still only at 1x most of the time. Battery is not lasting as long as it used to last. Much worse lately.

 

My problem is probably just my situation.

Alton and the general vicinity have been quite good for me, but I'm not checking signals when I leave the highway (28 or 11, your choice). I often have 3 + bars when I'm in my living room, but not since my most recent roaming update. White Oaks was usually 100% connected at various strengths, though I had a 1 mile dead spot on rt 140 near Gilmanton elementary school. 140 from White Oaks into Iron Works was decent too. The only other dead spot I ever had was in Chichester, on rt 28. Now, after the roaming update, there is even more weirdness.

In my homes basement last Thursday night (October 21), I updated my roaming capability because I was having signal strength oscillation (up to 3 or 4 bars then down to no signal, then up then down, repeatedly, time between returns to maximum bars was from every 15 seconds or so to every few minutes or less). I tested the signal strength while the phone was sitting on a table, nobody else in the house, I'm standing still. I'm thinking the phone or the tower is to blame. I can only update the phone.

So, at my workplace, BEFORE I updated roaming last Thursday, I almost always had 4 bars EV and 4 bars 1x. I'm thinking, no wonder: my employer is less than 1500 feet from a tower.
At my workplace, AFTER I updated roaming, I have scarcely one bar, usually zero signal at all. What?? I tried re-updating the roaming capability, but when I was at work Saturday, yet nothing changed. I'm talking 35 miles different from the last update in my basement.

Last night, I researched some information on the internet about VX11000, I learned that there is a firmware issue for Verizons VX11000 (VX11KV10 is bad from the Verizon Wireless OTA firmware update service - version VX11KV10 is reported to put phones into a power cycling loop after the first text message), but I have never had that firmware version, I'm at VX11KV07 (my phone refused to update after several attempts, I've tried several times).

Also, since my roaming update last Thursday night, my battery life went into the toilet. Maybe because I NOW need to reach a different tower after updating roaming capabilities? Maybe by updating, I lost access to a closer tower? But WHY?

The only real chance I have is to go to the Concord store and have their techs look at it.

ugh.