[Update: They’re Working On It]Verizon’s 4G LTE Network Outages Cause Thunderbolt Users to Settle for 3G

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[Update]: Just got word from Verizon that the problem has been identified and that a fix is on the way. Take a look at the full quote below for more information.

If you are one of the 500,000 subscribers using Verizon’s 4G LTE network, don’t be alarmed if you are no longer receiving an LTE signal where you once did. Verizon’s 4G services have been experiencing outages over night and this morning, meaning owners of the HTC Thunderbolt might have to settle with 3G for now. If you can’t even receive a 3G signal, well, that’s the phone’s poor 3G/4G switching rearing its ugly head.

We expect Verizon will have the issue cleared up shortly. They’d hate to have the shiny new LTE network still experiencing problems tomorrow when they launch their second LTE handset and first of the Droid line to deploy 4G.

[via Engadget]

We are aware of an issue with 4G LTE data connections and our network engineers are working to resolve this quickly. We have determined the cause of our issue and are working with our major vendors to restore connections.

* 4G LTE Smartphones will still be able to make calls.

* Customers are temporarily unable to activate any 4G LTE devices.

* Please note: Customers may experience a 1XRTT data connection during this time.

* After determining the cause of our 4G LTE network connection issue, we are continuing to work to restore connections.

* We expect to see the network restore on a market-by-market basis. Timing and additional details will be provided as they become available.

Kevin Krause
Pretty soon you'll know a lot about Kevin because his biography will actually be filled in!

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72 Comments

  1. Ah ha, thanks. I was wondering why my phone was sitting on a 1x connection after I left home for work.

    1. I felt like a poor person

  2. My Thunderbolt had perfect 4G LTE in my home in San Francisco and at my work in San Jose. Tonight, I am only receiving 1x , not even 3G on both locations.
    This is so sad. What’s up Verizon? What’s up HTC?

  3. At the gym this morning (Dallas) only 3G. But it was good enough to run Pandora just fine, so I can’t say it’s slowing me down.

    I have had problems with 3G/4G switching, but they seem to have been largely solved after I downloaded the 4G/LTE switch application that exposed the manual network mode settings. If I force switch it to one network or the other it appears to work fine. Not optimal that I need to do that, but it’s a work-around until they get things working better on the OS.

  4. Reading through the engadget link, I came across this:

    http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-thunderbolt/72724-problems-3g-data-dont-hard-reset-read-first.html

    which might solve the 1x vs 3G connection issue…. and yep, it worked for me. I was in the middle of rebooting my phone and now that it came back up, I’m on 3G instead of 1x.

    Kind of silly that we need to jump through these hurdles but it’s good to know for cases like these.

    1. No 3G and fix didnt work for me in NY

  5. Hate to throw salt in the open wounds of verizon customers but thank god for sprint we don’t go through those outages. At least I have not experienced that yet…

    1. I’m in Phoenix, and I agree. I honestly cant remember the last time i had an outage of any kind on Sprint.

      1. Sprint users must really be intrigued by the Thunderbolt :-)

        1. Na, I’ve had one (aka EVO) for about a year now.

          1. Thats pretty ignorant.

        2. You sound pretty RETARDED why would anyone on sprint be intrigued by a device with 4hr battery drainage get a grip of yourself.

          1. How many evos have intrigued sprint owners? You just made a retarded statement yourself.

          2. Ha he is so ignorant that he doesn’t even realize that half of what he says contradicts something he said before or that he praises lol.

          3. Have you experienced this “4hr battery drainage” you speak of? Have you ever had a Thunderbolt for a whole day or more to really test it and find out what it’s average battery life is? If not, STFU. You have no idea what you’re talking about. I know FOR A FACT that the average battery life is more than 4 hours. The only way I can conceive of a 4 hour battery life is if screen brightness is 100%, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, 4G, are all on and active, and you are doing nothing but Angry Birds/web browsing/downloading files. But since the average consumer isn’t doing ALL of that at once, battery life is much much longer. Read up on what you speak of before posting.

    2. And how terrible would it be if you did have to go through it?
      You would have to sacrifice a little bit of speed and be ever so slightly inconvenienced for a day. You’re acting as if it would be oh so tragic if you had to use 3G again for a day. Grow up.

      1. Since I am not going through it life is life you just worry about yourself don’t be like that other DWEEB squiddy20

        1. Then why do you come on here and always bash anything that isnt sprint and the EVO?? Pot calling the kettle black on that one eh yarrell?

        2. Oh so I’m a “dweeb”? WTF kind of insult/rebuke is that? Go back to middle school when you *should* have learned some real insults you ignorant pussy. SpoiledWithTech brings up a good point though. So Verizon customers can’t access 4G for a few days max. So what? I’m doing just fine with 3G, everyone else should be too. As others and I have stated, this doesn’t affect you at all. Why the hell are you commenting here? Stupid hypocritical troll…

    3. Maybe it has to do with the fact Sprint hasn’t rolled out any new “4G” markets since, I cant remember when?

      1. Agree when you only offer 4g to a quarter of the customers you shouldn’t experience any outages. Until sprint rolls out some more markets you have nothing to say yarrell you fanboy.

        1. Huh? Verizon offers it to less than a quarter of their customers, so what’s their excuse?

          1. Maybe you dont understand my original statement? Verizon is currently EXPANDING, sprint isnt. That is there excuse. What is sprints excuse for their stall?

          2. yes verizon is expanding and has probably very close to the same amount of 4g subscribers as sprint who hasn’t rolled out a new 4g area in how long? Verizon just expanded last week!

    4. As I have said before, if you don’t have anything constructive to say, and are here just to boast or “prove” that Sprint is better, shut up. You are such a hypocrite.

      1. What I said was constructive and was exactly what I meant and had nothing to do with you at all. Stick to the article asswipe don’t worry about me pecker wood

        1. I could point out how stupid your “LTE is overrated” comment until you found something even more stupid to say. Pecker wood? What year is this? 1840? And just because it’s a slur against the white man doesn’t make it any less racist than the “N” word.

          1. The “n” words definition fits dick yarrel perfectly. I havent seen many that are more ignorant than he.

          2. Yarrelray is a troll. His standard post is some inane opinion. “Verizon LTE is overrated”. Stupid, irrelevant, non-value adding, purely opinionated and one-sided statement. Only thing it solicit is a similarly inane “I know you are but what am I” type of response response.

        2. • • At first I thought M.K.’s responses were on the rough side in this post from the other day
          https://phandroid.com/2011/04/25/pre-order-the-samsung-droid-charge-from-wirefly-and-letstalk-today-for-250/
          However, after thinking about it and reading your posts, I am inclined to agree. Having worked in New York for the past 15 years, I and my co-workers have donated time and money to a lot of charities, the Mission being one of the prime examples. Never again. Honestly, when I first read the story, I thought ‘wow, okay, the guy is really working and trying to get it together’. But, all I see is you insulting people and in general being one of the biggest nuisances ever to troll the internet (that’s saying a lot – I’ve been playing around on the ‘net in one form or other since the late 1970s). While I, personally, don’t donate anywhere near $2500 (more like $100 once a year around the holidays and bags of clothes, food, etc. when they have accumulated enough to donate). The majority of my co-workers also send in donations. I’ve printed up that Red Door newsletter along with some of your more memorable excerpts and posted them on the bulletin boards. The reaction has been a pretty universal “THIS is what we give them money for?! So this guy can learn how to use a computer and a smartphone then spend all day insulting people because of a stupid phone or the carrier they’re on?!” I’m sure my $100 won’t be missed and I’m not sure how much the others give individually, but we have a staff of approximately 3000 people and a good 75% of them donate to NY-based charities. I think basic arithmetic will suffice in showing that can be a pretty significant number. I also have a few friends who will be helping out there on April 28th. I think I’m going to make a few phone calls there, as well. As for the Mission’s Financial Accountability:
          “Financial Accountability: The Bowery Mission and Kids With A Promise is committed to using your contributions faithfully and wisely to help men, women and children in New York City who are caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see live transformed to hope, joy, lasting productivity and eternal life through the power of Jesus.”
          You are a failure in that regard. The only hope or joy you have involves Sprint/Evo and insulting everyone who doesn’t have them or *gasp* actually enjoys another service.
          • Really, in all honesty Richard, why are you even in this thread? It involves Verizon customers and LTE, not Sprint and WiMax. There is no reason for you to be here insulting people nor was there any reason whatsoever to come in and post ” Hate to throw salt in the open wounds of Verizon customers but thank god for sprint we don’t go through those outages. At least I have not experienced that yet… ” NO! You didn’t ‘hate to throw salt in the wounds” You were HAPPY to post that.
          • I am doing more in-depth research into charities and the people involved before I donate again.

          1. Wow. I just read that little snippet about Richard that M.K. linked to. You’d think that a guy who’s been down in the dumps like that would have some humility and common sense enough to not bash everyone who disagrees with him. Such a sad man. It really is too bad that the world is filled with these people… Good on ya for at least trying to help.

          2. I agree 100%. Aside from his usual frothing and insults, he frequently calls people “bums” – usually in caps – quite a few of those posts were included in the posts I copy-pasted and hung on the boards along with that newsletter. As you said, he, of all people, should be the absolute last person to even say anything like that. Truly, one of the most ignorant, mean, unappreciative people I’ve ever come across.

          3. Wow. That’s it. I’ve had all I can take of this asshat. No more for me. I can put up with annoying people. Honestly, most people are annoying. But this jackass has the nerve to feed off of the American consumer’s generosity to get himself a bunch of toys? (because I’d be baffled if he does anything productive on his Evo other than troll on these forums)

            My money doesn’t go to this charity, thank God, but it’s obviously not very reputable if, like you said, this is the end result. This is just another leech on society and I am just so exhausted with his mess that he ends up making of the comments on any Verizon/Evo/Sprint post.

        3. How the hell is “hate to throw salt in the open wounds…” CONSTRUCTIVE? The definition of constructive: serving a useful purpose. You comment certainly was not “useful”, it was downright hateful. The only thing about your statement that was positive was about, go figure, Sprint. As you just said “stick to the article asswipe”. The fact that I had to look up “peckerwood” (one word idiot) only shows how much in the backwater/racist you are. Grow up. This is the 21st century, not the mid-20th when that word was commonly used (according to Wikipedia). Such a miserable little baby you are…

  6. Just 1X for me. No 3G. I’m going to wait before I go changing any settings. I’m in front of a computer all day and can jump on wifi at home so I can be patient. But it is rather annoying and would be really crappy if I was travelling today.

    1. SFO local store has no estimate of restoring the system. Neither 4g or 3g is working in this City. Store stated (the guy with booze-breath) sez the system has been out since 8 PM last night.

  7. Thunderbolt users actually have to settle on 1x… the notice the tech support guy read me stated that the 4G issues may also affect a 4G devices ability to connect to the 3G as well, while standard EVDO/3G devices are fine. Maybe it’s the SIM provisioning what’s allowed?

    1. Even tho 1x is technically 3G… I guess I should be more clear… no EVDO for data…

    2. The TB uses a slightly different version of 3G call eHRPD and since that is down (but the standard 3G for other phones is up) that’s why we are stuck on 1X

    3. I have had 3g all day

  8. I’m around Amherst, MA and experiencing the glory of 1x on my Thunderbolt.

  9. What’s funny is that Verizon just shipped me pretty much every 4G device they have to test. Right now it’s not going well…..

    1. Verizon and their LTE network is OVERRATED

      1. Overrated? 3 times faster then sprints, and, UNLIKE SPRINTS, it is still growing.

      2. Ha Verizon>sprint anyday not to mention a better 4g network

      3. lolz where I live its 10x faster than sprints 4g and as we all know att doesnt even really have 4g so you may say its overrated but theres no alternative, sorry

      4. Haven’t you learned anything from me spamming and trolling your sorry ass? If you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, don’t say it. Telling others that their network is “OVERRATED” or “stupid” or “crap” is only your opinion that you have never backed up with any “proof”. And like Nisme said, at least Verizon’s 4G is still growing. Ours (Sprint’s) as far as I know hasn’t been expanded one mile since the end of December. Look at the facts and STFU.

  10. 4G out in Los Angeles this morning as well. Seems to cover pretty much the whole country…. Wonder what AT&T is thinking this morning . . . .

  11. Seattle is out and all I got is a 1x sigh I tried used lte on off but it just turned my signal off

    1. I’m in Maryland and I’m getting the same thing. only the 1x signal.

  12. @MooseCat thank you sir.

  13. No problems at all in Cleveland yesterday or today

  14. 1x Here in SE Michigan

  15. In Northern New Jersey and New York Manhattan, all I am getting is a 3G 1x since 6 am.

  16. Sitting on 1X here in Denver today.

  17. Rebooted my phone in hopes to go from 1X to 3G, but I’m still on 1X and now no data is going through.

  18. 1X only for me in Charlotte, NC

  19. would you like a tissue??

  20. Still have 3g eHRDP in sw mo but of course not a 4g coverage area

    1. I still have 3g in southern pa but not a 4g area yet either.

  21. Have any of you guys used ##778

  22. Most reliable network? Dont believe the VZ hype!!!

    1. when is the last time this happened, please tell…

  23. @sevenstars Shorten you paragraphs some no one wants all that bullshit. But actually my 4g internet card isn’t working and we dont get 4g out here thats what Verizon told me.

  24. Their outage affected my school

    1. Is this really the cause? The community college I attend is supported by Verizon, and we couldn’t access any part of the college’s website, but peculiarly other websites worked just fine. I just thought it was coincidence…

  25. @MooseCat thanks for the link! My phone is working on 3G now. Glad to have read this as I was on the phone with Verizon last night and they (the operator in tech support) didn’t even know their network was down! I was wondering why I couldn’t get 3G as I have a Verizon USB 3G modem.

  26. As far as no other network having this happen, I used to have Sprint as they were the first to come out with 3G USB modem. Well, when they added “4G”, there was a system outage that lasted a couple days here in Las Vegas as they had tower issues. Not only that, since my modem was “old tech” and wasn’t compatible with the new system, I was forced to get a new contract (original one was unlimited). Needless to say, I cancelled and switched to Verizon.

  27. Just got off the phone with a verizon customer support tech. He told me that verizon 4g phones are not capable of recieving data in extended network areas. The map shows that you can but that is not the case. Would have been nice to know that info when I bought the phone. My droid x did fine in these areas. Food for thought when buying future devices. I told the tech. that would have been something that should have been told when selling the device. He said “Yes that should have been info that was passed on to the comsumer.”. LMAO.

    1. I have called them 3 times today, my Fascinate still has terribly spotty 3G service, pretty much unusable. First tech admitted it and read a memo that had a long list of numbers they knew were without 3G service. Every tech after that denied any problems saying they fixed 4G issues but that would not affect 3G anyways, which is false. Many people at XDA still reporting 3G outages and when i called back this evening to VZW their internal systems were hosed, they could not even access my account from internally. They are trying to mitigate a much larger problem than they will admit…oh wait…they haven’t admitted anything yet. I had to find out from third party sources that they had network issues….bunch of tards…

  28. I have the thunderbolt and I did switch to 3g rev. It’s working for me, I live in L.A.area but I do miss the 4g hopefully they will have it fixed soon.

    –WALTER

  29. @yarrellray your a dumbass sprint 4g is only 1.5 mbps down and .58 up you fuckin idiot. Get off here no one wants you on here your stupid and no nothing about phones. Just get rid of your acct on here and go Fuck yourself in the ass. AND SORRY TO EVERYONE WHO HAS TO READ THIS THE PERSON IS A LOW LIFE. Oh and @ yarrellray my incredible gets 1.5 mbps down and 1.0 up on a bad day usually at 2.8 to 3.0

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