Dear Verizon, Where Did My 4G Go?

[patt3332]

When I'm at work and tether my laptop to my TBolt, I almost never get a good 4G signal any more. This last week end, I was on 3G about 75% of the time and 1x the rest of the time, when I was connected at all. Sometimes it actually says 4G, but I only get the one up arrow. It seems to have forgotten that it's suppose to be connected and doing something, so that when I try to connect to a website, I get a message saying that the server cannot be found. Sometimes 3G also does this and sometimes I can try a few different things to get connected again, up to and including restarting the phone, but I shouldn't have to do anything.

1. When I bought my TBolt and the contract, I was told that I was in a strong 4G area and would have no problem getting a good 4G connection when tethering my laptop. I was told this again about 3 weeks ago when I typed the zip code into your coverage map and was congratulated on being in an excellent 4G area.

2. I bought my TBolt the first week of April and was able to get a good 4G connection while tethered to my laptop for about the first 3 months while the free hot spot promotion was in effect. I have even streamed movies from Amazon without dropping the 4G connection, so I know 4G is available, but my 4G connection has been getting worse every week until now, I can only get 3G and 1x and the only time I see a 4G icon, it won't connect to anything. 1x is slow, but it works, which is more than I can say for 4G.

3. If I am not tethered to my laptop, I can actually get a decent 4G connection on my phone, but it goes away as soon as I tether to my laptop.

4. I have the unlimited data and hot spot, but I only use the hot spot to tether my laptop about 12 to 14 days a month and I seldom go over 5GB of data each month, so I doubt that I'm killing you on data and being throttled.

5. I have now discovered that if I am in what you call an extended area, that I may get connected to 3G more often than 4G. I a have problems with that.

A. I wasn't told that when I purchased the phone and contract. I was only told that I would have a good 4G connection where I work and I've been told that more than once since by Verizon.

B, No one ever told me about the extended service area, what it means, or how and why it is different from any other service area until recently. I only heard about the extended service area on these forums and I previously had no problems connecting to 4G.

I purchased this phone and the data and hot spot plans strictly because I work 12 hours a day, 12 to 14 days a month, so I need to be able to tether to my laptop for the time I'm working and I was told more than once that I could do that using Verizon's speedy and reliable 4G network.

My TBolt has been almost problem free since I got it and I have previously been able to tether to my laptop using 4G where I work and no longer can get anything but 3G. My phone has always been stock and the only changes to my phone have been the updates, so are these problems caused by something happening with my phone, the hot spot, or your 4G network?

Whatever the problem is, what are you going to do to fix it? Please don't tell me to do a hard reboot because I've done that about 4 times now and it never fixes the problems I'm having and it definitely had no affect on my current problem. Don't offer to exchange my TBolt for a CLN replacement because I'm not giving up my other wise problem free phone for another used TBolt unless you can prove that's the problem. I might try the Rezound since I've seen good reports about it's network connectivity, but I'd rather keep my TBolt and get an asnwer as to why my phone use to get a strong 4G connection when tethered to my laptop and now it doesn't.

Sorry, I'm trying to post this, but my phone says I have a 4G connection, but it isn't doing anything. Wait till it goes to 1x and I'll finish posting this.

Thank You