Can a VZ Rep comment on 3G speed in Northern California?
RivergoatJr
Enthusiast - Level 2

Santa Cruz, California area. OK, I'm in a rural spot, and reception can be iffy at times, but even at a local cafe in a nearby community it has not become uncommon to see 3G at (and I'll use Kbps here) 25Kbps or less....at home barely dial up speeds. Then in the middle of the night I measured 290Kbps, so it doesn't seem to be my iPhone 4S. On a WiFi connection it screams fine. I have seen people complain about 25Mbps on 3G...I would never see that. Maybe 1Mbps+

It used to be much faster...are the 3G nets being overwhelmed? Is there any chance for improvement?

(yeah, based on a comment on another thread I did a network reset on the phone)

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Labels (1)
0 Likes
Re: Can a VZ Rep comment on 3G speed in Northern California?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Hi RivergoatJr. I definitely want to get you the fantastic lightning speeds you've heard so much about. I checked out the Santa Cruz area and it looks to me like a pretty fantastic area and has even been upgraded to 4G LTE. That means anyone with a LTE phone in the area should be picking up 4G instead of 3G, leaving more of the great 3G service for you and your fantastic iPhone 4s. But Santa Cruz is a pretty large area. Is there a specific section of Santa Cruz you seem to have trouble with speeds in? Is it only during certain hours of the day? What's the address to that local cafe you mentioned? I'd love to take a closer look at your area and see what's caused the decrease in service. 

Thank you
JenniferH_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

0 Likes
Re: Can a VZ Rep comment on 3G speed in Northern California?
RivergoatJr
Enthusiast - Level 2

255 Mt Hermon Rd, Scotts Valley CA is the cafe.

The street address for residence is along Kings Hwy, Boulder Creek CA 95006.

Variable again this morning. I use Speedtest.net on the 4S. It measures in Mbps and KBps; we can assume that with KBps we're talking BYTES not BITS, so if by multiplying by 8 we get the BIT rate...sometimes I see 160KBps...so that would be 1.2Mbps, which isn't bad, but explain the frequent 4KBps...or 0KBps...frequent inability to achieve a ping, or a ping in excess of 3 seconds.

Recent readings (all in KBps):

d/l                u/l                  ping         date/time

137               57.2                113         6/23 4:27am

4                   0.5                  3288       6/23 3:36am

162.4            50.1                106          6/22  3:53am

67.5             82.4                  107         6/21 6:40am

0.0               0.0                   1941        6/21 4:51am

0.0               0.5                     3139       6/21 4:47am

39                3.4                    547          6/21 12:54am

There are many, many more entries, but these are prime examples. Yes, the Kings Hwy address is relatively rural, but your map shows there should be strong 3G in this vicinity.

The phone is new, having replaced a 2 year old 4 not long ago. The 4 had a microphone problem, but also exhibited vaying data rates until replacement.

When used to connect via WiFi I have seen KBps as 393.5 d/l 375.5 u/l 81ms ping

My strongest recent 3G was 250.1 d/l 77.9 u/l 192ms ping (on 6/21 12;34am)

I would not know if the nearby cell towers have any technical issues, but would be very pleased if your techs could run a full diagnostic on such. Because of my rural location there is no land-line broadband, and I rely on the iPhone and tethering the iPhone to my PC for connectivity. I often have to rely on the coffee house's WiFi for dependable service.

Please feel free to respond and comment, thank you.

0 Likes
Re: Can a VZ Rep comment on 3G speed in Northern California?
Jax_Omen
Specialist - Level 3

Wow, that is Sprint-caliber service strength!

0 Likes
Re: Can a VZ Rep comment on 3G speed in Northern California?
RivergoatJr
Enthusiast - Level 2

I got around to opening a ticket with VZ. The tech support person I spoke with agreed that my data speeds are well below the expected, and could not explain why I would see an average of 3 bars of 3G and get those speeds.

I'm waiting for them to get back to me and tell me it's my phone that's at fault! I ran some tests today in an open area in the heart of Silicon Valley and received 2.5Mbps d/l and 1.1Mbps u/l. Yeah, seems like the phone, huh?

0 Likes