Lost my 3G connection!

golfnut

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Today has been BAD. I'm on my third Droid and thought (think) I have a good one. My first two were victims of the random reboot/restart. I got my current phone from a different location and all worked good from Saturday until this morning when I realized I could not make or receive any calls or sms messages and had no connectivity unless I was on wifi. I spent several hours on the phone with text support and everyone seemed to think that my phone was not authenticating correctly against the Verizon network.

My problem was finally resolved when I suggested that we re-register my old Moto Q9c (which felt arcaic), provisioned it, and then registered the Droid again. Verizon thinks it may be a phone issue. I'm not so sure.

I will be going past a Verizon store tomorrow afternoon. Should I try to exchange or is this a Verizon network issue?
 

J. Dub

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Today has been BAD. I'm on my third Droid and thought (think) I have a good one. My first two were victims of the random reboot/restart. I got my current phone from a different location and all worked good from Saturday until this morning when I realized I could not make or receive any calls or sms messages and had no connectivity unless I was on wifi. I spent several hours on the phone with text support and everyone seemed to think that my phone was not authenticating correctly against the Verizon network.

My problem was finally resolved when I suggested that we re-register my old Moto Q9c (which felt arcaic), provisioned it, and then registered the Droid again. Verizon thinks it may be a phone issue. I'm not so sure.

I will be going past a Verizon store tomorrow afternoon. Should I try to exchange or is this a Verizon network issue?

Odd... Where is your location? Not your state, I don't need that. But more like your region.

To educate, 3G connection is data. Not voice. So not being able to place voice calls or SMS means you aren't hitting 1x connection. Which is strange.
However, if you truly don't have 3g connection then you can't send pic messages. And may or may not be able to get on the internet via VZ network... (sometimes it auto switches to 1x in order to get you on)

I know for a fact today VZ had a data outage. At least here in the south central region. Meaning phones couldn't send out pic messages. And some ppl couldn't get on the internet via the VZ network. That has now been fixed though. Do me a favor. Turn your phone off. take battery out. Turn phone on. Try your calls, sms, and gettin on the internet. Then report back.
 
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golfnut

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Nebraska

Central Nebraska to be exact. I first noticed the problem because I could not send a sms message. I also found out that several people tried to call me and left voice messages but I did not receive any of those messages. When trying to make a call it immediately said it could not be connected. The my phone had excellent signal (4 out of 5 bars) and could call *228 and *611. When calling *611 I was told I had to enter my number so it could be routed to the correct network. I performed many *228 options 1 and 2 along with many battery pulls.
 
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golfnut

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Phone is working

By the way, my phone is working again, but I'm paranoid it will happen again. Whats the likelihood of that.
 

Antonio Loveless

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I personally think your phone wasn't activated. Once you performed the *228 activation all was well. If so, it wont be a problem again.
 
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golfnut

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Does not make sense

I disagree. Why did it not work the first 20 bazillion times I tried it.
 

J. Dub

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Central Nebraska to be exact. I first noticed the problem because I could not send a sms message. I also found out that several people tried to call me and left voice messages but I did not receive any of those messages. When trying to make a call it immediately said it could not be connected. The my phone had excellent signal (4 out of 5 bars) and could call *228 and *611. When calling *611 I was told I had to enter my number so it could be routed to the correct network. I performed many *228 options 1 and 2 along with many battery pulls.

By the way, my phone is working again, but I'm paranoid it will happen again. Whats the likelihood of that.


Wow, NE... Way up there. I'll apologize in advance cause I know it's cold as heck up there compared to where I am. We in the 40's and I'm a huge woman right now freezing. LOL

I just checked on the NE area. And as I suspected you too were also impacted by the outage that took place earlier. Here is a copy/paste of what I came across:
OUTAGE ALERT INFORMATIONNetwork: AXNTitle:AXN - ID #2738Status:GlobalStart:12/02/2009 06:24 AMEnd:OPEN States Impacted:All Alltel MarketsDescription:12/02/2009 12:08:26 PM - FAILING FIBER JUMPERS FOUND CAUSING THE RING SWITCH MUST BE REPLACED. WILL CAUSE RINGS 55, 72, 28, 54, 48, 24, 89, 88, 93, 98, AND 99 TO SWITCH
12/02/2009 06:24:36 AM - FTO IDENTIFIED RING SWITCH BETWEEN LINCOLN, NE AND KANSAS CITY, MO ON RING 55. FTO WORKING WITH CIENA TO FURTHER ISOLATE THE ISSUE. NO CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPACT AT THIS TIME ON PROTECTED TRAFFIC.
Impact:Markets Affected: ALL
Now, don't be confused on why it says Alltel markets and not VZW. We, us VZW customers, still share rings w/ Alltel... After all they did buy Alltel out. With that said. For now... It's fixed. At least in my market and in yours. However, to answer your question... When will it happen again or better yet, can you rely on your phone. Yes & no with shades of grey.
I say that cause fiber optics are only as realiable as the farmer that DOES NOT dig too deep on his land or VZW's/Alltels.... Heck even ATT's, Bell's, ect... They all share fiber optic pipes under the ground. And as realiable as the vehicle on a road doesn't veer off the road and hit a poll that is still carrying a fiber optic ring up in the air. (those are old school) Eventually, it will be under ground but for now. It's suspectible (sp?) to cars hittin it or freezing ice breaking it.

So, in my opinion... You and I are ok for now. Rest easy. However, keep in mind that crap happens. And if it occurs for more then 24 hours. VZW will credit your account back for that day you were without service. Just call customer support.
At the end of the day, compare your service to ATT's or T-mobiles. If you think yours is bad. I say try theres. I have faith in VZW as a company so much so that I encourage others to try the other companies. At the end of 2 months, they'll be back. I should know, I use to work for AT&T back when they were Cingular.
 

J. Dub

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I personally think your phone wasn't activated. Once you performed the *228 activation all was well. If so, it wont be a problem again.
You brought up something that frustrates me that sales reps don't do alot of the times. They should advise us customers that now a days phones get an update push automatically, usually after 5 min of the phone being on. You'll know it occured cause the phone will power cycle. That is if the phones hexidecimal aka MEID (located behind battery on back of phone) is loaded in the billing system.
I disagree. Why did it not work the first 20 bazillion times I tried it.
I won't go into the variables as to why. They'll piss you off. And, in fact, probably after I'm done typing it all... Also frustrate me. LOL

from your perspective, I'd be mad too. You wanna unbox something, and w/in 10 minutes it SHOULD work flawlessly. I don't blame ya one bit. Especially after spending $200.

For future reference, don't dial *228 unless you're in your home network. As in your home city or surrounding city that you purchased phone at. Dialing *228 outside your home area MAY ( as in might/ might not) download another carriers PRL -prefered roaming list- and cause all sorts of FAIL on your phone. And no, I'm not saying you did that. But just FYI in case you are traveling later on down the road. :)
 
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golfnut

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Why couldn't they tell me that!

What a frustration! 2+ hours with tech support and a day without my phone! I really hope your correct.

As for the farmer jokes....be careful. I just happen to be one!:) I also am the network admin for our local bank. My Droid helps me keep in touch.
 
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golfnut

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Also Strange

I also find it strange that nobody else around me was having issues, and the local office was not aware of any issues and said "I think the Droid is a piece of junk."
 

J. Dub

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What a frustration! 2+ hours with tech support and a day without my phone! I really hope your correct.

As for the farmer jokes....be careful. I just happen to be one!:) I also am the network admin for our local bank. My Droid helps me keep in touch.
O you'd love this then... You shoulda seen it 4 yrs ago when they really started building out networks and placing them under the ground... Farmers were like, "WTF? How did these even get here w/o me knowing? Then poop hit the fan with all that who far does a land owner "own" the land, ect... ect...
I also find it strange that nobody else around me was having issues, and the local office was not aware of any issues and said "I think the Droid is a piece of junk."

Oddly, here at my office all of us w/ droids and blackberries had issues. Phones w/o data plans had no issues. The rabbit hole just went deeper if you ask me. We started askin around, sure enough. Just phones w/ data plans on them. The oddest thing. I'll never fully wrap my head around just what goes on at telecom companies:icon_eek:

But to add to that, no offense to your local VZW store, but they don't have access to the systems my buddies do that work up at VZW. They're the ones I got the info from. I always call them when my phone takes a crap on my chest. Or I should say, when the network does. (which isn't often)
At the same time, it's not the best thing for a store to tell a customer... "O yea, you know those ads we run on tv about how we have the most reliable network? well right now our network is poopin fail all over the united states... But please bare with us. Currently there is nothing we can do to fix or help the situation other then credit you back for that day / days you've been w/o service."

It's like you tellin the government, "sorry we had a bad winter I have no crops for you...." Government doesn't care, they want crops yesterday, LOL
 
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