Maybe we spoke too fast.
There were sections of our route where we should have rightly expected problems. Try the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, down on the eastern side of those states. There our Jetpack ran out of propulsion on "1X" territory. Fine, we could see those sparsely populated regions might get little attention. But we signed on with Verizon with the promises of travels with speedy 3G – and then lightening fast 4G service. For the first year or two, 3G was so fast (compared to our old Starband Internet satellite system anyway) that we marveled.
But traveling down some of the major corridors of Out West travel – Interstate 84 and Highway 93, we would have thought that life on the Internet would be reliable. It was anything but. Even with our Jetpack happily proclaiming we were in 3G country, and "a full set of bars," showing strong signal, a snail race would have seemed exciting. Page loads took forever – provided they'd load. Graphic maps and illustrations pooped out long before the desired information was displayed. Even downloading e-mail became challenging.
It isn't just the West. RVers and other mobile Internet dependent users are reporting death-like speeds on Verizon's 3G network all over the U.S. Ask them why, they universally point the finger at the company's overselling of 3G devices without keeping up the infrastructure. Yes, 4G may well be the current wave, but with plenty of areas where 4G just isn't available, 3G hasn't become the second option. It's become a corpse.
We don't know if the same issue plagues ATT customers. We gave Sprint the boot long ago, when after 20-some hours on the telephone with supposedly knowledgeable techs got us nowhere. Actually, Sprint showed us to the door, tearing up our two-year contract with them after a mere two months of hell.
What's to be done? Some have suggested a petition to Verizon, signed off by upset users. But once you've signed the dotted electronic line and committed to months of service, who knows whether the guys at the big V can even hear us now.
photo credit: mjtmail (tiggy) on flickr.com
I have used Verizon's JetPack, and Mifi (4G and 3G) service for over 4 years now. I have had only occasional problems. Most of the time I have been pleased with their service. The problems that I have had were slow downs in very small local areas, and of course, way out in the boonies. Sometimes if you move a few spaces away in an RV park, the speed will be better. Never had it go so slow that email was a problem, even in remote areas where the phone did not even work most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThe Verizon service is almost always faster than the RV park's WIFI.
I am a full time RVer, and travel through the Western states.
We've been in a number of places where our Verizon MiFi just wasn't up to the task. And, "Yes", at times we've had problems logging in to read our email. We are full timers, and have traveled through all of the "lower 48." We have completed our contract with Verizon and are trying to find something better, now. We kicked AT&T to the curb before we moved to Verizon, buying out the remainder of that contract; and, Verizon is still twice as good as AT&T was!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the San Antonio area, using my Verizon MiFi right now, and have had to wait several minutes just for emails to download. Yesterday I had to walk away from the laptop for a few hours, as the internet was bogged down. Previously I gave up on very expensive Hughes Net for similar problems.
ReplyDeleteVerizon 4GLTE is very often 3G service in suburban NJ where their 4G service map is widespread. Sunday nights is always degraded service and some weeknights as well.
ReplyDeleteWe've been generally happy with our Verizon service (Mfi) and generally agree with Diva Bella. However, we have noticed that lately we are having more and more instances of slow service, and not necessarily in remote areas. Sometimes it slows down at events like fairs and festivals where there are lots of people and the organizers haven't made arrangements for cell boosters to handle the additional load, but more and more often it is just a seemingly random event. Maybe Verizon is trying to expand 4G at the expense of maintaining or upgrading 3G.
ReplyDeleteVerizon is still way better than Sprint or ATT, But there is a lot of room for improvement. We travel across country too and there are times where the internet is at a crawl, sometimes speeds of .10. Forget about downloading anything at that speed. Evenings are the worse when folks are downloading movies or whatever. or just plain overcrowded. I'm sure Verizon makes enough money they can do some improvements or boost the signal strength.
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