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Verizon LTE Pittsburgh Terrible

Kingzope

Kingzope

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 23, 2012
300
45
Pittsburgh
I switched to Verizon and got the iPhone 5 on Sept 25th. I live in Pittsburgh and I have to say I am very sorry I made the switch. I noticed LTE was choppy and slow when trying to stream audio. So I decided to run some tests.

I went to a wedding and my buddy with his iPhone 5 on AT&T decided to run a speed test against mine. FYI we both had full reception except I had LTE and he had only 3G. He obviously was on HSPA+ or whatever because he got like 8Mb down. I got .51Mb down... I was astonished. I figured there was a problem with my iPhone 5 until I started reading and found that Android users were complaining of the same speeds.

I just want to warn anyone thinking of switching. This probably just affects Pittsburgh but if you know someone with a Verizon LTE phone in your area, have them show you a speed test before you make the jump.

I will say I have better reception for calls though. Data is just more important to me now.
 
Are your sure your phone displayed LTE and not 3G? Have you rebooted your phone? Have you tried resetting network settings? If yes to all, restore as new.
 
.51 Mbps sounds like average CDMA speeds.

Verizon usually guarantees 5-12 mpbs with LTE.
 
willmtaylor said:
Why not just contribute to the existing thread?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1449989/
Click to expand...

This thread was more about the warning and less about the actual speed test.

At darster, I'm competent enough to guarantee I was on LTE. The entire Pittsburgh area is covered with it and I specifically wanted to see the LTE speed.

Regardless I'm not the only one seeing the terrible speeds. There are users of multiple phones experiencing the same thing. The speeds are what they are. This is an issue obviously related to the expansion of LTE in the Pittsburgh area.

Here is a thread on Verizon's forum speaking about this issue: https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/781962

I really hope Verizon fixes it in my area but to reiterate, this is just a warning for people who are thinking about switching in my area. Also a warning that users in other areas may want to look into just in case.
 
Same for me. When I am working in downtown Pittsburgh I get LTE speeds of less than 1mbps. Even under the best conditions (in the middle of the night) the fastest I have ever gotten on Verizon is 5 Mbps. Their towers appear to be totally overloaded and they aren't doing a damn thing about it.

My iPhone 4 on AT&T was quicker.
 
thezinger said:
Same for me. When I am working in downtown Pittsburgh I get LTE speeds of less than 1mbps. Even under the best conditions (in the middle of the night) the fastest I have ever gotten on Verizon is 5 Mbps. Their towers appear to be totally overloaded and they aren't doing a damn thing about it.

My iPhone 4 on AT&T was quicker.
Click to expand...

Thanks Zinger for sharing. I'm doing everything I can to make Verizon aware and answer for this. I will post any updates I get.
 
The problem with Pittsburgh is everyone, and I mean everyone, has Verizon. If I had to guess I'd say that have at least a 90-95% market share. It's simple to see that their towers are overloaded. During 12-1 (lunch hour) my phone is basically unusable.

I don't see how they haven't realized this. I know of no other city with this problem, and it's been like this for years.
 
I live just slightly north of Pittsburgh, and Verizon has been basically unusable for the past 3 weeks, maybe even a month. Right now I have 4 bars, but give it a half hour or so (peak hours), and I'll have 1, or no service at all. 3G is spotty. I'm lucky to sustain a 3G signal for more than a half hour. Then it switches over to "o" or whatever, and just fluctuates back and forth. I can't even use Spotify on the lowest quality setting the signal is so bad. Like I said it was OK about a month ago, then all of a sudden it just turned to crap. Call quality sounds horrible too.


thezinger said:
The problem with Pittsburgh is everyone, and I mean everyone, has Verizon.
Click to expand...

You got it. I'd say 9/10 people have Verizon in Pittsburgh and the surrounding counties. Most people I know with the exception of 1 or 2 have AT&T. NOBODY has Sprint. People in this area don't even know Sprint has a cell phone service.
 
thezinger said:
The problem with Pittsburgh is everyone, and I mean everyone, has Verizon. If I had to guess I'd say that have at least a 90-95% market share. It's simple to see that their towers are overloaded. During 12-1 (lunch hour) my phone is basically unusable.

I don't see how they haven't realized this. I know of no other city with this problem, and it's been like this for years.
Click to expand...

thats nuts.. we have almost 3 times the population here, and i allways get around 30 mbps.

i know verizon did some extra enhancements last year for sxsw so maybe thats it.

regardless thats insane. shame on verizon
 
A great example of this was at Steeler games. When I had ATT I could surf the web, check stats, hell even watch my slingbox, while people with Verizon couldn't even make a phone call because the tower was so overloaded.

I had to switch to Verizon for business reasons which is sad because the service I had on AT&T was great, largely due to no one in this region realizing there are options other than Verizon.
 
I can't ever use my phone at the Steeler games. 3-4 bars, but no 3G at all. Even if I'm not at the game, I still can't use my phone, and I don't even live in the city. It's like they have 1 tower servicing the entire city.
 
Wow I didn't realize it was so bad! I've had AT&T for the past 4 years so I've been out of the loop on Verizon. When I heard they were expanding it in Pittsburgh I thought for sure that would be the way to go. My AT&T on 3G was way better. Three of my friend have AT&T and they are loving the LTE. It's really disappointing for me. Everyone always told me to switch to Verizon.

I made a thread on Verizon's forum if you want to keep up with it. Personally after reading what you guys are saying, I'm considering dropping Verizon before my 14 day period and going back to AT&T. Sadly I'll lose out on my iPhone until AT&T can get me one.

Here is my thread with Verizon: https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/881353#881353
 
Sorry for the dp, but I've emailed the local news stations in Pittsburgh about this. Considering the iPhone 5 is such a major story right now, I'm hoping they hop on this and put some pressure on Verizon. It may not happen if Verizon is a sponsor of them though.

Example to kdka:

I would love if this was made public knowledge because it really needs to be. I’ve recently switched from AT&T to Verizon and found that Verizon’s LTE speeds in and around Pittsburgh are so low and messed up that it should be illegal. I’ve found that many Pittsburghers are complaining about it but nothing is being done. With the arrival of the iPhone 5 people need to be aware that their phone will be almost useless in and around the city if they opt to go with our largest provider Verizon.

I’m not sure if Verizon is a sponsor of yours and I hope they are not so you can run this story.

Below are multiple threads of myself and others speaking on the matter:

https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/881353#881353

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15971654&posted=1#post15971654

https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/881221#881221
Click to expand...
 
I'm on AT&T LTE with the iPhone 5 in PGH. Was actually planning on switching to Verizon because I didn't realize PGH was part of AT&T's LTE rollout- turns out they flipped the switch right as the 5 was launched. I stayed to keep my unlimited data.

Speeds have been good, roughly 15 down and 10-15 up, but I never expected that from AT&T and I never expected Verizon to have these problems- always thought their network was rock solid in these areas
 
BFizzzle said:
thats nuts.. we have almost 3 times the population here, and i allways get around 30 mbps.

i know verizon did some extra enhancements last year for sxsw so maybe thats it.

regardless thats insane. shame on verizon
Click to expand...

The sad part is Verizon just did a bunch of 'enhancements' in the Pittsburgh area, mainly expanding LTE to the outer outer suburbs. You think they would concentrate on the problems first.
 
For those of you that just switched or signed new contracts with Verizon ... surely this would be grounds for switching back or breaking your contract with Verizon. Not being able to provide the service you are paying for is unacceptable.
 
thekb said:
For those of you that just switched or signed new contracts with Verizon ... surely this would be grounds for switching back or breaking your contract with Verizon. Not being able to provide the service you are paying for is unacceptable.
Click to expand...

Since I'm within the first 14 days I could break my contract at no price, but the problem is I'd have to give my iPhone 5 back and order a new one through AT&T. God knows how long that would take. I'd rather Verizon just fix their network here lol.
 
Kingzope said:
Since I'm within the first 14 days I could break my contract at no price, but the problem is I'd have to give my iPhone 5 back and order a new one through AT&T. God knows how long that would take. I'd rather Verizon just fix their network here lol.
Click to expand...

I had AT&T for the last two years and tired of having no signal in buildings in charlotte, NC. No doubt in my mind, I planned to switch to verizon when IP5 comes. I have been trying verizon for 13 days and signal is better than AT&T in buildings. but I decide to cancel Verizon and came back to AT&T. I ordered online and picked up at apple store. their supply is better now.

AT&T is cheaper and got unlimited data.
 
foxnews1 said:
I had AT&T for the last two years and tired of having no signal in buildings in charlotte, NC. No doubt in my mind, I planned to switch to verizon when IP5 comes. I have been trying verizon for 13 days and signal is better than AT&T in buildings. but I decide to cancel Verizon and came back to AT&T. I ordered online and picked up at apple store. their supply is better now.

AT&T is cheaper and got unlimited data.
Click to expand...

But you're in NC and AT&T signal sucks. You have even said this?! So why switch. Incidentally it's the complete opposite situation in Chicago AT&T around the loop sucks really bad whereas verizon doesn't :)
 
I just got my Verizon iPhone 5 and the LTE in Pittsburgh is awful.. I was only able to use it for about an hour today right after I picked it up from the Apple Store and now it won't even connect to LTE . I can only get 3g or less. I spent an hour on the pone with Verizon tonight and they opened a ticket to look into the network. They said it is either the network or my phone..They said they would contact me in 3-5 days if not sooner. Hopefully something comes from it, but they are aware that there are some problems..I would encourage anyone having issues to call Verizon..If more people complain,then maybe they will work faster.
 
It is Polamalu's hair and Big Bens ego getting in the way of the signal:cool:
 
4g lte

I've had 4G since the HTC Thunderbolt launch and also live in Pittsburgh. It seems like with every popular LTE phone release, speeds got slower. Most recently, the iPhone 5 launch brought speeds to a crawl. Last week I traveled to Manchester, NH and speeds were easilly 4x faster. Seems as if their 4G LTE network is congested in the area. Hopefully they recognize the issue.
 
Verizon was never any good in Pittsburgh from what I could tell. I couldn't get reception anywhere. Even at the Verizon stores to complain of this fact, I only got 2 bars.
 
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