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iPhone 7+; 10.0.3; Horrible Verizon LTE Speeds

J

JKColo22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 19, 2009
124
9
So I just received my new iPhone 7+ and switched to Verizon two days ago. Yesterday LTE speeds seemed normal (but I didn't test). Last night I was prompted to update to 10.0.3. Today I have three bars with the LTE indicator in the menu bar, and I'm getting less than 0.5mbps down and up--measured via the Speedtest App. Anyone else experiencing a problem?? I'm aware of the LTE-dropping issue, but that's not my issue (so far). Three bars isn't great service, but I was accustomed to three bars with AT&T and much better speeds.

Edit: So I just turned off LTE and got 2.22mbps down/1.00mbps up over 3G, still at 3 bars. Have tried restarting and did not fix.
 
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Those speedtest results seem low on LTE, but good on 3G as Verizon uses CDMA for their 3G. I usually have between 1-2 bars on Verizon, just tested and got 20.41Mbps down/0.46Mbps up. I'll try testing in an area with better coverage, but I'd say for 1-2 bars I'm happy with my results.

Have you contacted Verizon to verify there's no issue currently in your area? Also, since you're new to Verizon it may be helpful to know what area you're located at, perhaps during peak hours the towers are just congested?
 
timeconsumer said:
Those speedtest results seem low on LTE, but good on 3G as Verizon uses CDMA for their 3G. I usually have between 1-2 bars on Verizon, just tested and got 20.41Mbps down/0.46Mbps up. I'll try testing in an area with better coverage, but I'd say for 1-2 bars I'm happy with my results.

Have you contacted Verizon to verify there's no issue currently in your area? Also, since you're new to Verizon it may be helpful to know what area you're located at, perhaps during peak hours the towers are just congested?
Click to expand...

Yes: .5 mbps (that's POINT five) is ridiculously slow. I have not contacted Verizon yet. Will do so if the problem persists. I generally despise talking to customer service reps when they tend to just tell me to do things I have already tried. I'm in Castle Rock, Colorado.
 
JKColo22 said:
Yes: .5 mbps (that's POINT five) is ridiculously slow. I have not contacted Verizon yet. Will do so if the problem persists. I generally despise talking to customer service reps when they tend to just tell me to do things I have already tried. I'm in Castle Rock, Colorado.
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Yeah, that is ridiculously slow. I understand what you mean with customer service reps, I prefer to use their chat support. If you login to your Verizon account, then go to "Contact Us" you can chat with them on their website. It's much better than having to call in and talk to them.

I would recommend running the speed tests (in the same area) at different times of the day to see if maybe the towers are just congested during the day. Do you by any chance know anybody else with an iPhone 7/7+ on Verizon that you can use for testing? That would likely help you determine if it's your phone or Verizon.
 
Verizon, iPhone 7+, 3 bars, Los Angeles.

IMG_0028.PNG
 
I just switched to Verizon, from ATT. On the app I noticed that I had "safety mode" on. This throttles your data to preserve it. Maybe check that out? New to me since ATT didn't have that feature.
 
RedRabbits said:
I just switched to Verizon, from ATT. On the app I noticed that I had "safety mode" on. This throttles your data to preserve it. Maybe check that out? New to me since ATT didn't have that feature.
Click to expand...
Safety mode only kicks in if you use all of your data to prevent overage charges. But as long as you have data available, safety mode won't be used.
 
JKColo22 said:
So I just received my new iPhone 7+ and switched to Verizon two days ago. Yesterday LTE speeds seemed normal (but I didn't test). Last night I was prompted to update to 10.0.3. Today I have three bars with the LTE indicator in the menu bar, and I'm getting less than 0.5mbps down and up--measured via the Speedtest App. Anyone else experiencing a problem?? I'm aware of the LTE-dropping issue, but that's not my issue (so far). Three bars isn't great service, but I was accustomed to three bars with AT&T and much better speeds.

Edit: So I just turned off LTE and got 2.22mbps down/1.00mbps up over 3G, still at 3 bars. Have tried restarting and did not fix.
Click to expand...
You need someone else next to you to simultaneously run a speed test with VZW to see whether it's your local VZW coverage or your device.
 
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It's Verizon not the phone . At house I get under 1 meg during day . At night early morning it's 36 Meg's . Verizon's system is so over loaded.
 
I think there may be a phone issue here. I just got a replacement iPhone 7 and where the previous 7 and my wife's 6 get a strong 3 dot signal this one is reporting either no service or five empty dots. I spent two hours on the phone with Verizon last night. They think the phone is defective and suggest it's acting like the antennas aren't connected. Need to get to Apple this week.
 
newellj said:
Oh, yeah. We tried every sort of reset, including a wipe and DFU restore. I've got a Genius Bar appointment today. We'll see what they say.
Click to expand...

Did you learn anything? My wife's iPhone 6 isn't spectacular but is getting a few Mbps better than mine.
 
JKColo22 said:
Did you learn anything? My wife's iPhone 6 isn't spectacular but is getting a few Mbps better than mine.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, yes. I learned that 10.0.3 does not perform any better or worse than 10.1. I learned that no matter how far into the reset settings world you get (network settings vs. all settings) the phones are still deaf. I learned that doing a DFU restore and rebuilding the phone from scratch does not change its RF sensitivity. I have learned that two consecutive iPhone 7 examples are both essentially deaf unless I'm within direct line of sight contact with a tower.

And I learned that I'm really sorry I sold my iPhone 6.

I'm headed back to the Apple Store today and will update this.
 
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Is their an equivalent mark the spot app for Verizon like what AT&T has. I'm getting 5Megs up and 0.5 megs down on Verizon at my desk next to the window at work. In the other building I can't even get LTE, only 3G. So much for more bars in more places. I'm pretty disappointed in my switch to Verizon from AT&T. Some places are better, but other places are worse. At least I am getting 20 GB a month for $160 instead of 16GB on AT&T for $170(for 4 lines).
 
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Pardon my french, but verizon sucks donkey balls. For the money I used to pay them, they sucked ass. I'm on Cricket now and I love the full service everywhere and $65 a month bill for unlimited everything.
 
entropik said:
Any news?
Click to expand...

Yeah. The short version is that putting a virgin sim card into the phone literally brought it back from the dead. It seems to be on par with my wife's iPhone 6, which is good enough. So, at least for VZW people, if your phone seems deaf, a fresh (and free) sim card is worth a try - it should cost nothing to try.
 
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