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shiibbyy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 13, 2014
168
0
VA--->FL
so my 6 plus finally got delivered today. I restored from back up, activated it and the first thing I noticed is that I have barely any bars and my LTE speed is as slow as 3G on my 4S. I ran speed tests multiple times and the max download speed was between 2-3 Mbps. I've reset network settings multiple times. Did the hard reset, toggled with the VoLTE and I still only have 1-3 bars and slow LTE in my house. I used to always have 4-5 bars and rarely 3 bars and about the same amount speed on my 4S. Is there anything else I can do? I'm thinking about going to the Verizon store in a few days if it doesn't get better.
 
It's most likely due to the fact that you are using a LTE data connection now instead of a 3G CDMA connection like your 4S used. The 3G connection will typically stay stronger further from the tower than LTE will. This is why you get weaker LTE indoors. Verizon's network is spaced for the 3G network right now and they need more towers closer together for the signal to be as reliable. Try shutting off LTE all together and see how the 3G signal is. If it is around the same as your 4S you know it isn't a phone issue and that it's a limitation of the LTE networks penetration ability.
 
Well I live in a big LTE and XLTE area so there should be a ton of towers. But I'll try what you guys said.

I'm not to worried about having slow LTE indoors because I use wifi when I'm at home anyway but I haven't tried the LTE outside yet. I'm just worried about having no bars inside Because I don't want to drop calls and texts not send
 
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So I called Verizon tech support this afternoon and told them what was going on with my terrible service and slow LTE speeds. I talked to the first level tech rep and reset my phone, took out the SIM card, she checked my area to see if any outages or towers were down and my area is fine with full 4G LTE. So none of that worked, I still had 1-2 bars everywhere, slow LTE and frequent drops to 3G. She then connected me with a level 2 tech rep, he Told me to adjust my roaming settings to see if that changed anything, it didn't. I went on to tell him that my friend at work has Verizon with a galaxy s5 and we were standing right next to each other and he had full 5 bars and I only had 2 bars. He told me that samsungs read the network better than iPhones but he's never seen anything that drastic in signal difference. He said he was going to follow up with me tomorrow and see if anything has changed with my service and see if we can do anything else to resolve it if the service is still bad. It will be, I already know lol. Idk what the hell is wrong with my phone or the Verizon network in my area but this is unacceptable. I have Verizon for a reason, they have best service and coverage in the country. I hope it's nothing wrong with the hardware in my phone because I waited a month and a half to even get the phone and I don't want to wait that long for a new one. If anybody else has ideas on what else I can do please let me know. Thanks

EDIT: I have also turned off LTE completely and still have only 2-3 bars. Sometimes 1 bar
 
It says VA to Florida in your location....are you in FL? Many areas in FL don't have 850MHz licenses for Verizon so indoor reception can be poor...now LTE is on 700 (and 1700 for "XLTE") so you'd expect it to remedy that issue but often they lower the power or use downtilt on the 700 towers so its not stronger than the regular CDMA voice/data signal. Everytime I was in Florida I always had allot of signal issues, especially indoors in major areas, concrete and metal structures don't help either...
 
I have a Verizon iPhone 6 and my LTE is very slow during the day but at night it picks up faster. Still not over 5megs though. I'm just thinking busy congestion for my tower at home. Hopefully more upgrades soon!
 
Well I live in a big LTE and XLTE area so there should be a ton of towers. But I'll try what you guys said.

I'm not to worried about having slow LTE indoors because I use wifi when I'm at home anyway but I haven't tried the LTE outside yet. I'm just worried about having no bars inside Because I don't want to drop calls and texts not send

XLTE is even worse indoors because it's on higher frequencies. and people have been saying for the last year that verizon's LTE network is overloaded

that said, LTE was never meant to give the end user 50mbps or some other high speed. it's all just marketing crap and blogger hype
 
XLTE is even worse indoors because it's on higher frequencies. and people have been saying for the last year that verizon's LTE network is overloaded

that said, LTE was never meant to give the end user 50mbps or some other high speed. it's all just marketing crap and blogger hype


That is true. However, with VoLTE becoming common over the next few years on all new devices, more people will experience dropped phone calls because of the weak LTE signal. So unless Verizon has plans to drastically increase the density of their LTE network, there will be quite a few complaints.
 
CDMA uses data for voice as well, it's just different encoding and billing on the back end

even HD voice uses a tiny fraction of the data bandwidth so it shouldn't be much of an issue
 
CDMA uses data for voice as well, it's just different encoding and billing on the back end

even HD voice uses a tiny fraction of the data bandwidth so it shouldn't be much of an issue

Well CDMA isn't packet switched, its still circuit switched like every other 2nd Gen and 3G voice network.

XLTE is even worse indoors because it's on higher frequencies. and people have been saying for the last year that verizon's LTE network is overloaded

that said, LTE was never meant to give the end user 50mbps or some other high speed. it's all just marketing crap and blogger hype
Well Verizon's LTE is listed as 5-12Mbps downlink so all the capacity they are building out is to maintain that as true.....BUT in the future LTE will provide well over 50Mbps, that was the original goal, so its misleading to say LTE was never meant to give the end user 50Mbps. LTE's end goal is 1Gbps stationary and 100Mbps while mobile and eventually that will become a reality, well long long term here in the US lol but in Asia they've done trials in areas like Hong Kong using beta devices and they are swinging 800Mbps while driving around the most dense areas of Hong Kong and even as high as 1700Mbps (1.7Gbps) while walking down the street.

That is true. However, with VoLTE becoming common over the next few years on all new devices, more people will experience dropped phone calls because of the weak LTE signal. So unless Verizon has plans to drastically increase the density of their LTE network, there will be quite a few complaints.

I've been using VoLTE exclusively over CDMA calls on my iPhone 6, its been very reliable, even with 1 or 2 bars. I'm sure Verizon will pump up the signal strength when VoLTE becomes mainstream, they run their 700MHz network at a much lower power than their 850MHz network in many areas...for now its likely just to prevent interference with neighboring cells and provide basic data over LTE but the network is inevitably going to mature. 3G WCDMA networks started off iffy at first all around the world but now they are very mature and reliable when implemented properly.
 
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I never had this problem with my iPhone 5S. Constantly have to wait to access sites only to be told I can't. When I upgraded to the new iPhone 6, it has slowed my productivity immensely. I pay a lot of money every month to have Verizon service and upgrading has been very disappointing. I am a small business owner. I do not have time to sit on the phone or go to a Verizon store to get back what I had before. I never have more than three bars no matter if I am in my house or outside.
 
I have the exact same problem with my iPhone 6+, every since last fall when I got it. I had hoped it would be a problem fixed by an Apple release, but no such luck. Same type of issue, absolutely horrible LTE reception (by bars or by signal strength meter) - whether inside or outside. So it's definitely not just a signal issue indoors. And I'm in a city.

Luckily, I spend a fair amount of time in an area without any LTE coverage so it the impact is lessened a bit. (Hey, it's New Mexico. We're happy to have 3G in places.) So I just turn off LTE.

I've given up on a solution by now and will just have to see Verizon too.
 
What carrier version for Verizon shows up on the Settings > General > About screen? I know it's been 18.0 for some time, but it seems that 18.1 was pushed out in the last few weeks. That said, I'm not sure what effect it might have (if any) on any/all of this.
 
When. Will. You. People. Realize. That. The. Iphone 6 Plus. SUCKS? It's the worst smartphone Apple has EVER released. Not only is it crippled by a very buggy OS, it can't even deliver proper LTE reception. Just another of the many, many reasons the iPhone 6 Plus is garbage. You ALL mark my words by Fall 2015, Apple pulls it and fixes most of its issues with the 6S+.
 
When. Will. You. People. Realize. That. The. Iphone 6 Plus. SUCKS? It's the worst smartphone Apple has EVER released. Not only is it crippled by a very buggy OS, it can't even deliver proper LTE reception. Just another of the many, many reasons the iPhone 6 Plus is garbage. You ALL mark my words by Fall 2015, Apple pulls it and fixes most of its issues with the 6S+.
Probably because that's not the experience of many with iPhone 6 Plus.
 
It all depends on your area. In northern VA I pretty much just get 2 or sometimes if I'm lucky, 3 bars of service while using my 6 plus on verizon. When I use the same phone with an att sim, I usually get full bars or maybe 4.

Att must have more towers evenly spaced up here compared to Verizon.
 
I think all these issues have nothing to do with Verizon but is a weakness of the iphone. The iphone has one antenna which shares the cdma 1x/3g/lte signal. The lte and 1x signal frequencies are close and causes a conflict as both signals are fighting to share same antenna. Android phones have two antennas, one for lte and other for 1x signal to talk. GSM signals do not cause a signal conflict like cdma signals do. I may be wrong but I thought I read about this years ago, which was also a reason Verizon did not want to use iPhone.
 
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