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Out of Verizon's area -- dammit!!

kbayer

Android Enthusiast
Dec 5, 2009
417
32
Houston, Tx
I got the Droid for Christmas and could not get service, even though the store rep and online coverage map shows we should get stellar reception in my area.

Well, that's not the case, sadly, and FINALLY, a tech came out to our house and confirmed that another tower woud be needed and could take 3-6 months, IF appoved.

While waiting all this time, I've been using wifi for net useage at home, and a land line for calls until I was able to get an answer on the issue...

So, unless anyone has an alternative suggestion to get phone service (someone here at work barked "SKYPE", but I'm not familiar with that)...
Looks like the Droid may be going back.

Crappers.
:(
 
Great suggestions! I work in Stafford, live in Orchard... it's in the "country:, but the Verizon map is SOLID as far as coverage claims.
Wow...thats really weird that your not getting a signal, Ive seen 1xEVDO in the weirdest rural areas, I bet you'd get at least 1XRTT coverage on the moon.... :rolleyes:/sarcasm. But try the network extender, you'll only get 1XRTT but if you have wifi it doesn't even matter since voice traffic never goes through EVDO so your experience should be good. I always wanted to test those network extenders out though, they look really cool.
 
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Just to let you know, I have the Verizon Extender in my house. I am far away from a Tower so my Signal was spotty at best. Since putting in the appliance i get a steady 3 bars and no drops. Works Well, the best thing for me, is I got the Extender for free, the people that gave it to me never configured it correctly and thought it did not work. The device needs to get a gps signal to work, so it has to be installed by a Window. Good Luck with Verizion Paying for it.
 
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Just to let you know, I have the Verizon Extender in my house. I am far away from a Tower so my Signal was spotty at best. Since putting in the appliance i get a steady 3 bars and no drops. Works Well, the best thing for me, is I got the Extender for free, the people that gave it to me never configured it correctly and thought it did not work. The device needs to get a gps signal to work, so it has to be installed by a Window. Good Luck with Verizion Paying for it.

1. Did you tell the people that gave it to you that it DID, in fact work?

2. How far can you get a signal? Feet, miles?
 
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1. Did you tell the people that gave it to you that it DID, in fact work?

2. How far can you get a signal? Feet, miles?
Definatly not miles...I believe the broadcast is around 20Mw's which is like a 4th of a wifi router because it can't broadcast to far because it might leak into areas where verizon doesn't have a liscence to broadcast. Most likely comparable to a wireless router but the lower frequency will not get as attenuated as wifi gets inside.
 
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Just did a coverage check myself. I get a full signal when I set it down. Pick it up and it starts to fluctuate. According to the map I should be at full strength.

My wife AT&T phone is all the time (LG Neon).

Yes, my other cellphone is a nokia n95 and wife's is (clears throat) an iphone -- both on ATT, and both get super reception.

Will def check the extenders, but unsure about the GPS. My nokia struggles with GPS, but once it locks in, it's like a pit bull -- doesn't let go...
 
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On a more serious note, I'm surprised they would even consider the possibility of expanding their network to fill the dead zone you are in. I knew a guy that was a football field away from getting cable internet services and they said it would cost $64,000 to expand the access to him. The guy said he would pay for it 100% if they would do it and the cable company said no.

I knew a guy like that, DSL limit was at the end of his driveway so he was stuck on dialup. He built a doghouse at the end of the driveway and ran conduit underground to it for electrical and network then put the dsl modem in there and had the cable company terminate it there.
 
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I have a similar problem JUST outside of downtown Fort Worth. You can see the bars drop as you drive into my neighborhood. On the freeway 1/10 mi away?.... Full everything. In my house?... Nothing. i've have three service calls on the towers nearest to my address. Of course they say those all work fine. They also refused to give me the network extender on two different calls to CS. I feel like I'm one of a very few people that's getting screwed by Big Red -- other than the ridiculous rates we pay. I'm willing to pay more for better service, but at my house and work I get pretty much no coverage. I even had coverage in the middle of freakin' Yellowstone!?!?!?


end rant. Post up here or PM me if you find a solution to this.
 
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Glad I'm not the only one. My house is geographically dead center in the only non-covered area in North Georgia. 1 mile in any direction gives you great signal, even onto the lake. I am going to be getting a network extender. I am trying to get Verizon to give me one for 30 days to try (I knew there was no coverage at my house on Verizon or any other carrier for that matter).

Damn mountains!
 
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I have a similar problem JUST outside of downtown Fort Worth. You can see the bars drop as you drive into my neighborhood. On the freeway 1/10 mi away?.... Full everything. In my house?... Nothing. i've have three service calls on the towers nearest to my address. Of course they say those all work fine. They also refused to give me the network extender on two different calls to CS. I feel like I'm one of a very few people that's getting screwed by Big Red -- other than the ridiculous rates we pay. I'm willing to pay more for better service, but at my house and work I get pretty much no coverage. I even had coverage in the middle of freakin' Yellowstone!?!?!?


end rant. Post up here or PM me if you find a solution to this.

Verizon is screwing everyone over. Since when do they care about the customer? Whats lame about the network extender is you can't use it where verizon doesn't have a liscense to broadcast....I'm pretty sure the FCC mandate for devices operating on liscenced frequencies is just to make sure it doesn't interfere....This one area I stayed at in the Adirondaks for like 5 years has literally no cell coverage but when I get out onto the lake I get a partial signal and when I go into town I get full bars of 3G on verizon, it sucks because sprint has 3G there and I can't even roam on them.... Like they can't make an agreement with sprint seeing as sprint roams on verizon with everything for free. Also in this area AT&T ACTUALLY has coverage. I hate Big Red, and I hate cell carriers and their all treading on the thin ice of the monopoly laws with there price pooling and bogus rates. Thank God the FCC understands that.
 
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Yes, my other cellphone is a nokia n95 and wife's is (clears throat) an iphone -- both on ATT, and both get super reception.

Will def check the extenders, but unsure about the GPS. My nokia struggles with GPS, but once it locks in, it's like a pit bull -- doesn't let go...

OH so you live in that 10 mile circle ATT did their independent tests at that proved they have the best network...lol
 
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g
I think I recall hearing (and that video seems to say as much) that the extenders are for RTT only. No added 3G connectivity. So the OP would see voice, but not any sort of reasonable data.[/QUOTE
]
Wow...thats really weird that your not getting a signal, Ive seen 1xEVDO in the weirdest rural areas, I bet you'd get at least 1XRTT coverage on the moon.... :rolleyes:/sarcasm. But try the network extender, you'll only get 1XRTT but if you have wifi it doesn't even matter since voice traffic never goes through EVDO so your experience should be good. I always wanted to test those network extenders out though, they look really cool.


Just sayin'
 
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I got the Droid for Christmas and could not get service, even though the store rep and online coverage map shows we should get stellar reception in my area.

Well, that's not the case, sadly, and FINALLY, a tech came out to our house and confirmed that another tower woud be needed and could take 3-6 months, IF appoved.

While waiting all this time, I've been using wifi for net useage at home, and a land line for calls until I was able to get an answer on the issue...

So, unless anyone has an alternative suggestion to get phone service (someone here at work barked "SKYPE", but I'm not familiar with that)...
Looks like the Droid may be going back.

Crappers.
:(

What is returning the droid have to do with anything? So you can get another phone that has the same crappy service. This has nothing to do with the droid sorry, move this thread to some verizon forum or something I dunno.
 
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