Austin MN 55912 Sprint or VM network not working... Upgrading?

whats not to get? sounds like they are doing upgrades, did they tell you how long its going to be down? do you know any other sprint/virgin users in your city? sure its not just your phone? id be suprised if they would totally disable the network for more then a few hrs

I would be one happy customer if VM service was totally disabled for only a few hours when upgrading.

Long, multiple service outages, coupled with completely clueless and incompetent customer service is not all that rare. Just search the forums.

For the last 2 1/2 months, my service ( 05777 in VT) has been down about as much as it's been up, losing service 5 times, 3 times over a week each.
It's anybody's guess what the problems were-- on each occasion, every rep I spoke with gave a different story-- no towers are down, the tower is being repaired, the tower is being upgraded, we're installing 4g service, service will be back tomorrow, service will be back in three days, we don't know when service will be back, we don't offer service in your location, the tower in your area (naming one 90 miles away) is operating, take the battery out of the phone, would you like to restart your plan, would you like to do a factory reset, would.you like us to replace the phone.

Part of the confusion stemmed from the inability to grasp that the tower that provides service to my home is in a different town and zip code than my street address. One representative said he had difficulty believing that I could really be standing in my front yard and see a tower that is in a different zip code!!

I tried to walk him through this-- "Imagine you're standing on the border line of your town, and you lean forward. -- your nose will be in a different town than your feet." :idea:

Odd as it may seem, a company whose business consists of selling cell phones and cellular service has no idea whether or not they have any operating service to sell in any particular area.

Yeah, when making calls, have you tried waiting 35 seconds? I'm in MN too and Sprint claims to be upgrading. My SMS and data work fine, as well as incoming calls. Just have to wait 0:35 before it starts ringing callers.

etechgeek24 said:

Yeah, when making calls, have you tried waiting 35 seconds? I'm in MN too and Sprint claims to be upgrading. My SMS and data work fine, as well as incoming calls. Just have to wait 0:35 before it starts ringing callers.

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I'm also in MN and have had the same problem for over a month. First I went through troubleshooting and got case numbers (three different phones doing this and they couldn't consider it an outage), then I was told it was part of Network Vision upgrades... and as of yesterday I finally saw it referred to (on their Facebook page) as a "network problem. " FWIW, 35 seconds seems to be the magic number for me, too.

The conflicting information and lack of a solution have me seriously looking at other options (plus ongoing phone problems, but that's another post in another section). My best plan right now is to continue to post daily on their Facebook page to keep the problem in the spotlight, and push for account credit when it's fixed, to make up for the extra time used on every call for over a month here.

To add another data point, I'm in 55398, NW of Minneapolis.

im in 55444, my phone has been acting pretty normal, my 4g coverage has been not so great. maybe in a month we will all have really fast 4g? lol

aml1025 said:

I'm also in MN and have had the same problem for over a month. First I went through troubleshooting and got case numbers (three different phones doing this and they couldn't consider it an outage), then I was told it was part of Network Vision upgrades... and as of yesterday I finally saw it referred to (on their Facebook page) as a "network problem. " FWIW, 35 seconds seems to be the magic number for me, too.

The conflicting information and lack of a solution have me seriously looking at other options (plus ongoing phone problems, but that's another post in another section). My best plan right now is to continue to post daily on their Facebook page to keep the problem in the spotlight, and push for account credit when it's fixed, to make up for the extra time used on every call for over a month here.

To add another data point, I'm in 55398, NW of Minneapolis.

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Yeah, I'm 55720. Made several calls/emails to Sprint and Virgin, I got 2 conflicting answers. I got ahold of Sprint first, and they claimed it was a 4G LTE rollout (yay!). Virgin Mobile called back a couple days ago with no clue what I was talking about with LTE, and said there was a service outage ending on Wednesday (today). Any luck for you today?

It better be fixed by today!

Have you tried posting at Sprint's network coverage (complaint) forum? If you post your zipcode and main cross streets they can tell you about problems in your local neighborhood and/or report them, etc. - maybe.

You need to create an account to post - use the I don't have a Sprint phone number option; or just search to see if it's been reported
Sprint Community: Space: Network and Coverage

Oh, by the way, if anyone who has issues with VM has decent TMobile coverage, they have an prepaid unlimited text/data plan with 100 calling minutes, but 2x the high-speed data.

It's the perfect plan for me, but my TMobile coverage is crappy, especially for data.


More Info: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
It's towards the bottom

etechgeek24 said:

Yeah, I'm 55720. Made several calls/emails to Sprint and Virgin, I got 2 conflicting answers. I got ahold of Sprint first, and they claimed it was a 4G LTE rollout (yay!). Virgin Mobile called back a couple days ago with no clue what I was talking about with LTE, and said there was a service outage ending on Wednesday (today). Any luck for you today?

It better be fixed by today!

Click to expand...

No changes here - I know they are working on an LTE rollout in my area (I can currently pick it up as close as two blocks away, don't think it's at full power yet), but the service problems are ongoing.

In addition to the 35 second lag before calls complete, there is a place in my everyday drive where calls will inevitably drop. I'm sure it's where my phone is switching from one tower to another. Once in the next calling area, everything works fine and there is no call lag.

After emailing Virgin Mobile repeatedly, this was the response I got:
"
Good Morning,

I will be more than happy to clear this out for you. I reviewed your area and the reason why you're having issues is beceause of the network vision. There are no outages but the towers are updating. The issues that you're experiencing are due to the cell site optimization and upgrade that is currently happening in your area. The issues occurs when your call is transferred between the newly upgraded towers and the towers in your area that have not yet been upgraded.

Sprint is working hard to fix the issues at this location and complete the market level change. As the market gets closer to completion you can expect to have fewer dropped calls. I have reported the issues you are experiencing to our network teams so they are aware of your specific location. We are continually monitoring the area and addressing any issues as they arise. We appreciate your patience while we go through this upgrade. We are committed to providing you the best customer experience and will insure that we complete your market as quickly as possible."

No updates yet via Facebook, aka no time frame available for a fix. I know I'll stick through this next month, since I have credit in my account. Beyond that it will depend on how upgrades are going and how helpful VM is. I've been with them a long time now, but the last year has been extremely frustrating. Good luck finding a solution that works for you!

Yes. I called Virgin Mobile yet again and they claimed to be upgrading towers to Network Vision. This is really getting old, and the lack of time frame is bothering me.

Does anyone know of some similar services that offer plans with decent data allotments for around $35 on ATT or Verizon towers? Making calls is really important, but I use data very much too.

etechgeek24 said:

Yes. I called Virgin Mobile yet again and they claimed to be upgrading towers to Network Vision. This is really getting old, and the lack of time frame is bothering me.

Does anyone know of some similar services that offer plans with decent data allotments for around $35 on ATT or Verizon towers? Making calls is really important, but I use data very much too.

Click to expand...

There are no similar plans with decent data on AT&T or Verizon. The closest, I believe, is Go Phone, which has a $50 plan with 500 minutes talk but only 200 MB data. The plan cost jumps up to $60 with unlimited talk and 2 GB data. You can also use Net 10, which has unlimited talk and about 2 GB data for $50 on AT&T. I believe you can also bring your own Verizon phone but I don't believe they allow Verizon smartphones, and they definitely do not allow access to Verizon LTE.

I'm not sure how much longer AT&T will sell service to Net 10. Straight Talk (like Net 10, another Tracphone subsidiary) is no longer selling AT&T SIM cards and phones, I'm guessing once the current contract expires Net 10 will also lose their AT&T contract. Either AT&T was wanting too much money to access their network, or they are limited MVNOs to push their own prepaid brands (GoPhone and AIO). For the record, AIO has throttled speeds, they limit 3G speeds to 4 Mbps and LTE speeds to 8 Mbps.

Update: If you have a Google account, you can maybe use Talkatone for outgoing calls until it's fixed.

Also, my service was fixed last week. I've yet to get my hands on a Sprint LTE phone to check for LTE signals....

An update from my neighborhood:

The call lag has finally gone and I've been getting LTE on my Victory at home. So I did a happy dance and wiped my brow in relief.

Fast forward to this morning, when my phone suddenly lost all connection. Texts fail with "network not responding," calls attempt to send, then fail, and data alternates between non-responsive and the icon not even being visible.

Telephone support confirms there are still upgrades in my area, but they shouldn't be causing the problems I am having. They "marked my location" to report the problem and suggest I call back tomorrow. Argh!

Has everyone else had as much fun when Network Vision upgrades hit their area, or am I really lucky??

Sorry for the rant; this has been an exasperating summer. Will report back tomorrow after I get my update. In the meantime... what does a person do without a cellphone? ! ;-)