Verizon has been rated by Consumer Reports as the best customer service and they have a reputation to uphold because now it looks like there is some kind of problem with 4G LTE data network for devices such as the Droid Charge, Droid RAZR, Pantech Breakout, Samsung Stratosphere, HTC ThunderBolt, HTC Rezound and 4G tablets or USB modems.
We have demo unit of a Verizon smartphone and which is experiencing problems in the wind-struck area of Southern California. There have been reports all over the country of 4G not working while 3G seems to be fine.
Here's a summary of what we heard from our local Verizon store. There is an alert out for the switch, there is an LTE issue. They are working on the problem. There is a maintenance window for the network to improve the network. They are monitoring an issue with 4G for a small percentage of users. There is no ETA on the repair. Verizon is working on it while adding improvements to the network.
Verizon's official statement received from Verizon spokesman Ken Muche:
“Verizon Wireless engineers have been working to resolve an issue with 4G LTE service that is affecting some customers’ 4G devices. 3G data and voice devices are unaffected. All customers’ voice calls and text messages continue to go through. In the past 24 hours, some 4G LTE customers have reported their devices are operating on 3G data service where they would normally get 4G. Some have reported no issues, others that data access is either intermittent or unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."
Readers have reported "Just got off the phone with Verizon, they said nation-wide 4G LTE outage."
Verizon Wireless reportedly has opened a top priority et on the nation wide outage happening. They are health checking the entire network to find the issue.
Readers who have gone into Verizon stores have been told there is nationwide outage. Calling Verizon support gets the information that 3-5 out 10 devices are affected.
So what can you do in the meantime? First off, turn off the HTC ThunderBolt, Droid RAZR, Droid Charge or what ever model you are using. When you turn it back it on, you may get data access. It worked on the Samsung Stratosphere we were using.
On top of that there is a SIM activation problem with the Droid RAZR. This all will surely delay the Samsung Galaxy Nexus release date even longer.