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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Can You Hear Me Now? Outage Hits Verizon Wireless


NEW YORK – Just two weeks after Verizon’s 4G data network most recently failed, customers are apparently once again being forced to live without their wireless connection. Numerous VZW users across the country woke up without even a 3G connection let alone Verizon’s vaunted 4G LTE network being anywhere in sight.

A quick look at Verizon’s support forums illustrates the extent of the data outage has not only struck the New York area but has also hit California, Illinois, Washington D.C., Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and other regions.

One person commented on Verizon’s forums: “I’m in Denver, CO. Service went out at 1am MST – it’s 5am MST and still no data.” Another said: “Not getting any data in Port Townsend, WA. I have tested on both a Galaxy Nexus and a Droid RAZR. Have done the whole rebooting thing, still nothing. Thankfully I’m at home and have wifi.”

A few 4G users say they’ve been able to get onto the data network by switching down to CDMA, but many 3G users are also experiencing the problem. Some people who’ve gotten through to Verizon phone support say the company is aware of the issue but has yet to resolve it.

Just spoke with VZW customer support representative,” wrote one commenter. “As of 6:28 AM Eastern time, they are confirming a nationwide outage affecting all 4G phones, and to expect little to no network connectivity. There is no ETA for resolution, of course.”

The folks at tech news site The Verge say that they spoke with a Verizon support rep who confirmed the outage but wasn’t allowed to discuss the details with the press.

This marks the second time this month that Verizon’s data network has been down. Verizon customers were hit by intermittent outages on December 6, but that one affected primarily 4G users. The carrier took about a day and a half to fix that glitch.

Similar to the last failure, this outage doesn’t seem affect everyone and some lucky users are reporting that their data service has been restored.

This second failure comes at an unfortunate time for Verizon customers looking to renews their contracts with “Big Red” who until recently, have had relatively consistent 4G service since the service launched approximately this time last year. Now, customers have had to deal with two major data outages in one month.

Verizon has yet to publicly acknowledge the problem via a press release, although their @VZWSupport Twitter account has just started fielding customer complaints about the outage. We’ll keep you posted on any further developments.

Update: Verizon’s 3G “CDMA” network appears to be up but some 4G LTE services are still unavailable. Meanwhile, Verizon reps confirmed that the company is looking into the outage.

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