Lack of cell phone service.

[pkveazey]

I'm really pissed off at VERIZON for not restoring my cell phone service like they promised. Tonight, I logged on to the FCC website and lodged a formal complaint about VERIZONS lack of action. I nailed down the exact position of the nearest Verizon cell tower and it is located 1.98 miles from my house on flat terrain and the only way I can only make phone calls or receive calls is to drive a mile towards the tower and use my hand held cell phone. I even gave the FCC the pinpoint latitude and longitude of the tower and even included the Cell tower ID number. The only cell tower device that works is my Hot Spot and it connects and disconnects now and then for no reason. VERIZON said that they would ship me a new free hot spot overnight and I would receive it on May 21. Hmmm.. No new device showed up so I went to the VERIZON store and they said that the order was placed and then canceled 1 hour later. They then Said that my plan calls for free replacement so they ordered me a new hot spot and said it would be sent overnight. Hmm... well it didn't show up today as promised. OK, maybe the Hot Spot will show up on Saturday. The odd thing is that the phones don't work but the Hot Spot gets into the Cell Tower just fine. The only good thing that has come out of this, I'll know just what to expect when the whole Cell Phone System goes down. I'm sure thankful that I'm an Advanced Class Ham and will have local and long distance communication when it all goes wrong. I have digital DMR UHF/VHF, Tri-Band 2 meters, 220, and 440, HF and a backup HF rig, and lots of radio and antenna test equipment. I also have an ICOM receiver that can continuous tune 25 MHZ through 1 Gigahertz AM, FM Narrow, FM Wide, and SSB (upper and lower).

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Thanks for the telecom SITREP. The general break down of goods and services tends to begin slowly, then to avalanche.  Having worked engineering contracts is more than a few south wast Asian countries, parts deliveries and pilfering often caused huge delays and if not monitored and countered at every step, would kill projects.  We are on the slide in similatanner here and now.  Even Amazon has noticeably decayed, with a third to a half of my orders " shipped but lost".  Part and materials in engineering.projects are usually delivered in phases, so when say a critical adhesive or electronic part does not arrive, it will usually stop an entire production line.   If the line.is making electric.tooth brushes, it does not reqlly.matter but when the line is making F-35 radars, it could be a matter of national survival. Welcome to the third world, but without the well spiced food.

[Felix]

The high tide line of efficiency and bounty was reached pre-Covid.
And now the tide is going out.

See: "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  ...a thought-provoking book that explores the concept of antifragility. It argues that some things thrive under stress and uncertainty, and provides a guide on how we can all become more antifragile.

A nation with complex, inter-connected, co-dependent technologies and supply webs was always vulnerable in a world lampooned in the movie "Idiocracy".

[pkveazey]

Well, well, well..... The wireless home phone is still dead but I have had 2 Verizon people tell me that they are going to put a booster up so I can reach the tower. Oh, that's efficient. Why don't they just fix the weak ass tower signal? Anyway, Verizon told me that I had to get a new, free hot spot for my internet. Well, I was on the internet this morning and the old one was working just fine. Somehow it can actually get to the cell tower. Anyway, the new one arrived, and I was told that it would work straight out of the box. OK, so I tried to use it and it wouldn't work and it told me that I needed a data account. Say what? I already have the world's most expensive Verizon internet service. Well, it only took me 6 hours to finally get someone from Verizon that actually knew what they were doing and now I have the new hot spot working. As for the home phone, they told me that it might take up to 30 days for me to get my home phone service working again. Uhhhh... Wait a minute. I have to pay them $159.00 for 30 days with no phone service? They better pro-rate my bill for the time I had nothing. OK, OK, at least I had the internet. This is a whole different world from the one I grew up in. If I had a problem with a utility, a human being would show up at my house and fix it. In todays world, if I have a problem with a utility, they want to tell me to fix it myself while using their gibberish instructions. Who do they think they are? I don't work for them. I'm not their repairman.

[JohnyMac]

PKv, it is always frustrating dealing with Verizon and why I went with,

> Starlink for internet ($120 a month).
> Dropped my Verizon plan and went with Patriot ($45 a month).
> I also dropped my cable (Dish through Verizon) and added Philo ($28 a month) and NewsMax for ($5- a month).

All n' all, we are saving about $50 a month and our internet service is scary good. At the time of this post, I have 160 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload with Starlink. At BEST with Verizon, I had 3 Mbps and .8 Mbps respectively.

There is a rumor going around the IT nerdy interwize sites, that Starlink is going to come out with a cell phone/service by year end. It will compete with UP Phone which is right around $1,000- up front plus the monthly vig. UP Phone is the most secure phone on the market. The Starlink phone will be secure too and the estimated cost will be $600 up front plus the monthly vig.

Anyway, some things to think about. 

[Searchboss]

I live in a medium sized town in a suburban subdivision. We have Cox Cable Internet because that was the only provider in the are when we got internet. We have had occasional outages, but very few and they were quickly fixed. Over the years the speeds for the plan I subscribed to have gradually increased. I pay about $85 a month for internet. I have considered changing providers, but have not made any serious plans yet. FWIW, we also use Verizon for our cell service provider. My Verizon bill is around $114 per month for two phones. I need to look into what the cost would be if we switched to Verizon for internet service.

Your post prompted me to go to speedtest.net and check what the speeds are this morning for comparison. I use a VPN, so there is a slight, but negligible loss in speed. The VPN server is only about 100 miles north of me. An average of 5 tests show that I get about 258 Mbps down and 11.5 up, which is consistent with what I have seen in the past year or two, and much faster than the plan I actually pay for.

I have a couple of friends that live about 35 miles from me in a rural setting and they have both gone to Starlink for the same reasons you cited. Neither could get reliable and useable internet before they got Starlink. Both seem quite satisfied with their Starlink service. One actually works from home daily via the Starlink connection, which she could not do using what was available to her before Starlink became available in her area a year ago. She also had to get a cell phone booster because she is just barely able to get cell phone service on their property. The boster solved the problem inside the house, but they still only have spotty coverage outside.

[JohnyMac]

Searchboss,

Where did your friends buy their booster? I need to get one as my coverage is usually SOS ONLY where I am. No rush. Thanks 

[Searchboss]

He says that he just ordered it off of Amazon. The key issue he said is to make sure that it is compatible with your cell service provider.

[JohnyMac]

Thank you Serachboss 

[Sir John Honeybucket]

On a positive note; last night's ERIN nets worked flawlessly, without any impact from Verizon failure. ;-)

Anti-fragility in action.

Sir John Honeybucket.  ...-.-