Verizon: Recent 4G LTE outages are ‘growing pains’
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Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, normally known for its speed and stability, has had a rough time this month with three nationwide outages.
So what’s the problem? Well, according to Verizon, this is all just some ‘growing pains.’
‘The Verizon Wireless 4GLTE Network is BY FAR the largest and the most advanced 4GLTE wireless network in the world,’ Verizon said in a statement posted to its website. ‘It is available in 190 US markets and covers more than 200 million people, providing the fastest 4G Network in the U.S.’
Currently, only Verizon and AT&T are the only major wireless carriers in the U.S. with active 4G networks, and AT&T’s 4G LTE network is much smaller.
Sprint is in the early stages of building up its 4G LTE network and T-Mobile will follow soon as well.
‘Being a pioneer comes with growing pains,’ Verizon said. ‘The recent issues that affected our customers’ 4G LTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs.
‘Problems customers experienced affected connectivity to the 4G LTE Network and data service. Several times, we have proactively ‘moved’ 4GLTE customers onto our 3G Network to ensure all would have a data connection. For brief periods, such as on Wednesday (12/28), 4G LTE customers could not connect to the 3G Network as quickly as we would have liked.’
Verizon, the nation’s largest wireless carrier with about 90 million customers, also estimated that the outages resulted in its network being in service about 99% of the time this year.
‘Each incident has been different from a technical standpoint,’ Verizon said, failing to go into detail about just what has been the cause of the outages over the last four weeks. ‘Our engineers have successfully diagnosed those past triggering events, and they have not re-occurred. We also work diligently to rectify technical problems in the network before they affect any customers.’
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+