"Only one device handled the stoppage properly out of the four currently available to work on the Verizon 4G network; that?s a pretty poor success ratio in my book."
Ditto.
The Verizon 4G LTE network had a nationwide outage that lasted over 24 hours, and is only coming back up regionally today. The carrier has not detailed the cause of the outage, but scrambled to get the 4G network back up. The outage affected all customers using Verizon’s 4G-capable smartphones and mobile hotspot devices, and while they are designed to deal properly with a network outage my own experience pointed out that’s not the case.
By design, 4G-capable devices of all types should always try to connect to the fastest network available at connection time. In the case of these 4G devices, that network should be the first one to get a connection attempt. Failing that, the smartphone or mobile hotspot should drop down to the Verizon 3G (EVDO) network to provide the next best connection. In the rare instance that both the 4G and 3G networks are not available, the device should then drop down to the ancient 1xRTT network to at least get the user online, albeit very slowly.
That’s the way it is supposed to work, but during the massive 4G outage it didn’t happen like that. I am in the rare position to have four Verizon 4G-capable devices in Mobile News Manor, my home office. There are two smartphones, the HTC Thunderbolt and the Droid Charge, and two hotspots, the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot and the Novatel 4G LTE MiFi. The Thunderbolt was the first smartphone available for Verizon’s 4G network, and the Droid Charge was due for release today but has apparently been delayed, likely due to the network problems. The Samsung and Novatel hotspot devices are both designed to work with the Verizon 4G and 3G networks, depending on which is available at the time of connection.
I tested all four devices repeatedly during the 4G network failure to see how they handled it. Having no 4G network available in my area that is normally covered is no different than using these devices in areas lacking Verizon 4G coverage. The 3G network should have been accessible no matter what. The two smartphones both handled this situation differently, and neither in a good way.
