Anyone having this issue?

[mikeblack322]

So, I have a Pixel 6 to start this conversation off with. It's always updated as well. Here's the problem I'm having. Lately I've been losing signal, alot. Like I'm having to go in to airplane mode at least 5-6 times a day, the data is suuuuuuper slow alot here in town as well. I live in the city and have 4-5 most times, so I honestly don't know what the issue is. Live chats always end up being the same old thing, someone reading a script and asking you to do the same thing over and over. Have any of you had similar problems, if so, what did you do? 

[Airwolf]

I haven't been experiencing any issues, but a couple things come to mind:

1) Are you in a heavily populated area, or is your area seeing heaving than normal people around, think major concert or 'festival'.  That could be overloading some cell towers and you are experiencing data prioritization.

2) Not sure if this is even a thing anymore, but search how to update carrier settings on your specific phone.  I know from a while ago, sometimes getting that data pushed out as an auto-update would not go as planned all time.

3) This is of course assuming that you have tried restarting your phone, not just the airplane mode and ensured the OS is up to date?  iPhone user here, not sure how android devices work as far as that goes.

4) Do you have the ability to connect to a WIFI network and check speed and performance?  That may also help narrow down is it a phone or visible problem.

[mikeblack322]

I could understand the slow data speeds if I was just having slow data, but my signal completely drops. It's showing no service when it does this, but I live in a tiny town, like <20000 people. I actually got told to update carrier settings during my last chat, approximately a month ago. My phone stays up to date though, and I reboot fairly regularly. Wifi shows my correct speeds, so it'd definitely not the phone. I spoke to someone earlier and the reset my SIM settings, again, so there's honestly no telling. I like visible, so I'm going to stick it out and hope they get the quirks fixed. 

[Airwolf]

Have any trips planned?  Not sure how much you travel, but maybe going for a drive to try and get into a different tower's coverage area, maybe it is something specific to the tower your phone is getting its service from?

Would maybe help eliminate some more out of the equation.  If the issue follows you around at least you have a 'new' discovery to present to the Visible team to try and help you through it?

[tekgawd]

Try traveling 10 or so miles in one direction, reset your network settings and restart your phone. This can help if the area you frequent is at an even distance between two towers because you could be experiencing constant hand offs between the towers causing signal drop outs. Getting closer to one over another can force your device to register to the tower nearest you and can keep it registered to that tower once you leave the area as long as the signal is strong enough to keep it from wanting to pass over to the other tower.

As far as data speeds are concerned they are going to vary dramatically considering this service uses Verizon which was originally CDMA (better for voice than data) before 4G. If the 4G/5G LTE signal throttles or if there is an issue with the tower where it cannot transmit properly, you are going to experience speeds similar to 2G due to how CDMA works even though you may still see a 4G LTE or 5G indicator on your phone because the signal technically still exists, it just isn't giving you the bandwidth. GSM carriers like T-Mobile or AT&T do not experience this because they have a middle ground technology called HSPA that the phone can fall back on with respectable speeds and is much more widespread given their whole network is based off the same tech as LTE which is GSM.

I know I threw a lot of technical jargon at you and I apologize but hopefully it gives you a little bit of insight to what Visible is using for their network and hopefully ground you expectations a bit. I been in the wireless industry for a long time so just wanted to try to give you info that Visible will likely not be able to considering the nature of the service being mostly self serve.

[Airwolf]

Great technical knowledge to back up what I was trying to say.  My thoughts were inline with yours, I just do not know the technical jargon for cellular industry. 

[mikeblack322]

That was very insightful and actually makes alot of sense. Thinking about it, I am close to the middle of the two towers we have in our area. When Im at work, I rarely drop signal, but once I get in town, it'll randomly drop, which is about the halfway mark between the two towers. I'll reset my network settings this afternoon and see if that helps. I'll be in touch! 

[mikeblack322 · Accepted solution]

So, I finally got around to trying out your recommendations, and I'm still having the issue. I did a little more digging and I don't think this is a Visible issue, but a Pixel 6 issue. It seems to be a pretty common problem across the board with these phones. I'll just keep waiting for a software update to fix the issue. I read it could be an issue with the carrier services app, but I'm on the newest version, so there's no telling when it will be resolved.