Verizon Can’t Hear Me now

I spend a lot of time in Asia. Increasingly our operations and growth is in Asia. Plus, it’s an interesting place.

So coming home to the US is always refreshing. Instantly noticeable are the empty roads (even in rush hour) and all of the trees lining the roads. The people drive so politely. And you can return things in stores and get your money back. These are the most wonderful things about being back home.

I keep a Verizon account for when I return. While I have a T-mobile account for my travels around the globe because they have a great international roaming plan, I pay my $100 a month on Verizon just so when I get back i can have great service. They have always had a better network than T-Mobile and others.

Helloooo? Verizon? Where are you???

What the heck has happened to the Verizon network in the six months I have been away? My home used to have 5 dots of service and now it has one. Our regional office used to have 5 dots of service and now it has two. I’m getting speeds of 1 or 2 megabits a second in Verizon. It was never that bad, consistently.

I just don’t understand how service can get worse. Did Verizon just reduce the number of towers they had? I mean, what does a cellular company do to actually have fewer dots of service throughout an area?

I remember when I would get 40 megabit speeds on my iPhone. (Even in rural Asia I get 40 megabit speeds anymore.) So why am I getting 1 or 2 megabits now?

I really am worried about Verizon now. Seriously worried.

They have racked up $130 Billion in debt buying back their own stock. They have sold off their towers (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/verizon-to-sell-landlines-towers-in-two-deals-for-15-6-billion) and sold off their landline service is a dozen states. And now I am seeing significantly worse coverage and speeds.

I really was shocked to read this article where T-Mobile is now rated the best and fastest LTE network. Isn’t T-Mobile supposed to be one of the bad networks? How can they be the best?

It’s dizzying how things can change in just six months.