Verizon Wireless shed some light on recent issues impacting its LTE network in a move that looks to placate a growing online call that maybe the carrier is not quite the gold standard of network reliability it makes itself out to be.
In a statement, Verizon Wireless acknowledged that its LTE service has had a few hiccups and that some of its efforts to restore data connectivity also affected the ability to access 3G services for some customers.
“Problems customers experienced affected connectivity to the 4G LTE network and data service,” the carrier said. “Several times, we have proactively ‘moved’ 4G LTE 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.”
In explaining the particulars of the outages, Verizon Wireless noted that each incident was “different from a technical standpoint,” and that each instance was not replicated in the coinciding issue. The carrier also explained that it is remaining diligent in preventing future disruptions.
“Among the numerous measures we have taken or will take are: geographic segmentation, which enables us to isolate, contain and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop; and software fixes that we have developed, tested and applied regularly — and will continue to do so,” the carrier added.
Verizon Wireless was one of the first carriers in the world to deploy an LTE network, which unlike legacy cellular technologies, relies on an all-IP infrastructure. This results in little tolerance for imperfections across the network. The current version of LTE is the initial release of the technical specifications, with future versions expected to improve the breed.
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