Verizon down in Midwest and California, how're things for you?
By Nilay Patel 
posted December 13th 2009 11:44PM
posted December 13th 2009 11:44PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted December 13th 2009 11:44PM
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It's back up!!!
(And first comment. MLIA)
I applaud your map. My blue in chitown feels good right now.
@PeterFnet
your icon is approaching light speed!!!!
@Poop Chef
To go where no man has gone before...
@Poop Chef
no, just 7.2Mbps
actually, if it were approaching the speed of light (a relativistic speed), it would actually appear shorter than usual due to length contraction.
@hang Oh really, Mr. Smartypants?
yeah.
This means that all of those overpaying Verizon customers are going to roam onto Sprint (the other CDMA carrier) and see just how great Sprint is (and for a whole lot less money).
@DaveBach I thought Sprint piggybacked Verizon a lot?
@PeterFnet
Funny... Even with three states knocked out, there's still more red here than there is blue on AT&T's map. ;-)
But California? Yea, that's a pretty important area. If this was a full time thing, Verizon wouldn't be able to pick on AT&T's NYC coverage. Luckily it's only 6 hours. I'd gladly give a week of no reception in exchange for reliability.
With BigRed, when it's down, it's down, and otherwise it's all good.
BigBlue? It's a gamble every time you pick up the phone...
Fine for me in Minnesota.
Can someone answer me a question?
ik I'm a total noob at this, but isn't Alltell a GSM network? So how could Verizon merge with them?
@nicksilvestri they are cdma
@nicksilvestri
Verizon and Alltel are both CDMA networks. I think Sprint is, or might be CDMA?
AT&T and T-mobile, are both GSM carriers.
@sweetfeld28
Wow why did I think that it was GSM?
Okay well that makes thing easier to understand :D
And yeah Sprint is CDMA
@nicksilvestri
I'm pretty sure they are CDMA... they have roaming agreements with Verizon and Sprint.
@Michael Scrip
Sprint is 1900Mhz CDMA
Verizon and Alltel are 800Mhz CDMA
@nicksilvestri No, Alltel is a cdma network, as far as I know, it has never been GSM, I used to have it.
@nicksilvestri Alltel purchased Western Wireless a number of years ago and inherited its GSM network. (I believe there was another Alltel acquisition with similar circumstances, but I don't recall the specifics.) Alltel continued to operate those GSM networks (and continued to collect roaming revenue from AT&T and T-Mobile as such), but so far as I recall Alltel only activated CDMA phones itself.
@JP23
I just quoted what the great Wikipedia told me:
"The company focused on small to medium size cities providing wireless services to residential and business customers in all 50 states through roaming agreements with Verizon and Sprint. These agreements gave Alltel customers access to nationwide service, while providing those carriers coverage in rural areas."
"Since many of these roaming partners operate in the 800 MHz or 1900 MHz CDMA band, Alltel customers on national calling plans are required to use tri-mode (800 AMPS, 800 CDMA, 1900 CDMA) or dual band (800 CDMA, 1900 CDMA) handsets."
so much for verizon's ads attacking at&t.
@(Unverified)
no, not really. http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/atandt-data-outage-in-san-francisco/
it happens to the best of them occasionally. of course the scale to which it occurs varies as well...
@(Unverified)
hmmm. that seems a lil suspicious to me. Both cellular networks gowing down relatively at the same time????? Something cant be right....Hopefully it has something to do with 4G.
@(Unverified)
There's a difference between a one time outage... and 24/7, 365 suckage...
@(Unverified)
or engadget got so much crap for only covering att outages that they finally slipped in a vzw outage. i know someone who has worked at noc for vzw and someone who worked for att. they actually both have several outages on a daily basis. when you have 50,000 cell sites its typical for a handful or two to go down each day. most people have no idea how many connections and companies a single call goes through to get to the other end. an outage that spans multiple states is definitely noteworthy. but it happens to every network. it sucks when youre the one affected by it. but overall you usually get a connection where you're supposed to be able to. (how fast the connection is, that's a different story.)
@(Unverified)
I wouldn't call a two-day period "relatively the same time." Every few months, Verizon decides to stop working here (Rochester NY) from about 11:00 on Saturday until sometime early in the morning. I'm not sure why they choose weekends to do it, but it's always the same time of day, and always Saturday nights.
@(Unverified)
I agree, so much for most reliable 3G. Gonna have to pull them ads now.
Still down in western Wisconsin
i live in california, and it's working fine... finer than at&t
@purecussion what nilay should have done is painted it blue
:)
@purecussion
been working fine in the 805 for me also all night
@purecussion
Nah, Verizon still sucks! :P
six hour outage? we need something else to worry about.
That's embarrassing.
no service? there's a map for that!
@uclajames
At least we Verizon gets more coverage from this. Unlike some providers.
@uclajames
I don't think you have a network, enjoy your toy phone.
@uclajames
and that should have gone to the original comment below this one...
@uclajames
If only we had the app to go with it!
Thats why this hot girl Isn't txting me back! the number she gave me is 555-555-5555
...It must be the network
@yulebellow
It wasn't a girl anyway, so you're good
This will be part of AT&T's next commercial!
Still down in the U.P. of Michigan
@turkish1450
Hey! A Yooper! Hello from troll-land.
Matt
displaced Yooper from da Soo, eh.
This looks like the power grid back when Enron was wreaking havoc in CA.
My Verizon phone is working just fine around Metro Detroit.
@TheGame21x
Canadian roaming
@TheGame21x
Haven't noticed any hitches all evening, still working fine here in Ann Arbor. I've been using 3G and texting and talking.
@TheGame21x Living in Detroit is punishment enough!