Previous introduction to the Express
Network/EvDO drop list about problems with the introduction of the 1XRTT
and later EvDO services and the replacement of CDPD service.
Last Update: 01/22/2007
This file used to be part of the Verizon Wireless Data 1XRTT/EvDO
Drops/Issues List, however, much of this information is of an
historical nature and most of what is discussed herein pertains the
initial problems during the rollout of 1XRTT service in 2002 and then EvDO
is 2005, a good deal of which has been remedied. Thus, this file has been
created as a separate repository for information as to systemic past
issues rather than current (2007) ones. (For obvious reasons it does not
contain any discussions as to the 4G/LTE service as that started in 2012.)
For current issues, including a state by state list of drops and service
issues with Verizon Wireless' Da 3G (1X and EvDO) and 4G/LTE Wireless
Data Networks, please refer to
the Verizon 1XRTT/EvDO/4G/LTE
Drops/Issues List.
Since 1997, we have been using Verizon's (and to a lesser extent
AT&T/WS's) analog-based CDPD data service. The service is relatively slow
(24 kbps down is a generally the best speed we can achieve, usually
slower), and not very well built out outside of the major Northeast and
Western urban areas.
Although there are some rural carriers, such as US Cellular in Maine for
example, which have built out CDPD networks as well (and which ATTWS
customers may roam on at no charge in many cases), generally, if you
travel outside of the Northeast or the LA and SF areas, you won't have
CDPD service.
Where service exists, although it is slow, it generally works well --
CDPD is a relatively robust protocol -- if you loose coverage the your
laptops or wireless device's data connection will not terminate -- CDPD
seems to wait until you come back into a service area and just resumes
the connection! Thus, if you drive from Concord, NH (with CDPD from
Verizon) west to Vermont (where there is no CDPD service), and then down
I-91 to Mass, as you get to Northampton where Verizon's service area
begins, CDPD pops back in, and your connection resumes. (If data is being
passed at the time you go out of coverage you may not be able to
re-establish the connection if too much data tries to "push" through
while you are out of CDPD coverage, but if only a limited amount of data
tries to push through, you can easily drive out of CDPD coverage for and
hour or two, then drive back into it, and all the data will flow back in
as soon as get into good enough coverage. If you need to watch logs go by
or get streaming information, CDPD works well as you can drop in and out
of coverage and a connection will not normally drop during while out of
coverage.
Another bonus of CDPD is that you generally are given a static IP, so
people can remotely connect to your laptop (if you allow them) to upload
files, get work you did remotely, and generally have access to your
mobile device (again, if you allow it) as if your laptop were connected
to a land-based internet connecton.
Although robust in terms of keeping a connection "alive", it was not in
terms of speed and latency, and by 2002 BAMS/Verizon was ready to roll out
its newer, CDMA (digital) based 1XRTT network. This network required a new
type of card, which we obtained from Verizon which was reselling cards
from Sierra Wireless (the same people who made the CDPD card; we got
Sierra 555s and they seem to work very well; it is a PAIN dealing with
Sierra Wireless in Canada since they have not yet set up an office in the
US and there are all sorts of shipping, customs, and exchange rate
problems in dealing with them; so much for NAFTA! :) ).
Unfortunately, during 2003 and 2004, Verizon's new(er) "high-speed" data
service, using the 1XRTT protocol, and labeled as "Express Network",
didn't fare as well, and had handoff issues, unexplainable drops,
connections would hang for no reason, somtimes the laptop would crash or
just lose all IP connectivity, and so on.
Besides rarely approaching (at this time) the boasted "burst" speed of
144 KbpS and having many areas of significantly slower coverage, the
Express Network service is encumbered by the pernicious problem of
resetting itself in certain areas. As a result, users must close the
Express Network application (on a laptop) or disconnect from the service,
and re-establish a connection. All work is likely to be lost from the
first connection/session, so, for example, if someone were using FTP to
transfer a 2 meg file, a dropped connection will result in forcing the
user to have the entire file resent. For people who are not on the $99
unlimited Express Network Plan, having to reconnect and re-do the file
transfer can eat up a significant chunk of a given customer's included
minutes/Kb allotment.
The Express Newtwork/1XRTT drops/resets are generally not directly
related to poor coverage -- indeed, most of the areas where the drops/resets
occur are areas of very good coverage where both analog and CDMA digital
phones work and hand off perfectly (more so analog-wise; there is some
correlation between CDMA/digital sudden drops and 1XRTT/Express Network
drop/resets, but it is slight). Thus, the Express Network service will
simply drop and reset itself (and drop your connection and data session!) in
areas where an analog and generally a digital call will work/transit through
fine and not drop.
After a number of dead-end technical trouble tickets filed with the various
Verizon data offices resulted in no improvement (detailed in a
posting/letter from 11/09/2002, located at http://wirelessnotes.org/bams-1xrtt-ny-d
rops-20021103, we contacted corporate in New Jersey and spoke to Mark
Houlihan(sp?) whom we were told is responsible for 1XRTT service problems.
After a series of (one-way) e-mails in late October and early November 2002,
as well as more recently in Jan 2003 where we detailed what appear to be
systemic service problems throughout the NY and some areas
of the New England markets, we were told "Oh, we are putting up a tower in
Westchester so maybe that will help the problem". Really...that will help
1XRTT drops/resets, which we noted in our correspondence along NY-440
between NJ and NY in Perth Amboy and on the Staten Island side? Must be one
TALL tower! :(
It appears, then, that either Verizon doesn't "get" the problem (unlikely),
or they are discovering what others have said for a while, essentially, that
these "advanced" data services simply do not live up to their promise and
that after billions of dollars in investment simple problems like handoffs
and maintaining a continuous connection are unattainable goals. We would
hope that they resolve these problems as when the service does work it is
generally superior to CDPD, but the current drops, variable throughput
speeds, and poor quality of service practically make it unusable for
business needs.
We are currently re-evaluating our use of the 1XRTT product from Verizon,
and may opt to cancel our Express Network service (and perhaps try Sprint's
again?) and insist that no early-termination fee apply as they simply are
not able to (essentially) "live-up" to their end of the bargain and provide
a viable, mobile data solution which does not drop/reset in
certain areas of otherwise good coverage. This may also be a means whereby
other Express Network/1XRTT customers may terminate their contracts with
Verizon due to Verizon's apparent (in our cases and in the cases of many of
the people who have written to us about similar problems in their respective
markets) utter inability to diagnose, verify, and remedy significant defects
in their Express Network/1XRTT data service.
(Note that in areas of poor coverage, such as going through a tunnel with no
1XRTT coverage, the connection does not drop -- it simply
waits for a few minutes until the 1XRTT signal is detected again and resumes
the data session, much like our current CDPD [a slower, older, and
apparently much more robust data service] service does. So this is
not an issue of traveling to where there is just no
coverage -- these areas apparently have very good 1XRTT coverage and yet for
some unexplained reason as you traverse them the connection drops, the
connection software and/or laptop need to be reset (or even shut down!) and
the entire session needs to be re-established! This is a great inconvenience
when driving (you need to pull over and start all over again) and totally
unlike our experiences with CDPD service which never has any problems of
this nature. There is no way at this point that Express Network can "take
over" from CDPD, and I hope Verizon doesn't try to sell their Express
Network/1XRTT service to public safety / emergency response agencies as they
may spend more time resetting their connection than actually using the
product! :( It is, at this stage, as a result of all the drops/resets, IMO
not ready to assume the work reliability-wise of CDPD.)
Update 06/04/2003: In a number of cases, we have recently
observed that the connection no longer "drops", e.g., the "Watcher" software
doesn't say "Connection Lost", but in effect the connection is still lost.
Instead of dropping, it "hangs", and no data can be passed back and forth
until all connections are closed (such as SSH, Telnet, FTP,
etc.), you Quit out of The Watcher, you restart The
Watcher (or whatever program you use to connect to the Verizon
1XRTT network), and only then will it start to work again. Note that as in
the earlier paragraphs, when the Verizon Express Network connection hangs,
even the above procedure may not work, and an entire reboot of your laptop
or system may be required -- not a very convenient way to use a wireless
network, and certainly not a very robust "enterprise" solution or product.
Update 06/15/2003: We've identified three types of drops
with Verizon's 1XRTT Express Network Service, which are:
For a complete discussion of these 3 types of drops, see the full June 15, 2003 Update
Note and Additional Problem Update 10/14/2003: Verizon has also
detected (via some tests with us) that Telnet (port 23) and SSH (secure
telnet, port 22) will drop/hang if they are idle for more than 5 minutes. We
have also detected this with FTP connections which last for more than 5
minutes, regardless of if data is actually being transferred, meaning
effectively that a file which takes more than 5 minutes can not be sent!
Verizon has also graciously agreed to let us out of our 2-year contracts
(even though we have 1 year left) due to these problems. This is detailed in
an October 14, 2003 update
concerning FTP idle drops as well as Telnet, SSH, and our contract
options. A further update and discussion is also available at verizon-en-drops-update-20031020
Success! Verizon seems to have resolved some of these issues -- many
of the drops/hangs from the list below no longer take place (and will need
to be tested and the list edited accordingly over the next few
weeks/months), and the Telnet and SSH problems (and FTP?) seem to have been
fixed. See a brief, conditional
update from November 6, 2003, which discusses the resolution(s).
Do note, however, that Verzons's 1XRTT still suffers from many
dificiencies which CDPD did not, mainly:
However, it seems like we are revisiting the initial 1XRTT hangs, drops,
and handoff issues all over again!
We tend to call these EvDO issues "Cycle" issues. "Cycle Areas", as per
area not drops per se, that is, the connection is not torn down requiring
a manual re-connect, but instead an area where the transition from 1XRTT
to/from EvDO does not occur "smoothly", causing connections to "hang"
either for more than a momentary period (at best) or to completely time
out (at worst). In such cases, telnet/ssh/SSL and other ongoing
connections will need to be re-established, as well as downloads,
streaming audio and video, etc. Again, the EvDO/1XRTT software does not
disconnect, but the extended delay in cycling "up" from 1XRTT to EvDO or
cycling "down" from EvDO to 1XRTT, during which time data does not seem to
pass, results in established TCP/IP connections being lost.
We are assuming that this is part of the debugging and initial
implementation of the EvDO system, and that as soon as EvDO is universally
implemented a lot of these "cycle" issues will go away. However, after two
years (almost) of EvDO service, many of these issues remain, and the EvDO
service seems too "delicate" and "fussy" compared to the 1XRTT service
(and hence we do not yet use EvDO for any mobile application) or the much
more robust (and now gone :( ) CDPD service.
Specific EvDO issues are detailed under the "EvDO Cycle Areas" section on
the Verizon Wireless Data (3G/4G)
Drop List, and we will continue to post new problems and remedied
EvDO-specific issues on that list.
Overall, this discussion and the 1X/EvDO drop list will hopefully serve as
a central source where such data service drop information may be
collected, posted, and utilized in furtherance of future service
improvements by Verizon.
Update, 2006, EvDO issues: Well, now that the 1XRTT issues in terms
of hangs, handoffs, and drops (other than the ongoing and current non-drop
issues immediately above) have been for the most part remedied, Verizon
rolls out EvDO service, and soon evDO Rev.A, which will offer speeds
around 1 Meg down and ~60Kbps up (EvDO), and 2 megs down(?) and closer to
225 Kbps up (EvDO Rev.A).
Disclaimer/Note: The authors have nothing to do with
Verizon other than using a few of their phones and/or data products as
paying subscribers. While we will try to keep these lists current,
you should test them out for yourself and not use this as a dispositive and
authoritative source of information as to Verizon's cellular service (or
lack thereof). In other words, these are just our and/or other's
observations -- we try to be accurate, but we make no representations other
than what we have observed (and if others notice we are wrong about a given
drop, please mail us so we can test the drop and modify the list
accordingly.)
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Last modified 01/22/2007
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