Verizon: Here's what we're doing to fix our 4G network
Verizon says it's taking a handful of steps to improve its 4G LTE network following its third outage this month. Among the fixes is breaking up parts of its network so that problems don't spread.
Verizon has issued a post-mortem on its recent network outages, and says it's taking steps to make sure they don't happen again.
In a statement this evening, the wireless company said that despite the hiccups, it's seen 99 percent availability for its 4G LTE network for the year, and that the problems that have cropped up have been unrelated to one another.
"Each incident has been different from a technical standpoint," the company said. "Our engineers have successfully diagnosed those past triggering events, and they have not re-occurred. We also work diligently to rectify technical problems in the Network before they affect any customers."
Still, Verizon said it plans to make some key changes to its network to keep future outages at bay. One of those is breaking up parts of its network to keep damage in one area from spreading to another.
"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."
Verizon also said that it's rolling out "software fixes" that will boost performance and improve reliability.
Yesterday's outage, which the company said was resolved overnight was its third in the month of December. The company's 4G LTE network had an outage on December 6, leaving customers across the U.S. with intermittent access to 4G data. That particular problem was fixed in a day and a half. A second outage occurred last week, with customers having trouble connecting to both Verizon's 4G and 3G networks.
During all three such outages, affected users said they had issues connecting to both Verizon's 4G LTE and 3G networks, however Verizon said 3G data access was unaffected. In today's statement the company made an admission that there was at least some slow down in that "customers could not connect to the 3G Network as quickly as we would have liked."
"Being a pioneer comes with growing pains," Verizon said. "The recent issues that affected our customers' 4GLTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs."