For a whole weekend, I thought the new smartphone I had just bought was defective. Because why else could it not send any SMS messages to any of my contacts nor connect to the Internet via 4G? It was the only logical explanation at the time, as everything else -- my monthly plan, the 4G coverage in my area, the settings -- was in order. While that was happening, I could receive SMS messages, calls were working fine. Getting a defective device is not impossible, after all. I am also not the luckiest person in the world. These things happen.
The problem, however, was not with the device, or even the SIM as some may think. As it turns out, whenever this happens, you just happen to be in the wrong place. Literally. Some may be lead to believe that their setup is to blame, when it is actually the carrier's 4G network in the area that is at fault. You may find that it works great in some places, and only have problems at work, for instance.
A service rep from one of my carrier's stores straight up acknowledged that when it happens, it is a network issue and not the user's equipment which causes these problems. I find it strange, however, that a carrier could know about these things, but is not fixing them. What's worse, 4G used to work fine in my area earlier this year, so things went South recently.
A journalist friend of mine, knowledgeable about the local carriers, told me he experienced the same problems hundreds of miles away, but on a different carrier's network. He had worse luck than I did, encountering these issues more of the time in more places in his area. In his case, it even happened while in a carrier store, and no one there knew what was wrong. Imagine that.
I am inclined to believe that this is a widespread issue, which likely surfaces in areas where the upgrade to 4G from existing 3G networks (and to 3G from 2G, respectively) has not been done properly, but it could also be something else to blame. Maybe someone, with knowledge on telecommunications equipment, reading this story can shed more light on the matter.
The service rep recommended a (shoddy) fix, however -- disable 4G in settings, so the device is forced to use 3G. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But it worked. On 3G, I could send text messages (receiving them was never a problem) and browse the web.
Vodafone Australia seems to be the only carrier that I could find that acknowledges that this is or could be an issue with its network, while also revealing a similar solution until it fixes things.
"If your phone's connected to the 3G/4G network, try using 2G/GSM mode. If you're able to send TXTs after this, contact us to see if there are any issues with the 3G network in your area. You'll need to switch your phone back to 3G/4G before using any data", says Vodafone Australia on a support page.
Obviously, I called customer support. After wasting more than an hour talking to different reps, one of them told me that my best option is to make a written complaint (yes, I'm told that in 2014), after checking that I should have 4G coverage indoors on my smartphone (and outdoors, as it also affects the area around my building) and that everything else is fine.
If your carrier is as cunning as mine, then you'll have little luck replicating the issue while in the store. There, everything will probably work great, like you are in a magical place. Heck, you could have 2G coverage a block away, but excellent 4G while inside. That's not to say that such issues can't arise. Just do not be surprised if everything is working as it should.
Why that happens is due to the way carriers treat network traffic for devices in their stores, or due to dedicated equipment installed in stores. Every device connecting to the service there seems to be on a totally different network. It is a clever thing, which was confirmed to me by a carrier rep when confronting him about it.
To give you an idea about the effect this has on download speeds via 4G, I could hit close to 100 Mbps in the bar next to one of my carrier's stores, which is unbelievable speed! I couldn't reach even half as much outdoors where there are no physical obstacles. Yes, carriers are cheating. Who could have known?
Image Credit: Dario Lo Presti/Shutterstock
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