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Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 14, 2015 01:40AM

If you, family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers are having problems making or receiving calls in the Tysons Corner Silver Line tunnel between Tysons Corner and Greensboro stations AND you have a Verizon Wireless phone, it be helpful if Verizon Wireless tech support hears from at least a few of us at 1-800-922-0204 (reference master ticket # NRB000007945852 I opened). This all being said in light of the recent Metro safety incidents. From my testing (in full disclosure, I am a Verizon employee and a regular commuter on this new Silver Line, speaking for myself only and not on behalf of Verizon):

• Coverage issue with Verizon Wireless 4G LTE, 3G, nor 2G/1x bands (tested with two phones I have) in much of the 1700 foot long Silver Line Tysons tunnel. No other Verizon cellular coverage issues in other areas I travel locally (short of being in a basement or a parking garage occasionally).

• Phone signal -135 dbm 5 asu in middle of tunnel (this is very weak, measured in middle of tunnel on my morning commute yesterday with a Samsung Galaxy phone. This is too weak to hold a call and my calls drop and will not reconnect until out of the tunnel. 0 asu is lowest value and 97 asu is highest if had five signal bars. Tried test calls just calling into my work voicemail. I have seen other passengers on the daily commute in this Silver Line tunnel over the months drop calls, some are Verizon Wireless customers and some are not.

• Wifi does not work in tunnel, all password protected/secured I found in area immediately outside tunnel.

• Outside on both sides of the tunnel, there are 3 to 5 bars of coverage (medium to strong coverage).

Other details/background:

• This rail Silver Line tunnel segment opened a year ago in late July, 2014 and no coverage/dropped calls from day 1 with my older 2G/3G phone and in the last month or so with my new 4G LTE Verizon Wireless phone, when go a short distance into the tunnel. I can only guess how this being a complex interaction between the general rail contractor building the line, their subcontractors, governments at multiple levels, the airport authority, WMATA transit agency, and other interests how this came to be.

• Verizon Wireless has coverage in many of the older parts of the Washington DC/MD/VA Metrorail system underground subway tunnels populated with microcells. This is cool when can stand in a station (Rossyln) dozens of feet underground or on a train, and others and I have completed calls and texts.

• Though the tunnel and rail infrastructure on the Silver Line are new, most of the Metrorail cars in the system are around 10 to 40 years old (slowly being replaced), and with multiple serious incidents in other parts of the system underground this year - 1. January, 2013 L’Enfant smoking train incident, 2. train derailment Thursday early morning of last week near the Smithsonian station, but fortunately no passengers on that train right before beginning revenue service, 3. power issue requiring train to be evacuated near East Falls Church last Friday (above ground, but not so good if somewhere in subway tunnel with no coverage). If one cannot call out in the tunnel, this can be at best a serious safety issue in a 911 situation.

• This Silver Line ridership with Tysons Corner and the Galleria, being one of the largest malls on the East Coast with close to 420 combined stores, plus daily commuters like myself, is equivalent to a small arena/stadium worth of people going through this tunnel each work day, about 19000 riders per typical weekday from planitmetro.com data I downloaded. Besides for others and my own health and safety (primary concern), lacking coverage in this tunnel, routine calls, texts, and data/Internet activity get interrupted. Dulles Airport passengers on arriving in the area 1st time who use the Silver Line sometimes get surprised when entering this tunnel when their connections break.

From the ticket I opened as a Verizon Wireless customer, Verizon Wireless tech support is beginning to work the issue, might be a simple fix or challenges working with WMATA to get it fixed??, but it be helpful if they hear from you directly, especially if you are a Verizon Wireless customer at 1-800-922-0204 (again reference the ticket number above).

If I learn of any updates I can share, I will try to post here.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: Tyuppy ()
Date: August 14, 2015 07:42AM

You whiny faggot. Its a T U N N E L.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: ckhFJ ()
Date: August 14, 2015 08:46AM

This should be an easy thing to support because the tunnel is pretty short.

Could be passively correctly with "leaky" coax and maybe even a small directional antenna on one or both ends of the tunnel.

As usual, this was probably an oversight on METRO and Verizon's part. But this should be corrected/addressed.

I wonder if the public safety radios even have coverage in the tunnels or if this was an oversight.

Good luck getting anyone to take responsibility.

I am finding these days there are very few "Problem Solvers" just a bunch of people that give you blank stares and say either "I can't help you" or "I do not know"!!

Heck Verizon coverage sucks at my house so I have a femtocell or a Verizon Network Extender located in the center core of my house so I have my own mini cell site in my house.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: put it down ()
Date: August 14, 2015 03:05PM

You can survive 11 seconds without your "devise".

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: causeican ()
Date: August 14, 2015 11:42PM

I think OP is saying if the train got stuck in the tunnel...

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 15, 2015 05:58AM

causeican Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think OP is saying if the train got stuck in the
> tunnel...

Correct

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 15, 2015 06:48AM

At 11am yesterday (Friday), got a text saying the ticket is assigned (to a local technician) and being worked, and I will be updated again (in the next day or days).

From my original post above
"might be a simple fix or challenges working with WMATA to get it fixed??"


Posted by: ckhFJ ()
Date: August 14, 2015 08:46AM

"This should be an easy thing to support because the tunnel is pretty short.
Could be passively correctly with "leaky" coax and maybe even a small directional antenna on one or both ends of the tunnel."

What you are saying ckhFJ () personally makes sense with myself with some tech background, but I humbly admit I am NOT an engineer. Even the Verizon Wireless tech person I talked with at Verizon when I opened the ticket, he was suggesting something along those lines, and he lived and worked in another city with a large transit system so he was very understanding and knowledgeable. Directional antennas ight be a quick fix, but may not totally solve the problem?? (QUESTION ckhFJ () - Do you know the range in feet of an outside directional antenna and would it handle the curve in the tunnel? Google Maps clearly shows the path of the Silver Line between the two stations).

If coaxial cable has to be placed in the turnnel, it most likely requires extra cooperation from WMATA/Metro, and if remember correctly when this was done before elsewhere in the sytem, it has to be when trains are not running through the tunnel, like the wee hours of the morning, or trains would have to be single tracked during offpeak hours (there are separate tunnels for each direction of train traffic between Tysons Corner and Greensboro).

There may be something else that only the Verizon Wireless local technician now assigned to the ticket can determine after inspecting.


Appreciate anyone calling in about the issue (details in original post). Many cell dead zones get fixed sooner with public support.

If I learn of updates I can share, I will continue to try to post here.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 15, 2015 07:33AM

ckhFJ

"Verizon coverage sucks at my house so I have a femtocell or a Verizon Network Extender located in the center core of my house so I have my own mini cell site in my house."

You likely have the best solution as far as the fentocell for now for your situation. The cell companies continually put up new cell towers, but challenges from local governments and property owners to get this done. In airports, arenas (Patriot Center I experienced), other parts of the underground Metrorail where Verizon Wireless coverage, microcells (or similar cell technology) is there. The other challenge is getting it all to work together, especially so the cells do not conflict with each other in a public/commercial area. I remember 12-15 years ago where on a mountain top in Skyline where I could make a call with analog, not sure with digital. Even myself, at my home -- wooded area, ground level, slight valley, no high rises -- is signal of -112 dbm 28 asu, with typically two bars out of five of 4G LTE signal strength (though it fluctuates here and there to one or three bars, outside in the neighborhood it is three bars). I can make and receive calls at home (4G LTE Advanced crystal clear calling) and texts and surf the intenret on my smartphone (though in my home I more often use the laptop). The major carriers now do sell network extenders, probably similar to what you have chKFJ . There is a very good wikipedia article I found on this issue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_signal (of course, cellular is just an advanced radio service with many of the benefits and challenges here and there with that). ckhFJ, if I may ask and if you know and wish to share here, what are your dbm/asu values before and after the fentocell? On a droid phone i.e. Samsung, others, go to Settings, About Phone, Status, Signal Strength (on other phones such as the iPhone or basic phones, not sure, but can probably Google it to find out if the information is available on your phone).

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: eJMGK ()
Date: August 15, 2015 05:26PM

i'm more worried about being infected than effected

buy ATT&T, get the good plan, stop complaining

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: bn3EU ()
Date: August 15, 2015 05:27PM


WMATA/Metro is financed / run by the city of DC (niggers)

you want the gov to provice nigger access to your VERISON phone?

shut up. your a communist with an agenda.


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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 17, 2015 05:47PM

Text update late this morning, Verizon Wireless tech is investigating the issue. Expecting to receive a further update later this week.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: ckhFJ ()
Date: August 17, 2015 09:05PM

There are a LOT of both active, passive and hybrid soultions for tunnels and buldings. It can be engineerted pretty easily.

So shooting from the hip, with little to no facts on nearby cell sites and tunnel infomation here are some options that could bed considered.

1. A lenght of "Leaky Coax" with one or more directional antennas on one or both ends of the tunnel. This could be 2 half lenghts of "Leaky Coax" from either end of the tunnel. The beauty of this is it could possibley be 100% passive if the signal levels worked out. Not requiring power, amplifiers or other devices. Additionally this might serve more than just Verizon, it could potentially serve many or all mobile carriers and public safety radios.


2. Same as above with one or more bi-directional amplifiers.

3. Coax with "Tapped" with small dipole antennas spaced at specific intervals along the length of the tunnel.

4. Something more advanced that involved a dedicated cell or micro cell for the tunnel, but I would be surprised if this would be required.

5. Possible illumination of the tunnel from each opening with a directional passive or active anteanna system. The problem with this is the multipath and signal attenuation of the train cars themselves.

6. Something else I have not thought about that woudl involve coax, splitters, combiners, amplifiers and antennas.

As for the femtocell at my house, I choose this route due to laziness and cost.

I have personal spectrum analyers and signal generators and so forth. I just did not want to run additional coax, install antennas and amplifers.

There is little to no chance that a new cell site will be installed near my house.

The sad part is I can have my phone on my hip in my house, sitting on the couch in the Family Room, if someone calls me, the call used to go directly to voice mail, but then I would get a message alert after the message was left. Text messages would come through as well most of the time.

So with the femtocell not an issue. The femtocell is not an RF repeater, it is a micro cell with its own radio like a wireless router and it connects to the Internet connection in the house.

I have a back up generator that automatically starts and switches online as well as back up battery units, so I do not need to worry about loosing any service. I have had FIOS in my house close to 10 years, I was one of the first in the area to jump on it and have been generally happy with the Verizon service.

I checked on my phone for the signal level, on the femtocell in the house is states it is 1x = -83 dBm, 4G = -110 dBm. Mobile Network State indicated Disconnected probably due to the femtocell connection.

If I have time, I may shut down the femtocell and then check the numbers and status again.

Hopefully Verizon, Metro and other carriers will have and implement a solution in the tunnel, but we are dealing with Metro where the typically station manager makes $150k+, some over $200k+ with OT, but they can be found sleeping in the kiosk and are totally annoyed if you need any assistance from these monkeys.

I stay away from public transportation as much as possible due to the waste of time it takes to get around this area. Occasionally take it to avoid parking and traffic for ball games and such and sometimes to Regan National.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 20, 2015 12:56PM

Local engineer is continuing to work the issue. As can imagine, not as simple as a typical public cell dead zone where outdoors those can often be more quickly fixed. Another update on this issue around this time next week (unless by chance sooner).

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: PhoneHere ()
Date: August 26, 2015 07:34PM

Engineers working on coming up with a solution (it has been escalated). From time to time, hopefully sooner than later, will try to post any new developments which can share.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: New News ()
Date: March 25, 2019 07:59PM


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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: JUCL6 ()
Date: March 26, 2019 08:03PM

Found post today at http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/ that Metro/WMATA is planning to wire this tunnel by later this year. After testing by the carriers, expecting it to be working for all wireless carriers - Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile - by early 2020.

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: Huh??? ()
Date: March 26, 2019 08:06PM

Oh noes! I can't get cell service on the nigger hauler, my preciousssss!

I could always work smarter and get a better job and live closer to work or afford a car...Nope, I'll just complain about the infrastructure!

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Re: Verizon Wireless Dead Zone – Tysons Silver Line Tunnel, Hear from You if Affected
Posted by: r4tgtret ()
Date: March 27, 2019 11:01AM


Phone signal -135 dbm 5 asu in middle of tunnel

TROLL POST.



AND YOU DON'T DESERVE A CELL CONNECTION INSIDE A TUNNEL YOU COMMUNIST FUCK

METRO is deep in debt there's not a fucking chance i would want to fund cell towers run by niggers inside tunnels so drunks without licenses on the road to obama (DC jobs given out by dems) can use FLICKR on their way to work

not a fucking chance

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