LTE Outage Irks Users, Dents Verizon’s Reputation

Verizon still hasn't disclosed the movement of the network outage that plagued LTE users this workweek, but leastways one effect is clear: embarrassment.

Start on Tuesday night, users of Verizon's LTE (long-run evolution) meshing began reporting that they couldn't touch base to it with any twist. The carrier said on Thursday morning that it had quickly found the cause of the crash and solved information technology. In between, the immune carrier's most advanced mobile data network was out of stock.

The nationwide nonstarter was a better embarrassment for Verizon, which markets itself as having a more tried network than its main challenger, AT&A;T. It was also a monitor that true the all but sophisticated systems force out fail.

Users of the HTC Thunderclap, Verizon's simply LTE handset, were able to get phone calls or usage data services via the attack aircraft carrier's 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) or earlier 1x-RTT networks. Information devices much as the LG VL600 USB modem were supposed to switch complete to 3G, simply in at least single case, fifty-fifty that mesh was out of stock.

"If it happens once more I will date from to cable Internet/Wi-Fi usage in my home office, depend on hotel Cyberspace and Wi-Fi hotspots when I'm not either at the office or main office … and strike down service connected the Verizon Wireless mesh for laptop data usage in favor of these more trusty options," said Verizon subscriber Robert I Ehrle, who normally whole works at home in North Virginia rather than drive to his office in Washington, D.C.

Ehrle antecedently used Verizon's 3G service merely was won over by Verizon's promises of fast LTE performance. The new net was fast, but the LTE modem and software on a regular basis own required restarts. Then, opening around 2 a.m. on Midweek, Ehrle started to get a "Network not authorized" message when trying to bulge LTE, and when he dependable to switch to 3G, helium power saw an "Unable to unite" error. He had to transpose to his office and work late to have an Internet connection. Only after reverting home late Wed night was he able to connect to the 3G meshwork, Ehrle aforesaid in an e-mail audience.

Distributed Failure

Because the failure was so far-flung, it probably was caused by a problem on the backside of Verizon's network rather than whatsoever flaw in LTE wireles engineering science, analysts said. The radio network is too distributed and was supplied by two different vendors, Ericsson and Alcatel-Luminous, said Phil Marshall of Tolaga Research. More likely, a configuration change or software update that was propagated throughout the network led to the loser, which could explain the wait of several hours ahead the fault was corrected everyplace, He said.

The accompany was lucky that the outage occurred while the LTE network is still relatively small, analysts said. Verizon only introduced LTE in December, in 38 municipality areas. IT plans to have the system up in 140 other areas by the cease of this twelvemonth and across its entire 3G footmark by the finish of 2020.

"I think this is a wake-up call to Verizon," same analyst Jacklight Gold of J. Aureate Associates. The outage may indicate there is a mateless point of failure in Verizon's LTE infrastructure, which would be a poor design, atomic number 2 said.

Verizon has been rolling out the new technology apace while simultaneously integrating it with its extant 3G network, John Marshall said.

"They've been extremely aggressive in the rate at which they've launched this meshwork. And you've got to give them quotation for that," Marshall said. However, this does mean risk, he added. "I opine we're visual perception the impingement of that," he said.

If the network suffers a similar failure soon, information technology might indicate there is something inaccurate with the underlying computer architecture. That would constitute a harder trouble to unsex, George Marshall aforesaid.

Like failures of Research In Motion's BlackBerry service in the past, the outage proves that disregarding how extremely praised a system may be, it can still fail, Gold said.

"Hoi polloi have gotten used to the notion of these things being risen day in and day out … and that's just not the case," he said.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, memory board and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail dea is stephen_lawson@idg.com