Droid Razr Maxx or any 4G and Network Extender

[hmlnh]

Just thought I'd post this for anyone with a Network Extender and a 4G Phone.

My Maxx would drop every call the first day when on my network extender. I was ready to return it, when the Network Extender tech support told me to turn off LTE when I was at home on the network extender. Problem Solved.

He said 4G was only helpful when accessing the internet, so voice and email didn't need 4G.

Change it in Settings>Wireless & Networks>Mobile Networks>Network Mode> and Choose CDMA only. Then when you are away from the Network Extender, you can turn it back on.

Apparently when the phone looks for 4G, and the network extender doesn't support 4G, it drops the call.

This is sufficient for my needs, because if I'm in range of my network extender, I use my desktop computer.

 

[Martimus]

Unfortunately that may not always be the solution...

My Razr has a periodic issue where calls will sometimes go direct to voicemail when I'm at home and connected to WiFi and my network extender. 4G is disabled on my phone by default. Some days my temptation is to just disconnect the network extender...

 

[hmlnh]

Yes, that happens to me too, and to many other people I know. But it happens not just on my Maxx, but it happened on my original Droid also. I have a feeling that's a Verizon issue, not a device issue.

But I'm going to try for a few days without my extender to see if that solves that problem.

 

[hmlnh]

An update:

When the tech told me to turn off my 4G when I was at home with my network extender, it worked fine for a few weeks. Then I started dropping more and more calls. About every 3rd or 4th call, and I use my cell for business, so this was a crisis.

I got a great rep at Verizon, who worked with me through the troubleshooting process.

During this process, since I'm connected via wireless router Linksys WRT310N, and it was dropping data connections to my laptop, we decided to replace the router before replacing the phone or network extender.

While I was reconnecting the new router (Linksys EA3500) I didn't immediately reconnect the network extender. I had come in from somewhere else, where I had the 4G turned on, and noticed I had 4 bars of 4G at home. With no network extender. This was miraculous, because without a network extender, I usually have 1 bar max. I waited a few hours to see if it was an anomoly, and lo and behold, it wasnt. I live in a dip where the 3G signal goes right over my house, but somehow in the process of upgrading my city to 4G, the signal gets to my house just fine.

No dropped calls, everything is rosy.

So, since I replaced the router at the same time as I stopped using the network extender, I can't tell which one was the culprit, but thought I'd post this in case it helped someone.