Willing to share screen cap of 5G notification?

[ViperGeek]

I pre-ordered and received an unlocked GS21 Ultra 512GB, and replaced an existing phone on my existing Verizon plan.  As soon as the network recognized the new phone, it sent me to a website to upgrade my SIM for free (quite nice of the Evil Wireless Empire).

I've since been on a quest to light up my 5G network icon in the upper right corner of the phone.  According to Verizon's maps:

https://www.verizon.com/coverage-map/

I've driven up and down major roads near my house that, in theory, are covered by what they call "5G Nationwide" (the slower, reliable one), yet have never seen the "5G" icon light up on my phone.

Can someone share with me/us a screen cap of the 5G light lit up?  And are there any tricks to getting 5G to work on the Verizon network using an unlocked GS21 Ultra with a Verizon 5G SIM installed?

Thanks!

- Dave

[usermzeJaY3BsM]

Take your phone to a Verizon store, and ask them.  It is possible that you are not on a 5G plan, or that the EWE website was not able to upgrade your sim, and you need to get an actual sim provisioned for 5G.  Also for the device you failed to mention 5G on your device model, Samsung does make non-5G devices, so make sure yours is a 5G one.

[ViperGeek]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 512GB (GS21), model number SM-G998U1, which is 5G-capable.  I also received a brand new 5G nano SIM card, with "5G" written all over it, FedEx'ed to me by Verizon, which was very nice of them.  So I think those two checkboxes are checked.  The plan I'm on is called "Do More Unlimited 5G UW", so that also feels 5G-capable.

If I continue to not be able to light up the "5G" status icon on my phone, I'll bring it to my friendly, local Verizon store and have them check everything out.

- Dave

[bill-e]

Drive into a populous area, town or city center that's solid red and try.  My experience is that there's plenty of fringe areas on the map with no coverage.

[ViperGeek]

Thanks Bill!  Good advice.

Since I'm in the "sticks" (NH), once I drive into a solid red area, will my phone automatically switch over to a 5G band if it already has a solid LTE+ band locked 'n loaded?  Or should I pull over, go into Airplane Mode, then reestablish my connection to the mobile data network?

- Dave

[bill-e]

Dave, so am I.  The first places I saw it was in both Milford and Keene.  On the map where I live is red but I actually don't get any signal so those maps must be based on free space propagation and not reality.  They should drive a car like Google did and map out the actual coverage 😉

In Keene I got 60mbs down.

[ViperGeek · Accepted solution]

Oh yeah.  That's the stuff ...

Thanks @Bil.  I found a strong 5G signal in the parking lot of Applebee's on Route 101A (Amherst St.) in Nashua, NH.

- Dave

[SamsungRei]

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