Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it was experiencing problems with its 4G service, with some users losing data completely.
"Verizon Wireless engineers have been working to resolve an issue with 4G LTE service that is affecting some customers' 4G devices," the company said in a statement.
In the past 24 hours, some Verizon customers reported that their 4G devices were running on the 3G network, the company said. Some users were unaffected, but others reported "that data access is either intermittent or unavailable."
"3G data and voice devices are unaffected. All customers' voice calls and text messages continue to go through," Verizon said. "We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."
The trouble comes two days after Verizon celebrated the one-year anniversary of its 4G LTE network. The service is now available in 190 markets, up from 38 at launch. PCMag gave the network high praise during our 2011 Fastest Mobile Networks test: "We found that Verizon's new 4G LTE network is much faster than other mobile Web options, with speeds that often exceed home Internet connections," PCMag analysts concluded.
To boost that network, Verizon this week purchased PCS and AWS spectrum in various U.S. markets from Leap Wireless for $188 million. Leap in turn bought 12 MHz of 700 MHz A block spectrum in Chicago from Verizon Wireless for $204 million.
That came days after Verizon paid three of the nation's top three cable companies $3.6 billion for 122 spectrum licenses in the AWS band. As part of the deal, Comcast will get $2.3 billion for the spectrum, Time Warner will get $1.1 billion, and Bright House will get $189 million.