Bob is going to be traveling overseas and he'll be using his iPhone 5 while he's there. Leo says it can be done, but he should turn data roaming off. That means he won't have any data while he's out and about, though. But it also means he won't have a phone bill in the thousands.
Greg has an issue with weak Verizon cellphone reception in his area. He wants to know if a Femtocell is a good option to fix that. Leo says it is if he has Internet in his house. Every cell phone company offers them, and they act as a kind of cell phone tower in the home, routing phone calls through the internet. But it depends on how much they want to keep him as a customer. If he asks for a customer retention expert and respectfully explain the problem, they may even offer him one at no charge. But if they try and sell him one, hold out.
Peter has more than one cellphone running in Verizon and wants to swap out SIMs to use one number. But he has to use a special SIM in order to get LTE in it. Leo says that may be due to the update that runs VOLTE. But when it takes the SIM out and moves it to the iPhone, he loses visual voicemail. Leo says that's likely a Verizon shortcoming, even though Leo doesn't think there's a technical reason.
Jim has an iPhone 5 through Verizon and he's being nailed for "excessive use of data" with charges over $300 a month, and he has no idea why because nothing has changed in his usage. Verizon claims he's using up to 1 GB a day! But he isn't using even close to that. He doesn't stream video, and is rarely listening to Pandora. Leo says that going into the usage meter in the settings, he can see what the phone thinks he's using. Is the hotspot turned on? Streaming video can easily get 1GB a day if he's not careful.
Gary doesn't want his email to get deleted from his computer when he deletes it off his phone. Leo says that PoP3 deletes mail on the webmail's server after it gets downloaded to the email client, while IMAP shares the same view as the webmail and keeps it. So any changes he makes from one device would echo to the server and vice versa. So it may just be the way it is set up.
Leo suggests not using the Verizon email program, and use the stock email program that comes on the phone instead. Also, Gary should set up a gmail account and let it go get his email from Verizon.
Laura upgraded to the new iPhone 6 with Verizon, but she can't get her email to work on the new phone. Leo says one thing she can do is backup the old phone, and then restore it to the new one. That will move the settings over automatically. Laura says she keeps putting in her email password and it rejects it. Leo suspects Laura is just having issues typing her password with the new keyboard and suggests changing her password to an easier to type, but not easy to guess password.
Jerry has a cell phone and he's traveling out of the country. He's out of his contract. Can he get it unlocked? Leo says yes, he can just go to Verizon and ask them politely. They are supposed to do it, and AT&T does this for its customers too. Verizon is under a consent decree not to lock their phones, so they should unlock it. Then he can put a local SIM card in when he gets to his destination.
Sharon has a Verizon cellphone but wants to get her old AT&T iPhone 4S added to the plan. Verizon said they can't add that phone to their network, though. Leo says back then, AT&T and Verizon phones only worked with either GSM or CDMA technology. If the phone was newer, like an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, she could do it because they are called "world phones." She may need to unlock it. But the 4S predates the era of iPhone world phones, and it won't work.
Pete wants to root his Verizon Google Nexus 6, but every time he tries, he can't seem to make it work. Leo says that Verizon tends to make changes to Google phones to prevent them from being rooted.
Leo advises checking XDA Developers forums to get tips on how to deal with unlocking the boot loader, then rooting it and getting custom recovery on it.
Mark uses Verizon 4G Wireless service and runs through 40GB in an afternoon with video conferencing. He also ends up roaming, so he's paying for that as well as overages. Verizon told him that FIOS would be coming, but Leo says that'll never happen now because they've stopped growing that out. It all has to do with a tug of war with the FCC over net neutrality.
