4G Connected then dropped back to 3G never to return...

Question

I have been a paitently watiing for over 6 months now for 4G. The VZW rep told me by the end of the year for 4G to be availabe in the Utica NY area. I did some research online and found that Utica was scheduled for 4G coverage by the end of 2011. 
Now yesterday morning 11/21/11 around 9:30, I looked at my phone and realized it said 4GLTE and I did a double take, and realized it actually said 4G, now, for my first time ever being able to use it I got really excited. I played a little, downloaded some files, super fast! Even did a speedtest on it and it blew my 3G speeds away as expected! 
About 10 minutes later the connection dropped and went back to 3G, then came right back to 4G, then the phone dropped all data connection, went to 1X back to 3G then back to 4G where it held for almost an hour. 
After about an hour, it dropped again returned to 3G and it never connected to 4G again. I thought maybe it was the phone, so I did a reboot, and went into airplane mode, back out, and still nothing, only 3G  
Now I know that there is no way I connected to a tower that had 4G that is not in the Utica area, the closest tower with 4G near Utica is in Syracuse over 60 Miles away. 
So there had to be a tower or towers in the Utica area that had the 4G siginal up for a little while. 
Is it possible that VZW was testing the 4G service to get ready for its launch in the area? Or maybe it was a mistake? 
Could it mean that it's going to launch in the area soon?
Over the past few months, VZW customers in the area have exirenced lots of call drops and 3G data drop outs, which is uncommon for this area, VZW is always reliable and never drops calls (atleast in this area), some reps said it was due to 4G upgrades on the towers. Is that a true statement? 
I know there's a lot of questions here but I'm really curious as to when we'll see a solid 4G coverage in my area! 
I really want 4G! 
Thanks in advance!
-Mike

Answer 1

Both of the problems you just described is the power saving features built into the phones software. I think I posted this on your post already? haha but anyways, the switch from 3G to 4G or 4G to 3G is probably just causing the software to just get confused basically and shut off the Data connection all together to save battery, it will automatically turn itself back on later when the correct amount of time has passed, every phone is different so I can't really say when lol. But, when in WiFi to save battery and to keep your data usage down some phones will shut the data connection off and rely on the WiFi connection, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. 
The software is supposed to be designed to turn it all back on when receiving a MMS message or when the WiFi connection is terminated, but this isn't always the case. 
Verizon's version of the Droid software still had bugs that need to be taken care of :/ 
This is why Custom ROM's become peoples best friends because most issues that are addressed are taken care of very quickly, most of the time anyways. 
And you're going back a little ways there lol, but still it would all probably still look exactly the same to use as it did 15 years ago, it really hasn't changed that much, same old same old here, its like this place is stuck in a giant rut that it can't get out of haha