I called the Tier 2 tech number as suggested on page 2 of this thread. Here is what I learned:
1. Verizon is completely aware of the issue and has a Verizon internal forum (moderated and used by technicians) that has listed all the issues and customer complaints since the phone was released. (Still call if you are having the issue)
2. The temporary fix in the Verizon internal forum is to toggle data/voice roaming on and off.
3. Verizon has submitted network tickets to assess whether it's a network issue and all tests have come back normal and showing no outages
4. Verizon has an open ticket with Apple (Apple would not provide a ticket number) to assess if the issue is hardware related (antenna bands) or software related (10.0.2).
5. Some iPhone 7's are having this issue and some are not and the representative said I could take a chance with getting it replaced with the understanding that the same issue can occur (as mentioned in previous posts).
6. Verizon is working on it.
Verizon 128GB Silver