Roaming to Verizon

[allan473]

I have been happy with my EVO 4G for the past year. Sprint call service has been good for me except when I stay at a condo in Florida for the winter. The reception is really bad. If I can get through the call drops after a minute.

The local Verizon Wireless store claims they have better coverage there. I wonder, however.

Don't Sprint and Verizon have a deal where they roam off each other? If that is true, and I have my EVO on roaming, wouldn't the connection I get with Sprint be the same as what I would get if I had a Verizon phone?

 

[tybo31316]

I have been happy with my EVO 4G for the past year. Sprint call service has been good for me except when I stay at a condo in Florida for the winter. The reception is really bad. If I can get through the call drops after a minute.

The local Verizon Wireless store claims they have better coverage there. I wonder, however.

Don't Sprint and Verizon have a deal where they roam off each other? If that is true, and I have my EVO on roaming, wouldn't the connection I get with Sprint be the same as what I would get if I had a Verizon phone?

The way it works is that if youre in a location and you cannot receive a sprint signal it will automatically switch over to vz or whatever roaming partner(depending on whatever market youre in) you will be able to send and receive calls(voice minutes will be used while roaming) and you will be able to use data most data roaming is 1x and some people have 3g roaming. I roam all the time when im at work on the outskirts of town when i enter certain buildings and my phone works fine and i dont mind my anytime minutes being used being that i dont use all of them every month any way. I hope this answered your question.

 

[chud]

Yeah the phone will go for the weak signal first and then if there's no native signal at all then it will roam.

Try getting a free Airave from Sprint if the problem is only in the condo. Or look into Roam Control. Roam Control | AppBrain Android Market

 

[NMherron]

I have a Verizon BlackBerry for work, and a Sprint Evo for my personal. They are both with me at all times, so I can tell you about my Sprint roaming on Verizon.

If you have even one bar, or worse zero bars, but your Sprint device can still get a signal from a Sprint tower (no matter how faint) you will not be allowed to roam. So often I am near a Verizon tower and my BlackBerry has a full EVDO (3G) signal and my Sprint Evo will have zero bars and won't switch over. It's very frustrating.

Then here's the kicker...

After I finally get the phone to kick over to roaming after losing a Sprint signal altogether, I will then get a 1xRTT signal (2G) from some other roaming carrier...not Verizon. I will be sitting there with full bars 3G on my work Verizon phone and get 2 bars 1x on my personal Evo. This just happened to me this weekend where I was camping in Colorado. Very frustrated.

It seems that Sprint's PRL (Preferred Roaming List) is programmed that you roam on Verizon dead last. I love when I roam on Verizon (which happens very infrequently) because you get 3G data when you roam on their network, and the speeds are pretty quick. My guess is that Verizon's roaming is more costly to Sprint, so they intentionally make it the last carrier you will roam on.

Many people mistakenly think that their Sprint devices treat all roaming towers equally and connect to the one that is strongest. But unfortunately, it's not true. I would love to find a way to try to hack my phone's PRL and move Verizon up the list.

One thing I noticed that sometimes helps in trying to get off Sprint with zero bars and force it to roam is to go into airplane mode for about 5 seconds, then go back live. Most of the time it will go into roaming after doing this. Unless, you happen to move closer to the tower and get one bar. Airplane mode will not work if you have one bar of Sprint service.

Also note that if you exceed 350MB of roaming data. Sprint has the right to terminate your contract. It's in their Terms of Service. However, they keep this in their TOS to go after "permanent roamers" and not just to go after folks who occasionally go over their 350mb limit.

 

[dchawk81]

When I force roaming, my signal goes to full bars on 1X. Maybe Verizon is the only other CDMA here.

I'd say the answer is always going to be "it depends where you are."

 

[crzycrkr]

There are programs on the market to force roam. Check it out, it may help you

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

 

[BlackHawkA4]

Roaming is useless unless your in an area with NO Sprint service. I turn it off just to stop the confusion on my phone.

Sprint service for the most part is everywhere here. Not meaning that it's good; but, it's everywhere enough to stop me from roaming. Occasionally I will roam when in my house for literally 3 seconds and then it will go back. At the beach I will roam 2 bars which I believe to be verizon. But then after a few minutes it picks up sprint and switches back messing the whole thing up.

There have been times where I've been roaming and made a phone call and after ending the call the phone continued to roam indefinitely. Weird. I toggled airplane and it went back (as I was in an area now that had great Sprint service).

Roaming is useless unless there is no sprint coverage for miles.

 

[allan473]

Roaming is useless unless your in an area with NO Sprint service. I turn it off just to stop the confusion on my phone. .

I am going to try to force roaming with roam control.

I thought of airave last February. THe problem is the condo receives a wi-fi internet link from the router which is in the clubhouse and is not available to me. The airave needs a physical hookup.

Lots of good information here. It seems either roam control works, I switch to Verizon, I put up with horrible reception for a month, or I get a prepaid V phone for the time I am there.

Allan

 

[NMherron]

Thanks for the Roam Control tip! It requires Root Access currently, but it says HTC phones will not need root access in an upcoming update. I will download it then. Thanks again!

 

[BlackHawkA4]

I am going to try to force roaming with roam control.

I thought of airave last February. THe problem is the condo receives a wi-fi internet link from the router which is in the clubhouse and is not available to me. The airave needs a physical hookup.

Lots of good information here. It seems either roam control works, I switch to Verizon, I put up with horrible reception for a month, or I get a prepaid V phone for the time I am there.

Allan

I used Roam Control on my rooted Epic a few months before I switched to the Nexus. It worked great. Just watch out or they'll cancel your service if you roam too much. Maybe turn off data roaming, use the wifi where you are, and only use it for your calls when you need to.

 

[NMherron]

Does anyone know how to hack your PRL to put Verizon at the top of the list? I've read in boards where people have referenced it, but no one mentions how to do it. Maybe it's just a fantasy.

 

[bigzeto]

Does anyone know how to hack your PRL to put Verizon at the top of the list? I've read in boards where people have referenced it, but no one mentions how to do it. Maybe it's just a fantasy.

I'm running a modified PRL where I live. It uses Sprint for voice and sms and it uses Verizon for EVDO. The EVDO in this market has basically been broken for a year so it's about the only way to use data on our phones if you're not around wifi. I don't know how to modify the PRL's, but it can be done. There are some threads over on XDA that talk about different PRL's so maybe you can get some help there.