problem with sprint interference on cricket

[cleatus]

I have a cricket cell phone and a virgin mobilecell phone also. when in my house and i try to make a call i get a message telling me i am within range of a sprint private network. move out of range of the private network to make your call. a neighbor has some sort of cell repeater or booster. is there any way around this?. can i get some sort of booster? or am i just screwed

[WirelessBeachBum]

Wirelessly posted (Opera Mini on Alltel HTC 6800: Opera/9.60 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.2.14912/998; U; en) Presto/2.2.0)

Those are not supposed to interfere with other networks, technically Cricket can have them cut it off.

[TelcomJunkie]

One of your neighbors has an Airave. I wish you the best of luck getting them to turn it off or have Sprint do much about it.

I don't know if you could turn off roaming on your Cricket phone, but that would fix that one. The Virgin phone can't be fixed being that it's using the Sprint network, but isn't allowed on the Airaves.

[cleatus]

i might be in crickets " extended coverage area" possibly using sprints tower? if thats the case, u think i have any shot of cricket having them cut it off. is it possible for me to get such a device that counter what they are doing?

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by cleatus

i might be in crickets " extended coverage area" possibly using sprints tower? if thats the case, u think i have any shot of cricket having them cut it off. is it possible for me to get such a device that counter what they are doing?

You very well could be. I'm not familiar with the UI for Cricket phones, but most carriers allow you to block the phone from roaming. Do you see a roaming indicator on the Cricket phone when you get this error?

There's not much you can do to isolate your phones from this signal. A direct connect repeater would be a possible solution, but you're looking at several hundred dollars to get that setup.

[COtech]

cleatus,

Are you on good terms with your neighbor? Perhaps you if politely ask them to move it further across the room it's in, away from your home? Perhaps to the next further away room? Tell them why, of course.

The Airave might be beside the window nearest you, to get the GPS position it needs (via satellite antenna) to operate. The owner might be able to chose another room and window.

Otherwise, setting your Cricket and VM phones to "home only" or "no roaming" is about all you can do, as others recommend. You could try using your phone as far from this neighbor's house as possible, inside your own.

A direct connect Yagi antenna, without a repeater, aimed at the Cricket or Sprint tower site could be the next step. The repeater could be added later, if needed.

COtech