Verizon Coverage SE MN, Metro to Winona

How often do you update your PRL(*228, option 2)?

I'd almost bet that you did this back in January, and not since. How often do you go down there? I've got a friend with just the local plan, and he's never complained about service in the area. I'd be willing to guess that your phone used to access Sprint until you updated your phone and the PRL you now have isn't up-to-date enough to include the various changes within Midwest Wireless and US Cellular, and Alltel.

Either way, this area could pose problems. I've run into similar problem with areas that border 3-5 of VZW roaming partners. The problem stems from the way they order the company to save themselves money, vs. providing your phone with the most reliable signal. Basically, your phone may see a signal from US Cellular on the A channel, and from Midwest Wireless and Alltel on the B channel, plus a Sprint signal. It will prefer the cheapest to VZW.

Here are a few steps I would recommend.

1. Make sure your PRL is up-to-date.
2. Force your phone to digital or PCS if your phone allows(this option helps me a lot where Sprint exists and WWC, MWW, CMS, and RCC meet. If you want a crappy signal, try Meeker, Stearns, and Kandiyohi county borders.
3. Get a copy of an older PRL.
4. Setup NAM2 with the best roaming company down there, and disable roaming.

 

The odd thing is the mention of both analog *and* roaming -- this definitely sounds like a PRL issue.

It can't be MWW since it isn't CDMA and it can't be MWW since it was charged as roaming... My guess is that a lot of roaming is taking place on Great Western Cellular, a company closely affiliated with and very similar to Commnet Wireless (mostly analog-only roamer-only coverage, etc.) and who got their license the same way Commnet got theirs for the Florida Keys (i.e., taken away from AT&T by an act of Congress -- AT&T *did* get to keep Rochester/Olmsted County.)

-SC

 

I'm not familiar with that phone, but I have a couple of links that may help you.

http://phones.stevecrow.net/samsung_scha310.htm
http://www.eirp.org/sch-a310/nam2.html

It looks like this phone does support 2 NAMs.

The next time you are down there, try *611 and see what carrier you are directed to.

Then try *22801, this may be USCellular otherwise Great West.
*22801 should be Midwest Wireless or Alltel.
*22802 should be Sprint PCS.

In the menu of your phone, there should be a settings/network menu. Under that there may or may not be a way to select digital/analog/pcs. Check the first link for the directions to force the phone to digital. See if this helps any.

If not, proceed to NAM2 programming once you know what company down there has the best, most reliable digital signal and be aware if it is Sprint, certain features won't work, eg VM indicator.

When programming NAM2, manually enter SID 4155 (that's for Sprint), and set the phone to home only. Note, do NOT update the PRL, *228. This will take you back to square one.

This will be kind of anoying to switch the phone between NAMs, but sometimes it's better than the alternative.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I hate to see people being punished for VZWs roaming contracts.

Dan

 

I'm not sure where exactly you are trying to use your phone down there, and what your all-around experience is, but Midwest Wireless has a tower in downtown, and the next closest is 8 miles away near Fountain City, WI.

US Cellular has 2 towers less than 15 miles away in WI, and Alltel has a tower less than 17 miles away in WI.

This is definitely a bad area for reliable coverage.

The order of roaming is Midwest Wireless (D), US Cellular(D/A), Sprint PCS, Alltel(D/A Roaming) and then Midwest Wireless (A).

Sprint shows similar coverage with a tower downtown and another near Fountain City, however there could be others they haven't listed.

http://www.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/coverage/towermaps2.jsp?cityid=57&city=Minneapolis

I would guess your phone used to use Sprint, but is now prefering Midwest Wireless. If your phone is in analog, I would be willing to be it is actually using US Cellular in WI. If this is the case, your best bet will be to force the phone to digital. If it also says roaming, you are on Alltel's network. Problem is, we can't pick home-only because it will also block extended network roaming. This is screwy because a roaming network(Alltel) has a higher priority than a partner(MWW analog)

If your signal is relatively strong, you can keep your fingers crossed that VZW will add Alltel's newly converted WI and MI coverage before summer.

Dan

 

That sounds like the oddest thing. It would appear that Midwest has a tower at 150 Liberty St. I would be very interested to here what company you are actually connected to, if you can dial *611 the next time you are there.

Dan

 

If you havn't I would definately get your PRL updated at a store. Providers usually broadcast it through RF (the air) but sometimes it doesn't always take. You should have no problems roaming on Midwest Wireless in Winona at all, or at that location on Huff street anyways.

 

Really odd Greg.

Have you tried rolling back to an old PRL. They would have to do it at a store... might be worth a shot.

 

Greg,

I really doubt it has anything to do with the phones. All phones get the same information from the same PRLs so that realyl shouldn't be an issue. Who have you spoken to at VZW? My best guess would be that roaming is provisioned in your account incorrectly, or that there is an issue with Midwest Wireless or somewhere between Midwest and VZW preventing you from accessing the SIDs that your phone is programmed to access. Have you spoken to a tech at VZW yet? You need to call care, and ask for a tech right off the bat without letting customer service reps tell you all about the PRL, which they know nothing about. I woudl think that a tech would be able to track down whatever is going wrong. If it is something in your account, it should be relatively easy to fix. If not, they should be able to put in a trouble ticket and figure out waht exactly is going on.

 

Have you figured out who you're roaming on? (Dial an invalid number -- I usually use 987<send> -- and listen to the recording. If the carrier isn't identified, note any letters or numbers in the recordding -- e.g, "Message AT2 32" -- and post 'em here.)

-SC

 

Greg,

I would call back and make sure to speak with a tech yourself. They do not have to call you back, they are there to speak with. If the customer service rep won't help, ask to talk to a supervisor. You should also tell that your phone has been pretty much worthless to you for the last few weeks while this issue has been going on. Tell them how much time you have spent in stores and on the phone trying to get it resolved. But do call and speak with a supervisor and a tech.