Database Users

can I force roaming in my 8525?

ATT 8525. Is there a tweak in which I can force roaming?
Perhaps a registry edit?
There are no software choices as these have been elimibated by ATT/Cingular.
Thanks
Ray

just wondering... why would you want to force roaming?
-Nstefanelli-

Why force roaming?
I'm in an area where I pop in and out of roaming areas. What happens is that I will get what ATT calls "dead spots" where the call is not dropped but sometimes will resume after about a minute or two of silence. Sometimes it will drop. I think that this is ATT's way of tallying minutes. They refuse to call themn dropped calls. When I had Verizon not only did I have perfect reception on the same route (noe I lose the call 3-4 times) but if a call dropped it dropped immediately, not after 2 minutes. In any case, force roaming may get me to drop (or get dead zones) on fewer calls. Also, they don't like roamers, if I eventually want to drop the service they are more likely going to make an exception when I have been freely roaming (which costs them money).
NOW I wonder who can tell me how to do this?

My suggestion would be to not chat constantly while driving.
Also note that roaming will cost you money, not just AT&T. Truth be told, it likely won't cost AT&T anything at all (providers have agreements on this sort of thing) but will certainly end up costing you a lot in roaming charges.
In any case, it seems unlikely to me that you are saying anything important enough to where you need to be use the phone while driving 100% of the time.
If you're looking for other suggestions, try a booster antenna for your car. There's a nice little antenna port on the back of the 8525 just for this purpose.

I don't understand the response?
My question was "How do you force roaming?" What I got was a commentary on when I should use my phone and what it will cost.
Can anyone who is capable please answer the question? I really don't need to be coached on the appropriate time to use the phone.
An answer confined to the parameters of the question would be appreciated.
Thank you
Ray

try changing radio versions
I've had great success with different radio ROMs as far as getting coverage in an area that I previously had none.
I tried the 1.48 radio rom and it made things worse (no coverage inside buildings) but went back to 1.47 and all is golden...
No sure about forcing a roam but this might be better

Doesn't help you much, but the guy talking about roaming charges is off by 100%. I have spent days roaming on other carriers networks where ATT had no service and it didn't cost me a cent. Don't all ATT plans come with no roaming charges these days?

radio ROM?
Batster,
Please forgive my ignorance. Tell me about radio ROM and how to change/obtain it. (I guess I should have searched before replying...perhaps it's on here)
Thanks
Ray

Updating your radio isn't withinin the confines of your question, though.

Perhaps not...but it IS constructive

nitecapt said:
An answer confined to the parameters of the question would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..........

I may be wrong, but I think you can just change the order of preferred providers.
-Nstefanelli-

Nitecap;
Different radio ROMs have different effects on the phone; usually a trade off between reception and battery life; in other words, 1 ROM may get you a stronger signal but shorter battery life, while another may do the opposite. It's all a matter of trial and error--try a few and see which works best for you in that area that you're driving in.
Radio ROMs HERE
Hope this helps.

Nitecap;
Sorry, also wanted to list this thread on Cingular Radio ROM's

check out the Upgrading forums for Radio information... various radio versions seem to do better with different providers and also the area you're in. They also affect battery life to a degree. Since you're AT&T I'd start with 1.48, or 1.40
Also check out MrVanx's guides on how to do upgrades SAFELY!

You are the best!
You guys are great. Thank you for contributing your valuable time to my problem. It is much appreciated.

Cingular network (enforced by the SIM) does not allow manual network selection. When you are actually roaming, as in a foreign country, the manual network search will appear in the phone settings. I feel your pain with this. Also I like flaming people just as much as the next guy but you are right the commentaries on don’t drive and talk or just don’t roam it costs money was uncalled for!

I did find an option in some versions of the "advance settings" (kaiser tweaks) that is titled:
CPHS override (specifies whether the CPHS operator name (the operator name stored in the SIM) overrides all other stored operator names.)
by deafult with my current ROM it was disabled. I enabled it and then disabled it and I tried forcing my phone to connect to AT&T's freqencies instead of T-Mobile's. No luck.
maybe the solution is/can be related to this feature or a combination of this feature and something else?

Error Code 67 while roaming driving me nuts

First off, I have NOT made ANY attempt to use the phone as a WiFi hotspot, and I do NOT live in a 4G area, so don't tell me that's my problem and send me on my way
About 11am PDT today my phone started giving me Error Code 67 (Data Call Failure) whenever I try to access the internet or data services from my office (my office has an 850 MHz repeater so I roam in the office). When I am outside or not in my office and the phone picks up a Sprint signal, everything is fine. As soon as I come back inside and my phone switches to roaming, Error Code 67. I've had two calls with Sprint so far...They're updating the provisioning servers or some such thing at the moment and are going to call me back when that's completed.
Has anyone else experienced this today or recently and if so did you find a resolution? I can't easily take the phone back to where I bought it and have them fiddle with it in person as that's 100 mi away.
Thanks!

I've had the same issue too. See it mostly when traveling and the signal strength changes. Not to much when I'm in one spot.
It's quite annoying. I turn the display off and on hoping to pick the signal back up. Makes me think it is a Sprint network problem especially since I've now confirmed someone else has the problem too.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Well, they've got me fixed up again. Also while I was on the phone the gentleman helping me out received an interoffice message stating a server responsible for doing profile updates (Device Configuration message) on the EVO had gone down, so they're failing right now.

I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.

I have gotten it too on both of my EVO's....I guess it's not just me

engagedtosmile said:
I have been getting it as well. I thought it was the roaming hack but I don't believe that is the case. Think it's just something on Sprints network.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I read through that whole thread and it seems a fair amount of people have had this happen today. And as I wrote in that thread some service at Sprint related to sending out new PRLs and profiles to our phones went down as well.

I had the same problem yesterday my 3g suddenly went out with the 67 error but 4g still worked. I called sprint and they reset something on their end and after programming itself it w.ent away and my 3g data speed saw a nice speedbump

I've had this issue a few times with my Evo. Every time it has happened to me, I've had little or no signal.
What I think is happening is that the phone begins to authenticate itself with the data servers but then I lose reception, which causes the authentication to fail, hence the error message.
I _think_ I've had this happen on my Hero too.

yeah, (don't quote me on this, i may be wrong) i think error 67 is in regards to no data hookup, and if your phone is set to not get data during roaming, or to dilly dally about it (maybe roam guard?) (check settings > wireless and networks > mobile networks), it'll give you that error

I too had this issue for a while today. It was annoying the crap out of me.

same thing happened to me today, for some reason i wasn't able to get anything but a weak roaming signal at work all day. i called sprint, they wiped my phone and i still wasn't able to do the profile/prl update. i was able to do it once i left the building, of course i had to start with a blank slate on the phone. i'm hoping that after the updates i get a better signal in the building, otherwise i can't keep the phone and will have to return it for a (gag) iphone. after 3 days with a vastly superior OS that would be a tough thing to do.

Mine is def. not the Roam settings... That's the first thing I do is turn off Roam guard, call guard, special roam ring...etc. due to me having almost no signal at work.

I had this issue when I changed to the Alltel PRL. I rebooted, then ran the PRL update. It took a while to do, but once it got the Sprint PRL everything was fine.
-Midnigh7-

I had the same issue yesterday around the same time as the OP. Seems that maybe Sprint was having issues. Anyway, phone is back working and roaming today and even roaming 3G in the DC metro which is Verizon and was never Alltel AFAIK, so that's cool. Actually, some stations have Sprint in them, but others are Verizon and I had 3G Roaming in them today, so I was pleasently surprised, hope it sticks.

Forcing 1xRTT

I have crap service at my house, so after a phone call to Sprint they sent me an Airave for free and waived the monthly fee. Now as I understand the Airave is 1xRTT only, which is fine, whatever. But there is a slight EVDO signal that my Hero stupidly jumps on from time to time resulting in dropped calls and lost data connections because the EVDO signal fades in and out. Then it will go back full strength 1xRTT again. Rinse and repeat throughout the day.
I'm running Darchdroid 2.7. Is there a way to force 1xRTT?

Not without going back to a sprint based rom first. then you need your MSL. Call Sprint for that or Use alogcat. Calling sprint is easyer. AOSP roms don't have the ## sprint codes. ##DATA# is the one you need to force 1x only. Before you try all that try just keeping WIFI turned on at home. This should keep the phone from jumping off the Airave looking for 3G.

Hm, turning on Wifi didn't stop the signal from dropping to nothing from time to time like usual. Really don't like the Sprint based roms so I'm just going to live with it. Wish there was a way with AOSP roms though.

Flash a Sprint ROM, Change it, Then Flash back. It will stick. At least it did on my Moment. I put her (my wife) back on 3G when she went on a trip last month. She is back now and I have not swiched back but the problem seems to be gone. Weird I know.

Yes it does seem to stick. I'm kind of in a tough spot though. I need to force 1x at home for the reasons I said before, but I also use Pandora on my drive to work, so I need 3G then. So I guess I need to stick on a Sprint ROM so I can access the DATA menu regularly.
Thanks for the suggestions. Can anyone recommend the quickest Sprint based ROM? Even Fresh's ROM seems so laggy aince I've used darchdroid and darchstar's CM6 2.2.

I use the app AnyCut. I am able to create a link to CDMA Options > Mode of Operation. There you can select either Hybrid, EVDO or 1x. Using any cute you can easily access the right menu.

i dont have that option mode of operation
then again im using cm6

andrewjb said:
I use the app AnyCut. I am able to create a link to CDMA Options > Mode of Operation. There you can select either Hybrid, EVDO or 1x. Using any cute you can easily access the right menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just another reason I choose SenseUI over anything else.
The ##778 stuff, the different options available to control my phone, the widgets, the smoothness...
On cm6, I don't know that there is a way without modifying your phone's PST settings. QPST or something, if you can get in DIAG mode with cm6 (I'm assuming you can).
But then when you leave your house, you'll have to change it back (which is a huge process compared to the SenseUI way outlined by andrewjb)

Replacement for Slide

I've had it with this piece of ****. I'm on my 3rd Slide and STILL have "Generic Network Failure"s when trying to send or receive MMS, get "Unable to send message, retrying" with 3 god damn bars of service when trying to send an SMS sometimes, lose my E and 3G data connection all the time even though T-Mo says I should get a good 3G connection. So, what is something comparable to this? Has to be Android. T-Mo wants to send me a Blackberry something or other, and I have no interest at all in that.

There gonna try to send you something comparable. What they think is comparable is whether or not you have a keyboard or not, not what OS your current phone has. If you complain enough you may be able to get a Vibrant but odds are against you. Threaten to leave and that may help.

Firsr and most importantly have you tried setting the phone to 3G only? Also Making sure you have the correct data plan (its slide specific not android..stupid tmo) and making sure no app or anything is messing with apns?

turboyo said:
Firsr and most importantly have you tried setting the phone to 3G only? Also Making sure you have the correct data plan (its slide specific not android..stupid tmo) and making sure no app or anything is messing with apns?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Que? There are different data plans? Yea, I've tried setting it to 3g only. The problem with that is I barely get a signal in my house. All the APNs are what they should be, none of those settings has changed. The odd part is on each of the phones, I have had my apps installed on day one, and the thing works fine for a couple of weeks, then I start having these problems out of the blue.

i started having issues a few weeks ago in my area, i had awesome data speeds when i connected, but 9/10 times i would get half of the page loaded and then it would hang which meant resetting my data connection or rebooting the phone or any number of other fixes. i have the advantage of working at a t-mo store and was able to pull up the map of my area and see that they were working on my tower at home and as of a few days ago my connection is 6-7mbps down and solid as hell, i used to go to bread co to use wifi but tethering is faster now(and more convenient, and i don't have to worry about a firewall)

did you try a new simcard?

BigFellor said:
Que? There are different data plans? Yea, I've tried setting it to 3g only. The problem with that is I barely get a signal in my house. All the APNs are what they should be, none of those settings has changed. The odd part is on each of the phones, I have had my apps installed on day one, and the thing works fine for a couple of weeks, then I start having these problems out of the blue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes theres a slide specific data package. Im sure you have it if it works for the most part but yea the android data package will not work supposedly. and of course theres the sidekick package blackberry etc

The slide package is 5 dollars more. I was originally signed up for it but I called in and got it switched. The dataplan works fine, I wish I could say as much for the phone. My third replacement will be here this week...
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

My 4th replacement is in the mail right now. Tmobile offered me a blackberry 9700 to replace it, obviously I jumped all over that(insert sarcastic undertones).
I'm gonna wait for the HSPA+ phones to come out and maybe I can talk them into giving me one at full upgrade price, I would take the Vibrant, but I can't stand that phone. It only takes a few warranty exchanges and finding the right rep, and you can get whatever you want from tmobile.

[Project Fi] Slow Carrier Switching

Hello, fellow Fi users!
It has finally gotten on my nerves enough to create a thread, hoping to find some answers or perhaps work together to come to a solution for Project Fi's dreadfully slow carrier switching logic. I'm not sure about others, but in my town and the surrounding areas, T-Mobile has excellent service. My town is the only town in the county that does not have Sprint LTE, but I do get some 3G in certain areas. The problem is that when I lose connection with T-Mobile for a certain amount of time, the phone will switch over to Sprint to use its 3G network. This is great because this is how the phone and SIM card are supposed to function. However, the 3G service in this area is slow, spotty, and unreliable so typically as soon as I connect (usually while driving or on the move) I lose service again.
The real problem occurs when the phone is extremely reluctant to switch back to T-Mobile. Almost every day I make a 25 minute commute to work that takes me along a route where T-Mobile service drops off for a minute or two. During this gap in coverage, the phone switches to Sprint. I experience one brief moment of Sprint coverage, and then lose that as well (mountainous area). At this point, the phone should search for Sprint service for a few more seconds and then attempt to switch back to T-Mobile. Instead, it stays on Sprint and will continue to do so for the rest of my commute. I have Sprint LTE coverage at my job, but it's the return trip back home that results in my phone sometimes having no service elongated periods of time. Many times I'll look down at my phone while out to dinner after work or something and notice I have no service and haven't for some time. It's simply stuck on Sprint mode instead of switching.
This has forced me to pay for and download FiSwitch on the Play Store. I'm not too upset about this, but I feel like it'd be a bit of fun to maybe try to modify the logic in Fi's networking switching. Now, I don't know if it's possible to actually modify the logic, or where the actual logic resides. But perhaps writing a script or something in Tasker or Trigger could suffice.
The Correct Way to Handle Network Switching?
There are many different areas of coverage and every situation is unique. But I feel like there is some piece of code in there that prevents the phone from constantly switching between Tmo and Sprint. I also understand that this is extremely new, unique and is a work in progress, as Fi hasn't even been out for a year. But if others also experience this issue, perhaps we can find a way to mitigate the problem of the phone getting stuck on one carrier and not switching to another.
Luckily, I have a lot of free time at my job, so I drew up a quick flowchart to show how I'd like to handle carrier switching.
For you savvy coders out there, this would just be a series of conditional statements, which are extremely easy to write, implement and test. Assuming I can't actually modify the logic written somewhere into the phone or the Project Fi app, I'm going to have to make a script or something perhaps in tasker. I can use dialer codes to force the phone to switch to a different carrier, just like FiSwitch does. I feel like it'd be pretty easy to implement, but I'm not sure if it's even possible.
Has anyone else experienced frustration with Fi's carrier switching? I want to know if this is just an isolated case because of topography of my area (Suburban valley, slightly mountainous) or if this is an issue experienced by users elsewhere as well.

I don't appear to have your switching problems. If I loose T-Mobile, it'll switch to Sprint. If I loose Sprint, it'll switch to T-Mobile. If I'm on Sprint's 3G, it'll switch to T-Mobile as soon as possible (available).
I'm using the beta Android N, but I don't remember there being a problem with switching when I was on MM. There could have been, I just don't remember.

Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it

hilla_killa said:
Fi stays on whatever carrier has a higher quality signal, and more reliable! More bars doesn't necessarily mean a better quality signal! "QUALITY"is what i want if sprint with 2 bars is stronger and faster than tmo with 4 bars than i want sprint! Whatever's better! I'm sure the fi team spent countless hours and $$$ on developing this software, code, service whatever you wanna call it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's their claim. But the Fi support forum has many posts from people where this does not happen. Here's a typical example where the phone switches from one to another, then stays on the weak carrier.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/project-fi/ucFRJiKp4Co;context-place=forum/project-fi
I've seen others where the guy and his wife both had 6Ps and his would change to the good network at home, but hers would stay on the weak one.
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there. I left it to see if it would switch, but it didn't until sometime overnight. I also once was in a parking lot while trying to see if it would switch automatically and it got down to no connection on Sprint. I rebooted and it connected to 4 bars on Tmobile.
My experience was when I was first on the service. Since then, as far as I know it works ok. My phone is always on Tmobile except in extremely rare instances where it'll switch. Which makes sense where I live in Southern California, because Sprint has always been awful, while Tmobile has added lots more towers recently. The only times it was switched on its own was on the subway (yes there is one here), and at the airport in a certain lounge. I knew from experience that there's no Tmobile signal there, except Tmobile wifi calling would work on the wifi. Last time there, it connected to Sprint on its own, though the signal was weak. But both of those times, it correctly switched back to the much better Tmobile connection on its own.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm currently working on a Tasker profile to mitigate this issue. Will take some time to test and perfect, however. I'm still new to Tasker, so there's a lot of trial and error going on here. I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.

Alcolawl said:
I wish I could just write something in c++ or JavaScript and have it handle this task instead. I'd be done already lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why can't you? The source code is available, isn't it? A daemon can't be written to load on boot, poll for the strongest signal (at an interval) and switch when a stronger signal is present?

Voicebox said:
I noticed myself that even though Tmobile has good coverage at my house, when I forced my phone onto Sprint just to verify it could connect, that it stayed on Sprint even though the signal was barely there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.

geoff5093 said:
That's normal, if you use the dialer codes or apps to force it to a single carrier, it will stay on that carrier until you run the dialer code to re-enable auto switching.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.

Voicebox said:
I forgot to add that to my post. I ran the dialer code to switch, then dialer code to set back to auto. Which is why it switched on its own sometime overnight. When I was in the parking lot, the reason I rebooted was because I wasn't even sure there was a Tmobile signal since I assumed absolutely no Sprint signal would have triggered it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Howdy -
FWIW - I believe the forced-carrier-switch-by-dialer-code "expires" over time... I am not really sure on that window, but it doesn't seem to stick after a reboot anyway, and I've heard folks say things revert to the "auto" scenario after a couple hours.
Also - FiSwitch happens to be my little tinkering/learning project... I'm not sure I can be of any help but I'd be willing to try I know there is a way to use FiSwitch via Tasker, though that may be a bit redundant if you can fire off the dialer codes without it... just thought I'd toss that out there anyway!

I'm having the same problem. Project Fi worked perfectly on my Nexus 6P but the service has been terrible since I got a Pixel XL. Fi will switch me to Sprint and leave me with no bars for hours unless I manually switch to T-Mobile and then I will get full bars. The network switching actually does work--but it seems to do so very poorly, at least on this particular phone. Fi support has been no help at all.
Btw the dialer code command does expire over time. Even when I manually switch to T-Mobile if I go out for a drive the network will switch to Sprint at some point, regardless of the strength of the Sprint signal.