[FAQ]Error Code 16 (SPRINT) - LG V20 Questions & Answers

So i've been trying to track down the infamous bug that's been cutting peoples service off, and making calls and text stop working.
This is related to your NAM programming and is a direct result after flashing a AOSP rom and returning back to the stock rom.
I was able to re-create this using "lineage" but it also happened on AOKP and possibly will happen flashing other builds for the V20.
There are 2 seperate issues here, the 1st one is your programming is being wiped out, or really its just being hidden and can be re-added back by a few steps ill list below. The other issue is the ERROR CODE 16 that some will receive when trying to make a call out. This one here is on sprints end not the device. In short Error code 16 is network security, and its a special department that handles devices getting onto the network incorrectly and being dinged for suspicious activity. In short, Sprint thinks you have 2 devices running on 1 phone number simultaneously. This causes the error-code 16 to be placed on your acct until you allow the call to complete and speak to a rep.
To fix ERROR CODE 16: Call any number, it will re-direct you to the department you need to reach, it will ask you to enter your 10 digit phone number to continue, do as it tell you then someone will pick-up and ask these questions. Have them ready!
They will need your Phone #, Name on Act, Pin # and Model of your device. They will clear the block, and ask you to hang up, power cycle the phone and update prl and profile once it turns back on. This HAS TO BE DONE TO GET SERVICES BACK! The block is on sprint end and its designed to keep your device from being cloned, and people to steal your service for free...
I already knew what this error was but most of you may not, and seeing it effected me and atleast 1 other person its time for some community info to explain this.
For the No talk or text issue,
your ptn is missing and your msid is missing or labled "unknown"
you need to go here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20...7-v20-t3557676
and follow the steps. Try just clicking each item instead of changing the values, when i did it today to get my service back my info was already there, it just needed to be clicked and OK hit. once done you must re-boot and talk&text will work again. This is just simply manual programming for your phone and somewhere along the lines sprint hid the option to do this using your msl. Probably to curb phones getting put on pre-paid or being cloned etc. Oh well, this link will show you how to manually program your device using a app from the play-store!
Good luuck

Damn now I'm scared to flash back to your rom

Related

harassing phone calls blocked numbers

before i start i guess i should say that i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but since most of the HTC dream users are t-mo customers i wanna know if this has happened to anyone else or if there is a way to stop this from happening.
i got my phone and not a few days later i started to receive calls from verizon wireless asking to talk to a certain person and i repeatedly told them that i did not know this person and i wanted to be removed from their calling list. i called t-mobile about the issue as well as verizon and no one had any help and they all said that my number was not in their database as a valid number and that i was not receiving the calls. t-mo actually told me that the signals were getting crossed in the air and somehow ending up at my phone rather than the intended person's phone. after several calls to t-mo and verizon and altell(and wasting over 300 of my minutes) i was told that my number had been removed and i would not recieve the calls again, but if i did t-mo offered to change my number. i didn't want to change my number since i have had to change it before because of a crazy ex, so i decided to wait it out. nearly a month went by and i started recieving the calls again so i got my number changed two nights ago.
ten minutes after i got my number changed i started recieving blocked calls from someone asking to talk to someone completely different than before, this was a company and i know this because it was always a different person asking to talk to the same person. i was wondering if anyone else has had this issue, and if there is an app for android similar to callfirewall on WM that would allow me to blocked all unknown numbers. or even better i would like to get the number that is calling me and i would prefer to do it without the police(i don't get along well with them).
quite frankly i would like to be able to forward all calls from the unknown number right back to the same number since they are likely to have different lines and then i don't have to deal with the number calling me anymore. if anyone has any idea how to get the number please let me know, i asked t-mobile and they refused to release the number to me and said that they had no way of getting the number for me.
thanks in advance for your help.
T-Mobile do re-issue numbers fairly quickly, atleast they do in the UK... I changed my number a little while back, less than a fortnight later someone spoke to me saying they'd tried to contact me but got someone else...
I don't think it is possible to do any form of subscriber lookup with software as the number is not available at point of contact with the handset. In the UK reverse lookup and subscriber lookup isn't possible at all for the average Joe, but not sure on the laws within the States...
Re aborting "unknown caller" calls, there must be a developer out there that can knock something up, as the capabilities are on the handset for known numbers by editing the contact and ticking the send to answerphone...
If you do get something, please post the details on here, as I would like to have the option to refuse with-held and unknown callers also.
Cheers!
tubaking182 said:
if anyone has any idea how to get the number please let me know, i asked t-mobile and they refused to release the number to me and said that they had no way of getting the number for me.
thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TMobile will not help you with this. I'm sorry but that's the case. The only thing they can do for you is, as you already mentioned, change your number.
Today is your lucky day:
Google "TrapCall" There is a free trial for their premium services which will not only tell you what blocked number is calling, but also release all the billing information/address for that blocked number. You will never be harassed again! I use it all the time! Let us know what you find out!
TrapCall looks impressive, if only it were possible and legal to use in the UK! lol
jmdrizen said:
TrapCall looks impressive, if only it were possible and legal to use in the UK! lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I'm not too sure about that... I live in the US so it works fine here.
As I said, I highly recommend it for people living in the US, try it out on your friends, and see how it works.
when i attempted trapcall, i did the programming my phone step and it gave me an error, something about an unexpected response from the network, or something about not being able to set up call forwarding. i assumed it was something i did wrong and didn't work too much on it last night, but i'm gonna give it a second look today to see
tubaking182 said:
when i attempted trapcall, i did the programming my phone step and it gave me an error, something about an unexpected response from the network, or something about not being able to set up call forwarding. i assumed it was something i did wrong and didn't work too much on it last night, but i'm gonna give it a second look today to see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it can definately be a little difficult to set up at first.. just have it forward to the number they give you. I actually did it on my ATT phone I had. When I bought an ADP1 and put the SIM card in there. It still kept the data. This is probably something stored on the SIM card.
i did finally get it set up, hopefully they call soon so i can forward them to another person that's harassing me, harrass them both by making them call eachother. fun for me

my phone number unknown

just rooted and flashed cm6 and my it says that under status "my phone number unknown" ive rebooted/ removed sim and put back in, i can call people and my number comes up, text people. why would it say this? i can call my number and enter my passcode to check my voicemail. . . .
mulletcutter said:
just rooted and flashed cm6 and my it says that under status "my phone number unknown" ive rebooted/ removed sim and put back in, i can call people and my number comes up, text people. why would it say this? i can call my number and enter my passcode to check my voicemail. . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on a fix for this. It does not affect all people, but so far I have tried reinstalling the radio, changing to other builds, but any and all 2.2 builds I try show this. If I install a 2.1 build, it will display the number without problem.
I'll be trying to change the format of the number on the SD Card later on today. Right now mine is 1xxxxxxxxxx. I will try 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx and just xxx-xxx-xxxx to see if that displays it.
Unfortunately, after that, I have nothing else to try and it will prove that the problem is, in fact, with the roms that the devs are using.
I don't know if this is something that will help, but this is something i tried for a customer at the store i work at. He was having the same problem so i called customer care and they pushed out a text message to him saying "welcome to your new [x plan] your number is xxx xxx xxxx.
After that we restarted and it displayed his number.
Alright...so I have some bad news...
I put my sim into a blackberry and changed the number from 1xxxxxxxxxx to just xxxxxxxxxx since you can't do dashes on the blackberry in the number field...restarted the slide with the sim, and it still showed "unknown."
I decided to check the sim that was in the blackberry, and sure enough, THE NUMBER DISPLAYED!
I just called T-Mobile again to see if they could provision my old sim card from my G1 but she said that it takes 2 weeks to go through the process to reactivate an old sim, but that I can go to a store for a new one and she noted in my account to waive the $20 fee.
She also said that she has helped out a ton of TIKL users for this same issue. She did say that for some she was able to send the ota provision of the number as long as the sim is placed into a non-android phone for the ota.
I'll post back tomorrow after I go to the T-Mobile store...
So at this point I'm at a loss...
Went to T-Mobile, got a new SIM card, popped it in...phone number unknown.
Came home, called Customer Care, spoke with a tech in the PDA/Smartphone department, he tried EVERYTHING he had done to get other Android phones to display the number...no luck...
I may just have to swap the phone out...
Well, its unfortunate, but apparently this is something the powers at be (Cyanogen, Chief, etc.) are going to have to fix. There is some incompatibility between their ROM, the radio software, and the SIM cards that is causing this issue.
I am back on Chief's 2.1 build and the number shows up no problem.
I'll forward this thread to Chief and Cyanogen and see if they are able to lend any support.
Thanks, and sorry!
I wouldn't blame it on the rom just yet...
I'm not so sure this is the ROM's fault.. as i have two phones here that disprove both things you've noticed on yours. I have rooted both mine and my husband's G1's and both are running Cyanogen ROMS. I'm running CM6 and my phone number displays just fine. His is running CM5.0.8 and the phone number is blank. In fact, I think I recall my phone number being missing at some point running an earlier CM rom and it came back on it's own.. I wasn't concerned with it at the time because everything worked so I can't say for sure WHEN it came back... but I've ran through MANY CM roms starting with 4.2.13. Hubby's phone was rooted and taken straight to 5.0.7 then later 5.0.8 (he doesn't like messing with experimental roms as much as I do. ).
Next time he's home (he's a truck driver ... one of the reason's he doesn't like to take chances with his phone) I'll pop his SIM back into one of the old Sidekicks we've got laying around collecting dust and see what happens... We were going to play around with TIKL and that's when we noticed the issue....and also when I noticed that my phone showed the number again.
It's definitely an odd thing. I have not tried calling T-Mo yet to see if they can OTA the number to his phone... what's this about it having to be a non-android for this to work? First I've seen mention of that.
Currently, I'm not rooted yet, and had this problem, I thought I was the doing of a suspesius app for music download I had, I cheched all other apps, and that one was the current one that read phone state and identity, I removed it and shut down took off battery and restarted. I did it twise, and even thought I'm not sure if it was that app fault, it's solved now thanks God
Fuerza, Inteligencia, Paciensia, es Tranquilidad.
¤MyTouch 3G Slide HTC Espresso¤
Call T-Mobile, make sure you get T2 or at least a rep that sounds like they know what they're doing in customer care, and tell them you need the "activation message sent via the OTI" and you'll also need your location cancelled. Works everytime I've done it.
SamZzz: Code mentioned that this happens sporadically on phones with any 2.2 based ROM. So there is something to do with the ROMs, but no one is quite sure yet. Luckily I am not having the problem, and so far, this seems to only be an issue for those using things like Tikl that rely n the number to be "known".
I've had this problem every since I got my SECOND G1. When I had my FIRST G1 I had it in my pocket and dumped a gallon of paint all down the front of me. Needless to say I needed a new phone after that. So I got a new one and it was fine for a while but I got a refurb and still had my original, paint covered SIM. It still worked fine but after a while I stopped receiving txts so I bought a new SIM and its the one I have in my slide right now, and it has NEVER shown my number as anything but UNKNOWN. In my g1 it said unknown. I have called tmobile numerous times and they'll tell me they're gonna fix it and tell me to check it in a couple hours and it should be fixed...never works. I honestly just kinda forgot about it. But its definitely not specific to one rom, or one device for that matter.
-BMFC
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
The reason it shows that is sometimes, for whatever reason, the sim doesn't push it's assigned mobile number to the phone itself. Making it unreadable, this actually happens on blackberries, iphones, etc as well. Just ask for that activation message via the OTA and that should fix it. As I've said, I have never had it fail for me when I have a customer experiencing the problem.
i am having the same problem. although its not a BIG deal but i do sometimes like to use tikl. but if what you are saying about having the activation message sent. if i change carriers will it get fixed? im asking because i will soon be changing carriers
rodriguez27 said:
i am having the same problem. although its not a BIG deal but i do sometimes like to use tikl. but if what you are saying about having the activation message sent. if i change carriers will it get fixed? im asking because i will soon be changing carriers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly should. It's always been the network/sim card not telling the phone the right information. So by changing networks it just quickly resolve itself. Especially with any cancel and then an activation.
smerff said:
It certainly should. It's always been the network/sim card not telling the phone the right information. So by changing networks it just quickly resolve itself. Especially with any cancel and then an activation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
smerff said:
The reason it shows that is sometimes, for whatever reason, the sim doesn't push it's assigned mobile number to the phone itself. Making it unreadable, this actually happens on blackberries, iphones, etc as well. Just ask for that activation message via the OTA and that should fix it. As I've said, I have never had it fail for me when I have a customer experiencing the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how to explain this any other way....
My phone + my sim + ANY 2.2 ROM = phone number unknown
My phone + my sim + ANY 2.1 ROM = my phone number shows up correctly
My phone + my mom's sim + ANY 2.2 ROM = her phone number shows up correctly
I've called T-Mobile customer care 7 times over 2 weeks. They've sent probably 10 OTAs over multiple days. They have gone through what they do with every other customer with this problem. They suggested I go to a T-Mobile store and get a new sim card.
I went to T-Mobile, got a new sim card, number still shows up unknown in 2.2, but when I flash 2.1 it shows up no problem. I called customer care again, and they tried over and over to get it to display without any luck. They are at the point that they want to replace the phone. I will wait until T-Mobile releases 2.2 and see what it displays...
This is happening for A LOT of people.
PS - I just flashed the stable CM6 (8/28/10) and it still displays the number as unknown.
In CM6, hit Call Settings -> Additional Settings -> My Phone Number
The issue is because there's no MSISDN written to the SIM, and no tag name for it either. I added this option because I had the same issue. Just set your number and it will write it to the SIM.
cyanogen said:
In CM6, hit Call Settings -> Additional Settings -> My Phone Number
The issue is because there's no MSISDN written to the SIM, and no tag name for it either. I added this option because I had the same issue. Just set your number and it will write it to the SIM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everybody...Cyanogen HAS SOLVED THIS ISSUE!!!
While my sim did have the number stored as it showed up in 2.1, doing this DOES MAKE THE NUMBER DISPLAY!
Thanks Cyanogen!
cyanogen said:
In CM6, hit Call Settings -> Additional Settings -> My Phone Number
The issue is because there's no MSISDN written to the SIM, and no tag name for it either. I added this option because I had the same issue. Just set your number and it will write it to the SIM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only options I have in "additional settings" is for Caller ID and Call Waiting. I don't have an option for "My Phone Number". I was on RC1 previously but flashed Stable last night.
-GB
Sent from my Rooted T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App running CM6.0.0 Stable.
cyanogen said:
In CM6, hit Call Settings -> Additional Settings -> My Phone Number
The issue is because there's no MSISDN written to the SIM, and no tag name for it either. I added this option because I had the same issue. Just set your number and it will write it to the SIM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GeekBrat said:
The only options I have in "additional settings" is for Caller ID and Call Waiting. I don't have an option for "My Phone Number". I was on RC1 previously but flashed Stable last night.
-GB
Sent from my Rooted T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App running CM6.0.0 Stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you wipe before you installed? If so, try flashing stable again...it is there for me...
One issue though is that upon restart the number shows up as "unknown." You have to go back through this every time you restart your phone, but hey, its better than nothing!
Code3VW said:
I don't know how to explain this any other way....
My phone + my sim + ANY 2.2 ROM = phone number unknown
My phone + my sim + ANY 2.1 ROM = my phone number shows up correctly
My phone + my mom's sim + ANY 2.2 ROM = her phone number shows up correctly
I've called T-Mobile customer care 7 times over 2 weeks. They've sent probably 10 OTAs over multiple days. They have gone through what they do with every other customer with this problem. They suggested I go to a T-Mobile store and get a new sim card.
I went to T-Mobile, got a new sim card, number still shows up unknown in 2.2, but when I flash 2.1 it shows up no problem. I called customer care again, and they tried over and over to get it to display without any luck. They are at the point that they want to replace the phone. I will wait until T-Mobile releases 2.2 and see what it displays...
This is happening for A LOT of people.
PS - I just flashed the stable CM6 (8/28/10) and it still displays the number as unknown.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, the closest thing I've seen is a blackberry do it before. Can't say I've ever seen it on an android device without an OTA working. If the OTA doesn't work on a blackberry you just have to manually program your number in. Perhaps if you have a friend or pop into a t-mo store they can let you use one temporarily to set it up. My memory sucks on it but once your sim is in the blackberry I *think* it's settings > options > advanced options > sim card > my number or stored number. Something like that. If you can get it, the thing is though, the ota does the same thing. So theoretically you shouldnt have to do this if it is a sim error. The fact you're saying it doesnt happen in any other versions of android with the same sim I would agree it has to be some glitch in the s/w. How to fix it besides trying a manual program in a blackberry or any other device that lets you do so is beyond me. ;/

Weird incoming call/voicemail error

We have 8 lines on our business account from Sprint. Here is what is happening:
When Line 1 calls Line 2, the call goes through, the phone rings, and everything works like normal. When we switch it around and Line 2 calls Line 1, the phone on Line 1 never rings. Line 2 gets Line 1's voicemail. This has been going on since March. It never changes. Line 1 will never ring when Line 2 is calling it. All other phones can call Line 1 and it rings perfectly and acts like normal.
Line 1 and Line 2 are both HTC EVO's with Cyanogenmod 7 on them. They were working perfectly for two months, and then it changed. When the problem first started happening, sometimes instead of getting voicemail when calling Line 1, I would sometimes get a message that said: "This is channel 47 4".
Around the same time when this started happening, it also started with another phone on our plan. Line 3 on our plan cannot receive phone calls from one certain Verizon cell phone number. The Verizon phone is a Samsung Fascinate that is rooted. Line 3 on our plan is a Sprint HTC Hero running Cyanogenmod 7. The same thing happened here. At first the Verizon Phone calling in would here a message that said "This is channel 47 4", but now all they get is voicemail immediately.
All of the phones use Google Voice voicemail, but I tried disabling it and then they just got the Sprint voicemail immediately.
I called sprint about it but they said they need to troubleshoot it in a repair store. We do not have corporate stores in our area, and I don't trust the repair stores that are here. Last time my old Touch Pro was in to them, it came back severely damaged. Also, I don't want to risk losing the root on my phones and having them upgraded to Gingerbread which hasn't been rooted yet.
Has anyone ever heard of an issue like this, or does anyone have any idea what I should do?
Thank YOU!
I did check and make sure that in the contacts the phone was not set to forward the call to voicemail immediately.
I am on AT&T with an HTC Tilt/Kaiser and have the same issue with my step-father who has an EVO. And yet my Mother, who is on the second line on that account with another EVO, can receive them from me. Not just you. Except none of the phones have mods and we don't get the "47 4" thing.
If anyone ever has this problem, the solution for me was to completely wipe the phone, install a cm7 again, and NOT restore any backed up applications.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
UPDATED INFORMATION:
I misposted. My problem has not been fixed. All that was solved was that I can now log into my ATT voicemail myself from my own phone - prior to that, by pressing "1" to access my voicemail, I got the message: "This is channel 47-4"
Now though my voicemail seems OK on my end, people calling in still receive the message "This is channel 47-4"
I am in Los Angeles but I have found a newspaper article about a whole community in Norfolk, VA whose phones are supplied by a Time Warner subcontractor, Intrado Communications in Longmont, Colo and the panic it has caused that they were unable to reach Emergency Services on their phones.
(I have not posted enough to post a link. I cannot seem to post even the unlinked URL but here is the article title and newspaper - it was printed in several local newspapers, it's easy to find.)
Phone Service Trouble Remains
Watertown Daily Times
A quote from the article:
"Most of the time, the phone rings busy," Mrs. Michaud said. "Sometimes, it says this is channel 47-4."
Still nowhere can I find anyone who knows what is going on. And back in January, apparently even Time Warner had no idea, they fixed the cable but not the phones.
A NEW TEST: I have just deactivated Google Voice again and tested - my ATT voicemail IS reachable. My problem is gone. Unless I want to forward to Google Voice. I have searched Google and Google Voice Help up and down and have not found a reference to "channel 47-4"
But at this point - in my situation anyway - Google Voice is the culprit. Or possibly the target.
ORIGINAL POST:
I just finished spending 2 hours with ATT in 2 different tech support attempts for this same 47-4 message problem - only mine was slightly different. I fixed the problem but I can't let it go. I am curious how the same recording could be reached across different carriers, ATT and Sprint.
Blow by Blow to maybe help someone figure it out:
I have an unmodded Galaxy S2 SGH-i777
I have been using Google Voice for this and my previous 2 phones all with the same ATT Wireless account.
Today, when people called my number they got the same weird message as everyone - weird for the message and loud background noise.
"This is channel 47-4"
I called my phone from a landline and got the message.
Clicking the hook switch makes the message repeat without hanging up.
(I tried it 4 times)
Google Voice should have intercepted an unanswered call, right?
The first tech support advice:
Reboot the phone, they would send a voicemail reset signal and then I should reset my password.
(I took it upon myself to deactivate the Google Voice account first.)
When I pressed the "1" key to access ATT Voicemail and set the password, I got "Unable to perform this action contact customer service."
I then tried to access my voicemail account online and got ERROR E1018
I called tech support again and they weren't interested in the error code.
They called me back on my landline and asked me to reset my password using "1"
I held the phone up for her to hear. This time when I pressed "1" I immediately got the recording "THIS IS CHANNEL 47-4"
What I found fun is that the message freaked out the tech support. She had never heard anything like it, she said.
Here is the new oddity:
When she came back on the line she was more freaked out! There was no record of any voicemail on my line. Voicemail isn't an "option," she said, it comes with every account. She knew of no type of account without voicemail. Having no voicemail account on my number was impossible, she said.
Regardless, I popped out the battery and restarted while she sent a "reset" signal and everything is now back to normal. I enabled Google Voice and all is as it was before today.
I've searched online and there is a lot of recent 47-4 issues and a lot of good solutions only no one seems to know what the message is or how it got there. I have the added piece of information that somehow my ATT record of any voicemail account was wiped out in the system.
The same message across carriers means what? That it's in the shared data lines? Shared towers?
If someone knows what this message is and who it originates from, I'd like to know. If I find out, I'll come back here and leave an update.

How to reset phone 'User name'

I bought my housemate a used epic to replace his palm pre until we can look at the note or galaxy nexus later this year. So far registration with sprint has gone fine - they said the ESN was clear and it's been bound to his account without a problem.
The issue is that the data connection is stuck saying 'error 67: username/password may be incorrect'. Looking through "phone settings -> about phone -> system status" shows his phone number and MSID according to what sprint told us, but the 'user name' is still apparently the previous user and a factory reset via the menus and even a full wipe/repartition back to EC05 via odin doesn't get rid of this.
Is there anything we can do here at home or is the only option going to be to go into a sprint store directly?
Try updating Profile. If that don't work then Sprint will have to walk you through a hard reset. You will need advanced tech support for that.
The profile update failed twice on the phone with tech support, took about 5 minutes and timed out with username/passwd failure. We also tried dialing in some numbers on the keypad ##somenumbers#, edit the phone number and MSID by hand, saved and rebooted.
It is definitely a provisioning error. Make sure you are in a strong 3G signal area and try the profile update a few more times. If the tech can't make it stick you probably have to bring it in to a store.
Nevermind.. it's been about half an hour since the last attempt, we tried again with updating the profile and it went through that time. We're all good here! Thanks for the feedback though :]
tigerknight said:
Nevermind.. it's been about half an hour since the last attempt, we tried again with updating the profile and it went through that time. We're all good here! Thanks for the feedback though :]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you got it working.
Make sure is old device is powered off. Power his new novice off for more than 60 seconds to clear the VLR (this is network side). Power device in and then dial ##72786#, follow on screen prompts. You will need your msl. You used this to program your msn and MSID earlier. This will clear your device radio without wiping all user data. After it is done it will try to iota. If it times out again, esn swap to another device wait 5min and the swap back to his epic. You can do the swap on the website. This should get you going. Hopefully you won't have to do the swaps. Also make sure your signal strength is better than -101dbm.
Edit - guess you got it before I finished typing. Glad it's working.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Sprint : Fix Error # 16 without calling or chatting

Quick disclaimer, yes I am a noob with an Epic4G. My experience extends only as far as my rooting and flashing roms and modems for the past couple years, and recently PRL's using QPST. That being said...
Prelude:
Due to ever decreasing signal with Sprint in my area, I recently attempted to put my phone on 100% roaming on Verizon towers - I went through a few different Verizon PRL's - the first couple would work briefly then would give me a "Welcome to Verizon Message" - the last one worked a couple times and then I got the "Error number 16" message every time I tried calling out. At this point I left my phone on roaming and tried to push the roaming data over their 'limit' to see if I could get booted w/o ETF. I gave up after 1.5gb of roaming data, reflashed to stock, switched PRL's back to Sprint, rooted, and discovered that the "Error number 16" had followed me back to my Sprint PRL and stock GB ROM w/EC05... After some further attempts and research it looked like I was going to have to call or chat - but given I had just suddenly downloaded 1.5gb in a couple days on roaming I did not want to have to explain that...
Simple solution (kinda):
Requires any old sprint phone, working or not.
1> On your phone with the Error 16 : Factory Reset your phone so that it will try to "Hands Free Activate" upon next boot
--- You can do this via Odin Reset Phone EFS or the ##xxxxxx# MSL reset
2> Power down the phone - do not let it start up at this point - if it tries to off a reboot, pop the battery.
3> Go on sprint.com, log into your account
4> Click the drop down menu for your device and select "Activate New Device"
5> Put in the MEID for whatever old phone you have that you aren't currently using (I had a broken EVO Shift that I used)
6> Watch as sprint "activates" the "new" phone until you get the screen with the programming instructions
7> Immediately go back to your devices and "Activate New Device" again
8> This time put the MEID in for the phone that has the Error 16
9> When the phone is activated on Sprint's website and you see the programming instructions, power it on and let the Hands Free Activation do its thing
Viola, Error 16 is now gone. Root, flash, whatever you want. I am back on CM7.2 with no more Error 16s at all. I would use CM9 but it is not truly stable on the Epic4g. I am not 100% sure if you really have to reset your error-ed phone first, but I wanted to make sure it did not try accessing my sprint account in any way except to try to activate from scratch. I am sure someone much more experienced than me can take and rewrite this better or more accurately but here you go. Clear Error 16 from your Sprint Phone in 5-10 min without calling or chatting with Sprint. Just need an old phone that doesn't even have to power up or work.
sprint error 16
So on a technical discussion.. what causes the error 16 issue? what is causing sprints system to trip that error code? I can confirm the activation of another phone then putting the phone back will fix the issue but I guess the question is why...

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