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Changing plan?

So I currently have a Droid, but in the locations I am 90% of the time I don't have reception with it. Neither do any of the other people around me who have Android devices. But everyone who has regular phones always has reception. So I am buying a dumbphone (non smartphone) to use. My question is: If I activate the new phone on my current Droid number, would I still be able to use my Droid over wifi similar to an itouch without it having a voice or data plan attached to it? Also, with the new phone, could I drop the data plan since I would no longer have the Droid activated? I am not sure if it matters that I am still in the middle of my contract

Comments

PJNC284

As long as you bought it from Verizon, you're free to activate other phones. Some 3rd party retailers like wirefly, etc prohibit you from doing so in the first 6 months. If the phone you put on the line doesn"t require a data feature then the data will be dropped. The Droid will work fine for basic use over just wifi also.

fezzik

have you done a *228 option 2 yet? That updates your PRL. Priority Roaming List (think roaming as in roaming around the mall and not roaming to other networks) basically it tells your phone what to tell the towers as far as how to handle your calls. If they make any changes or updates to the towers or the software on the tower's radios then you might not be getting the best signal possible.

Butthead

Actually fezzik, the preferred roaming list (PRL) does deal with roaming on other networks.

Let's say you're outside a Verizon Wireless native coverage area and you go into roaming. You have a US cellular tower, a sprint tower, and a metro pcs tower all within a short distance. Depending on the roaming agreements Verizon Wireless has with these carriers, one carrier's towers will get preference over another. For example, despite being within equal distances to your phone, if VZW has given priority to Sprint, your phone will attempt to connect to the sprint tower first, etc.

Hope that clears it up.

AZSALUKI

either way....you should try to call the *228 and update. there are also advanced settings you can play with (evrc vs. evrc-b) but if you want to get into that let me know and i'll post instructions. i've have the inc....but i think it works aon the droid as well??

Slapshot10

I have tried the *228 and everything else possible. I have probably spent 10 hours on customer service without them helping at all.

fezzik

Butthead wrote:
Actually fezzik, the preferred roaming list (PRL) does deal with roaming on other networks.

Let's say you're outside a Verizon Wireless native coverage area and you go into roaming. You have a US cellular tower, a sprint tower, and a metro pcs tower all within a short distance. Depending on the roaming agreements Verizon Wireless has with these carriers, one carrier's towers will get preference over another. For example, despite being within equal distances to your phone, if VZW has given priority to Sprint, your phone will attempt to connect to the sprint tower first, etc.

Hope that clears it up.

Actually it deals with both. The list of towers includes Verizon towers and partner towers. I have no official documentation but my understanding is that in current PRL's Sprint towers have been removed. The PRL controls how your phone connects to Towers not just other networks towers. The towers have multiple transmitters and depending on how many people are on the network where you are how you are moving etc etc etc the tower uses the codes assigned to it by the PRL to make decisions about how to connect your call. Since most of the cell phone companies using the same type signal have agreements in place for allowing each others customers to use their towers the codes essentially give priority to Verizon towers when a signal can be reached and we have priority over other CDMA customers on our towers. Smartphones seem to be given higher priority on high frequency towers based on my completely unscientific observation that the smartphones I have had have poorer reception in rural areas but get better signals in buildings. The PRL houses codes and information about the towers both in and out of Network (thus the reason I say think of Roaming as roaming around not network roaming, yeah it does tell other networks how to handle us but it also tells our towers how to handle us) If the software changes on a tower or even if they make a setting change to certain settings in the firmware the PRL has to be updated. In some cases if certain changes are made all of the towers in that group have to be changed as well and the PRL updated. That is why the first answer to any signal, data, or voice issue is *228 first.

So to go back to your previous example you are correct if you are outside Verizon's tower range and have to go to another the PRL will give priority to the correct tower, whether by agreement or signal or just luck of the draw. Let's take it a bit further though. Let's say you are in the VZW coverage area and you are driving down the road. The PRL also tells the towers you are on how to handle the transfer. In many areas there are 2 or three signals overlapping slightly you may pick up signals from 3 towers your phone sends out a code to the towers and the one for which you have the highest priority based on the codes is the one you will use. Depending on settings it does that every 2 seconds or so whether you are on the phone or not. your priority on the tower is based on your code and traffic on the tower and whether you are coming on or passing off. If you are leaving a VZW coverage area it helps the towers decide how to transfer.

It used to be clearer. They used to send a message or text to your phone letting you know that a new PRL was available and that you need to do *228 to update. It usually said something along the lines of we have been upgrading our equipment and now here is new software to help you make use of it or something along those lines.

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