• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Signal problems may have been answered...

sinned

Newbie
Dec 1, 2009
20
0
I went to the VZ store yesterday in an effort to figure something out with the some what less than par signal on the Droid...The lady that I spoke with said that she would set up a PLI i think is what she said (I am really not sure what it was but it did start with a P lol) anyways that VZ would send this out at midnight lastnight and it should dramatically fix the reception/signal issues that I was experiencing. She did however make it WELL known NOT TO do the *228 option between the time she sent out the call for the fix and midnight last night that it would mess up the whole thing...So for those of you having this issue I would like to recommend you having this done...

Yes it did seem to help out @ both locations that I had issues home/office...Home I would average around high 90's dbm to low 100's dbm and @ work was around 100-118 dbm...now @ home I am in mid 80's dbm and @ work I am averaging about mid 90's dbm

I hope this helps out some what...

Dennis
 
Is this a "nationwide", "local", or "per handset fix"?


Well...It was more of a push/some sort of fix that was sent to my phone at midnight...she said they only did it at midnight and to NOT do a *228...now i dont know if I can do a *228 anymore now that this has been done or if it was just during that time between her telling me and midnight that day...I believe that this is a nationwide thing and your local VZ store should know about it...
 
Upvote 0
So what do we do now? Do we dial *228 or do we call VZW so they can send out this PLI thing?


Yea I dont know this is just what worked for me...I should call em and ask them what exactly it was Im sure I am messing it up by calling it a PLI or whatever but I do know for sure it did start with a P lol...the *228 however did not work for me AT ALL...
 
Upvote 0
...I believe that this is a nationwide thing and your local VZ store should know about it...


Yeah...I doubt Verizon would do an overnight break/fix "nationwide" based on one person's poor reception, "the same night". Worth looking into on a local level however, and may put some hope on the Dec. update to resolve the issue. Goes back to my original hypothesis that "its the Droid, not the network."
 
Upvote 0
They probably said PRL(preferred roaming list) sometimes they can push a different one to your phone than you get by doing *228. Although I wasn't told to wait till after midnight to do *228, I was told not to do *228 at all or it would be changed back to the old one.


Yes just to clarify she did say that she didnt want me to do the *228 during that time frame that it would like you said revert back to the old...and that does sound right PRL...
 
Upvote 0
Yeah...I doubt Verizon would do an overnight break/fix "nationwide" based on one person's poor reception, "the same night". Worth looking into on a local level however, and may put some hope on the Dec. update to resolve the issue. Goes back to my original hypothesis that "its the Droid, not the network."


I thought by that person saying nationwide he/she was asking if this is something they do for everyone nationwide...I dont think that they would send out PRL or whatever it was that she had setup to send to me at midnight to everyone on the continent...I was just stating that if they did it for me I am sure that would do it for another person say maybe somewheres else...case by case situations...
 
Upvote 0
Right. But it would seem odd that it would be a "roaming" issue, given that the phone is initially activated at your local store (for most people). One would think that all the local info would be gathered with the phone's initial surroundings?

Either way, glad its working for you. Are you still getting the 3G->1x changes while the phone is stationary?
 
Upvote 0
I've heard of this before...don't have the details, but I have read about people getting a customized PRL can be sent to a phone to change its preferred towers. It doesn't affect anyone but the person getting the the customized PRL.

I believe the context I heard about it in was former Alltel customers on Verizon....
 
Upvote 0
So glad that someone is finally getting to the bottom of this. What you've encountered makes a lot of sense. It sounds like sort of a network registration issue, like the network not properly registering your device. It has happened a fair bit in the past with Blackberries on Verizon as well. Glad to hear that there's some hope here with software issues and that we don't have to keep running back to the store for new hardware. And your signal improvement is right about in line with what I would be expecting on mine if it were working properly. Thanks for checking this out -- I'll get on it with tech support.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones