I went up to visit my grandma this weekend who lives in an area where sprint does not have service but I'm usually always roaming and the data has always worked on my phone in that area. My aunt who has a sprint iphone and was having trouble with data too. We could both call and text but could not get online. I ended up calling sprint and they looked up the location to see where the closest tower was and she said it was 30 miles away. So now where ever i go thats roaming I can no longer use data even though i have free roaming with my plan that includes data. Has anyone heard of this problem or know how to fix it? Thanks.
-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
No data when roaming....
- Thread starter bencurt24
- Start date
someguyatx
Well-Known Member
Mine gets data when roaming but its typically very slow. Heck Sometimes I get no data on Sprint network lately though. Thankfully I can get 4g at home and work or else I would be on another carrier by now.
I had a problem with data on 2 phones when roaming - strange thing was that one of then was the Epic 4G touch and the other was an HTC Evo Shift. My third phone, the HTC Evo got data just fine. I made multiple calls to sprint tech support, did profile refreshes and phone registering and deregistering, etc. None of that solved the problem.
I started clicking on the roaming options and toggled roaming and roaming guard settings on and off and eventually data started working. My settings were set to allow automatic roaming and no roaming warnings needed. I confirmed with Sprint there was no charge for data when roaming and that my plan included it.
After toggling all these settings on both phones, both started getting data when roaming. I have no idea why or what changed, but it worked.
I started clicking on the roaming options and toggled roaming and roaming guard settings on and off and eventually data started working. My settings were set to allow automatic roaming and no roaming warnings needed. I confirmed with Sprint there was no charge for data when roaming and that my plan included it.
After toggling all these settings on both phones, both started getting data when roaming. I have no idea why or what changed, but it worked.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
30 miles is a really long distance for a PCS phone that was designed to work with cell sites much less than 1 mile away. It's amazing that you get reliable service to begin with. I got a free airave femtocell device from Sprint to use at my mom's home, where there are Sprint towers 1.1-1.75 miles away. You might want to consider that since you're both Sprint customers.
When I was testing a product prototype that relied on a Sprint EVDO card for wireless data out in the boonies, I found that a lot of the time the best data service I could get was 1xRTT ("2G"), which is roughly as fast as an ISDN data line, for those who remember them. I'm sure that the cell sites themselves were the limiting factor because at the time Sprint was getting EVDO R.0 to the Chicago city limits, and not an inch beyond. I'm sure that a lot of rural cell sites are still running 2G, although IIRC all the old (D)AMPS 800MHz frequencies should be transitioned to 1900MHz roughly right now.
With everybody but T-Mobile rushing to the 700MHz band and LTS for data right now, I'm sure that rural cell towers get the least attention because they generate the least bang for the buck. So I'm guessing that in areas where the nearest tower is 30 miles away, you're not likely to ever see EVDO or WiMAX come to that tower if it's not already there. If Sprint's transition to LTE is as slow as it was to EVDO, or as failed as it is with WiMAX, you might be better off with another carrier there for a few years.
Depending on who's operating grandma's cell tower that you're roaming off of, your problem could be anything from the kind of dropouts that you can expect when relying on a competitor to connect to your own network, to outages related to service at the one and only tower that you're relying on, to the physical limitations of radio technology at those distances and power levels. Take your pick.
Another thought: if grandma doesn't have high speed Internet (Cable modem or DSL) service wired to the home, which is needed for the airave, you might consider investing in a cellphone signal booster for grandma's house. These things use linear amplifiers to boost the signal to/from a rooftop antenna (preferably). The one I have is designed to connect to an antenna port on a phone or data card, but some are made to work with an indoor antenna (they have to be separated so they don't "walk over" each other) so you can use your cellphones normally.
Hope that helps...or that grandma gets a service upgrade soon.
When I was testing a product prototype that relied on a Sprint EVDO card for wireless data out in the boonies, I found that a lot of the time the best data service I could get was 1xRTT ("2G"), which is roughly as fast as an ISDN data line, for those who remember them. I'm sure that the cell sites themselves were the limiting factor because at the time Sprint was getting EVDO R.0 to the Chicago city limits, and not an inch beyond. I'm sure that a lot of rural cell sites are still running 2G, although IIRC all the old (D)AMPS 800MHz frequencies should be transitioned to 1900MHz roughly right now.
With everybody but T-Mobile rushing to the 700MHz band and LTS for data right now, I'm sure that rural cell towers get the least attention because they generate the least bang for the buck. So I'm guessing that in areas where the nearest tower is 30 miles away, you're not likely to ever see EVDO or WiMAX come to that tower if it's not already there. If Sprint's transition to LTE is as slow as it was to EVDO, or as failed as it is with WiMAX, you might be better off with another carrier there for a few years.
Depending on who's operating grandma's cell tower that you're roaming off of, your problem could be anything from the kind of dropouts that you can expect when relying on a competitor to connect to your own network, to outages related to service at the one and only tower that you're relying on, to the physical limitations of radio technology at those distances and power levels. Take your pick.
Another thought: if grandma doesn't have high speed Internet (Cable modem or DSL) service wired to the home, which is needed for the airave, you might consider investing in a cellphone signal booster for grandma's house. These things use linear amplifiers to boost the signal to/from a rooftop antenna (preferably). The one I have is designed to connect to an antenna port on a phone or data card, but some are made to work with an indoor antenna (they have to be separated so they don't "walk over" each other) so you can use your cellphones normally.
Hope that helps...or that grandma gets a service upgrade soon.
thanks for the advice and input. Its not that big of a deal since i only go there a handful times a year. What I don't understand is how my mom could get data and i couldn't and we have the same exact phone. Also how is it that i could always get data up there with the same phone but now i all of a sudden can't? Correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't roaming mean that you are using someone else's tower to get a signal? I find it had to believe that there isn't a Verizon or AT&T tower that is closer than 30 miles. The town they live in is a college town with probably 30,000 people.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
That last part that I bolded really does raise some questions about everything you've been told about your roaming situation. I was thinking that grandma lived well off the beaten path. I'd think that a college town would be served by most if not all of the major carriers. Perhaps the "30 miles" was the distance to the nearest Sprint tower. Although it shouldn't be hard to know where your competitors' cell sites are, I doubt that a Sprint customer rep would get the cooperation from Verizon to say with certainty which Verizon tower you're roaming on.
I was surprised to find out that there are quite a few small CDMA carriers still out there. If one of these is the established (like an ILEC) cellular company for that town, it could be that you're roaming on their equipment. That brings up questions like how financially sound they are, how well they inter-operate with Sprint at the wireline network level and so forth.
If your mom is getting data, and is a local customer (ie. not roaming), the problem probably lies at the point where the roaming company communicates with other companies. But if your mom had the exact same phone, then she has to be a Sprint customer! I'm stumped by that.
I just noticed that your roaming problem isn't limited to one place. Sorry I missed that before. I don't know how much roaming you do, or how many different systems you roam on, but this could be a problem with your phone. OTOH it could be because a lot of CDMA carriers are rushing to LTE. Maybe they're turning off their CDMA2000 (1xRTT, EVDO) data equipment to force their users to buy new phones. Or maybe they reserve their CDMA2000 bandwidth to local customers.
Remember that CDMA2000 is in-band; it uses the same cellular band (and bandwidth) that regular phone calls do. The thing is that a single data connection can take up the same cellular bandwidth as dozens of voice calls. Sprint is the dark horse because it stuck with WiMAX long after most CDMA and TDMA carriers switched to LTE data, which is incompatible. With data usage skyrocketing, I'll bet that a lot of cellular providers simply can't afford to provide backward compatibility (EVDO for Sprint phones) and still have enough capacity to support all the voice calls.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
I don't think that they even try to diagnose phones at Sprint stores any more, so you're going to have to swap your phone for a refurb phone to see if it's the phone. That sucks double if the problem is in the software. The only other way to troubleshoot it yourself is to find a cheap prepaid phone that uses the Sprint network, has data and roaming, and see if the burner phone encounters the same problems.
Sorry, but there are so many variables when it comes to data and roaming combined that there's no simple solution. I'd hate to trade by new phone for a refurb, even if it does solve the problem. Have you rooted your phone? Maybe there's an alternate data stack that you can try.
Good luck! Wish I had a better answer.
Yea you could be absolutely right. My mom was roaming too! which makes it even weirder. I could make calls and text but no data..... When i talked to the sprint rep I'm pretty sure she was saying that the closest sprint tower is 30 miles away. its weird too because when things started acting up with my phone while up there the clocked changed to 6pm when it was really only 2 and the date went to december 31st of 1999....... some of the strangest things i've seen happen on my phone....
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
That date thing sounds like a hardware problem. It looks like the register that holds the number used to "dial" the data connection (*777 IIRC) is going blank.
With Linux and UNIX, seeing December 31, 1969 is a telltale sign that something's wrong; that the time and date is invalid. The UNIX epoch is January 1, 1970, so an illegal date like December 31, 1969 is a red flag in software. A date like December 31, 1999 looks like the phone is losing configuration data due to a dead CMOS battery or a bad hardware component. I'd hold my nose and trade in the phone. Do you have a warranty on it?
I have the protection plan through sprint, if thats what you're referring to as a warranty. Its just been doing some really strange things... recently i had it plugged in for 16 hours straight and the battery level only went up to 24 percent. Last night i had it plugged in and i could only get it up to 80 percent and it was on the charger for 10 hours.... Do you think i should be going into a sprint store?
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
Looks that way. If your battery is acting like that, it's on its way out. In fact you might want to see if swapping a new battery affects the other conditions. I don't know if you can check while you're in the store, but if you're going to be replacing your phone with the same model, having a spare battery never hurts. So the cost would be justified if you want to try it for a while with a new, good battery. These new smart batteries can do things like shut themselves off, which could possibly cause the loss of settings and date. That's a long shot, but I thought I'd mention it to you. Your best bet is still to replace the whole phone if it's covered.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
One more thing:
http://androidforums.com/sprint/490340-off-network-roaming-changing-prl-concerns.html
http://androidforums.com/sprint/490340-off-network-roaming-changing-prl-concerns.html
You might want to check and see if they've been cutting off your roaming data.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
Wow, they pushed a couple of buttons and hoped.
What ever happened to the sales technician? The guy (or girl) who wouldn't hesitate to hook up a cable and run a diagnostic routine on your phone?
*sigh*
someguyatx
Well-Known Member
A prl update just came out this week, let us know if that fixes the issue. I dont roam much so I always thought the signal was just too crappy for data services when I did.
Speed Daemon
Android Expert
Yeah, if it fixes everything, it'll be worth the unnecessary 30 mile drive.