ROM and reception/data speed?

[chuggy]

I feel like i know the answer to the following question but I have to ask anyway because im stuck.

Can a ROM flash affect reception/data speed?

I always thought it was the radio and PRL that changed reception until I flashed to the latest Juicy rom. Now i cant get more than 1-2 bars and about 285 kbbs for data speed. I have been using the telus radio for a while and have always had great speed and reception. I tried moving to Starmans rom, and still have poor reception and speed.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

[chuggy]

ok, so I flashed a new rom, and tried a couple radios and still cannot get more than 1 bar. I'm starting to wonder if my phone is damaged. Anyone have any ideas?

[AceXMachine]

The way I understand it, the base ROM has nothing to do with reception, and the PRL has only a little to do with it. If you are in the same area where you used to get "more bars" and now only get 1, there can really be only 2 possibilities. Phone is damaged, or there has been a network change, whether an outage or re-orientation of your serving cell site. Only way to know is to have someone with the same ROM/Radio on the same model phone in the same area. If the difference is significant, then it is the phone. If not, then something else has changed.