[rokky]

Reception Issue:

Well, I got the phone once I was assured of a legit Vzw source of the update (appreciate your efforts here, guys, but really wanted to play it “safe” - the info here has been most helpful). I applied the update before activating, and it went fine (from Win2K) … except the reception was so bad, that I could not establish the connection with the *228 call for the initial phone programming!
My house is “cellular-resistant”, but all my other phones, including the xv6900 I tried for a week or so in July (before returning it due to various dissatisfactions including paying $200 vs the $50 now that I suspected would occur some day) with the stock WM 6.0, have always been able to make that connection from one spot or another in my house. Has anyone else had this problem?

I finally got around it by inserting the stripped end of a twist-tie wire in the antenna jack under the camera mirror and routing it out the stylus opening. It is one of those heavy black ones that often is used to tie up cables with electronics, and is only about 2.5 inches long, but seems to be dong the trick. The twist-tie antenna makes the phone seem “normal”. I have gotten download speeds with dslreports.com’s speed test of 600Kb/s, which is a nice rev A step up from the more usual 200-400 I would get with the xv6700 I am replacing with this one. I even got Google Maps working nicely with the “Valhalla” GPS update from xda-developers.