roaming authentication problem?

[bayexplorer]

I have problem with roaming authentication for a long time, although I have SERO with free roaming. Previously, I was always prompted by American Roaming Network to enter a credit card when the phone lost sprint signal. Now verizon always picks up (e.g. when I force roaming on the 6700) but says "welcome to verizon wireless. we are sorry but we currently are unable to authenticate your phone".

Only one night I was able to got through. But the next day I did a hard reset and never get through on roaming again. Neither voice or data works.

I got the latest PRL (20227), tried both Sprint rom and 3.5ROM. None helped. Tweaking EVDO only or hybrid does no help. Reprogramming the phone by resetting mdn and msid does not help. Data provisioning via IOTA does not help. Sprint customer service could not figure out a problem as they said my account allows roaming. In addition, the roaming authentication is not location specific.

I searched extensively online and someone mentioned that Verizon turned on A-key authentication in California. If a phone does not send out the correct A-key, authentication would fail. I checked my A-Key under debugging, which is empty. Someone at the 700wx forum also encounters the authentication problem. But that's about it. Are we the only unfortunately ones? What might be the problem?

One interesting observation: when I force roaming, verizon informs the authentication problem, then prompts to call #8899. I did, and got connected to sprint customer service. But I was greeted with an automatic message saying the account is past due, for $1049. But if I am on sprint and dial *2, I was greeted with the message of no outstanding balance (which is correct). --now I am really baffled.