Verizon Alltel Merger..Better signal?

flyinace123 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 02:49 PM

I've had a TP with Alltel (now verizon) for about 10 months. From day one my signal stank in my house and at my office. Is it possible to lock onto the Verzion towers now that the Verzion/Alltel merger is complete? A couple guys I work with have had Verizon for years and they always had full signal in the office while I had little to nothing (often no signal at all). I was hoping I would now have a full signal but nothing has changed. Do I have to do anything to get the Verizon signal on my Alltel TP? Should I bring it into a Verizon store and get them to do something?
Also, can I now get 3G internet speeds on my TP now that the meger is complete?

**Adrianh85** · #2 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 04:09 PM

Wirelessly posted (AdrianH85(TP2): Opera/9.5(Microsoft Windows; PPC; Opera Mobi/16643; U; en) HTC_Touch_Pro2_T7379)

are u on a verizon or alltel account? i ask because if u are on a verizon accout u may be able to use a verizon prl without any roaming charges! that should give u better signal and the 3g data speeds!!

**rstoyguy** · #3 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 04:14 PM

Moved to the HTC Touch Pro forum.

flyinace123 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 06:09 PM

Well I was originally on Alltel but now im on Verizon due to the merger. I got my HTC touch pro while on Alltel. I was hoping my signal would get better now that Alltel and Verizon are combined...Anyone know how if this will happen automatically?

muddauber · #5 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyinace123

Well I was originally on Alltel but now im on Verizon due to the merger. I got my HTC touch pro while on Alltel. I was hoping my signal would get better now that Alltel and Verizon are combined...Anyone know how if this will happen automatically?

In the same boat. But in our area only the account has been moved to Verizon, they have not yet merged the towers into their system, so they say. I used the newest Verizon radio (1.03.09) and have had a big improvement. I chose to upgrade to the latest Alltel rom, and then unlocked and tried various radios. If you do install the latest rom, be aware Alltel locked the gps, so changing radio is a must to unlock that and use any gps app (like Google Maps, etc) you want.
Have they just moved your account, or actually merged the towers and systems? To actually be full Verizon, you would need to flash to a Verizon rom. I was told I could do that, but would have to move my line to Verizon. I'll wait till wm7 is ready and phones are out that will run it. Our TP's apparently will not.

Ed Zachary · #6 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 06:43 PM

What?

I am an Alltel-to-Verizon customer as well.
Never had to do anything untoward to use GPS. Before or after the merger. I just downloaded and installed Google Maps, turned on GPS in the phone's settings (services|location), and turned on Use GPS in Google Maps.
I believe it was Verizon that locked GPS on their phones, not Alltel.

The merger, like nearly all mergers, entailed the acquired company's accounts becoming the property of the acquirer. So the accounts got "moved" to Verizon be virtue of being part of the property being sold.

Equipment was also a part of the deal, so all the Alltel equipment, except of course, the parts that were divested after the merger, is part of the merge of the two systems.
The merger of equipment obviously could not happen overnight. That would be a physical impossibility. Rather, that merger is an ongoing process. An Alltel-cum-Verizon customer does not need to do anything with the phone like flashing, upgrading, or otherwise diddling with the software in order for it to work on the Verizon network.

muddauber · #7 (**permalink**) 10-18-2009, 09:24 PM

Yes, Alltel customers will continue to work on the Verizon network. Never said it would not. That was not the op question. It was about getting better a better signal strength. OP could do one of two things. Migrate his line to Verizon and install the Verizon software. Or, stay with the Alltel setup and install another radio. If you have the older version from Alltel, yes your GPS works out of the box. Upgrading to the latest Alltel rom disabled GPS except for Alltel Navigation. If you purchased the Alltel Navigation, GPS became unlocked. I tried that. Then uninstalled it to see what would happen. Google Maps, etc no longer worked. Reinstalled the Alltel app, GPS worked again. Changing the radio fixed that. No idea why, that was the advice I got and it worked.

**razorloves** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-19-2009, 02:32 AM

@ flyinace123: Call them and tell them about the weak signal and ask them about the SID. I had to change mine to a verizon SID and they also may need to push a hybrid prl to your phone. should fix your problem

@ muddauber: alltel's new rom or any other rom, has never locked the gps on the alltel touch pro.

Ed Zachary · #9 (**permalink**) 10-19-2009, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muddauber

If you have the older version from Alltel, yes your GPS works out of the box. Upgrading to the latest Alltel rom disabled GPS except for Alltel Navigation.

Hard reset. Installed the latest (07/07) Alltel ROM from the HTC support page.
Couple more hard resets, just to make sure I installed nothing but the stock ROM.
Installed Google Maps. Made sure Locations service was turned on. Started Google Maps and checked Use GPS.

Guess over three decades of software development has rendered me too stupid to realize that:
(5) in the upper right does NOT mean that the phone can "see" 5 statellites and
the map moved, on its own, to my actual location

Really means that GPS is NOT working on my phone...

And all this time I thought it was actually working. Silly, silly me.

flyinace123 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-19-2009, 01:03 PM

I think there is a lot of confusion about the TP GPS after updating to the new Alltel Rom. For me the GPS did work after the update, however it took significantly longer to lock onto the satellites. I tested this quite extensively with GPS monitoring software. Several times I could not lock on to any sats at all even while standing in the middle of a large field. I would have to soft-reset several times before finally locking on. I could certainly understand why someone thought the GPS no longer functioned after the Alltel update because it took so long to lock on. This was not a problem prior to the update. My GPS monitoring software even indicated that the several sats were being received but it just could not make the final lock.
I changed my radio to the new Verizon version and have had absolutely no problem locking onto the sats. I think it is pretty clear the Alltel radio did have some impact on the GPS, this impact is probably more apparent to some while not apparent to others.