roaming but picking up faint verizon signals?

[bigdad84]

ok so im on extended network in my town. but in certain parts of the town i pick up an actual verizon wireless tower signal from a nearby town which is 1 bar and 1x data, which kinda renders the phone useless in that area. is there a way where i could make it where my phone doesnt pick up that actual verizon signal and where i always go off the extended network tower right beside me?

 

[jsmith45]

ok so im on extended network in my town. but in certain parts of the town i pick up an actual verizon wireless tower signal from a nearby town which is 1 bar and 1x data, which kinda renders the phone useless in that area. is there a way where i could make it where my phone doesnt pick up that actual verizon signal and where i always go off the extended network tower right beside me?

Very good question. There are ways of doing that, but they all require editing the provisioning data of the phone.

Before even considering doing something like that, first "update your phone's roaming service" by calling *ACT (*228) while in a Verzion service area and pressing 2 when prompted. It is possible that may fix or alliveate the problem. Doing that updates the preferred roaming list, which says whose towers your phone may connect to, and what priority the phones should give them.

If that did not fix the issue then altering the provisioning might work, but it is not a process to be taken lightly. If you are not the kind of person who is confortable editing the Registry in Microsoft Windows, or if you don't even know what the Registry is, then that would not be for you.

If you are very confortable with that, you can try adding the sid/nid of the tower to the phone's home SID/NID list. Failing that editing the phones PRL is a possibility (I have even done that in a very similar situation). Of course if that all sounds alien to you, then once again, this would not be a project for you. If however, it makes sense, and you just want guidance on how to do those steps, you should be able to find somebody to guide you (if not here, then try on the XDA forums).