Force connection to roam data possible?

[svtdoug]

Hi!  This forum has been very helpful to understand where towers are and how to determine signal strength.  So here is my current dilemma.  We RV in a somewhat remote area along the Washington coast.  I have a Wilson amp and an external directional wide band antenna on a pole about 15' high.  There is a Sprint tower about 8 miles south of our position with horrible data bandwidth - mostly non-existent.  There is a US Cellular tower inland about 5 miles which is much stronger with good EVO data bandwidth - EV-DO -76dBm (SignalCheck Pro).   The problem is if I connect the amp and directional antenna pointed inland, I might connect to the US Cellular tower for a bit, but in a few minutes my phone will switch to the much weaker Sprint tower to the south, and there goes any data connection.  I can actually do better at times without the amp, as the phone stays connected to the US Cellular tower longer, but at a much weaker signal strength - EV-DO -97 dBm.  

 

So my question is - is there any way to lock the phone into the stronger US Cellular signal, and prevent it from hopping to the weaker Sprint tower.  Or is there a way to prevent it from connecting to the weaker Sprint signal?  I would think that the directional antenna would prevent this from happening, but the side attenuation must not be high enough. 

 

BTW, I have reported the lack of data on the Sprint tower twice, with no positive results. 

 

HTC One (original) on Sprint.  Wilson Sleek 4G amp.  Wilson 314411 Wide Band Directional Yagi.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

Doug

[greenbastard]

Outside of a custom PRL, you're out of luck. I'd recommend lowering your antenna so the closer US Cellular tower is the only thing it can pick up.

[Vince]

Correct. Without PRL modification, you're out of luck on that, no matter what kind of setup you have. Basically every phone on every provider will prefer weak native signal over strong roaming. It's just a cost thing. Why not pick up some kind of hotspot for when you're on the road without Sprint service?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[Andrew Revering]

Actually I'm pretty sure roamctrl app http://www.roamctrl.com/

works on that phone to force roam without PRL change. I used to use this a lot on my M7 and M8. Unfortunately I have a Galaxy S6 Edge now and it no longer works on my phone...so you're a lucky guy.

 

I'd be interested to hear if this solves your problem and works for you -- I think it will.