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AT&T roaming prioritized over Sprint coverage after PRL update.


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Here's my multi-point theory on why Sprint isn't roaming on VZW for LTE:

  1. Fewer Sprint phones have B13 than B12, and at the point that you're roaming on another carrier you want that low-band signal, most of which is still B13 on VZW.
  2. VZW charges more for data roaming than AT&T does, and might not even let Sprint do LTE roaming. This is bolstered by the fact that e.g. FreedomPop uses AT&T rather than Verizon as the underlying network for its stuff...they wouldn't use it if it was expensive.

Also, add the PH-1 to the list of unlocked/BYOD phones that likely have the same firmware as the Sprint version, and thus get WiFi calling (though the PH-1 doesn't have Calling Plus; fingers crossed that I get VoLTE).

I've been in a few RF dead zones (yay hotels!) lately but have seen the phone drop down to native eHRPD rather than swap to roaming on e.g. T-Mo band 12, so my guess is that I won't see aggressive roaming to LTE until the VoLTE soft launch, and maybe not even then.

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18 hours ago, iansltx said:

Fewer Sprint phones have B13 than B12, and at the point that you're roaming on another carrier you want that low-band signal, most of which is still B13 on VZW.

I'm guessing that number may grow a bit going forward as Sprint is using B13 in Puerto Rico and the USVI(?) via their partnership with Open Mobile.

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The aggressive roaming has stopped for me. Yesterday and today, I was driving through a Sprint dead zone for 10-15 minutes. -110 1x (basically useless, you can't make a call on this stretch of highway, it drops almost immediately) and no evdo. My car has AT&T and had full service, but my phone wouldn't roam despite having no usable data.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...
Noticed this on the way to work this morning,  Appalachian wireless LTE with simultaneous Sprint 1x once again.
Screenshot_2018-10-01-08-12-34.thumb.jpg.d47976d26b7b909a79d6ea9987e14444.jpg
Happened to me before around Irving

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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