Alltel EVDO Coverage

[craiggiarc]

I've been looking at the Alltel Coverage Map for Oklahoma that can be found here.

I'm in one of the light blue areas so I should be able to get speeds up too 144kbps. To be able to get this on a Moto Q though do I need to update my PRL? (I think that's what it is called!)

Craig

[Geekster]

Dial *228 and then option 2. Give it a minute and it will let you know when it's done updating. Alltel ppl recommend you do this update once a month to keep your PRL updated.

[craiggiarc]

Originally Posted by Geekster

Dial *228 and then option 2. Give it a minute and it will let you know when it's done updating. Alltel ppl recommend you do this update once a month to keep your PRL updated.

Thanks Geekster, is there a way to tell what my PRL is before and after doing this?

[Geekster]

Never really looked into it. I always figured it was flashing a rom more than a software update. But that can't be right either b/c when you do the nasty Master Reset you have to update the towers again. That is a very good question! Where does the PRL update go? Maybe someone will find this and answer that. Or start another post and ask. This will of course drive me crazy until I find out. Google, here I come! If you find out before me let me know, ok?

I found this if you are on either one of these networks.

http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/56/63/

[craiggiarc]

Originally Posted by Geekster

Never really looked into it. I always figured it was flashing a rom more than a software update. But that can't be right either b/c when you do the nasty Master Reset you have to update the towers again. That is a very good question! Where does the PRL update go? Maybe someone will find this and answer that. Or start another post and ask. This will of course drive me crazy until I find out. Google, here I come! If you find out before me let me know, ok?

Under Settings > Phone Settings > Phone Information the PRL version is listed. However before updating via *228 my PRL was 30029 and after it's still 30029. :-(

If memory serves me right I read somewhere that you had to update the PRL manually because via Alltel only issue the PRL for Roaming onto Sprints Network for data cards and not phones. I'll have a search and see what I can find.

[Geekster]

Yeah--I just found it to. But PRL is update for phones. It adds towers to the list of available towers so if you go out of your roaming area you will have coverage and you will not, most likely, be in a roaming area that costs money if you use the phone. That's my understanding. Also, updating towers, PRL, does not update the current "version" of "firmware" you have on phone. Does that make sense? Anyway, that's the way I understand it, but then I didn't have a very good salesrep.

[craiggiarc]

I'm opening this back up again as despite weeks of searching I can't find the answer!

At one point I found directions on how to manually update the PRL code on my Q using some other software that I had to download but I can't for the life of me find it again!

The idea is that I want to update my PRL to the one that will allow me to use Sprints EVDO coverage rather than just the 1x that I have with Alltel where I live!

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[hanski9]

Originally Posted by craiggiarc

The idea is that I want to update my PRL to the one that will allow me to use Sprints EVDO coverage rather than just the 1x that I have with Alltel where I live!

Just curious, had you considered calling Alltel, tell them they can not cover you where you live and you want to drop them? Then move to Sprint since apparently they have better coverage where you live?

[craiggiarc]

Originally Posted by hanski9

Just curious, had you considered calling Alltel, tell them they can not cover you where you live and you want to drop them? Then move to Sprint since apparently they have better coverage where you live?

Must admit I haven't tried that, and it's a good idea. Would still like to find out the instructions on how to do it manually to though!

[mehoff88]

*288 does nothing for me. I dial it and it just rings busy.