Sprint works and verizon doesn't? that seems weird because they are the same network for the most part. I would just stick with verizon, especially if you get the discount through your employer.

Well my fiance has Sprint and inside the condo her coverage is not perfect but better than mine. Now outside (in the parking lot, near the condo) she claims her coverage is perfect. Mine is not.

I thought that cell phone companies dont share coverage towers within big cities, populated areas, only in the country or on major highways.

Otherwise if everyone shared the same towers...would'nt every cell phone company offer the same features and coverage level?

They just both run of CDMA networks, so if verizon was struggling to grab a signal, I figured that sprint would as well.

I know for me, my friends that have sprint dont get much of a signal in my condo. They have about the same coverage as me.

sprint and verizon have roaming agreements, meaning you can use either towers in certain areas. check your roaming settings on your phone. if its set to never roam then you wont pick up the sprint towers.

Verizon phones do not work that way, you can't force a verizon phone to roam.

I think you can force your phone to roam but I am not totally certain. You need to go into the hidden menu system to do that:

On LG vx8600s with older firmware, press OK to open the menu on your phone. Press 0, and then six more zeros to open the service menu.
ON newer firmware, you should enter: ##PROGRAM8600 (##77647268600) + send, then enter the six zeros.

I would play with the settings in option 3 AKA Network select to see if you can adjust some stuff in there to make it work.

Make sure you write down the original settings before you change them, just In case you get a phone with no reception at all.

Also another thing is research getting a Femtocell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell »

I'm not sure if there are an...
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ummm no..that will only turn off evdo...verizon blocks certain PRL anyways- bottom line is can't force your phone to roam nor would I suggest it.

If you're having issue try another phone, or port to another carrier that works in your home.

You can force a verizon phone to roam. The new ones they have today, you can not, that I can find anyway, but the 8600, you can definately force to roam.

you have to go in the secret menu, and select option one, service prg. There is step by step instructions for doing it. Basically you need to know the sid number verizon is in st. louis. You can go in and lock out verizon's sid and that will force your phone to go onto the extended network. Which in st. Louis, I would bet is USCC.

And yes, the 8600 is not a very good phone for signal. You will need to find out who verizon roams on in st.Louis, and then find out if that carrier has better service in your condo area. If they do, then locking out verizon's sid will do the trick.
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So maybe you can on the 8600, but on the new ones you cant! It doesn't matter you got this guy going into the service menu which you can mess up your phone easy if you don't know what you're doing... and C'mon sticking his phone under his arm pits is not an option either 🤣 His veirzon phone sucks at his house, get another carrier!

my service sucks at my house also brown27. Any day, any time, I can stick my phone under my arm pit and I can force my phone to the extended network. The fact that the service sucks in my house is the reason the arm pit trick works. It takes the almost non-existant signal from verizon, blocks it out, and forces the phone to search for a stronger signal, which in my area is USCC, and the phone grabs that signal. I go from no bar verizon signal to full USCC signal just by putting the phone under my arm pit for 10 seconds.

And on the other deal on the service menu, Brown27 is right here, do not mess with the settings in service menu unless you have knowledge of what to do or know someone that can show you. Practice on a old junk phone i...
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Why do you stay with verizon if you at home receptions sucks? Entire family on Verizon?

95% of the people I talk to are on verizon. And I travel for a living. Verizon does not have a 50% rule. The other carrier in my area is USCC, and they have a 50% rule, which I violated 8 years ago.

in my small town, we have 2 choices, Verizon, or USCC. USCC has the better service with restrictions, and verizon has the weaker service with no restrictions and most everybody I know or talk to have verizon. So verizon wins, I can work around the signal situation.

During my travels, verizon is fine, just suck in my house and most of our town.

I see cool cool i guess you figured out what works best for you! 🙂

another thing I would try, go into the secret menu go down to network select, click on mode preference, and select 1X only. Sometimes if you are in a bad area for evdo, your phone is programmed to search for evdo first, then move on to other towers. If you are on the outer boundary for evdo, it is possible your phone is holding onto that evdo tower forcing you to have worse voice coverage. If you swith the setting to 1X only, there might be a non evdo tower closer to you that your phone will pick up. This is just an idea, might work for you, it does for me in another area.

And yes, I know evdo is not voice, but your is phone programmed to go with evdo first, then 1X, well if there is a tower that has evdo close enough to you, your pho...
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Sprint has its own towers and one could be closer to his condo yielding him better service with Sprint, Sprint roams off of verizon but only when out of their native coverage area, so they don't share the same towers!! 🙂