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Verizon carrier settings update?
- Thread starter Robertsmania
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Okay, guys, PRL updates have NOTHING to do with "new towers" - NOTHING AT ALL. Verizon says it constantly, and it's a total and complete lie. The PRL also has nothing to do with LTE, LTE is authenticated network-side just like GSM/UMTS.
So what *is* a PRL, you may wonder? It's a Preferred Roaming List. CDMA uses the old-school ANSI switching system. This was designed for analog (AMPS) phones with two bands - Cellular A-side and Cellular B-side. Additionally, each network had a System ID (SID). Cellular A-side spectrum was licensed to independent competitors, whereas the B-side was made available to local incumbent telcos. Since these entities usually cooperated with each other, phones would simply be set to roam on all A-side or all B-side carriers.
Over time, however, between the new availability of PCS spectrum (adding far more potential choices) and numerous mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, this picture got far more complicated and the PRL was introduced (though even many new CDMA phones have automatic A and automatic B options intended for a PRL failure).
The PRL is simply a list of who to connect to and in what order if the phone cannot connect to your home SID. Unlike GSM/UMTS/LTE carriers that generally use the same MCC-MNC network wide, CDMA carriers usually run many unique SIDs in different areas. In my market, Verizon uses SID 262. The PRL specifies both what SIDs to connect to, AND where to find them. It can also specify a NID (Network ID) and exclusions. PRL does NOT specify individual towers. For example, all of Montana is SID 262 and any new towers will remain SID 262. No PRL update needed to use any new towers.
So when ARE PRL updates used?
1. Removing, adding, or changing roaming partners. This is the most common, for example, Verizon used to allow roaming on Sprint almost everywhere, but now it's limited to a very few markets. On the other hand, when Alltel bought Western Wireless, the new Alltel in Montana was added to the Verizon PRL. When Verizon bought Alltel, Alltel's SIDs were changed from "Extended Network" to "Verizon Wireless" (oddly, even here in Montana where they were forced to divest Alltel, it's back to being "Extended Network" now from what I've heard).
2. Adding or removing additional modes. When EVDO was added to the network, it had to get marked in the PRL. Oddly, this applies even on your home SID. Just because you're at home, you won't have EVDO unless it's in the PRL. Therefore, when Verizon was rolling out EVDO, PRL updates frequently were essential to make sure you got EVDO everywhere it was available. But this STILL did not add "new towers" but rather marked new functionality available across large areas. No coverage improvement correlated with this. On a smaller scale, these changes can also reflect things such as the addition of PCS channels.
3. For placebo effect. Sad, but true, once upon a time (still sometimes today) Verizon front-line customer service was (and is) trained to lie and tell customers a PRL update could fix their problem. When, quite frankly, it can't.
P.S. It's weird this PRL update is still occurring as part of Apple's carrier settings file in LTE world... why it's not reading the CSIM PRL that gets pushed over the air like EVERY FREAKING OTHER VERIZON 4G PHONE DOES makes absolutely no sense to me.
So what *is* a PRL, you may wonder? It's a Preferred Roaming List. CDMA uses the old-school ANSI switching system. This was designed for analog (AMPS) phones with two bands - Cellular A-side and Cellular B-side. Additionally, each network had a System ID (SID). Cellular A-side spectrum was licensed to independent competitors, whereas the B-side was made available to local incumbent telcos. Since these entities usually cooperated with each other, phones would simply be set to roam on all A-side or all B-side carriers.
Over time, however, between the new availability of PCS spectrum (adding far more potential choices) and numerous mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, this picture got far more complicated and the PRL was introduced (though even many new CDMA phones have automatic A and automatic B options intended for a PRL failure).
The PRL is simply a list of who to connect to and in what order if the phone cannot connect to your home SID. Unlike GSM/UMTS/LTE carriers that generally use the same MCC-MNC network wide, CDMA carriers usually run many unique SIDs in different areas. In my market, Verizon uses SID 262. The PRL specifies both what SIDs to connect to, AND where to find them. It can also specify a NID (Network ID) and exclusions. PRL does NOT specify individual towers. For example, all of Montana is SID 262 and any new towers will remain SID 262. No PRL update needed to use any new towers.
So when ARE PRL updates used?
1. Removing, adding, or changing roaming partners. This is the most common, for example, Verizon used to allow roaming on Sprint almost everywhere, but now it's limited to a very few markets. On the other hand, when Alltel bought Western Wireless, the new Alltel in Montana was added to the Verizon PRL. When Verizon bought Alltel, Alltel's SIDs were changed from "Extended Network" to "Verizon Wireless" (oddly, even here in Montana where they were forced to divest Alltel, it's back to being "Extended Network" now from what I've heard).
2. Adding or removing additional modes. When EVDO was added to the network, it had to get marked in the PRL. Oddly, this applies even on your home SID. Just because you're at home, you won't have EVDO unless it's in the PRL. Therefore, when Verizon was rolling out EVDO, PRL updates frequently were essential to make sure you got EVDO everywhere it was available. But this STILL did not add "new towers" but rather marked new functionality available across large areas. No coverage improvement correlated with this. On a smaller scale, these changes can also reflect things such as the addition of PCS channels.
3. For placebo effect. Sad, but true, once upon a time (still sometimes today) Verizon front-line customer service was (and is) trained to lie and tell customers a PRL update could fix their problem. When, quite frankly, it can't.
P.S. It's weird this PRL update is still occurring as part of Apple's carrier settings file in LTE world... why it's not reading the CSIM PRL that gets pushed over the air like EVERY FREAKING OTHER VERIZON 4G PHONE DOES makes absolutely no sense to me.
Mine too. Not connected to Verizon data. I called them tonight. They said it was a server problem and they were working on it. Been down since 5 pm.
Carrier settings include the APN. Interesting. Does anyone know if the APN changed in the new carrier settings file? That's the only explanation I could think of for why you'd lose LTE after a carrier settings update, unless Verizon has network trouble (their LTE hasn't been terribly reliable, though it's getting better) and it just was coincidence (which it could be because you could be connected, do the update, and not able to re-authenticate if the server went down before the update happened but you hadn't lost your authentication yet). APN isn't used for CDMA, so that's why that could explain it, but I don't *think* Apple would push out a file with a bad APN? Unless there's now a separate iPad APN or something and y'all are using non-iPad plans.
Indeed it was a network (or authentication system) outage it appears:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1761949-Another-LTE-Outage
Can you guys confirm you're back up and running?
Verizon sure hasn't had good luck with this whole Diameter (LTE switching and authentication platform) thing... And this, the day before another large-scale expansion of their LTE network (scheduled to happen today)
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1761949-Another-LTE-Outage
Can you guys confirm you're back up and running?
Verizon sure hasn't had good luck with this whole Diameter (LTE switching and authentication platform) thing... And this, the day before another large-scale expansion of their LTE network (scheduled to happen today)
Yes, I lost LTE last night. It told me I had run out of data, even though I had only used 58MB of 2GB w/ 28 days left. Was prompted to do the carrier update just now. It did fix the problem after a reboot and lengthy "Searching..." for signal.
Do not apply the update if using an AT&T 3G sim
I applied the update to my new iPad (Verizon) and it killed my AT&T sim card. I could not find a carrier update to apply to my AT&T iPhone 4 that would restore my sim card settings, so now I have a SIM card that will not work in either device. The iPad and iPhone show searching for a second or two followed by a No Service message. The update must have written something to the SIM card (presumably some Verizon LTE provisioning information, thus causing it to be rejected now by AT&T or causing it not to see the AT&T networks anymore.
If only I could find the latest ATT_US.ipcc file to apply current carrier settings back to my iPhone and this SIM card, then it might work again ... Or not if AT&T locked it out ... Hopefully not.
I applied the update to my new iPad (Verizon) and it killed my AT&T sim card. I could not find a carrier update to apply to my AT&T iPhone 4 that would restore my sim card settings, so now I have a SIM card that will not work in either device. The iPad and iPhone show searching for a second or two followed by a No Service message. The update must have written something to the SIM card (presumably some Verizon LTE provisioning information, thus causing it to be rejected now by AT&T or causing it not to see the AT&T networks anymore.
If only I could find the latest ATT_US.ipcc file to apply current carrier settings back to my iPhone and this SIM card, then it might work again ... Or not if AT&T locked it out ... Hopefully not.
I should have removed the AT&T SIM card from the Verizon iPad before applying the carrier update. My stupidity .... 
. I placed the Verizon LTE SIM card in the iPad and the carrier update reappeared, so I correctly applied it to that SIM card.
Hopefully others learn from my mistake.
. I placed the Verizon LTE SIM card in the iPad and the carrier update reappeared, so I correctly applied it to that SIM card.Hopefully others learn from my mistake.
I should have removed the AT&T SIM card from the Verizon iPad before applying the carrier update. My stupidity ....
Hopefully others learn from my mistake.
How did you apply a Verizon carrier update when you had AT&T data? Doesn't make sense. I have an ipad2 AT&T sim in my Verizon iPad 3 and have never received a prompt to update the carrier settings.
I couldn't see if anyone had mentioned the version of this carrier update. I currently have 12.0 but I haven't updated yet. However, I'm not using the original micro SIM that came with the iPad. I'm using the one I pulled from my MiFi. I tried using my SIM card from AT&T iPhone 4S several weeks ago and it worked. I haven't tried lately but I imagine it still would work since I haven't updated anything.
Here's what is on my iPad.
Verizon 12.1
PRL 62121
ERI 8
I have received no pop-ups about any carrier update and did not do anything that I am aware of that could have inadvertently initiated the carrier update. I should mention that right now I have my cell service turned off. I have the New iPad (iPad 3) with 4G.
One poster said that after he updated his PRL was 15102.
Another poster said his PRL was 62121 after he updated.
What's going on here?
I also received no carrier update pop-ups on my iPhone 4S although some other posters said they did...or, at least I think I recall seeing something to that effect.
What the heck is going on here?
Update: I still haven't received a "Carrier Update" pop-up on my iPad or iPhone, BUT I did get the pop-up on iTunes on my MacBook Pro when I opened iTunes and it recognized then started to sync (via wifi) to my iDevices (iPod 4G, iPad 3, iPhone 4S). Specifically, it told me a "Carrier Update is Available" for my iPhone. I accepted the update and it took about 1-2 seconds to download and install. So, this is one tiny bit of code. There was no change in my Carrier specifications...Version, PRL, or ERI. I know because my daughter's iPhone had not gone through the update, mine had, and we had the same specs on both our phones. So, Lord knows (and probably even he doesn't know...no offense intended) what this Update is doing.
Verizon 12.1
PRL 62121
ERI 8
I have received no pop-ups about any carrier update and did not do anything that I am aware of that could have inadvertently initiated the carrier update. I should mention that right now I have my cell service turned off. I have the New iPad (iPad 3) with 4G.
One poster said that after he updated his PRL was 15102.
Another poster said his PRL was 62121 after he updated.
What's going on here?
I also received no carrier update pop-ups on my iPhone 4S although some other posters said they did...or, at least I think I recall seeing something to that effect.
What the heck is going on here?
Update: I still haven't received a "Carrier Update" pop-up on my iPad or iPhone, BUT I did get the pop-up on iTunes on my MacBook Pro when I opened iTunes and it recognized then started to sync (via wifi) to my iDevices (iPod 4G, iPad 3, iPhone 4S). Specifically, it told me a "Carrier Update is Available" for my iPhone. I accepted the update and it took about 1-2 seconds to download and install. So, this is one tiny bit of code. There was no change in my Carrier specifications...Version, PRL, or ERI. I know because my daughter's iPhone had not gone through the update, mine had, and we had the same specs on both our phones. So, Lord knows (and probably even he doesn't know...no offense intended) what this Update is doing.
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I updated and have had no problems. If anything, it seems to connect to service faster on a reboot than it did before. But service is clean, LTE is smokin fast, and it seems just as stable.
It amuses AND scares me when people dont have a healthy skepticism...especially when updating!!! ASSuming the update will benefit you!
CLICKITY CLICK/-oops now my other apps dont work.
Most updates now limit or hinder the user...not to mention make things look worse or flatter or making everything iN your OS all white, gray and flat!!!
I'm getting more dropped calls since the Carrier update in March 2015. I'm in the Houston Area. In addition, I work in the basement of the building that I work in. I never use to experience any dropped calls in the basement but since the carrier update. I have dropped calls happen each and every time that I make a call while in the basement.