EVDO not working in your phone? You need a PRL update!

I happened to activate a new xv6600 with the unlimited data plan. Whenever I would open the browser or check email, the connection would default to the 1x connection, which as you know, is as slow as molases. After spending about an hour on the phone with the customer service then support staff. They asked me to upgrade do PRL Update. I happens all the time but why should you spend an hour trying to find out how?

If you have a VCast Audiovox CDM8940, LG vx8000, LG vx8100 or Audiovox xv6600 and your EVDO Connection does not work but defaults to the Verizon 1x connection, then you may need to do a PRL update.

Russell Beattie’s friend, Tony, writes:

If you’ve had your phone a while, the reason you can’t get EVDO on it may have to do with the fact that you have an older PRL (preferred roaming list). It seems that EVDO is often rolled out in a new area by adding what are logically new transmission sites (really, they’re new hardware on the old towers). However, if the “new” sites are not in your phone’s PRL, the phone thinks that those “new” EVDO sites are non-Verizon and defaults to the Verizon 1X sites.

Not sure if you know how to do the PRL update, essentially you do it by dialing *228, waiting for an answer, then pressing 2 on the first menu (press 2 to update your roaming capabilities). Then you wait while the new PRL file is downloaded to your phone, and the phone reboots.

–Tony