*18 really does nothing on Sprint's own network

I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:

*18....

It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
network.

We got an update today about this.

"Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."

Just FYI.

---

› See More: *18 really does nothing on Sprint's own network

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Larry Thomas) wrote:

> I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
>
> *18....
>
> It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> network.
>
> We got an update today about this.
>
> "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
>
> Just FYI.

Strange. After a spate of dropped called, i dialed *18, and the signal
meter on my RL2500 instantly jumped from 1 bar to 5 bars.

"Robert M." <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] (Larry Thomas) wrote:
>
> > I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> > to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> > not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> > on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> > Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
> >
> > *18....
> >
> > It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> > help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> > network.
> >
> > We got an update today about this.
> >
> > "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> > settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> > when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> > outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> > roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
> >
> > Just FYI.
>
> Strange. After a spate of dropped called, i dialed *18, and the signal
> meter on my RL2500 instantly jumped from 1 bar to 5 bars.


A little thing called a coincidence.

Larry's post is accurate.

[email protected] (Larry Thomas) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
>
> *18....
>
> It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> network.
>
> We got an update today about this.
>
> "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
>
> Just FYI.

Apparently I interpreted this a little wrong before I posted. It can
affect your status on the SPCS network but just not in your home area.
It's being mentioned on sprintusers that calling *18 can actually
screw up the network setting on your account and restrict the ability
to receive calls when not in your home service area. Bottom line is
it's not a good idea to use *18.

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (TechGeek) wrote:

> "Robert M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > [email protected] (Larry Thomas) wrote:
> >
> > > I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> > > to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> > > not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> > > on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> > > Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
> > >
> > > *18....
> > >
> > > It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> > > help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> > > network.
> > >
> > > We got an update today about this.
> > >
> > > "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> > > settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> > > when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> > > outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> > > roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
> > >
> > > Just FYI.
> >
> > Strange. After a spate of dropped called, i dialed *18, and the signal
> > meter on my RL2500 instantly jumped from 1 bar to 5 bars.
>
>
> A little thing called a coincidence.


Nope, I can't accept FM as an answer.

*18 is "follow me roaming" for the B-side systems, and "*350" does the same
for A-side systems (yes, we're talking analog here). This "vestigial"
feature comes
from the days when folks paid serious cash when they roamed out of their
home area. In other words, you'd need to dial "*18" when on a remote
system to indicate you wished to receive calls, even if it cost you money.
The cost issue is the reason follow me roaming was not the default.

One other esoteric bit, *18 and *350 can and should be used on some
digital systems when roaming. For example, Verizon here in Eugene Oregon
is a legacy airtouch market. Verizon in SFO is legacy GTE market. My
Verizon phone in digital mode does not begin to receive calls until I dial
*18 when I'm in SFO because this "roaming" is not transparent. This is
a major limitation of Verizon which stems from them being several separate
carriers that haven't been fully integrated (and probably cannot be due to
different vendor technologies employed by the original carriers).

Given that this feature is called "follow me roaming" it would be a broken
implementation of the feature for any carrier to restrict calls because a
user invokes the feature. I would agree a Sprint user, traveling on native
Sprint coverage, should not need to dial *18 at all. This basically only
comes into play to help you receive calls when roaming.

As for signal strength indicator jumping up, note that this is a common
phenomenon with CDMA phones. It will happen most often when
you dial any phone number. Two reasons for this, one is that dialing
may force the bars indicator to update, or more likely, the handset
is adjusting power to place the call which impacts the phones
signal quality indicator.

-Dan

PS: This conversation has come up many times in the past. If you'd
like to read prior convesations on the topic, use groups.google.com
and search on "*18."






"Larry Thomas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
>
> *18....
>
> It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> network.
>
> We got an update today about this.
>
> "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
>
> Just FYI.

Robert M. <[email protected]> wrote:

>> A little thing called a coincidence.
>
> Nope, I can't accept FM as an answer.

You're going to have to. *18 doesn't have anything to do with signal strength.
It does exactly the same thing on Sprint PCS that it does on Verizon...
although with the advent of PRLs, very few people have to use it anymore.


--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP: C57E 8B25 F994 D6D0 5F6B B961 EA08 9410 E3AE 35ED

Steven J Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
> Robert M. <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> A little thing called a coincidence.
>>
>> Nope, I can't accept FM as an answer.
>
> You're going to have to. *18 doesn't have anything to do with signal strength.
> It does exactly the same thing on Sprint PCS that it does on Verizon...
> although with the advent of PRLs, very few people have to use it anymore.

I'm sorry, that's not an accurate statement. *18 registers you with a
roaming partner's system if you're on Verizon (but it generally isn't necessary
anymore).


--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP: C57E 8B25 F994 D6D0 5F6B B961 EA08 9410 E3AE 35ED

Thank you for your clear, lucid explanation. Now - how does one un-*18?


"Dan Albrich" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> *18 is "follow me roaming" for the B-side systems, and "*350" does the
same
> for A-side systems (yes, we're talking analog here). This "vestigial"
> feature comes
> from the days when folks paid serious cash when they roamed out of their
> home area. In other words, you'd need to dial "*18" when on a remote
> system to indicate you wished to receive calls, even if it cost you money.
> The cost issue is the reason follow me roaming was not the default.
>
> One other esoteric bit, *18 and *350 can and should be used on some
> digital systems when roaming. For example, Verizon here in Eugene Oregon
> is a legacy airtouch market. Verizon in SFO is legacy GTE market. My
> Verizon phone in digital mode does not begin to receive calls until I dial
> *18 when I'm in SFO because this "roaming" is not transparent. This is
> a major limitation of Verizon which stems from them being several separate
> carriers that haven't been fully integrated (and probably cannot be due to
> different vendor technologies employed by the original carriers).
>
> Given that this feature is called "follow me roaming" it would be a broken
> implementation of the feature for any carrier to restrict calls because a
> user invokes the feature. I would agree a Sprint user, traveling on
native
> Sprint coverage, should not need to dial *18 at all. This basically only
> comes into play to help you receive calls when roaming.
>
> As for signal strength indicator jumping up, note that this is a common
> phenomenon with CDMA phones. It will happen most often when
> you dial any phone number. Two reasons for this, one is that dialing
> may force the bars indicator to update, or more likely, the handset
> is adjusting power to place the call which impacts the phones
> signal quality indicator.
>
> -Dan
>
> PS: This conversation has come up many times in the past. If you'd
> like to read prior convesations on the topic, use groups.google.com
> and search on "*18."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Larry Thomas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I have being reports on this forum and others about *18 being the code
> > to get you back in touch with the Sprint tower when traveling. That is
> > not true. New evidence has come out that says the *18 thing only works
> > on roaming networks and has nothing to do with Sprint's own network.
> > Here's a post from a Sprint employee on another forum about it:
> >
> > *18....
> >
> > It's been mentioned on the forums a few times that dialing *18 will
> > help your phone "lock on" to a tower or force registration on a
> > network.
> >
> > We got an update today about this.
> >
> > "Dialing these codes (*18 or *180) actually changes the subscriber
> > settings in the calling records to restrict placing or receiving calls
> > when outside the Home Service Area. The restriction stops inbound and
> > outbound call traffic while traveling on the Sprint network or
> > roaming. There would be no affect while in the Home Service area."
> >
> > Just FYI.
>
>

"Mr. Bogus" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thank you for your clear, lucid explanation. Now - how does one un-*18?

How about turning off your phone ... and then turning it back on ...

Bob

Thanks. Ya never know what requires a seperate un-code, and what gets fixed
with a restart of the phone.

Now, if only I could get BitPim to work on a VGA-1000.....


"Bob Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Mr. Bogus" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Thank you for your clear, lucid explanation. Now - how does one un-*18?
>
> How about turning off your phone ... and then turning it back on ...
>
> Bob
>
>