Not seeing EVDO on your Verizon phone yet?
My Verizon VCast Audiovox CDM8940 phone still wasn't showing EVDO, even though we've had it officially turned on here in the Bay Area for a week or so now... a coworker Tony explained to me why and how to fix it:
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
Rock on! This worked perfectly! Finally I'm using EVDO! I feel like I'm the last person in the world to jump on board. Christ, I bought the phone when VCast was first announced, even though I knew it wasn't supported here just so I could be one of the first and I *still* had to wait. I need to learn a lot more about how Verizon and the other CDMA guys work. (Which is, of course, why I bought the phone...)
EVDO is freakin' fast. Makes browsing the mobile web like you're sitting at a PC. Rock. That's going to open up a ton of opportunities for cool stuff.
-Russ