LG Lotus Elite LX610 - Force Roaming

While I do not condone of using roaming to get out of ETFs (does that even work anymore?)... Sometimes you need to force roaming.

When I go to my friends house there is 0 bars of Sprint but 3-5 bars of Verizon. The phone will stick to Sprint until it can't anymore, or switch back in the middle of a call and drop it. I'd rather it just use Verizon while I'm there, thus there are some practical uses of the force roam option.

With that said, do not abuse this, and if you do, it is your responsibility and not mine, or the host of this blog.

You will need your MSL for this, which you can obtain by asking Sprint nicely, or using the free demo of CDMA-Workshop, and choosing "LG Method".

Once you have your MSL:

1. Press END until you reach your home screen
2. Dial ##CDG2# (##2342#), but do not hit SEND
3. Enter MSL
4. Press 2 (Field Tests)
5. Press 4 (Band Preference)
6. Choose "Cell Only" (this forces only 800mhz CDMA, which is typically NOT Sprint, though if you are in a rare area where Sprint has 800mhz, it will lock you onto the 800mhz band, which can traverse better than the 1900mhz PCS band. In most areas you will notice it switch to roaming.)

Now, while you were at step 3, you probably seen "Roam Preference". It even has a "Roam Only" Option! However, it does not work (at least not for me). For me, it just shows no signal indicator, whereas if I use the method I explained above for Band Preference, it instantly switches to roaming.

To undo this, and go back to auto-roaming:

1. Press END until you reach your home screen
   
2. Dial ##CDG2# (##2342#), but do not hit SEND
3. Enter MSL
4. Press 2 (Field Tests)
5. Press 4 (Band Preference)
6. Choose "Any"