Hi. Well I had rooted my phone and was running CM6.1.1 with snapdragon kernel. When the evo shift came out, I bought it and changed over to the shift. 3days in to using shift, the micro usb port failed and would not charge. It wouldn't even recognize when connected to my computer. So had to go and return it.
But when I changed over to evo, it started having problems with data connection. I could make calls but it would not be able to connect via 3g. It could connect through wifi but that was it.
So I unrooted my phone using .ruu and haven't tried it yet. Could you guys help me out and advise me in what option I have. Thanks again.
I had a similar problem when I had my hero....I lost 3g and ended up finding the solution was to wipe all, flash a sense rom and then go back to cyanogen....
Thanks. I'll try that and see what happens. I'll switch to evo tomorrow and see how it goes..
i had a similar problem with 3g data being very faulty after i updated all of my radios to the latest versions. what i did to fix the problem was full data/cache/dalvik wipe and then flash the radio: EVO_Radio_2.15.00.11.19, flash the wimax:EVO_WiMAX_27167_R01, and flash the PRI: EVO_PRI_1.77_003. Prior to that, i had the latest PRI and it would constantly screw with my data connection, so whatever you do, do not update to the latest PRI. Its actually been said that something weird is up with it and that this problem is common.
the radios can be found right here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715485
good luck man, hope this helped!
I have the same issue. I went from CM7 to a sense ROM and I still dont have date even after the new radio updates. Is there anything else I can do?
Have you already tried reverting back to your old radio that worked?
sure did. Nothing.
I actually did a full unroot using ruu. Then started my phone again back in stock mode. It worked after full unroot. Now I re-rooted my phone and back to using CM6.1.1 with snap dragon kernel.
Same Issue Please Help
Im having the same issue as the OP. I went from CM7 to a sense ROM and lost my Data connection. I can only connect through wifi. However I can't update my profile or my PRL This is a pretty big issue for me as I can't use any data features on the phone except when connected via wifi.
Can someone please suggest a way to re-establish my ability to connect to the sprint network. I do not have 4G in my area so I can't try that route. I have searched the forum for the last day and a half and still haven't found a solution. Ive tried reflashing the newest radios and still no luck. I have cleared the dalvik, cache and factory data reset mutiple times and I have tried sprint lovers newest ROm and also even tried reverting back to the original backup I took when I first rooted before I flashed any ROM's and still no luck. I also tried the ##3283#/MSL code/Data/ restore option and still nothing.
ANY Suggestions? Unrooting would be a last resort option followed by going to sprint and getting a new phone.
roger69504 said:
Im having the same issue as the OP. I went from CM7 to a sense ROM and lost my Data connection. I can only connect through wifi. However I can't update my profile or my PRL This is a pretty big issue for me as I can't use any data features on the phone except when connected via wifi.
Can someone please suggest a way to re-establish my ability to connect to the sprint network. I do not have 4G in my area so I can't try that route. I have searched the forum for the last day and a half and still haven't found a solution. Ive tried reflashing the newest radios and still no luck. I have cleared the dalvik, cache and factory data reset mutiple times and I have tried sprint lovers newest ROm and also even tried reverting back to the original backup I took when I first rooted before I flashed any ROM's and still no luck. I also tried the ##3283#/MSL code/Data/ restore option and still nothing.
ANY Suggestions? Unrooting would be a last resort option followed by going to sprint and getting a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
going to a sense rom, dialing ##data# and then entering your msl, then going to edit mode, top section, hit menu, and do a reset?
this usually fixes alot of data issues from what i am aware. It won't harm your phone anyway.
Yeah I have tried the ##data# restore multiple times and still nothing. It will reboot and begin the hands free activation but it never successfully completes it. Afterwards when I try to update profile it just sits in a loop saying "the network is preparing you services..." for 20 mins and then times out with nothing happening. I even tried the ##data# restore method again after reading this, for good measure, and still nothing.
Is it possible to connect via 4G and update my profile even tho I cant via 3G? I'm about an hour away from any 4G service I think Cincinnati may be the closest.
this is extremely frustrating and the worst part is that I dont know how it happened as I followed every instruction to the tee and Ive flashed mutiple multiple ROMS over the last 6 months and have had no problem until I tried going from CM7 to myn's warm2.2 rls5. After flashing the ROM and wiping EVERYTHING except the SD card I flashed the new Radio's (Cualkin's Combo pack with the newest Radios) and that's when I noticed the data connection was gone. I'm not sure as which step of the process caused the issue as I didn't notice it until I began to go thru the initial setup on the phone and was unable to connect to my gmail account.
I have backed up a few versions of rom's. Would they have the Data info I need and maybe a could just copy and paste a file or does this info need to be downloaded from sprint in order to setup the phone?
Please any advice??? I'd like to try all my options before I reroot and exchange it, If unrooting and returning is my only option can someone please point me to a good guide for the process? I used Unrevoked 3.21 for the root.
My Verizon GN is having difficulty connecting to my phone and data networks. It all started on the day of the outage this week. I assumed it would all fix itself, but it has not. I've snooped around the board quite a bit and it seems all other users have had their connections restored.
I first noticed the problem on Thursday morning. My data status in notification bar would drop to display no "bars." It does not switch over to 3G. I figured this problem would resolve itself once Verizon fixed its network.
Then I tried to send a text and it couldn't be sent. I tried to call someone and it would not dial out.
But these loss of connections are not persistent. Eventually, the 4G works for a bit then disconnects again.
The phone network seems to be doing this as well. Sometimes I can call/text, other times I can't.
I was considering wiping my phone and flashing a new ROM or getting the stock ROM from google to flash. However, I seem to be having trouble with clockwork mod. When I try to reboot into recovery mode it takes me to what I assume is download mode (shows an android knocked over on his side with, I think, a red X).
Is there something simple I can do to fix my data/phone network connection?
If I have to flash back to complete stock, then how do I do this without being able to access recovery?
If all else fails, will I be able to do a factory reset considering the current scenario? I assume I would need to do this before bringing it to Verizon for service.
I appreciate any help provided. Here are some other details that might help.
Rooted with stock ROM
4.0.2
Baseband I515.09 V.EK05 / I515.EK02
Kernel 3.0.8-gaaa2611
Build ICL53F
/edit/
I should have mentioned I had the most up-to-date version of CWM. I just reflashed it with ROM Mgr and it booted into recovery, so that's good.
Well ****. I went into CWM - Advanced - Fix Permissions. I thought hitting Fix Permissions would bring up another menu. Instead it fixed permissions. Hopefully I didn't do something stupid that I don't understand.
I flashed the GummyNex Rom hoping it was a kernel issue or an issue resolved by going from 4.0.2 to 4.0.3. It's been a little better it seems, but it did drop both networks once already and it's only been 15 minutes or so.
The new ROM definitely did not solve anything. I don't know what to do. I need to find a way to get back unrooted, unlocked, stock. Unfortunately, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11 which current SDK doesn't seem to support.
So, here's my situation:
I'm running a CDMA Gnex with Apex v.1.0.1 as my rom. I flashed a new radio, [Radio Hybrid] VZW EK5 CDMA(4.0.2) / EK4 LTE(4.0.3), in the hopes I could improve the hand off between 3G and 4G... Nope! The phone will no longer, no matter what I do, connect to the 3G network
OK... I figure, no big deal. I'll just flash a different radio set. Next up were the Leaked 4.0.3 Radios. Same thing. NO 3G at all!
Now I'm getting worried. I flash the stock 4.0.2 radios... Still cannot force it to use the CDMA network. I either have 4G data service or none at all...
What am I doing wrong? I've re-booted each radio set a couple times before dumping them for a different set. I've restored the nandroid back up from before I started messing with the radios. No fix there either. I've removed the sim card and reinstalled it (knowing full well it only controls 4G). Nothing doing...
I've seen similar posts about 3G/4G connectivity issues, but mine is strange because it's just the 3G radio that doesn't work. Voice calls and 4G data work fine.
Bigxie's rom has been rock solid, and since all the radios I've used presented the same issue, I'd be hard pressed to say it was one of them. I'm a noob, so I'm thinking user error somewhere along the line. Any help would be appreciated.
Update:
This was a CDMA network issue, not an issue with the Radios or Rom!!!
I magically picked up 3G this morning while at work. Since I was still running the leaked 4.0.3 radios and the Apex Rom, I realized that this was a network problem, not a software problem. I confirmed this with Verizon just now. They brought down the node closest to my place for emergency repair last night. The CDMA radio came back up as soon as it hit a tower that let it authenticate... It was just a coincidence that it occurred right when I flashed my first radio set, and frankly I feel dumb that I didn't see network error as a possibility sooner.
Try going all the way back to stock with stock radios and see if that fixes it?
http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html
flash the bootloader before the radio, reboot after flashing the
bootloader then flash radio, reboot, then flash stock.
Hey all, finally having some trouble with my Dinc2 that lurking couldnt solve (or I'm still not lurking hard enough). So I am currently running Aerovan's CM10, and decided to start flashing some radios. I installed the latest radio .0320 (and also the AGPS patch, but dont know if thats relevant). Was working great for a while(4-5 days), but yesterday I ran the phone's battery all the way down. When I tried restarting it, it got stuck in a boot loop. I dropped down to .0312 radio to see if it would make any difference, but still no dice, so I did a nandroid restore. This let me back into my phone but now I have no service. I checked the APN settings and had to fix them for VZW, but even after that I still have no service. I downgraded the radio to .1111, wiped cache, and set my APN settings manually, but still no service. I'm at a loss. any help would be awesome.
I had this problem, but eventually I found a radio that worked. You may need to install the stock 2.3.3 RUU, reroot, and go back to your ROM of choice. I had to do that a few times when I started messing around with radios.
You need the radios that I need. I posted a thread asking anyone if them have them. If someone comes up with them I'll let you have them. You need either 1.09.01.0722 or 1.09.01.0622. I'm not sure they will work better but I want to try them anyway. I've tried the ones you have and I get between -105 to -120 dBm with the occasional -104 and -125. It Terrible!
Something simple to check - the antenna is built into the battery cover. No cover connection, no signal.
-CM7 on DInc2
I picked up a Sprint prepaid HTC 816 recently and decided to flash this rom below
[ROM][UNOFFICIAL][CM12.1][5.1.1][VirginMobileUS][A5][single sim][1/1/2016 security]
That one
It installed great, had everything everything working after I added my Sprint APN settings. The phone still displayed it as Virgin Mobile and only 3g seemed to be working. But I was making and receiving calls, text messages and had mobile data.
Fast forward a couple of hours, I installed a custom theme from the Play store, rebooted and ever since then I lost the ability to pickup a network signal and access my APN settings.
If I re-seat the sim and toggle airplane mode it will pickup a network signal and I can regain apn setting access again but it drops within minutes.
Ive reflashed the rom, wiped everything reflashed again, same thing. Any ideas on what has happened?
Thanks and appreciate your time!
monsai83 said:
I picked up a Sprint prepaid HTC 816 recently and decided to flash this rom below
[ROM][UNOFFICIAL][CM12.1][5.1.1][VirginMobileUS][A5][single sim][1/1/2016 security]
That one
It installed great, had everything everything working after I added my Sprint APN settings. The phone still displayed it as Virgin Mobile and only 3g seemed to be working. But I was making and receiving calls, text messages and had mobile data.
Fast forward a couple of hours, I installed a custom theme from the Play store, rebooted and ever since then I lost the ability to pickup a network signal and access my APN settings.
If I re-seat the sim and toggle airplane mode it will pickup a network signal and I can regain apn setting access again but it drops within minutes.
Ive reflashed the rom, wiped everything reflashed again, same thing. Any ideas on what has happened?
Thanks and appreciate your time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are these the APN codes you used(poster corrected a mistake in green text)? Looks like there is a different APN for prepaid /postpaid.
http://androidforums.com/threads/working-sprint-prepaid-apn-settings.920752/
I indeed use the apn settings in the green from that post. They were working fine until I had a reboot. Then everything went to ****. It wont even let me access the apn settings and when I can its briefly and then I lose signal and apn access.
monsai83 said:
I indeed use the apn settings in the green from that post. They were working fine until I had a reboot. Then everything went to ****. It wont even let me access the apn settings and when I can its briefly and then I lose signal and apn access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an issue with something on my Virgin mobile 816 a5_chl a while back and a member @wxppro was very knowledgeable about APN settings and their intricacies. He had a MVNO 816 at the time with an APN issue and I bet he could help you with this as that was my best suggestion for a fix and it didn't help you.
See if you can direct him here to this forum so that if he can help out the info is here to help others as well. Good luck.
Not sure how much I can help. APN is a tricky business. If your APN settings disappear after some time, it is generally because the cellular network the phone connects to does not match the APN's MCC/MNC numbers. Or it could be the phone is in 3G mode (CDMA EvDo mode).
You can try these things:
Switch network types, from LTE to 3G, wait a minute, and then back to LTE. APNs do not show up in 3G mode. They only show up in LTE (or global) mode.
When you have the APNs show up, check the parameters are correct, you can do a "Restore to default" and then add the new one following that post.
Hope this helps.
I'm having a similar issue as well (except on virgin mobile)
A month ago I flashed squid's version of CM 13 on my phone and everything was fine for a few days, until I completely lost LTE and access to APNs. I reverted to stock and still was unable to get LTE, although I could get a shaky 3g connection if I changed the network mode to CDMA only. I called virgin mobile and they walked me through the troubleshooting steps and eventually determined it was a network outage (even though two desires in my house belonging to other family members had LTE). I called again after they verified that the network was working again and they were still unable to fix the issue.
Recently, a friend upgraded from a desire to a different phone on a different network, and gave me his old phone. I plugged in my sim card and activated this new phone and I got LTE. Figuring everything was good, I decided to flash squid's ROM once again. The same issue happened, I got LTE for a day or two until it cut out service again. No access to APNs, not even any service in stock or on the official build of CM12 with the APN fix (I can't access APNs there either). I'm out of ideas and would appreciate if anyone had any input on my issues.
Techdude154 said:
I'm having a similar issue as well (except on virgin mobile)
A month ago I flashed squid's version of CM 13 on my phone and everything was fine for a few days, until I completely lost LTE and access to APNs. I reverted to stock and still was unable to get LTE, although I could get a shaky 3g connection if I changed the network mode to CDMA only. I called virgin mobile and they walked me through the troubleshooting steps and eventually determined it was a network outage (even though two desires in my house belonging to other family members had LTE). I called again after they verified that the network was working again and they were still unable to fix the issue.
Recently, a friend upgraded from a desire to a different phone on a different network, and gave me his old phone. I plugged in my sim card and activated this new phone and I got LTE. Figuring everything was good, I decided to flash squid's ROM once again. The same issue happened, I got LTE for a day or two until it cut out service again. No access to APNs, not even any service in stock or on the official build of CM12 with the APN fix (I can't access APNs there either). I'm out of ideas and would appreciate if anyone had any input on my issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this same phone a5_chl Virgin Mobile. Did you factory reset your device before flashing back to your stock rom? The other thing is and this is just my opinion not a statement of fact or a knock on the wonderful Bigsupersquid but that 13 CM ROM is nowhere close to being stable enough for me to risk flashing it to my daily driver phone. Just read all the posts and his candid responses. You were basically a beta tester .
I'm not an expert in APN's but if you can't get that fixed your last resort might have to be wiping your system and then flashing or running the executable RUU (rom utility upgrade) file found for our device on HTC/downloads . This is a last resort option and wiping your system will remove your existing firmware so have the correct RUU for your phone downloaded to your computer before attempting a wipe. If it's an exe, which I believe the U.S. Virgin Mobile one is ,you will hook up your phone fully charged in fastboot mode then from your computer run the exe RUU like any other exe executable program and wait. It will reformat all partitions and reinstall pure stock ROM. Hope someone else had an easier fix for your data issues and good luck.
EDIT: you will need your stock recovery flashed back and a relocked bootloader before flashing the RUU but I've read that some have flashed their RUU over a custom recovery with a locked bootloader and it wrote over the custom recovery with the stock recovery. I have never personally tried this just the first way I mentioned and that worked for me.
thoctor said:
I have this same phone a5_chl Virgin Mobile. Did you factory reset your device before flashing back to your stock rom? The other thing is and this is just my opinion not a statement of fact or a knock on the wonderful Supersquid but that 13 CM ROM is nowhere close to being stable enough for me to risk flashing it to my daily driver phone. Just read all the posts and his candid responses. You were basically a beta tester .
I'm not an expert in APN's but if you can't get that fixed your last resort might have to be wiping your system and then flashing or running the executable RUU (rom utility upgrade) file found for our device on HTC/downloads . This is a last resort option and wiping your system will remove your existing firmware so have the correct RUU for your phone downloaded to your computer before attempting a wipe. If it's an exe, which I believe the U.S. Virgin Mobile one is ,you will hook up your phone fully charged in fastboot mode then from your computer run the exe RUU like any other exe executable program and wait. It will reformat all partitions and reinstall pure stock ROM. Hope someone else had an easier fix for your data issues and good luck.
EDIT: you will need your stock recovery flashed back and a relocked bootloader before flashing the RUU but I've read that some have flashed their RUU over a custom recovery with a locked bootloader and it wrote over the custom recovery with the stock recovery. I have never personally tried this just the first way I mentioned and that worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did try factory resetting and I am on stock after flashing the RUU. It makes no sense as the RUU should have reset everything. That perplexes me the most
Techdude154 said:
I did try factory resetting and I am on stock after flashing the RUU. It makes no sense as the RUU should have reset everything. That perplexes me the most
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK then you did get back to stock not from a nandroid backup but from flashing or running exe stock RUU? If that's the case then it replaced everything that might have been changed and your issues shouldn't be related to any APN changes. You also removed and reinserted your sim card as I believe, correct?
EDIT: that perplexes me as well my friend!
Techdude154 said:
I did try factory resetting and I am on stock after flashing the RUU. It makes no sense as the RUU should have reset everything. That perplexes me the most
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i posted about my lte issues i had for nearly two weeks, running stock just to verify the data service problem wasn't my rom...
i had to install stock recovery, relock bootloader, download the ruu.exe from htc and extract the .img file in Wine, then rename it onto the sdcard and reboot into hboot so it'd flash. neither Wine nor virtualbox xp talk correctly to any of my phones over usb. and i wasn't about to native install Windoze.
factory reset stock didn't fix it, even trying activation, update profile, etc.
i learned i could get 3g data but switching to lte instead of cdma shut down data entirely.
virgin eventually directly escalated me to tier 2 tech support in my last call, they sent a couple service programming pushes to the phone that got my lte back online.
i tried the various service programming menu options repeatedly, with no results but the prl updated once; but the trigger to fix my lte seemed to come from upstream.
i tried various apns, in cm12, cm13, and stock lollipop. rebuilt init_a5.cpp with different mccmnc and adjusted apns. i really tried most tricks in the book plus a few more.
as far as alpha testing goes, at this point I'm just sharing something cool... i always enjoyed flashing latest greatest on my ov way before i was building.
not too many actual logs to really bug report for either rom.
bigsupersquid said:
i posted about my lte issues i had for nearly two weeks, running stock just to verify the data service problem wasn't my rom...
i had to install stock recovery, relock bootloader, download the ruu.exe from htc and extract the .img file in Wine, then rename it onto the sdcard and reboot into hboot so it'd flash. neither Wine nor virtualbox xp talk correctly to any of my phones over usb. and i wasn't about to native install Windoze.
factory reset stock didn't fix it, even trying activation, update profile, etc.
i learned i could get 3g data but switching to lte instead of cdma shut down data entirely.
virgin eventually directly escalated me to tier 2 tech support in my last call, they sent a couple service programming pushes to the phone that got my lte back online.
i tried the various service programming menu options repeatedly, with no results but the prl updated once; but the trigger to fix my lte seemed to come from upstream.
i tried various apns, in cm12, cm13, and stock lollipop. rebuilt init_a5.cpp with different mccmnc and adjusted apns. i really tried most tricks in the book plus a few more.
as far as alpha testing goes, at this point I'm just sharing something cool... i always enjoyed flashing latest greatest on my ov way before i was building.
not too many actual logs to really bug report for either rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of that was over my head but happily not all of it. Basically what your saying is the fix needs to come from the carrier and it's a reset issue on their end not a custom rom issue? By the way I'm a big fan of your work. Hell I might be on one of your older ROMs right now I've flashed so many I forget. Thanks for the education.
thoctor said:
OK then you did get back to stock not from a nandroid backup but from flashing or running exe stock RUU? If that's the case then it replaced everything that might have been changed and your issues shouldn't be related to any APN changes. You also removed and reinserted your sim card as I believe, correct?
EDIT: that perplexes me as well my friend!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first time it happened, I flashed back to stock using the RUU.exe. I tried again but the second time I took out the SIM card before running the program, I still can't get LTE.
bigsupersquid said:
i posted about my lte issues i had for nearly two weeks, running stock just to verify the data service problem wasn't my rom...
i had to install stock recovery, relock bootloader, download the ruu.exe from htc and extract the .img file in Wine, then rename it onto the sdcard and reboot into hboot so it'd flash. neither Wine nor virtualbox xp talk correctly to any of my phones over usb. and i wasn't about to native install Windoze.
factory reset stock didn't fix it, even trying activation, update profile, etc.
i learned i could get 3g data but switching to lte instead of cdma shut down data entirely.
virgin eventually directly escalated me to tier 2 tech support in my last call, they sent a couple service programming pushes to the phone that got my lte back online.
i tried the various service programming menu options repeatedly, with no results but the prl updated once; but the trigger to fix my lte seemed to come from upstream.
i tried various apns, in cm12, cm13, and stock lollipop. rebuilt init_a5.cpp with different mccmnc and adjusted apns. i really tried most tricks in the book plus a few more.
as far as alpha testing goes, at this point I'm just sharing something cool... i always enjoyed flashing latest greatest on my ov way before i was building.
not too many actual logs to really bug report for either rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does sound a lot like a carrier/account issue as I managed to kill 2 different 816s. I don't think it's the SIM card itself because I put it into a 3rd phone and got LTE, although since it was someone else's phone, I didn' t bother activating it.
I guess you got lucky with support, I tried talking to them and they tried the same thing with me. Although all I got was excuses saying they're logging a ticket with their "network engineers" and to call back in a few days. This continued on for a few weeks until they determined I needed a new phone, which I was also bounced around for another few weeks (I still don't have it).
I'm just completely lost now. I'm almost certain it's my account and it needs to be reset, but I can't get a tech who can help me. How did you manage to get someone in tier 2?
Techdude154 said:
The first time it happened, I flashed back to stock using the RUU.exe. I tried again but the second time I took out the SIM card before running the program, I still can't get LTE.
This is starting to scare me as well because I'm thinking of going back to stock once Marshmallow gets pushed to our phone to get my beats drivers back and this is making me think twice. Sorry your having so much trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thoctor said:
Some of that was over my head but happily not all of it. Basically what your saying is the fix needs to come from the carrier and it's a reset issue on their end not a custom rom issue? By the way I'm a big fan of your work. Hell I might be on one of your older ROMs right now I've flashed so many I forget. Thanks for the education.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seemed that way.
i took radio logs before and after it worked, and worked only on 3g, and it looked to me like the sim card responded differently to the ril after things were running right again.
mine might've been a special case, though, it came from ebay with no sim, and virgin had to go to a little effort to get it programmed when i installed the sim initially.
they also claimed for several days that the local Sprint tower was down for lte service.
---------- Post added at 10:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 PM ----------
Techdude154 said:
The first time it happened, I flashed back to stock using the RUU.exe. I tried again but the second time I took out the SIM card before running the program, I still can't get LTE.
It does sound a lot like a carrier/account issue as I managed to kill 2 different 816s. I don't think it's the SIM card itself because I put it into a 3rd phone and got LTE, although since it was someone else's phone, I didn' t bother activating it.
I guess you got lucky with support, I tried talking to them and they tried the same thing with me. Although all I got was excuses saying they're logging a ticket with their "network engineers" and to call back in a few days. This continued on for a few weeks until they determined I needed a new phone, which I was also bounced around for another few weeks (I still don't have it).
I'm just completely lost now. I'm almost certain it's my account and it needs to be reset, but I can't get a tech who can help me. How did you manage to get someone in tier 2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tier 2 takes luck, time, many calls, and eventually you learn the answers to all the questions tier 1 outsourced from India asks so you can feed it to them so fast they want to shuffle you along. takes a couple of weeks to over a month to get to tier 2 and sometimes they have to be involved multiple times as well.
I've been dealing with virgin since 2009... replaced only two phones, eventually got the rest of the issues hammered out with persistence.
for a little while, twice, i had direct toll free numbers to American tier two even because my issues were so hard to solve. it didn't take too long for those numbers to be disconnected, though.