[HTC EVO 3D] digiblur:
Let me try to break it down. I don't claim to know everything about the PRL layout, but I do know a good bit from reading various whitepapers and such on them...and a ton of reverse engineering. First a few fundamentals.

A PRL is broken down into Geographic areas. Sprint puts the various SID/NID combination grouped together in these. Once your phone locks onto a SID in one GEO it will stick to searching for SIDs in that same GEO before it goes out looking in other GEOs. This gives your phone a quicker response of finding another SID when it needs to. If you have ever noticed it takes a bit to find signal after turning your phone on after a airplane trip across the states, this is your phone searching the GEO from your previous location, then it gives up and starts searching the other GEOs. The SID/NID combinations in the GEO have their various priorities of Same, More, etc. A SID is regional ID of the wireless system. A NID is smaller network inside the SID. For instance a SID that has two large metro areas in them might have a NID of 40 for one town an 41 for another. It would be listed as 4622/40 and 4622/41. If Sprint needs to apply different rules to either NID it will put a record for each. Otherwise it will put 65535 for the NID meaning all NIDs for that SID. In my analysis reports I suppress the NID if it is 65535. Got it? Geo area, SID, then NID.

Each record in a PRL is a 1X record. This is back from the days when we didn't have EVDO. When EVDO came along, they kinda tacked it on as another record. The 1X record has an association pointer that tells it which EVDO record(s) to use. This is how you can have one 1X record that has 4 or 5 EVDO records associated with it. Also the same EVDO record can be associated with multiple 1X records to save space. One additional piece that EVDO records have are subnets. They don't use SIDs. You will see these in the analysis as the hex address looking codes. The subnets are very important. If for instance the PRL says to scan 325, 475, and 50 with a subnet of 0084:0AC0 and your phone finds an EV signal at 50 with a subnet of 0086:5900 it will not connect to the incorrect EV subnet. This prevents your phone from using the wrong EVDO provider.

Next piece we have are acquisition records, or ACQ records. These are records that simple have the list of channels. The EVDO records and 1X records each have one pointer that says which ACQ record to use. For instance, 4622 might have an ACQ record number of 40 and 4154 might also have the 40. These SIDs would get the exact same channel scans. The ACQ records are generally set up for the licenses they have in each SID. But of course the licenses can change from county to county. So sometimes the phone will scan channels that Sprint is not licensed for. It's no big deal, since your phone will not find the Sprint SID on those channels anyways. Once it finds a pilot channel from the tower, the tower takes over telling your phone which channels to use anyways.

So let's break down the analysis now that I attempted to make somewhat human readable.

SID: 5660 - Cellular South - Jackson MS - Priority: Same - Roaming Ind:Domestic

Scan for SID 5660. I have a cross lookup of the Carrier and area. If you see some that are incorrect, let me know and I will change them. Next is the priority. In this case it is Same, as in same priority as the next record. Next is the roaming indicator. Sprint uses 3 types. Native(non-roaming for their own network and strategic roaming partners), Roaming, and International Roaming.

Next line:

1X Scan: PCS/325 PCS/425 PCS/825 PCS/850 PCS/925

Lists the various channels to scan for signal. PCS and CLR designate what band the channel is in. You will also sometimes see CLR/Both (Cellular both A and B side), PCS/F (F Block PCS), etc. Sprint tries to keep it to specific channels for quicker signal acquisition.

Next line(s):

EV Scan: Sprint - 0084:0AC0(Same) - PCS/75 PCS/175 PCS/225 PCS/250 PCS/325 PCS/725 PCS/475

EV Scan: CellSouth - 0081:F300(More) - CLR/589 PCS/375 PCS/975 PCS/875 PCS/475

EV Scan: Alltel(VZW) - 0086:5900(Same) - CLR/201 CLR/73 CLR/199 CLR/468 CLR/589 CLR/597 PCS/175 CLR/466 CLR/594 CLR/630 CLR/770

This example it will look for Sprint's subnet, then CellSouth, then Alltel's old subnet. Instead of just displaying the subnet I do a lookup in a table I created that gives you the carrier name of the subnet. It makes it easier to read. Each EV scan also has the Same/More priority flags. Then of course the channels to scan.

In my comparison log it is pretty close to this, but I list the before and after of what it changed from and changed to. I also list and EVDO enabled indicator to make it a bit easier to read when a SID adds or removes the EVDO records associated to it. I've seen in the past where Sprint associates an EV channel but forgets to enable the association.

One thing to note in the comparison logs, if you see something removed that doesn't look right. Do not get alarmed. Sometimes Sprint has a SID listed multiple times in a PRL for one reason or another. I've seen them clean up these duplicated SIDs. Just check the full analysis to see your full picture for your area.

Hopefully I didn't bore you on the whole PRL thing and I was able to explain what you needed. Now taking all this into account, you can easily see how the claims of getting better speeds, better signal, etc from a PRL upgrade are generally false. The only rare cases are when you are dealing with strategic roaming partners. Or in the future dealing with the 800SMR band when it gets added and up and running.

And one more interesting one I forgot:

SID: 1522/1 - CAROLINA WEST WIRELESS - NORTH CAROLINA 03 ASHE - Priority: Same - Roaming Ind:Native

1X Scan: PCS/C

EV Scan: Carolina West - 0081:7C80(More) - CLR/468 PCS/1150

This is for SID 1522 NID 1. Your phone will use Carolina West's 1X and EV network where Sprint is not available. Your phone will not display any roaming indicator. It will look like you are on Sprint's own network.