iPhone reception question/problem

[aristobrat]

I'm hoping this doesn't fall into one of the sticky threads above, but if it does, I'll gladly repost it there. :confused:

At home, my iPhone jumps randomly between 4 bars of signal (out of 5 possible), 2 bars, and then no service.

It appears to be hopping towers for no reason (that I can think of).

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this? Other Cingular phones in our house stay connected to the 4 bar tower.

Thanks

[danhamilton]

Same problem here!!! Let's hope there is a remedy.

[aristobrat]

I (somehow, I don't remember how) have an Apple Developers login, so I filed this as a bug. Wonder if they'll respond?

http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

[LillieDesigns]

My Sprint Samsung a920 does the same thing. I'll have 3 bars and it'll jump to no bars. I've never found a remedy, I think it's just one of those things you have to deal with.

Oh, and another problem I find is that I'll have 2 bars, go to make a call and it'll drop to none. I hope you can find a fix because maybe it'll work for other carriers also.

[trupika]

I have the same problem with the iPhone in Cambridge, MA.

When the phone sits in the doc. 4 bars, browses fine etc. If I pick up to make a call it'll try for a little while then drop me to one teeny bar or no service.

Does anyone know if this is an AT&T or iPhone problem. I've used T-mobile for years and never had any substantial issues.

[brasscat]

This issue has been posted a few times in the forums. I have the problem as well (Dallas area).

Nobody has an answer for this one yet. Let's hope software can eventually patch this one up.

[AppleIntelRock]

honestly, i think the problem is ATT's network...

[ryanneves]

exact same issues with my reception jumping up and down....my friends does the same. Panama City, FL

[gr8tfly]

RAZR used to do that too. At least, with the iPhone, I can't hear any loss in quality when it's indicating low.

It did, however, stick with 1 bar for a while, with perfect audio, so I was starting to suspect a software glitch with the indicator. Mostly, it's been similar to the RAZR "bars". Big difference is no loss in audio quality with iPhone. I had to always hunt for a "sweet" spot, but haven't needed to so far with iPhone.

[fchyan]

same here in tucson
no reception in my apartment (no service)
i took out the sim card and try it on my other phones and my friend's phone

The reception is a little bit better in other phones, at least there are 0~1 bars

I don't know if it's the iphone or ATT network

by the way, i tried it in university & other places, the number of bars seemed to change frequently

sometimes it's 5 bars, and suddenly drops to "no service"

[AppleIntelRock]

same with me.

att really is a horrible provider. nothing will take me away from the iphone though... not even att.

[LeeTom]

I've never seen my iPhone below 3 bars, and it's almost always at 4.

[ErnestS]

I've been experiencing the same reception issues out here. I haven't had a GSM phone in a long time (I was on Verizon for 6 years before making the switch), and can't remember if my old GSM service (Cingular) used to be so unsteady.

Has anyone got acknowledgement from Apple or AT&T on this issue? Could it just be a firmware/software issue? Or is this what I should expect with AT&T service or GSM reception?

[albertwang]

same here.

for the first day (Friday) everything is fine. Then on Sunday and Monday, I found occasionally iphone is out of service (at same time my wife's phone is full bar with att). Then on Tuesday, the iphone was out of service for the whole day! I have to run to att store and the manager helped me to change a new SIM card. After re-activate, it works fine from yesterday until now. Just now I was using EDGE with 3 bars searching the internet, then suddenly 'no service'.

I highly doubt it is a bug between att and iphone, maybe involved with the EDGE.

anyone tried to call iphone tech-support?

[aristobrat]

Has anyone got acknowledgement from Apple or AT&T on this issue? Could it just be a firmware/software issue? Or is this what I should expect with AT&T service or GSM reception?
I called AT&T about it, and they said that my house was in a "weak" reception area.

There are three iPhones in my house -- mine and my two roommates. When mine may say NO SERVICE, one of my roommates may have 4 bars of signal and have no problems making calls.

I really thing that this is a firmware issue and I hope Apple will follow-up in the next few weeks with a new release that may help this. It's not just our house where we have this issue. At the mall earlier today, we had the same problem. Roommates said "NO SIGNAL" while mine had 4 bars.

Since I've tried calling AT&T before, I'll try calling AppleCare tomorrow to see if I can have them flag this as a problem.

[paymaster]

This may not have anything to do with the problems you are having, but I have noticed that when holding the iPhone on the bottom where the antenna is I will have 1 or 2 bars, hold it higher so I am not covering it up 4-5 bars.

[Cybergypsy]

mine at home does the same thing or no service pops up then 5 full bars

[millerrh]

This may not have anything to do with the problems you are having, but I have noticed that when holding the iPhone on the bottom where the antenna is I will have 1 or 2 bars, hold it higher so I am not covering it up 4-5 bars.

I have this same problem at my house (weak reception area) and I think if I hold it at the bottom it is worse than if I hold it at the top. I believe that all the antennas are at the bottom of the phone and you hands will block some reception if you are in a weak area.

[JOHNGAETANO]

Same problem for me at home and at work. I also noticed this problem at my favorite lunch place the other day. At lunch it dropped to no service and I missed a phone call.

[jlanuez]

same here in tucson
no reception in my apartment (no service)
i took out the sim card and try it on my other phones and my friend's phone

The reception is a little bit better in other phones, at least there are 0~1 bars

I don't know if it's the iphone or ATT network

by the way, i tried it in university & other places, the number of bars seemed to change frequently

sometimes it's 5 bars, and suddenly drops to "no service"

I'm in Tucson too and this iPhone dropped BOTh of my conference calls today!!!

This is a MAJOR problem and I'm really in a bind. My old TREO with Sprint RARLY if ever did this. now AT&T and/or the iPhone are doing this on most of my calls. HELP!!!

Also, my call seams to go to NO audio first for 8 seconds or so, them I'm back (so the call is not 100% dropped), then it happens again - then i get dropped.

I'm going to attempt to contact AT&T first, then maybe Apple (as the phone also seams to be SLOW in unlocked the slider while on a call coming from a dark screen.

[ErnestS]

I just called AT&T about it, and they said that I am in a good coverage zone. However, they did mention that there is a possibility that my phone is jumping from one tower to another which would cause my reception to show such a large variation in service.

The rep recommended that I power cycle the phone every day to ensure a fresh connection to a tower. Besides that, she said that they could perform some diagnostics on the SIM card and phone. However, since my neighbor appears to have the same problem with his iPhone, I'm convinced that its due to competing tower signals.

Has anyone else ever dealt with this issue?

[climber25]

I had a similar problem where the phone would go from several bars to no service. I took it back to ATT and they swapped the SIM card out and I have not had any problems since.

[aristobrat]

I had a similar problem where the phone would go from several bars to no service. I took it back to ATT and they swapped the SIM card out and I have not had any problems since.
That's interesting -- I'll have to swing by the AT&T store on the way home.

When I called a few days ago, they said they updated my phone over-the-air, but nothing seemed to happen.

[jlanuez]

I'm in Tucson too and this iPhone dropped BOTh of my conference calls today!!!

This is a MAJOR problem and I'm really in a bind. My old TREO with Sprint RARLY if ever did this. now AT&T and/or the iPhone are doing this on most of my calls. HELP!!!

Also, my call seams to go to NO audio first for 8 seconds or so, them I'm back (so the call is not 100% dropped), then it happens again - then i get dropped.

I'm going to attempt to contact AT&T first, then maybe Apple (as the phone also seams to be SLOW in unlocked the slider while on a call coming from a dark screen.


I did call AT&T and we think it is the AT&T towers (as the problem as replicated on my wife's new Motorola Razor). Said there was problems with 2 towers in my area and maybe things would be better in 24-hours. Wanted me to dive 5-10 miles to another tower and see if problem goes away (maybe I will do that tonight or this weekend). At least I don't think the "Dropping Calls" problem is the iPhone.

[fchyan]

I did call AT&T and we think it is the AT&T towers (as the problem as replicated on my wife's new Motorola Razor). Said there was problems with 2 towers in my area and maybe things would be better in 24-hours. Wanted me to dive 5-10 miles to another tower and see if problem goes away (maybe I will do that tonight or this weekend). At least I don't think the "Dropping Calls" problem is the iPhone.

This is what I thought. On the ATT coverage map, my apartment is located right between the orange and yellow area. I guess this means that there are two towers serving this area. Which number did you dial, ATT keeps transferring me to Apple. The Apple technician just told me to go to different places to make calls !#@$!&^

[scho52386]

i live in cincinnati, ohio, and i too am having the connection problem. Someone please post a solution if ther is one :-(

[jburns]

I had a similar problem where the phone would go from several bars to no service. I took it back to ATT and they swapped the SIM card out and I have not had any problems since.

I have noticed the following at my house. Whenever the iPhone is connected to the dock I get four bars. As soon as I remove it it drops to one bar and alternates between one bar and no service. As soon as I place it back in the dock it jumps to four bars. Battery power issue?

[aristobrat]

The antenna's towards the bottom of the phone, so when the phone is vertical (like in the dock), I think that both sides of the antenna being "in the air" help it out.

When you lay the iPhone down, the side of the antenna facing down is kinda useless.

Just a guess...

[mjs975s]

Just to better understand the problem can we post information in a standard form such as this:

Location (City, State) & Type (Home, Work, Other)
Number of Bars (1-5)
Problem Tower Identication (NONE, AT&T, Cingular, T-mobile, ect)
Plan Type (Prepaid/Postpaid)
Make/receive calls even with bars? YES/NO
Has service worked from this location in the past? YES/NO
If yes, which carrier? (AT&T, Cingular, T-mobile, ect)

Please note this is only for problem areas, obviously if you're in an area where its working then you don't have an issue. I'll go first:

Fair Grove, MO (Home)
2-4 Bars
NONE
Prepaid
NO
YES
T-mobile

[jburns]

The antenna's towards the bottom of the phone, so when the phone is vertical (like in the dock), I think that both sides of the antenna being "in the air" help it out.

When you lay the iPhone down, the side of the antenna facing down is kinda useless.

Just a guess...
Interesting. I just pulled my phone from the dock and put it back three times. I kept it vertical the entire time. Every time the signal dropped from four to one when I removed it from the dock. Something else is going on.

[aristobrat]

Could be.

I gave up. My AT&T reception at home and at work was not reliable, so I took my iPhone back and ate the restocking fee.

I really hope that Apple can do something about this with a firmware update, but I didn't want to get stuck in a 2 year contract only to find out they didn't. :(

[scho52386]

i noticed one thing. when i am in my room, certain spots will get reception, but only if the phone is in its cradle, or laying flat on a table somewhere. my living room is the same way, and it is also like that on my back patio. do you think this is ATT or do you think its the iPhone? think apple/att will fix it since a few people are having this problem?

[jlanuez]

I did call AT&T and we think it is the AT&T towers (as the problem as replicated on my wife's new Motorola Razor). Said there was problems with 2 towers in my area and maybe things would be better in 24-hours. Wanted me to dive 5-10 miles to another tower and see if problem goes away (maybe I will do that tonight or this weekend). At least I don't think the "Dropping Calls" problem is the iPhone.


Not sure if this, or AT&T fixing the two cell towers, helped - but I had NO problems today with dropped calls (or anything else).

Take a look at the thread I started here: Cycle Power on/off daily (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=326220)

Others have said it helped them too.

[jason32b]

I am experiencing similar problems -- full signal and then it suddenly drops to 2 bars. BUT THEN THE CALL IS DROPPED -- NOT JUST DISTORTED, BUT DROPPED!!! This sucks! My service reading on the iPhone will go from 4-5 bars to No Service - within seconds - and then back again. Previously I was with Verizon, and in the same location, although I never got better than 2-3 bars, I would NEVER drop a call. I can deal with temporary distorted voice quality, but erratically dropping calls like this is not acceptable.

I've called AT&T tech support several times. Although I live just 1 - 2 miles away from three different towers with overlapping coverage, apparently, I live in an area that has somewhat thin coverage from each of them.

And OK -- if I have bad reception thats one thing, but whats up with 4-5 bars of fantastic reception for 5 minutes and then suddenly dropping the call? Without moving the phone at all? That's not cool. Outside interception maybe? I'm on the 3rd (top) floor of a wood and shingle house. Not many buildings taller then 4-5 stories in the area. From the roof, one of the towers is almost in line of sight. Maybe an alien forcefield surrounds my house?

My instinct is to think that the problem is related to the phone jumping from tower to tower when it may not need to, and several AT&T reps have said the same. All of the Reps have thought that the situation was unusual -- the erratic jumping from 4-5 bars and then losing a call without moving. Almost unanimously, they have all said they thought it had something to do with jumping to a new tower.

I only had 2-3 bars in this same area with Verizon, but I NEVER dropped calls -- only an occasional distortion. I really hope I dont have to abandon the iPhone because of this.

Anyone having this kind of problem -- erratic signal -- please contact ATT and/or Apple and complain. In my opinion, either the iPhone (or iPhone software) is hyperactive in terms of looking for new towers, or it has to do with your physical location and the AT&T coverage in that area and an issue with overlapping towers.

[aristobrat]

In my opinion, either the iPhone (or iPhone software) is hyperactive in terms of looking for new towers, or it has to do with your physical location and the AT&T coverage in that area and an issue with overlapping towers.
That's a great summary. In my case, it was an issue with overlapping towers where only 1 of the 3 towers gave usable coverage.

I called both AT&T and Apple about this. The various AT&T reps I spoke with don't seem to have a way to get feedback about coverage to anyone. The Apple guy I spoke with said he'd definitely submit the "hoping between towers" description to the engineering team.

[jason32b]

An update to my prior posting...

After going through several more customer service and tech support people, I finally talked to one woman (in the tech support - the level 2 place that you get forwarded to if the customer service people can't help). They must be located in the South somewhere, cause they all are very friendly and have southern accents.

Anyway - the woman I talked to, also said that it shouldnt be dropping calls like that. She typed away for a while and said she was changing my phone's identification number -- somehow reconfiguring the way the towers find the phone. Apparently, that update takes a few hours to kick in, and as always with AT&T, you need to power cycle your phones a lot to get recent updates uploaded to the phone.

And so far, so good! The dropping calls problem seems to have stopped. I still notice that my phone will sometimes jump around from 1 or 2 bars all the way up to 5 bars (or vice versa) depending where I am in the house, however it seems less eratic now when I'm not moving around. And I think I've noticed a change in the pattern where now I might move from one area that I know had poorer service to an area that generally had great service, and the bars will not jump up immediately. If I power cycle the phone after moving to a "better" location, the bars will then jump back up to what I would expect in that part of the house. SO - I'm thinking that the phone is now doing a better job of holding on the the tower its connected to.

The important thing is that I havent dropped a sinlgle call since the tech support woman made this change (crossing fingers), and even on one bar, I'm finding that I am able to make clear calls. Previously, I would eventually drop almost every call I made, even if the phone had just jumped from 5 bars to 2 bars.

So - I'd say if you think you might be experiencing the hyperactive hopping towers problem, try suggesting this to the person you talk to. And make sure you get transferred to the level 2 tech support people, not just the initial customer service reps, since it seems these are the only people that can make this kind of change.

Please post any success you have here. Since so much of this seems like voodoo, it would be nice to know if this works for other people and there is actually a quantifiable solution to this problem. I'm sure AT&T would like to know as well. And I'll certainly update if it turns out that this didnt fix the problem, but so far so good!

Good luck.

[carrierk]

i noticed one thing. when i am in my room, certain spots will get reception, but only if the phone is in its cradle, or laying flat on a table somewhere. my living room is the same way, and it is also like that on my back patio. do you think this is ATT or do you think its the iPhone? think apple/att will fix it since a few people are having this problem?

i am glad to hear others have the same problem. If mine is laying flat on the table 2-4 bars. if i pick it up...drops to zero then no service. I called and they said I was in a bad signal area, but my treo 650 never had a problem and my wifes cell has no problem and when I look at the coverage map I am about 1000ft from the moderate...i am in the good orange. I have been looking for a way to help boost the signal, but everything i have read says that it cant be done (alot of snake oil out there).

any suggestions which would help?

[carrierk]

This is interesting...if I connect or disconnet the usb from the iphone dock and leave the iphone snapped in I get a consistant 3 bars in any spot. In addition if i disconnect the iphone at 3 bars and put it to my face it drops to 1 bar then no service...then if i just put the bottom near the base again (not snapped in) it jumps to 3 bars...Could the base/dock be a signal amplifier? Leave the phone connected then walk around with your bluetooth device.

Could someone else try this and see if it works? i do get a good signal everywhere else so this would work for me at home.

[megfilmworks]

I wouldn't call it an amplifier as much as a larger antenna.
Also, most of the problems people in this post are describing are not cell phone issues, they are carrier issues which all carriers have.

[fmcgirt]

Up until yesterday I had attributed my erratic signal strength and dropped calls to tower hopping because of my local fringe area location but I was in a store several miles from home when I got a call which started at 4 bars, then dropped to none and then No Service. All subsequent calls went to voicemail for about 5 mins and I got the voicemail alert about 9-12 mins after they were left.

So I called AT&T tech support who luckily had heard of this problem. He checked my account, said all was OK and transferred me to Apple Tech support. He had me hold while he talked to their network experts who had also heard of the problem and they asked AT&T to send an "update patch" to my phone. He told me to then power cycle the phone and watch its behavior for a few hours. The behavior didn't change and so I power cycled again and it got a lot better. Since about 1PM yesterday i have remained steady at around 4 bars with sometimes a drop to 2 bars but no dropped calls and perfect call quality - this is the behavior I have also noticed with my Nokia N95 so I think it is normal - at last. When I called the Apple guy back to report he told me that most times the patch is fixing the problem but they have had a few rare cases of antenna hardware problems with iPhones.

So I suggest that you don't give up on your reception problems or ignore them or look for quick fixes. They are real and if you persist with AT&T and Apple they should be able to help you. In my case the Apple tech guy is prepared to authorize a replacement phone for me if the patch does not continue to work. Since I seem to have a perfect phone otherwise I want to make this one work right if possible.

By the way since the patch it does not seem to matter how I hold the phone, whether I put it in the dock or not, whether I attach a dangling USB cable or any of the other "solutions" that seemed to make a difference in the reception before. Now if I hold it normally the reception holds steady.

This is a real problem that ATT&T/Apple may be able to help you with or you can insist on a replacement phone or phones until it is fixed. Also you might want to consider leaving feedback with Apple about the problem. Might get them to move a little faster fixing stuff.

Frank

[megfilmworks]

Up until yesterday I had attributed my erratic signal strength and dropped calls to tower hopping because of my local fringe area location but I was in a store several miles from home when I got a call which started at 4 bars, then dropped to none and then No Service. All subsequent calls went to voicemail for about 5 mins and I got the voicemail alert about 9-12 mins after they were left.

So I called AT&T tech support who luckily had heard of this problem. He checked my account, said all was OK and transferred me to Apple Tech support. He had me hold while he talked to their network experts who had also heard of the problem and they asked AT&T to send an "update patch" to my phone. He told me to then power cycle the phone and watch its behavior for a few hours. The behavior didn't change and so I power cycled again and it got a lot better. Since about 1PM yesterday i have remained steady at around 4 bars with sometimes a drop to 2 bars but no dropped calls and perfect call quality - this is the behavior I have also noticed with my Nokia N95 so I think it is normal - at last. When I called the Apple guy back to report he told me that most times the patch is fixing the problem but they have had a few rare cases of antenna hardware problems with iPhones.

So I suggest that you don't give up on your reception problems or ignore them or look for quick fixes. They are real and if you persist with AT&T and Apple they should be able to help you. In my case the Apple tech guy is prepared to authorize a replacement phone for me if the patch does not continue to work. Since I seem to have a perfect phone otherwise I want to make this one work right if possible.

By the way since the patch it does not seem to matter how I hold the phone, whether I put it in the dock or not, whether I attach a dangling USB cable or any of the other "solutions" that seemed to make a difference in the reception before. Now if I hold it normally the reception holds steady.

This is a real problem that ATT&T/Apple may be able to help you with or you can insist on a replacement phone or phones until it is fixed. Also you might want to consider leaving feedback with Apple about the problem. Might get them to move a little faster fixing stuff.

Frank

Very useful post, food for thought.
Technology is both ingenious and maddening.
:apple:

[TKEik683]

Fmcgirt i was wondering if you could post the number you called to get the patch updated. Im having somewhat of the same problems and really dont want to return the phone(switched from verizon). Also frustrating is that some days service at home will be fine, ranging from 2-4 bars. Other i will get 'no service' constantly. This is making my thoughts of returning the phone change daily.

I also noticed that once i removed the phone from the dock i lose 2-3 bars.

Ugh, any help with who to call would help much
Dave

[fmcgirt]

Fmcgirt i was wondering if you could post the number you called to get the patch updated. Im having somewhat of the same problems and really dont want to return the phone(switched from verizon). Also frustrating is that some days service at home will be fine, ranging from 2-4 bars. Other i will get 'no service' constantly. This is making my thoughts of returning the phone change daily.

I also noticed that once i removed the phone from the dock i lose 2-3 bars.

Ugh, any help with who to call would help much
Dave

Dave, I started with the AT&T Customer Service number: 1-800-331-0500.

I think it is a good idea to do that because both AT&T and Apple need to be involved to get the patch: AT&T to send it and Apple to request that it be sent. And I guess if I didn't have any luck with the first AT&T CSR I would hang up and try another. I was lucky to get both a guy from AT&T and a guy from Apple that wanted to solve my problem.

Frank

[jtinkc]

I was having the same problems with my iPhone. I picked it up Sat afternoon and from that time through Mon I dropped over 15 calls and would have periods of time where it would say no service for 30-45 min at a time. It would go from 5 bars to no bars to no service.

I called Apple Sun morning and they weren't very helpful really. He read me the standard power it off and at&t is working on their network, blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong I think Apple is great...I'm new to the Apple world, aside from an iPod, but getting a Mac next month. I have had at&t (Cingular) for 2 years now and have not had any problems at all with dropped calls at my condo so this was a big concern for me.

Mon I called at&t and the lady was very nice and sent some update and set up a call back on Wed so I could monitor it and see if that helped. It appeared to work for about 4 hours, then it was even worse, it couldn't hold a signal for anything. I called at&t back, they sent me to level 2 and the guy did some tests, checked the towers and signals and all that jazz and said everything looked fine and was going to send a technician to my addresses, home and work, to check things out. He suggested putting the SIM card in my old phone and seeing if I had any problems. I had already done that and hadn't so he suggested replacing the phone.

I made an appointment at the Apple store (I had originally purchased from at&t via direct fulfillment and the store still didn't have any stock). I explained everything to them and they swapped the phone out and gave me a new one and knock on wood, it is working GREAT!!! I activated it this evening after work and have been watching it since and it has had 5 bars the entire time. Previously I didn't have to watch too closely to catch it with no service.

My advice...start with at&t, but don't wait too long/waste too much time, you might just need to get a different phone.

[TKEik683]

ok sounds great guys, im gonna call AT&T tomorrow and see if i can get the ball rolling. Hopefully i can get this fixed before next weds. (last day to return it)

Ill keep ya informed
Dave

[scho52386]

has anyone else called att and gotten any good results?

[nickofari]

Very similar situation here. Have two new att/cingular phones (iphone + Nokia). Although the coverage map shows me to be in the second highest coverage zone - my indoor service levels are lousy (no service to 2 bars). I reported the problem yesterday, and they seemed interested in addressing it. First thing, over the phone, they said the right things - and applied $50 credit towards my first bill. Second, the rep agreed with me that the situation wasn't good - and apologized for it (getting on my side, and making me feel like I am not a crazy complainer). Third, they promised to have the local equipment checked out. Last, the promised to have someone check out my street for reception issues.
Within an hour of this call, a technical rep called to verify the problem. Within three hours, a Cingular truck was on my street. This is the interesting/frustrating part. He said, "yea, I am not surprised you don't have service - I don't have it in my car, on my equipment." When asked why it was shown to be a "good" coverage area ( I live within 5 minutes walking distance of downtown Portsmouth (a city - for those keeping score)) - he said, "yea, that is if you are outside - in line with the tower. Not inside the building." When asked what they would do about it he said, "nothing. I don't have the budget to put up any more equipment this year." They haven't closed the claim/report with me yet, so I am waiting to hear back from them with their official response.

My previous carrier was Sprint, and I didn't have any coverage issues in my house (basement included).

I have taken a look at a couple of products designed to extend cell zones:
1) http://www.wi-ex.com/Page3187.aspx
2) http://www.spotwave.com/residential/products/z1900.asp
but haven't done anything about them yet. (the cingular guy told me that these products work - but Cingular hates them as they can cause massive problems on the networks, and are difficult to track down when there is a system-wide problem).

I give att/cingular good marks for customer service so far. If you are dealing with poor coverage - I would recommend calling to report the problem (minimum is getting your $50 trouble credit).

[TKEik683]

fmcgirt was there any way to tell that the update was actually done? I called and they told me that i was in a poor service area, which seemed odd considering i had seen good service coverage here.

I came out and asked about the update and how it helped someone else. He said he would send the update out to the phone. Im just not sure how to tell if it was actually done.

This decision is frustrating, at work last night the phone had perfect service....

Dave

[fmcgirt]

fmcgirt was there any way to tell that the update was actually done? I called and they told me that i was in a poor service area, which seemed odd considering i had seen good service coverage here.

I came out and asked about the update and how it helped someone else. He said he would send the update out to the phone. Im just not sure how to tell if it was actually done.

This decision is frustrating, at work last night the phone had perfect service....

Dave

All they told me was to power cycle the phone - turn it off, wait a minute or two and then turn back on. It took me two power cycles to notice any difference though. If no luck I would call back and ask that the update be sent again. If that doesn't help I would get a replacement phone. You could have the bad antenna problem the Apple tech guy told me about.

Frank

[aristobrat]

I have taken a look at a couple of products designed to extend cell zones:
1) http://www.wi-ex.com/Page3187.aspx
2) http://www.spotwave.com/residential/products/z1900.asp
but haven't done anything about them yet. (the cingular guy told me that these products work - but Cingular hates them as they can cause massive problems on the networks, and are difficult to track down when there is a system-wide problem).
I ordered this from Amazon.com (because if it doesn't work, they've always been great about letting me return things). I'll try to get it installed tonight and let you know how it goes.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A3OLZC/002-4934916-3852041

You're not in Portsmouth, VA are you? :)

[nickofari]

I ordered this from Amazon.com (because if it doesn't work, they've always been great about letting me return things). I'll try to get it installed tonight and let you know how it goes.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A3OLZC/002-4934916-3852041

You're not in Portsmouth, VA are you? :)

No, Portsmouth, New Hampshire - same coast though - just look up/north.

[aristobrat]

No, Portsmouth, New Hampshire - same coast though - just look up/north.
Whew, cool. I was hoping that our area wasn't out of money for new towers. ;) Just got home tonight (10:30PM), so I'll have to install the 1900mhz repeater tomorrow and report back.

[veshman]

My instinct is to think that the problem is related to the phone jumping from tower to tower when it may not need to, and several AT&T reps have said the same. All of the Reps have thought that the situation was unusual -- the erratic jumping from 4-5 bars and then losing a call without moving. Almost unanimously, they have all said they thought it had something to do with jumping to a new tower.

I only had 2-3 bars in this same area with Verizon, but I NEVER dropped calls -- only an occasional distortion. I really hope I dont have to abandon the iPhone because of this.

Anyone having this kind of problem -- erratic signal -- please contact ATT and/or Apple and complain. In my opinion, either the iPhone (or iPhone software) is hyperactive in terms of looking for new towers, or it has to do with your physical location and the AT&T coverage in that area and an issue with overlapping towers.

I've been having exactly the same issue here in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I did not have any of these problems with T-mobile, from whom I switched for the iPhone. I haven't had this kind of crappy coverage in a long time. This is sooo 1997. I am really on the fence about whether or not to take the iPhone back (I have till tomorrow to decide). It is definitely a fun phone and I want to be part of the fun of seeing it grow. I'm not sure how long that novelty will last versus the daily frustrations I may end up having with AT&T. This is like having a Porsche with no gas, or having Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled giving you a wish beyond your wildest dreams----but there's a catch!

I got the same sort of answer from AT&T...too many cell towers and the phone is dropping the call when trying to decide which one to use. While that may be a technically correct answer, it doesn't really solve my problem of having dropped calls. And I don't think it explains why it takes 30 - 120 seconds of No Service to finally get a signal again.

There's an old adage that you should never want something too much. Collectively, everyone has wanted an iPhone for so long and so badly, it had to come with a price I guess.

Bhavesh

[fmcgirt]

I got the same sort of answer from AT&T...too many cell towers and the phone is dropping the call when trying to decide which one to use. While that may be a technically correct answer, it doesn't really solve my problem of having dropped calls. And I don't think it explains why it takes 30 - 120 seconds of No Service to finally get a signal again.

Bhavesh

I have another problem with the AT&T technical answer. I was having abrupt signal changes from 4-5 bars to No Service without moving my hand!!! I could see having a problem deciding which tower to use if the phone is moving but not when it is completely stationary. Maybe the tower load is changing enough between each tower/phone handshake that the loaded tower tries to reduce that load by pushing some phones off to another tower. Whatever it is it sure needs fixing!!

Frank

[jtinkc]

I think people on here are describing two different issues...Some of them may be legitimate AT&T issues...i.e. they tell you that you are in a weak signal area. But for those of you that are experiencing the bouncing signals and no service for extended periods of time...I honestly don't think you can blame it on AT&T. I'm only speaking from my own personal experience...and had I been new to AT&T I might have done the same...but I wasn't new and it wasn't an AT&T problem. It was a problem with my phone. Since I had it replaced I've not had a single problem.

Just trying to say...don't get in the mindset that the problem has to be the signal when the real problem could be the phone. You HAVE to look at all the variables. If you live in a lead lined basement, then it probably is a signal issue. If you are sitting in one spot and have full signal and then it drops to nothing...it's probably a phone issue.

[fmcgirt]

I think people on here are describing two different issues...Some of them may be legitimate AT&T issues...i.e. they tell you that you are in a weak signal area. But for those of you that are experiencing the bouncing signals and no service for extended periods of time...I honestly don't think you can blame it on AT&T. I'm only speaking from my own personal experience...and had I been new to AT&T I might have done the same...but I wasn't new and it wasn't an AT&T problem. It was a problem with my phone. Since I had it replaced I've not had a single problem.

Just trying to say...don't get in the mindset that the problem has to be the signal when the real problem could be the phone. You HAVE to look at all the variables. If you live in a lead lined basement, then it probably is a signal issue. If you are sitting in one spot and have full signal and then it drops to nothing...it's probably a phone issue.

Very good comment. And in my case it also may be a combination of both the iPhone and AT&T. I was fooling around with my iPhone SIM in my Nokia N95 this morning and I noticed a random drop of 2-3 bars from full signal but never did it go to No Service. I had never seen that before on the N95 (or E61 or Dash or Trinity) so I suspect that AT&T has done some recent tower work near my location. In the case of the iPhone it probably does not have near as good sensitivity/selectivity in its radio's front end as the Nokias or Dash (nothing I have ever used does) so it cannot cope with with the signal changes. Maybe both AT&T and Apple have a bit of work to do to make the iPhone acceptable. And i think they will do so.

Frank

[pulszar]

Based on that, here's my experience:

Got my iPhone almost 2 weeks ago. Coming from Verizon, I was immediately skeptical of the coverage because its been pounded into my head that Cingular/AT&T is not the best service in my area, although the service map shows BEST possible coverage almost everywhere I live (Northern Delaware). So going into this, testing the service, I tried to compare everywhere Verizon was great - so far I'd say the iPhone's reception has matched about 80% of the time but I have noticed the bars issue (5 to none and back in the same spot), dropped calls, spotty reception, and echoing.

After reading these posts, I called AT&T to see if my phone had the same problem and needed an OTA update. Initially I chose to go straight to an Apple rep and although he was extremely polite, I don't think he knew what he was talking about. Being an IT person I think I explained the problem as accurately as possible and he told me to fix it, I should turn WiFi on and off. That's right, in order to fix a voice issue and spotty signal strength I should power cycle WiFi. I thought voice and data was different, he said not so. So then I asked him if there was any kind of OTA update that needs to be sent or a reassigned ID (as suggested in post #36) - he said that in the next month, there will be an update to enable MMS (cool), ringtones, and all sorts of other media options. I said this was great and all, but I'm really interested in just making the phone part work - otherwise I'd just hold on to my iPod and Verizon phone.

So finally I realize I'm not going to get through to this guy so I say thanks and hang up. 5 minutes later I call AT&T customer service and speak to a nice guy (also with southern accent). He identifies that my area should have killer coverage and that I should be having no problems. Immediately he sends the OTA update and tells me to power cycle my phone in 10 minutes, try it out, and if its not improved I might have a hardware issue. I mentioned the problem about phone confusion trying to bounce between multiple towers, he agreed that could be a problem but didn't seem to know about it previously or about reassigning a phone ID. So I will try the OTA update and see if that works.

Incidentally I mentioned to him what the Apple tech said, about powering off WiFi to fix voice issues and he was borderline dumbfounded. Without ripping apart the Apple guy, he said that voice and data have been separate for quite some time, (I know).

Hopefully this will work, I LOVE the phone, but am concerned about the network.

By the way, skip through the automated menu:
1-800-331-0500 to call AT&T
Enter your 10 digit number
Option 0, then 0 to talk to an AT&T rep (for this issue)
Option 0, then 1 to talk to an Apple rep

[cdd543]

I hate to say it, but the signal bar dropping is not the network. The iphone is not the first handset t do this..some sony ericsson devices have had this same issue. I have had them on both tmobile and att and they did the same thing. Jumps from full to 1 or no bars. I am not an rf engineer, but I do work in the wireless industry and have used practically every device under the sun at one time or another. I have other ATT handsets handy and none of them exhibit this behavior while my iphone does it regularly. The good news is that it can be fixed with firmware updates as I have seen it in an SE device. In general the reception just isn't as good as other devices I have(blackberry). I was at the movie the other night and my wife's phone had three to 4 bars and I had 0 to 1 at most. It seems to struggle in weaker signal areas.

[megfilmworks]

My iPhone consistently has better reception and sound in my house, in a fringe area, than my Razr. Both are Cingular.

[honeydesign]

I'm in NY and very frustrated.

wow. i'm glad i switched to AT&T... seeing as how they don't know anything.

I have this same issue [Random "NO SERVICE" in an area i know i have reception -- when i reboot most times signal returns]

I don't want to go through the hassle of swapping out phones... but i think i'm going to have to. I was just on the phone speaking with AT&T representative and an Apple representative. Both had no idea what an "update patch" was, or that this issue exists at all. hell, i think they barely knew what an iphone was.

so 40 minutes later, no "update patch" could be found. the apple rep. said "connect your phone through itunes and try to find an update there."
considering if there *were* an actual software updated, I'd know about it. oh, and you would too mister apple rep., so don't say "check for one"

I'm just really frustrated with this NO SERVICE issue. I have to admit verizon's service was flawless. I never had to think about stuff like this.

I'lll give it another day or two but I think it's back to the store for me for a phone/sim card swap.

sad.

Oh, yea. and my boyfriend has the same exact issue as I do.

[ladderdog]

Sounds similiar to my problems. Iphone worked fine in my driveway, no reception in the house. Kept cycling between no bars and no service in my house. ATT and Apple could not help (or did not know how to). Saddest day of my life. Had to return the iphone. I use it for business and it is critical that it work well in my office. If anyone returns theirs....DO NOT pay the re-stocking charge since this is a reception issue. Phoenix, AZ

[brwnbooger]

Had my iphone replaced because of dead pixels. They would not allow me to exchange the phone because of the reception problem since it did not have a problem in the store (they probably have signal boosters in the back)... anyway the new phone definitely holds the signal strength a lot better in my home now. Most of the time it is 4-5 bars and sometimes jumps to 2-3. I have not seen No service yet and it is definitely a lot more steady.

[aristobrat]

(they probably have signal boosters in the back)
The Apple store near my place had 2 pico cells put in to boost AT&Ts signal. ;)

[omatzyo]

Just to add my two cents... I've been having the exact same problems mentioned above. I commute daily between Philadelphia, PA and Manhattan, NY. While I'm in motion the phone is constantly losing reception/unable to send and receive text messages/unable to stream video because it loses data connectivity/etc etc. All of this this happens under the banner of full service, and EDGE connectivity. Obviously there is something awry.

Several times during the day, stationary or not, I look down to find my phone reading 'No Service' when I know that I'm in an area with great service. I've been an AT&T Wireless customer for years. There is no reason this should be happening. I must power-cycle the phone 10 times a day.

I've gone through the motions with AT&T and Apple. Today I got a brand new SIM, which did nothing. Tonight I will attempt to swap my phone out at the Apple Store.

I will say AT&T customer service has been amazing! Well done! And I seriously hope Apple has some major updates coming up...

[cbella]

I have found that when I use my iphone and my husband's iphone and call a third party for a conference call that the call drops every 16 minutes like clock-work. There are three beeps that the two iphone users hear:confused: and the call is lost. Is anyone else having this problem? Neither Apple nor AT&T have a clue. This only happens with conference calls.
It's not a coverage/reception issue because of the odd 16 minute thing. I have tried this over 8 times just to make sure that it is consistent.
Help!!!

[blueflame]

I found if you hold the phone higher up, on the silver, without really touching the black part, leaving it exposed, the reception boosts.
I think covering it with your hand REALLY impacts reception?
A

[jason32b]

I posted earlier in this thread that I had perceived more consistent service after AT&T had reset/reissued a new phone identification number to me. Well, I'm afraid to report that any success I may have had was short lived and I am basically experiencing the same up and down situation as before. Calls dropping very often, even 50 feet from the local Cingular store :( I have found a few safe pockets in my home (including the roof) that seem pretty reliable so far. So maybe I am in less than stellar reception area - but the iPhone sure doesnt seem to know it half the time since it tells me I have full service and then will just drop the call 5 minutes later and show No Service. Maybe the iPhone is to blame and is hyperactive in the way it searches for reception. Maybe a combination of that and poor service. I guess we should all keep moaning to ATT and Apple and hopefully we'll see some firmware or network updates to help this out. Meanwhile, I'm going to try out some of these short range cellular repeaters and see if that gets me any better off at home. Will let you all know if they work. Look forward to reading more advice and experiences from everyone else.

[scho52386]

has anyone tried those cell boosters? if so...do they actually work?

[sleepkreep]

It's all in how you hold it. If i hold it at the bottom with my hand covering (touching) the entire bottom, i get two bars. But if i hold it at the top or with my fingers keeping my palms away from the phone, i get five bars. Im not sure, but i would imagine the same holds true while it is in your pocket so close to your leg.

[nickofari]

In my basement, I have even poorer service than higher floors in the house. However, since my office is in the basement, I put the phone in the cradle for syncing. With only one bar, I received a call w/out a problem. I know this isn't a solution for most, but it might help.

[yannimac]

It's all in how you hold it. If i hold it at the bottom with my hand covering (touching) the entire bottom, i get two bars. But if i hold it at the top or with my fingers keeping my palms away from the phone, i get five bars. Im not sure, but i would imagine the same holds true while it is in your pocket so close to your leg.

Let me start by saying that I love everything about the iphone, except for the phone part. I am having the same problem as you. In my house when I hold the iphone in a way that feels natural(which covers the bottom antenna), it gets 1-2 bars. When I hold it at the top (very awkward) I get 4 bars. Which genuis decided to put the antenna on the bottom?

Here is how it probably went down at the Apple design office. "Hey dude, we should put the antenna on the bottom. That would be, like, so stylish man." says designer #1. "But wouldn't that be harmful to the reception of the phone" says designer #2. "Who cares. The phone has the apple logo on it. People will still buy millions of them if we get that condescending douchebag from Dodgeball to advertise for us again." says designer #2. "You are right. What the hell was I thinking? Let's go to starbucks and celebrate with a Mocha celery avacodo frapaccino." :D:D:D

WTF??

[scho52386]

so....has anyone tried one of those antennae booster things? and if you have, how do you like it?

[Derald Lary]

so....has anyone tried one of those antennae booster things? and if you have, how do you like it?

I purchased the wy500 Cel from Tigerdirect.com for about $239. I took it up to my attic with the included cable hanging down thru the attic access door and connected it to the amplier. I immediately locked onto 5 bars and edge. I then took it apart and did a proper install and it has performed very well. No dropped calls and, when I turned the wifi off, routinely got 150 to 200 kbps on Edge. A lightening strike on our power line shut off power to the house. No damage to the booster and it keep on trucking. My installation fixed two problems, trees between the closest tower and my house and overcame the traditional stucco covering my house with the wire grid underneath. Of note, my packge arrived with a no return lable on the paperwork. You best talk to a real person when you make the order to ensure that you can return it if it does not solve you particular problem.

[rhetor44]

I have the same problem. My three bars of strength drop significantly when my hand touches the unit when I am at home. I placed my hand in one of the potholders used in the kitchen, and tried it. The signal strength stayed up. I suppose a thick glove would work as well. I have spoken with several AT&T technicians and one iphone technician from Apple. They were all clueless. The problem was absent when I drive in closer to town. I suppose it has something to do with having a weak signal strengh and the electrical/magnetic field associated with the human body---but hey, I was an English major, so what do I know!

[scho52386]

I purchased the wy500 Cel from Tigerdirect.com for about $239. I took it up to my attic with the included cable hanging down thru the attic access door and connected it to the amplier. I immediately locked onto 5 bars and edge. I then took it apart and did a proper install and it has performed very well. No dropped calls and, when I turned the wifi off, routinely got 150 to 200 kbps on Edge. A lightening strike on our power line shut off power to the house. No damage to the booster and it keep on trucking. My installation fixed two problems, trees between the closest tower and my house and overcame the traditional stucco covering my house with the wire grid underneath. Of note, my packge arrived with a no return lable on the paperwork. You best talk to a real person when you make the order to ensure that you can return it if it does not solve you particular problem.

hey thanks alot!! i think i will go ahead and purchase one of those! how hard is the installation on the product? i am not very knowledgeable about these kinds of things, and have never installed anything like it.

[Jocko]

I occasionally get the problem where I lose service and then get in back without actually moving the phone at all. But the bigger problem for me is the call quality. And I'm not nitpicking here. This is like sound breaking up, can't hear most of what people say kind of quality problems. People have significant trouble hearing me and almost always ask if I can call them on a land line. This is happening literally on almost 100% of the calls I have made with my iPhone to date. This happens at home and at work in downtown Boston. Most recently I was in downtown Manhattan and it happened there too. Later at LaGuardia it was happening. When I look at the phone it says 4 or 5 lines of service. What's the deal with this? I assume this is not normal. Does anyone else have such a severe problem with their calls?

Thanks.

[ryanide]

Same issue here. I get dropped calls (call failed) all the time. Plus my service is really choppy, cutting in and out without even moving the phone. The signal will jump from 5 bars to 0 bars then to 3 then to 0 then to 5 and so on... I can barely make a phone call in my house (which was perfect on Verizon) and even when I go outside its the same. My friend has AT&T and does not have these problems with his RAZOR phone.

Called AT&T and totally got the run-a-round: started with an Apple rep. Explained the situation with the calls being dropped, she said it sounds like a service issue; transferred me to an AT&T rep.

went through the whole explaination and she looked up my account to view my dropped calls. Told me that I was in an excellent coverage area and the dropped calls are happening in random places that all should have good coverage.

She then transferred me to a tech specialist who would determine if it was something with the towers (coverage) or with the handset. He told me that it seemed to be a hardware issue, possibly something wrong with the antenna or something. So, his recomendation was to have the phone replaced. To do so he had to transfer me back to an Apple Rep because they handle the replacements.

The new Apple Rep then went on to tell me that what I'm experiencing is bad service from AT&T and that she works with people and has similar problems on her iPhone.. Saying this as if the last three people knew nothing. So, she told me to take the phone to an Apple store and have a mac Genius test the hardware. She said there was a machine they can hook it up to to test it.

Made my appt and went to the Apple store only to be told they do not have any such testing equipment. The only thing they do is look at the number of bars and try to make a call. She said they could send it in to Apple to have it checked under warranty which takes 2-3 days, but most likely they will not find any problems with it. Plus I would have to pay $30 for a loaner. She recommended doing a Restore to see if that helps resolve any possible software issue.

Did that. No change - still more than half of my calls are dropped.

[fmcgirt]

First it is definitely a known, real problem and there are many opinions about whether it is an iPhone problem or an AT&T network problem. I can tell you that I had exactly the same problem and an AT&T tower tech guy came to my house and we walked all around it and outside with his 4GB iPhone and my 2nd 8GB iPhone side by side. His for the most part had a steady 4-5 bars with sometimes a drop to 3 in a screened area while mine was jumping all around as you described. He told me that they (AT&T techs) had been advised to do a firmware restore and his had been steady ever since. So I returned my 8GB and got a 4GB, did the firmware restore and it is not as good as my N95 but much better. I have noticed that it tends to "age" over time and then I do another firmware restore which helps for a week or so, etc.

I would not accept the run around that you got but make another call to AT&T/Apple and try to get a more knowledgeable CSR. If all that fails I would send it in for repair and pay for the loaner. The advantage of that is that you can try a different phone at your location and can determine better if it is your phone or the network. All of this is very frustrating - especially for those of us not in a direct line of sight to the tower which seems to make this problem a lot worse.

Frank

[Doug Meacham]

I found if you hold the phone higher up, on the silver, without really touching the black part, leaving it exposed, the reception boosts.
I think covering it with your hand REALLY impacts reception?
A

This is true. Having the problem of no reception in the house. When I put iPhone in the cradle I get 4 bars. Was on the phone with AT&T & Apple guys for over an hour. The last question the Apple guy asked was how I was holding the phone. I told him that laying it down didn't make a difference. He said to take it back to the store. As soon has I hung up, I noticed I had 4 bars. I can now demonstrate the problem consistently. If you hold it in your palm, covering the antenna, reception goes away. I'm astonished that Apple let that problem get past QA.

[fmcgirt]

This is true. Having the problem of no reception in the house. When I put iPhone in the cradle I get 4 bars. Was on the phone with AT&T & Apple guys for over an hour. The last question the Apple guy asked was how I was holding the phone. I told him that laying it down didn't make a difference. He said to take it back to the store. As soon has I hung up, I noticed I had 4 bars. I can now demonstrate the problem consistently. If you hold it in your palm, covering the antenna, reception goes away. I'm astonished that Apple let that problem get past QA.

That is also astonishing to me but I am equally astonished at the design decision that would place the cell antenna at the bottom of the phone which is guaranteed to be obscured by almost anyone holding the phone normally - rather than at or near the top like every other cell phone I have used with decent reception. I would guess that they were so concerned with building a device with all of its cool features that they forgot about the getting the basics right - it needs to be a good phone first.

Frank

[Doug Meacham]

That is also astonishing to me but I am equally astonished at the design decision that would place the cell antenna at the bottom of the phone which is guaranteed to be obscured by almost anyone holding the phone normally - rather than at or near the top like every other cell phone I have used with decent reception. I would guess that they were so concerned with building a device with all of its cool features that they forgot about the getting the basics right - it needs to be a good phone first.

Frank

Frank,

Apple is apparently not alone in this new design flaw. My wife just got a new Sanyo Katana (Sprint). On the back of the phone is a label that says: "To maximize call performance, do not obstruct the internal antenna area". There is a picture of the phone being held by the fingertips and an arrow pointing to the bottom of the phone indicating the location of the internal antenna. Apple store Genius had not heard of this problem, but they gave me a new phone. Still has the same issue. I just need to change the way I hold it, I guess!

Doug

[fmcgirt]

Doug,

There are still a couple of things to try. My AppleCare guy had AT&T download an update to my iPhone which appeared to help for a time. You could call AT&T and ask for that. Also you could try a firmware restore. That is the position I am in now - doing another firmware restore when the phone starts to have really erratic RF. It does help for a while. I don't think there will be a permanent fix until Apple steps up and takes care of it. And I think there are just too many cases of this problem occurring to solve it by exchanging phones. My 4GB seems to be perfect otherwise and I hesitate to exchange it for one who may have other problems. Finally when I am near a tower or have a direct line of sight to a tower, it doesn't matter how I hold it so it really is a problem for people like me in other areas.

Frank

[kaslead]

Reviving this thread.....

Has anyone updated to 1.0.2 and noticed that it fixed the 5 bar-to-0 bar-to-5 bar hopping? There are reports here on macrumors that 1.0.2 fixed it, but I still have the problem.

Anyone else? Anyone get a resolution to the problem?

[songxf]

I've updated to the newest firmwared, namely 1.0.2 and I am still having the same problem.

[Telp]

I have the same problem with the iPhone in Cambridge, MA.

When the phone sits in the doc. 4 bars, browses fine etc. If I pick up to make a call it'll try for a little while then drop me to one teeny bar or no service.

Does anyone know if this is an AT&T or iPhone problem. I've used T-mobile for years and never had any substantial issues.

I believe its an at&t problem. Theres always a cutoff for reception, and you must be right on the edge of the tower line? I dont know, thats what i always suspected.

[Mr Derp]

Ok, I started experiencing this myself just today after having my phone for about 2 months. While it was sitting on my desk it would jump from 4 bars to zero, to 3, to no service...without me not having moved it an inch. So I tried moving around and just kept an eye on it all day. It kept doing the same erratic behavior, regardless of where it was.

So I started trying to figure out what could have made it go crazy overnight for no reason. The only thing that was different about today was that I had it out of its case all day. I bought the case at the AT&T store the same day I'd bought the iPhone - nothing fancy, just the generic 'leather' case that comes with a screen protector and a spot in the back where you can screw in a rivet and use the belt clip. I think it was like 20 bucks. So I've had it in there since literally the first time I used the phone.

Last night I was at a friends place, and he was looking at the phone and for some reason took the case off. I didn't even notice till I got home. Didn't think it was a big deal, I would just pick it up next time I was over there. Then, soon as I get up this morning the things signal is going haywire and kept it up all day.

So I was pretty frustrated by the end of the day, and decided to just go pickup the case, cause it seemed odd that the first time I'm using it without the case is also the first time its signal strength is erratic.

So I got to my friends house and check the phone - 0 bars. The moment - hell, the instant, I slid that iPhone back into the case the signal strength went back to 4 and hasn't changed. Even though its in the same spot on my desk where it was getting "no signal" messages for hours earlier in the day.

Right now, as I type this, I removed it from the case and started a timer. After about 5 seconds 2 bars went down, and a sec last one came back. After 1 min 6.4 seconds of being out of its cheap, unremarkable case, it hit 0 bars. Putting it back in - 36 seconds later, i'm back at full signal strength and full WiFi strenght (which was 1/2 out of case).

So call me crazy, but this little black case doubles my iPhones signal strength. Doubles it! Every single time.

I wish I knew someone with an IPhone, so we could try it on another phone, but I don't. This (http://www.case-mate.com/phones/apple/iphonesignature) is the case I have. Most AT&T stores have them.

I hope this helps some of you guys who are suffering form the "Signal at full power one min, now 1 bar...now 'no service'.

If someone goes out and gets on of those cases to try this, someone times you have to hit the little sleeper button the top once you've placed it back in the case.

[fmcgirt]

Ok, I started experiencing this myself just today after having my phone for about 2 months. While it was sitting on my desk it would jump from 4 bars to zero, to 3, to no service...without me not having moved it an inch. So I tried moving around and just kept an eye on it all day. It kept doing the same erratic behavior, regardless of where it was.

So I started trying to figure out what could have made it go crazy overnight for no reason. The only thing that was different about today was that I had it out of its case all day. I bought the case at the AT&T store the same day I'd bought the iPhone - nothing fancy, just the generic 'leather' case that comes with a screen protector and a spot in the back where you can screw in a rivet and use the belt clip. I think it was like 20 bucks. So I've had it in there since literally the first time I used the phone.

Last night I was at a friends place, and he was looking at the phone and for some reason took the case off. I didn't even notice till I got home. Didn't think it was a big deal, I would just pick it up next time I was over there. Then, soon as I get up this morning the things signal is going haywire and kept it up all day.

So I was pretty frustrated by the end of the day, and decided to just go pickup the case, cause it seemed odd that the first time I'm using it without the case is also the first time its signal strength is erratic.

So I got to my friends house and check the phone - 0 bars. The moment - hell, the instant, I slid that iPhone back into the case the signal strength went back to 4 and hasn't changed. Even though its in the same spot on my desk where it was getting "no signal" messages for hours earlier in the day.

Right now, as I type this, I removed it from the case and started a timer. After about 5 seconds 2 bars went down, and a sec last one came back. After 1 min 6.4 seconds of being out of its cheap, unremarkable case, it hit 0 bars. Putting it back in - 36 seconds later, i'm back at full signal strength and full WiFi strenght (which was 1/2 out of case).

So call me crazy, but this little black case doubles my iPhones signal strength. Doubles it! Every single time.

I wish I knew someone with an IPhone, so we could try it on another phone, but I don't. This (http://www.case-mate.com/phones/apple/iphonesignature) is the case I have. Most AT&T stores have them.

I hope this helps some of you guys who are suffering form the "Signal at full power one min, now 1 bar...now 'no service'.

If someone goes out and gets on of those cases to try this, someone times you have to hit the little sleeper button the top once you've placed it back in the case.

Others have reported this as well, especially in fringe areas, and I have seen this exact behavior on my 4GB iPhone and as a result now always keep it in a Sena leather case. I had three 8GBs and returned them with the same behavior and cases didn't help them. Sure is strange but definitely there on some devices.

Please report this to the Apple Feedback web site

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Maybe if enough of us report this behavior it will get acknowledged and fixed.

Frank

[Burton8219]

Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but I have had my 8GB iPhone since the 19th of august and I have had no problems with dropped calls or lowered reception. I am holding the phone on the black part of the phone and I still have 5 bars of reception. I also was in the city on Monday and had perfect reception all day walking from Penn station all the way down 7th ave to Central Park. Maybe the new batch of phones that apple is putting out has a stronger antenna or something but my phone that I bought on the 19th of August is still going like a champ. Just thought I'd tell my experience with my phone.

[DanOz]

I have this problem and i am certain it is not the carriers in most cases. Check this link out on youtube........the bars drop and lift erratically - no movement at all.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1q24ftCg0M

This video shows exactly what's happening to me and from the sound of it to many others. My colleagues also have iPhones on the same network and they have no problem. I have even tried another network provider and it didn't fix the issue.

I hope someone has a fix....if yes, please share it by posting. I have spent hours with this issue and no-one (including service agents) in the US will help me either. A tech here in Australia looked at it and can't fix it also and said they can't see an issue. I have upgraded to 1.1.1, repaired basebands, downgraded and so on and it still won't work. With the phone in this state i have to carry my Nokia for work.

Please post if you find a solution........thanks alot. Dan

[fmcgirt]

I have this problem and i am certain it is not the carriers in most cases. Check this link out on youtube........the bars drop and lift erratically - no movement at all.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1q24ftCg0M

This video shows exactly what's happening to me and from the sound of it to many others. My colleagues also have iPhones on the same network and they have no problem. I have even tried another network provider and it didn't fix the issue.

I hope someone has a fix....if yes, please share it by posting. I have spent hours with this issue and no-one (including service agents) in the US will help me either. A tech here in Australia looked at it and can't fix it also and said they can't see an issue. I have upgraded to 1.1.1, repaired basebands, downgraded and so on and it still won't work. With the phone in this state i have to carry my Nokia for work.

Please post if you find a solution........thanks alot. Dan

I have almost exactly the same behavior that you show in your video except sometimes the AT&T and E disappear either together or separately along with the decrease in bars. Today I arranged through Apple tech support to return my iPhone for repair. If they can't fix the problem or find it then I am done with iPhone until I hear that the phone part of the device can be depended on. BTW this is my third iPhone and I have tried two others - all have had varying degrees of this same problem.

I almost think that it is a power problem. I have noticed that other phones with varying signal bars show a boost in signal strength once a call is connected so maybe the problem with the iPhone is something like that. Maybe they are decreasing the power but through a failed algorithm or process or even a faulty hardware controller they are not able to restore it enough in time to prevent an insufficient signal strength which leads to dropped calls, etc.

The latest occurrance that happened to me today was while I was reading and responding to emails and the signal dropped from full signal to low bars and I was unable to connect to Edge to send emails. Then it restored itself for about a minute and then went to No Service. I immediately put my SIM card in my Nokia N95 and proceeded with the emails having no more signal problems. After finishing that I put the SIM back into the iPhone and it was back to normal. Almost like some cosmic ray got me for a while.

This type of random problem may be hard to detect and to fix but I would like at least for Apple to admit that they know about the problem. It is also a problem when so many people claim that they have no reception problems at all.

Frank

[MarkW19]

My O2 iPhone often loses signal in my house. It has 1 bar at most, all of the time.

My old Nokia phone constantly gets 4/5 or 5/5 bars, and my iMate Pocket PC stays at 2/5 or 3/5 bars. So, the iPhone is by far the worst for reception!

Oh well...

[DanOz]

BTW this is my third iPhone and I have tried two others - all have had varying degrees of this same problem.

I almost think that it is a power problem. I have noticed that other phones with varying signal bars show a boost in signal strength once a call is connected so maybe the problem with the iPhone is something like that. Maybe they are decreasing the power but through a failed algorithm or process or even a faulty hardware controller they are not able to restore it enough in time to prevent an insufficient signal strength which leads to dropped calls, etc.


Frank


My iPhone worked beautifully for a couple of weeks, then this happened, so i hope it can be fixed. Most forums are discussing AT&T's poor service, but i agree that the Phone is to blame here. I'll keep posting and researching until i find an answer.....I REFUSE TO BE BEATEN by this thing ;-)

I use alot of Apple products and i love this phone, but at the moment i joke that i have a big, fat, low capacity, expensive iPod touch until the mystery is resolved. ha ha. :eek:

[pittster]

My iPhone worked beautifully for a couple of weeks, then this happened, so i hope it can be fixed. Most forums are discussing AT&T's poor service, but i agree that the Phone is to blame here. I'll keep posting and researching until i find an answer.....I REFUSE TO BE BEATEN by this thing ;-)

I use alot of Apple products and i love this phone, but at the moment i joke that i have a big, fat, low capacity, expensive iPod touch until the mystery is resolved. ha ha. :eek:

same prob here in the UK with O2 network. full 5 bar signal on my other O2 phone and 'no coverage' on the iPhone when inside shops or large buildings.
this is def a software or design prob with the phone IMO.

edit -
just been and swapped for another iPhone, this too appears to drop the signal :-(

[Kevi11gp94]

This is my second iPhone and third sim card and I am having the same problem. I was told by an Apple Tech at the genius Bar at an Apple store that if you have had an existing AT&T account and added the iPhone to the account this can cause this problem. He told me he had AT&T reset the account as a new account and put the iPhone on it and had not had this problem since. I am yet to try this solution, but if everyone else out there have had this problem, maybe it will work.

[whoever]

I am wondering why nobody saying anything about FieldTest program on your iPhones. It clearly shows the signal strength of your ATT and/or T-Mobile towers. This is how iPhone making decision on switching towers, so it's a software / firmware glitch... Someone possibly can write a program to improve this, unless Apple will take care of this first.

[latifafa11]

That's why i am waiting for the second well improved version to avoid those kinds of problems.

[Kevi11gp94]

I would have waited too, but the incidental problems the phone presents are well outweighed by the utility that if offers in return. Nothing is perfect. If you wait for the second version it will not be perfect either. I had a new simm card from my home area code put in the phone recently and 90% of the signals problems were removed from it.

[whoever]

I think the problem goes into iPhone switching cell towers when it shouldn't do so. We need to develop the application to fix it if Apple doesn't care.

[diamond.g]

I am wondering why nobody saying anything about FieldTest program on your iPhones. It clearly shows the signal strength of your ATT and/or T-Mobile towers. This is how iPhone making decision on switching towers, so it's a software / firmware glitch... Someone possibly can write a program to improve this, unless Apple will take care of this first.

I was looking at my field test screen today, when I noticed the phone would say i have no signal, but the FT screen would show me connected to a tower @-105 dB. I pressed refesh a bunch of times and it didn't budge. That is leading me to believe that there is something wrong with the baseband and the main phone software(or at least the part that updates the signal strenth). Every once and a while i can still make a call and surf the web even though it claims I have no signal. I live in Staffod, VA (aka SoNoVA) for location reference.

[whoever]

I was testing my iPhone reception lately from a land line @ my house. I have ATT and my iPhone always has a full bar and occasionally drops to 1-2 or 3 bars (never goes to "no signal"). I think it happens when it is in a process of switching towers (for no reason).
1 out of 5 times the call will not go through to my iPhone (no ring) and go to the voice mail. (I tried to call about 30 times total). Then I tried my old phone which is Nokia 6200 and it never happens.
Anyone can confirm this easy test?

[victor kelly]

My old Nokia gave me two bars at home, the iphone gives me one..on a good day.

[diamond.g]

In regards to switching towers and dropped calls. AFAICT GSM doesn't support soft handoff, which (supposedly) reduces the chance of dropping a call when your cell phone switches towers.

I am not sure if hard handoffs are the main cause (other than fringe signal and tower hopping), but it iwas something interesting I learned.

[makasin]

Why is AT&T so cheap with thier technology? I never had any sort of problems like this when I was on T-mobile. I never had dropped calls, text messages always sent correctly. Switching to ATT was a step backward functionality-wise. But hey! My new phone is shinier. Thats a plus, I guess...:mad::mad:

[Telp]

Why is AT&T so cheap with thier technology? I never had any sort of problems like this when I was on T-mobile. I never had dropped calls, text messages always sent correctly. Switching to ATT was a step backward functionality-wise. But hey! My new phone is shinier. Thats a plus, I guess...:mad::mad:

This is even a step back for me, who had Cingular before. I dont know whats going on but service with Cingular was much better then ATT.

[moonbeam]

I was testing my iPhone reception lately from a land line @ my house. I have ATT and my iPhone always has a full bar and occasionally drops to 1-2 or 3 bars (never goes to "no signal"). I think it happens when it is in a process of switching towers (for no reason).
1 out of 5 times the call will not go through to my iPhone (no ring) and go to the voice mail. (I tried to call about 30 times total). Then I tried my old phone which is Nokia 6200 and it never happens.
Anyone can confirm this easy test?

i had a similar result... this is with 2 iphones, recently purchased. out of 30 calls over 2 days, over 25% of the calls went to voicemail. several times it was in areas with full bars, and were within a mile of 3 ATT towers. i also had many dropped calls, where the signal cut out in the middle of the conversation. And a good number of the calls that did go through were breaking up, really poor call quality. So, out of all the calls made over the 3 days, on 2 different copies, less than half were ok.

I wonder how common this is? my friends all love their iphones, but when i've asked them, they've been admitting that the phone part 'isn't great'. i really need a dependable mobile, so the phones had to go back. it was hard to return them, cuz they're great devices in every other way!

[kaslead]

I have this problem and i am certain it is not the carriers in most cases. Check this link out on youtube........the bars drop and lift erratically - no movement at all.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1q24ftCg0M

This video shows exactly what's happening to me and from the sound of it to many others.

I posted that video on Youtube. That was two phones ago for me - I have since exchanged twice and experienced the same problem. I also got a new SIM from AT&T. I'm now convinced it is an iPhone problem, as my Blackjack never had these problems in the same location.

I also left feedback for Apple after every software update telling them the problem is still there. It doesn't seem like it will ever be fixed, as I expect it would have been already.

I CAN'T believe this wasn't caught and fixed during design and beta testing.

[nobarblues]

I've had the phone for months and get no reception in my home/office where I need it 90% of the time. I was previously a Cingular customer and had no issues. I'm in the strongest possible coverage according to maps and ATT. This is the third phone and 2nd SIM card. I'm finally at Level 2 tech support and have probably spent at least 10 hours and counting, trying to get a resolution.

They think the problem is that I'm equidistant from 3 close towers. Crazy - my iPhone doesn't work because I'm in a great location. I think the iPhone was not tested for a large enough range of network variables.

ATT customer support has been great. They've given me $ credit because they see I barely make a call on the iPhone unless I'm staying elsewhere. If they can't come up with some fix I definitely want out of the contract with no cancellation fee. Apple support for iPhone problems is not only non-existent, its insulting. The last genius I talked to said: sorry - the iPhone is not guaranteed to work indoors. I feel kinda bad for them because they have no power to escalate or offer any help beyond comments like: do you have trees?

I'd like to keep the iPhone cause I love it, but don't really have time to get into the issues of unlocking, etc. I'm supposed to have another resolution callback within a few days. I think ATT is doing something because for 6 hours yesterday I had 3 bars - first time since I got the iPhone last fall. I had to re-connect my Verizon landline and long distance service and nobody will call me on my iPhone cause the reception sucks so bad...so I don't know how much better it was..but I had bars. They're gone now.

I haven't given up, but regret not returning the iPhone right away. I've always had such great support for all my Apple products that I just assumed there would be a firmware upgrade to resolve this problem. When I feel like just giving up and sucking it up - I think of $60+ contract for 24 months and that keeps me on it. This forum had the best info and I'll post my results.

[peterjeter26]

my brother had cingular and got no bars as soon as they combined with att hes been getting 5 bars every where. when i got the iphone i got 5 to 4 bars everywhere i go except underground (basements, subways etc.) but do u live in an apartment building its could be that theres too much interference

[nobarblues]

my brother had cingular and got no bars as soon as they combined with att hes been getting 5 bars every where. when i got the iphone i got 5 to 4 bars everywhere i go except underground (basements, subways etc.) but do u live in an apartment building its could be that theres too much interference

No, I live in an ordinary house on an ordinary street. ATT is working on it I believe. Today I had hours of 3-4 bars, intermittent "No Edge" - but now its back to no bars. Its encouraging that its possible to get service.

[nobarblues]

I've had the phone for months and get no reception in my home/office where I need it 90% of the time. I was previously a Cingular customer and had no issues. I'm in the strongest possible coverage according to maps and ATT. This is the third phone and 2nd SIM card. I'm finally at Level 2 tech support and have probably spent at least 10 hours and counting, trying to get a resolution.

They think the problem is that I'm equidistant from 3 close towers. Crazy - my iPhone doesn't work because I'm in a great location. I think the iPhone was not tested for a large enough range of network variables.

ATT customer support has been great. They've given me $ credit because they see I barely make a call on the iPhone unless I'm staying elsewhere. If they can't come up with some fix I definitely want out of the contract with no cancellation fee. Apple support for iPhone problems is not only non-existent, its insulting. The last genius I talked to said: sorry - the iPhone is not guaranteed to work indoors. I feel kinda bad for them because they have no power to escalate or offer any help beyond comments like: do you have trees?

I'd like to keep the iPhone cause I love it, but don't really have time to get into the issues of unlocking, etc. I'm supposed to have another resolution callback within a few days. I think ATT is doing something because for 6 hours yesterday I had 3 bars - first time since I got the iPhone last fall. I had to re-connect my Verizon landline and long distance service and nobody will call me on my iPhone cause the reception sucks so bad...so I don't know how much better it was..but I had bars. They're gone now.

I haven't given up, but regret not returning the iPhone right away. I've always had such great support for all my Apple products that I just assumed there would be a firmware upgrade to resolve this problem. When I feel like just giving up and sucking it up - I think of $60+ contract for 24 months and that keeps me on it. This forum had the best info and I'll post my results.

It was not the answer that I hoped for - that they could improve my reception. They were honest - my neighborhood just happens to be in an overlap/dead zone and the iPhone can't handle it. They also said they are working on fixing the reception problem in my neighborhood but gave no time frame for improvement. They gave me credit against my balance. It was good that the Level 2 support manager called me on my iPhone and of course neither of us could get through, so she had to call me back on my land line. She told me to contact the retention dept. about options I have re: my contract.

I called retention and they offered to give me a Nokia phone that supposedly best handles my kind of reception problem, and then I can just switch the SIM card in and out so that I have cell phone service in my home/office which is where I need it 90% of the time. A PITA, but a generous offer. I requested they overnight it and I should get it today. I've been given credit on my bill since I had no phone service for months. Overall, I think they've been extremely fair and they've been really wonderful and responsive to me. My iPhone is 4+ months old and I probably can't return it anyway, and don't really want to because I love it.

Hopefully the Nokia works here, I'll know soon. But my biggest hope is that AT&T does something soon to fix my neighborhood reception trouble. If you find yourself in my position, get a case going with AT&T and just keep asking and following up.

[midway22]

Might as well beat a dead horse:

I live right outside Washington DC and can literally stand at the end of my street and see the Washington Monument but some reason this "rural" area must be hard to provide coverage...

I have had the normal problem where I am in a fixed location all day with the iPhone in the dock not moving and it will oscilate from no service back to 4 bars or so. The lovely thing is it will sometimes drop to no service but only when I go to actually make a call and that always tends to be when it is something important like a conference call.

Drive 5-10 blocks away and powercycle the phone and it will sometimes wakeup. It does not matter if I am in my front yard or my office... same results. BTW within 50 miles of me is pretty much full service on the AT&T map.

My ordeal with apple + ATT = 12 calls!

Call:
1-3 was having them restart the phone, updates, returninging it.

4-6 more restarting of the phone, resetting network settings, replaced it second time, borrowed a Razr for a week and it had no problems in my house with the same SIMM as my iPhone.

7-10 supposedly pairing me with a stronger tower in my neighborhood? replacing the SIMM card, more restarting of the phone.

11+ said they updated the phone more and more resetting of the properties and replaced it a third time.

Moral of the story.. Apple wants your money and AT&T will gladly take the boost the iPhone gave to their customer numbers while investing nothing in their infrastructure which includes their gaps. Their tech support wants to bounce you to apple where they will bounce you back after restarting the phone or asking you to return it. Then you get someone back at apple who is confused where this falls into their script and the whole time you wish a heart attack would come your way and end it at all early... maybe not the end part but it needed some dramatic effect.

Working on data and voice networks for a living; I know algorithms are used to determine which cell is best choice for your location and for me it seems their selection is bouncing between two towers: one with no service and one that is fine. If I explain this, the other side of the phone goes dead and I wonder who the hell I am talking to if I am not talking to an "iPhone Specialist"? Pedro from the cleaning crew?

Hope this gets addressed or Steve Jobs comes down with Alzheimer's and is convinced to be a spokesman for Microsoft.

[mhanson]

Just recently purchased two 16gb iPhones, one for my wife and one for myself. We've been a customer of ATT/Cingular/ATT now for 14 years. NEVER had reception problems with any of our phones.

Now, my phone rarely gets more than one bar, while my wife's will be at four. I've called ATT, Applecare, etc. ATT replaced the SIM, Apple replaced the phone, but still only one bar.

I use my phone for business, so this is really hurting me. I have to go outside and walk down the street to get anything near a reasonable signal. Which is a problem if it's raining, noisy, etc. VERY frustrating.

Been looking at cell boosters for the house. Anybody tried one? Does it work? and if so, which one did you get?

Thanks!

MH

[nomercy]

turn on your ipod, make it mute.

Bar will keep all the way to 5.

Just don't know why, it work for me and some guys facing the same problem here in China.

[Shap]

I'm having the exact same problem. It goes from full signal to no service to one bar in minutes. I contacted ATT they said I am in the best signal area they have. I went to Apple and without question they gave me a new phone (the gal at apple said she had the same problem as well). Now I'm on my 3rd iPhone and yet again having the exact same problem, except this is even worse now. I can't get a good signal for anything now. Now I'm also getting a 'cant connect to edge network" pop up now. Guess its back to Apple again, but they need a fix for this ASAP. I've had my phone side by side with another iphone, it had full signal, I had none. Extremely frustrated.

[stockscalper]

Worst phone as far as reception goes that I've ever had. I was already a Cingular/AT&T customer before getting the iphone and got great reception. I hardly get two bars and the voice quality is garbled. Calls are constantly dropped. I've restored the phone, replaced the sim card and called Applecare who acts like I have a hole in my head for suggesting the iphone gets poor reception. I hate to waste $600 but I need a phone that works and this one is getting replaced by a non Apple phone.

[nobarblues]

To recap - I've had the iPhone for 9 months. I get good signal everywhere - except where I live, and I work from home. I'm in dark orange coverage but AT&T tells me I'm in a dead spot because I'm in between towers. It was pretty much "too bad - you're just unlucky" although they pretended to do a lot for me. A tech who came out said I'd probably have a great signal with 3G.

So, once I resolved 6 hours of being bricked with 2.0, and since I've been paying AT&T for 9 months but can't use the iPhone where I am most of the time - I ran right over to the ATT store to ask about the 3G.

The people in the ATT store gave me the following options: 1) get someone with a 3G iPhone to come to your house so you can test it, 2) buy a 3G, sign a contract, go home (5 min from store), test the signal and if you have none you can come right back and return it and pay a re-stocking fee.

I asked if they could make an exception to the re-stocking fee since I was one of the "unlucky" ones and I could come back immediately! Nope. They acted like I was crazy to even ask.

So I know others on this board are also the "unlucky" like me. Anyone get a 3G iPhone and resolve their home "no iPhone signal" problem?

Let me state again: I live in an ordinary house on an ordinary street with ordinary trees. Dark orange on the Edge Map. According to AT&T - close to towers and probably getting overlap. I tried 3 iPhones, 2 sim cards and lost count of hours to ATT tech support. I have 6,000 rollover minutes - 1/2 bar at most and no incoming or outgoing calls with my iPhone unless I run down the street.



I've had the phone for months and get no reception in my home/office where I need it 90% of the time. I was previously a Cingular customer and had no issues. I'm in the strongest possible coverage according to maps and ATT. This is the third phone and 2nd SIM card. I'm finally at Level 2 tech support and have probably spent at least 10 hours and counting, trying to get a resolution.

They think the problem is that I'm equidistant from 3 close towers. Crazy - my iPhone doesn't work because I'm in a great location. I think the iPhone was not tested for a large enough range of network variables.

ATT customer support has been great. They've given me $ credit because they see I barely make a call on the iPhone unless I'm staying elsewhere. If they can't come up with some fix I definitely want out of the contract with no cancellation fee. Apple support for iPhone problems is not only non-existent, its insulting. The last genius I talked to said: sorry - the iPhone is not guaranteed to work indoors. I feel kinda bad for them because they have no power to escalate or offer any help beyond comments like: do you have trees?

I'd like to keep the iPhone cause I love it, but don't really have time to get into the issues of unlocking, etc. I'm supposed to have another resolution callback within a few days. I think ATT is doing something because for 6 hours yesterday I had 3 bars - first time since I got the iPhone last fall. I had to re-connect my Verizon landline and long distance service and nobody will call me on my iPhone cause the reception sucks so bad...so I don't know how much better it was..but I had bars. They're gone now.

I haven't given up, but regret not returning the iPhone right away. I've always had such great support for all my Apple products that I just assumed there would be a firmware upgrade to resolve this problem. When I feel like just giving up and sucking it up - I think of $60+ contract for 24 months and that keeps me on it. This forum had the best info and I'll post my results.

[victor kelly]

I hope the new 3G phone has a better reception than the first version, I've had to revert back to my old tried and tested NOKIA this past 6 months because my iphone had now reception at work, The old Nokia has a steady 2 bars. I live in Northern Ireland so 3G should be good, however I'm wondering should I upgrade and be disappointed again.

[MarkW19]

I hope the new 3G phone has a better reception than the first version, I've had to revert back to my old tried and tested NOKIA this past 6 months because my iphone had now reception at work, The old Nokia has a steady 2 bars. I live in Northern Ireland so 3G should be good, however I'm wondering should I upgrade and be disappointed again.

The 3G definitely has better reception all round. My 1st gen often dropped O2 signal in my house, while the new one is constantly fine (0-1 bars, but it never drops, which is a big improvement).

Wi-Fi reception is also much better in certain parts of my house and garden - again, before I had 0-1 bars, and now, in exactly the same place, I consistently have 1-2 bars. Good job Apple.

[nobarblues]

To recap - I've had the iPhone for 9 months. I get good signal everywhere - except where I live, and I work from home. I'm in dark orange coverage but AT&T tells me I'm in a dead spot because I'm in between towers. It was pretty much "too bad - you're just unlucky" although they pretended to do a lot for me. A tech who came out said I'd probably have a great signal with 3G.

Anyone get a 3G iPhone and resolve their home "no iPhone signal" problem?



My son got the 3G iPhone and when I tried it in my home/office - same as Edge - 1 bar max. Some have said that bars don't necessarily matter but that's not been my experience. I'm pretty bummed out - was hoping the 3G iPhone would be the resolution I've been waiting for.

[Nehalem]

I'm a bit worried about my iPhone 3G's reception too.

In front of me here, I have both the iPhone 3G and the HTC S710 together on the desk. Both are on the same Telia network.

The iPhone shows 1 bar or No Service. The HTC shows 3 or 4 bars (of 5).
Occasionally the iPhone will show 3 bars for a while, then go back to No Service.

[weekend]

I have had my iPhone since February and I have 1-5 bars without moving an inch at home or away. The AT&T coverage map shows my house as having the next to the best coverage yet I have dropped calls and "no service" quite often. At work I have an AT&T cell about 100 feet above me in the hospital I work at and I have the least bars of everyone with an AT&T phone. IPHONE sucks. Sorry I'm a Mac guy but it's a phone first and it fails miserably as a phone. 2G fails too. Yeah I know, 2G is supposed to be slow but Geez not this slow. I understand that I am not alone and that the 3G isn't any better. They are selling a flawed product. I expect Mac stuff to work. Steve, you let us down. :mad:

[nobarblues]

Now on 11th month of paying ATT service for a 2G iPhone that is not a usable phone for my home/office. I'm supposedly in a great coverage area, but actually in a dead spot.

I hoped the 3G would work here. The AT&T store 5 minutes away would not allow me to bring a 3g iPhone to my house to try it. I would have to buy it, run home, and if it did not work run back and pay a re-stocking fee...which possibly, ATT would refund me. Knowing what that would take in terms of time and trouble I hate them even more.

So I waited till my son got his 3G. He brought it over - no different from my 2G. Like mine, walk around the corner and get 5 bars. I must have 10,000 minutes accrued because I rarely need a phone when I'm not where I live/work.

So business is slow and I can't afford to keep my Verizon landline any longer while my iPhone sits on my desk unused. I just read about this new booster and I'm thinking of trying it.

Cell Ranger PORT USB Cell Phone Signal Booster
http://www.amazon.com/Cell-Ranger-Phone-Signal-Booster/dp/B001ASV7RQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221406504&sr=8-1

I've Googled for reviews - there's not a lot of them out there but some say its a good product for iPhone. Who knows if that's true? But they do guarantee 30-day refund so I may give it a shot. 2 months of a Verizon bill pays for it.

Anyone try this or anything like it?



To recap - I've had the iPhone for 9 months. I get good signal everywhere - except where I live, and I work from home. I'm in dark orange coverage but AT&T tells me I'm in a dead spot because I'm in between towers. It was pretty much "too bad - you're just unlucky" although they pretended to do a lot for me. A tech who came out said I'd probably have a great signal with 3G.

So, once I resolved 6 hours of being bricked with 2.0, and since I've been paying AT&T for 9 months but can't use the iPhone where I am most of the time - I ran right over to the ATT store to ask about the 3G.

The people in the ATT store gave me the following options: 1) get someone with a 3G iPhone to come to your house so you can test it, 2) buy a 3G, sign a contract, go home (5 min from store), test the signal and if you have none you can come right back and return it and pay a re-stocking fee.

I asked if they could make an exception to the re-stocking fee since I was one of the "unlucky" ones and I could come back immediately! Nope. They acted like I was crazy to even ask.

So I know others on this board are also the "unlucky" like me. Anyone get a 3G iPhone and resolve their home "no iPhone signal" problem?

Let me state again: I live in an ordinary house on an ordinary street with ordinary trees. Dark orange on the Edge Map. According to AT&T - close to towers and probably getting overlap. I tried 3 iPhones, 2 sim cards and lost count of hours to ATT tech support. I have 6,000 rollover minutes - 1/2 bar at most and no incoming or outgoing calls with my iPhone unless I run down the street.