O2 having reception problems with the iphone

[iphoneexpert]

I just read a story(http://digg.com/apple/British_iPhone_Users_Complain_Of_Serious_Reception_Problems_2) about O2 having reception problems with the iphone.

Is anyone here on O2 and how happy are you with the reception.

By the way does O2 use a combination of edge and 3g or is it all edge?

[redgaz26]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48a Safari/419.3)

Outdoors the reception is fine but indoors its terrible. Usually in my house I have one bar or no service. But when it sits on the cradle it goes to five bars. The thing is it doesn't matter if the cradles connected to the cable. It still boosts the signal no matter what.

There no 3g at all with the phone but edge is quicker than I expected so no complaints.

[Tymmz]

I'm happy with the reception.

But more EDGE would be great.

[MacsAttack]

May be worth checking out the location of O2 masts in your area...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=392273

[zign]

I am getting much better reception at work with O2, than I ever did with Orange. No one could ever hear what I was saying. (that was on 4 different handsets). O2 reception has been great. More Edge would be nice...

[tico24]

I have been with o2 for years now.
I'm sad to say that my old (RUBBISH) Nokia always had full reception at home. My iPhone is lucky to get 2 bars.
It pains me to say, but I think the problem has a lot to do with the hardware rather than the network.

[jimN]

Very happy with it and EDGE has surprised everyone. Admittedly the EDGE service failed on Friday evening - I bumped into a guy at the bus stop with one and he was having the same problem. In fact I spotted two over the weekend - am no longer feeling quite so special. :(

Edit: Just spotted my typo in the title line, shall pass it off as a poor pun!

[alFR]

No problems with mine so far, although as noted by other posters more EDGE would be nice!

[CD3660]

No problems with mine so far, although as noted by other posters more EDGE would be nice!
I'm still assessing my reception but it seems pretty good so far. Of course, you will always have variations between different networks depending on where you are at a particular moment so if you have switched from a different network it is important to factor this into the equation.

[sparkyms]

Signal is great! Posting this from a train with full signal and EDGE coverage right now :)

More edge in Southampton where I live would be great tho signal is fine and GPRS is way better with a competent device such as this

[sneeks]

No real issues with signal strength. Once or twice the phone has dropped in signal in an area where I would not have expected it to but generally I'm happy.

[marcol]

I had this exact problem. I posted a few comments here:

http://forum.phonedifferent.com/showthread.php?t=156302

The relevant bit is:

There's no way to say this other than, under some signal conditions, the iPhone performance as a phone is simply unacceptable. Downstairs in my house the signal strength meter flickered between one bar and a 'No service' message. It dropped calls and often failed to send or receive text messages. I found this odd because I'd tested the strength of the O2 signal in my house using a friends phone and it had been fine. I invited her over and we compared how her phone (a Siemens something-or-other) and my iPhone performed. The Siemens was fine - two or three bars on the signal meter, no problems dropping calls, sending texts etc - while the iPhone (which was right next to it) did its one-bar/No service thing. I swapped the first iPhone for a second, but the replacement behaved in exactly the same way.

I don't quite know what is going on but made two other observations that might be relevant:

1) Both iPhones could always see Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange signals in my house. They couldn't connect of course because they're locked to O2 so I couldn't check the signal strength, but the fact that signal was always received might indicate that it was just 02 reception that was compromised.

2) Both iPhones displayed a reasonable O2 signal (two or three bars on the meter) and could make and receive calls, send and receive text messages just fine when attached to an external power supply (computer or the mains).

To try to work out what is going on I had a look at this web site:

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk

which shows the mobile phone base stations in the UK. It shows that in my area Vodafone has a mixture of 1800 and 900 MHz transmitters, Orange and T-Mobile have only 1800 MHz transmitters and O2 has only 900 MHz transmitters. It's obviously impossible to draw a conclusion from this scant information but a working hypothesis could be that the iPhone performs poorly in receiving in the 900 MHz band unless connected to an external power supply, i.e. there might be power management issues related to 900 MHz reception.

Obviously my guess about the requirement for external power is a bit off if signal improves with any dock/cable whether connected to the power or not (I didn't test it unpowered). The guess about the problem being specific for 900 MHz still seems reasonable though. It might be possible to work out if the correlation holds if a few people in this thread (both with and without the problem) were to check the frequency of their local transmitters.

[ne0star]

Signal strength is no better or worse than my N95 in the common locations I use my phone. It is however a lot quicker at re-establishing a connection if lost in comparison to the N95.

[emotion]

I'm happy with the reception.

But more EDGE would be great.

Ditto.

I've seen more EDGE being turned on in the last week but O2 should earn my 35 quid a week imo.

[Devil's Refugee]

Signal strength isn't an issue for me, but I've had dropped calls where normally it wouldn't occur with my old Vodafone service. Bad reception (yet still showing full signal !), broken conversations, usually when inbetween 2 buildings.

[thworple]

Signal hasn't been that different from my old Vodafone phone - although at home I only get 1-2 bars downstairs, yet full reception upstairs which is a bit odd.

But I have found that reception has been good in areas I never used to signal in with Vodafone, so I guess its six of one, half a dozen of the other to be honest.

I did have a problem with all my internet/mail last Friday - in EDGE area at work, and home, yet couldn't connect at all - couple of hours later it was fine.

[sneeks]

The EDGE/GPRS problem last Friday evening was a nationwide O2 issue.

[Tymmz]

Ditto.

I've seen more EDGE being turned on in the last week but O2 should earn my 35 quid a week imo.

Same here. I've seen more E's popping up in the last week too.

[MarkW19]

The reception on my O2 iPhone indoors is a lot worse than my old Nokia phone, and my old iMate Jam. I frequently get "No Service" in my house. Outdoors, it's very good.

Also, as others have noted, the signal does significantly increase when the iPhone is placed in its dock.

[CD3660]

The reception on my O2 iPhone indoors is a lot worse than my old Nokia phone, and my old iMate Jam. I frequently get "No Service" in my house. Outdoors, it's very good.

Were those other phones on O2 as well?

.
Also, as others have noted, the signal does significantly increase when the iPhone is placed in its dock.
Makes absolutely no difference on mine.

[MarkW19]

Were those other phones on O2 as well?

Yeah, I've been on O2 for about 5 years with all my phones.

[thworple]

The EDGE/GPRS problem last Friday evening was a nationwide O2 issue.

That's a bit worrying - hope thats an isolated incident!

[CD3660]

Yeah, I've been on O2 for about 5 years with all my phones.
Unhappily then, that does tend to support the theory that the iPhone has signal issues. :(

[MarkW19]

Unhappily then, that does tend to support the theory that the iPhone has signal issues. :(

Yeah, it is a bit annoying! This is my 3rd iPhone too - I had a US one from eBay a couple of months ago, and my first UK one had dead pixels (well, so does this one, but I've given up :p), and they were all identical signal-wise. I just tested my iPhone O2 SIM in my iMate too, and I constantly got 1-2/5 bars over an hour period, not dropping once. In my iPhone, I get "No Service" every few minutes. Grr, oh well, it does just seem to be indoors, in places where the signal isn't 100% anyway.

[SpookTheHamster]

I don't know if it's different with the UK version but I have an unlocked US iPhone and I get amazing signal. The only other phone I've had that can get a signal in my parent's house on o2 is a K750i; my D900, N95 and RAZR all couldn't get a signal.

I'm also the only person in my house that can get a signal downstairs at the front of the house.

[studentmac]

I get pretty good signal where I am,

However, of about 10 messages I send a day, usually 2-3 of them wont be received! It doesn't happen all the time, but is bloody annoying when it does. When you get such a low amount of inclusive texts you want every single one of them to them be sent.

[eenu]

I have been with o2 for years now.
I'm sad to say that my old (RUBBISH) Nokia always had full reception at home. My iPhone is lucky to get 2 bars.
It pains me to say, but I think the problem has a lot to do with the hardware rather than the network.

Same here sony ericson on O2 with full bars the iphone drops one or two. Definitely hardware not the network.

[alFR]

Not saying that some people aren't having genuine issues, but why is everyone obsessing about the number of bars they see on their signal strength meter? How do you know that 3 bars on your iPhone means the same signal strength as 3 bars on a.n.other phone? Isn't how/whether it works when you actually make a call more important?

[eenu]

Not saying that some people aren't having genuine issues, but why is everyone obsessing about the number of bars they see on their signal strength meter? How do you know that 3 bars on your iPhone means the same signal strength as 3 bars on a.n.other phone? Isn't how/whether it works when you actually make a call more important?

When i have two phones right next to another one on the same network and one has two less bars does it bother me? Hell yes it does.

When i am in my lab and i normally get 2 bars on the sony ericson on O2 and am able to make and recieve calls and then the iphone doesn't have any reception now do you see the issue.... the iphone hardware is clearly not as good as the Sony E one at maintaining/receiving the signal.

[alFR]

When i am in my lab and i normally get 2 bars on the sony ericson on O2 and am able to make and recieve calls and then the iphone doesn't have any reception now do you see the issue....

I'd have thought that working in a lab you could see the point that the different signal meters might be calibrated differently. I don't know whether that is the case or not, I'm just speculating.

You are clearly having an issue with function, which isn't the same as just seeing less bars than on another phone but still getting proper function. I wonder how many other people are seeing a genuine loss of function though.

[eenu]

I'd have thought that working in a lab you could see the point that the different signal meters might be calibrated differently. I don't know whether that is the case or not, I'm just speculating.

You are clearly having an issue with function, which isn't the same as just seeing less bars than on another phone but still getting proper function. I wonder how many other people are seeing a genuine loss of function though.

Read properly! My statement clearly shows they are pretty much calibrated the same

[alFR]

Read properly! My statement clearly shows they are pretty much calibrated the same

Read properly! I'm not saying that they're not!

[marcol]

I wonder how many other people are seeing a genuine loss of function though.
I did (see my post on p1 of this thread). People here too:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1233355&tstart=0

[sparkyms]

accordng to Engadget apple are just swapping them out if you have a problem.

[Hudzilla]

I get good reception outdoors most of the time.

But indoors the reception is terrible. Has anyone swapped theirs because of a reception issue? If so let me know as I will have to take a trip to o2 if they have!!!

[nikao]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48a Safari/419.3)

Outdoors the reception is fine but indoors its terrible. Usually in my house I have one bar or no service. But when it sits on the cradle it goes to five bars. The thing is it doesn't matter if the cradles connected to the cable. It still boosts the signal no matter what.

There no 3g at all with the phone but edge is quicker than I expected so no complaints.

I have exactly the same issue no signal then put it in its cradle and 4 bars love the phone but the reception is crap

[iNeko]

I have an iPhone bought in december and it's perfect. The town I live in has full EDGE connectivity and only a couple of times it has gone to GPRS.

I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones :o