iPhone 3G Connectivity Affecting 2% of Customers? Software Fix Soon?

[MacRumors]

One MacRumors reader claims to have received a response from Steve Jobs after emailing in a complaint about the current iPhone 3G connectivity issues that have been widely reported.

According to the email response which is addressed from Steve Jobs, the 3G connectivity issue affects 2% of iPhones shipped and is fixable through a software update. The email response was as follows:

We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon.

Steve

Steve Jobs (or someone acting on his behalf) has been known to provide brief responses to select emails addressed to him. These responses have also occasionally revealed information that had not previously been known.

The existance of a software update to address the issue had been previously reported by BusinessWeek sources. If the 2% figure is accurate, the issue could be affecting over 60,000 users based on analyst sales estimates for the iPhone 3G.

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[Full of Win]

Believe it when I sere it

[nickspohn]

I'm one of them, and i'm patiently waiting for the fix.

It's almost like there is too much 3G in my city. I go somewhere where 3G isn't as spread out and my signal is a full 5 bars, yet in my house i have never seen 5 bars of 3G.


And my city was one of the first to have 3G, next to chicago.

[Wes1731]

I wonder if this 2% of affected iPhone users is similar to the 1% of affected Mobile Me users (which seemed to be a lot more than 1%).

[Woz Beard]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Ha!

I've been through 7 phones for other defective reasons, yet all 7 had the same 3G issue? I'm unlucky, but I can't be THAT unlucky.

2%? Think again, Stevie.

[infernohellion]

Oh great. So me and 4 of my friends are in that 2%!

Seems like Melbourne has got all those affected people.

[a1016neo]

Originally Posted by Woz Beard

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Ha!

I've been through 7 phones for other defective reasons, yet all 7 had the same 3G issue? I'm unlucky, but I can't be THAT unlucky.

2%? Think again, Stevie.

Well it could be AT&T...

----------------------------------------

2% sounds right.... This would not include any problems on AT&T side....

[MarkW]

Originally Posted by a1016neo

Well it could be AT&T...

----------------------------------------

2% sounds right.... This would not include any problems on AT&T side....

It is certainly not AT&T.
A lot of people seem to forget the world doesn't end at the borders of the US and people worldwide are experiencing this issue.

I'm in the UK and while I'm not having any problems, I have a couple friends who are.

[ginner]

I'm mystified by suggestions of a design or hardware fault effecting calls and connectivity using 3G. No sign of any problems and very good voice call reliability here in the UK. Having owned a 3G mobile (3 network) previously, the iPhone is infinitely better in terms of signal availabilty and user experience!

[Juo100]

Im in the UK and someone at work has this exact issue, mine (luckily) doesn’t seem affected however I think the 2% figure is a blatant lie, shame on you Steve'o

[vandozza]

if it's a hardware problem, then how is software going to fix the issue?

if it was faulty software in the beginning, you would expect all iphones to be equally affected?

i can't fathom how a software "tweak" is going to fix things properly. isn't bad hardware just that. i worry that this fix might be more of a "baid-aid" for the supposed 2% that are having problems. (and I agree that this figure is too low. from what i see it's more like 40% at a guess!)

my iphone went back. i don't want a half-fix.

[phannon666]

Originally Posted by ginner

I'm mystified by suggestions of a design or hardware fault effecting calls and connectivity using 3G. No sign of any problems and very good voice call reliability here in the UK. Having owned a 3G mobile (3 network) previously, the iPhone is infinitely better in terms of signal availabilty and user experience!

+1 No problems here either, 3G has been noticeably better than my old 3G phone on Orange. However I would definitely question 2%, I'd say it's between 5 and 10.

[G4DP]

Are things really that bad at the moment that a possible rumour of a possible response from possibly Steve Job's is the best story?

Very sad indeed.

[vandozza]

Originally Posted by ginner

I'm mystified by suggestions of a design or hardware fault effecting calls and connectivity using 3G. No sign of any problems and very good voice call reliability here in the UK. Having owned a 3G mobile (3 network) previously, the iPhone is infinitely better in terms of signal availabilty and user experience!

obviously you aren't one of the "2%" then... what's there to be mystified about?

[nagromme]

2% is a lot! Good thing they have EDGE to fall back on. Some people may not even realize they've reverted to EDGE.

[Saladinos]

I don't get any dropped calls (O2), but I do get annoying 302 network errors pretty much all the time on 3G. I have to switch back to EDGE to get any pages loading.

I doubt it's poor signal, as I'm right in central london (2 mins walk from Tottenham Court Road), and I'm line-of-sight with the BT tower.

[Juo100]

Originally Posted by Saladinos

I don't get any dropped calls (O2), but I do get annoying 302 network errors pretty much all the time on 3G. I have to switch back to EDGE to get any pages loading.

I doubt it's poor signal, as I'm right in central london (2 mins walk from Tottenham Court Road), and I'm line-of-sight with the BT tower.

I get this all the time as well in Central London, to fix it I stick the phone in airport mode then come out.

[Loge]

Originally Posted by vandozza

if it's a hardware problem, then how is software going to fix the issue?

Well it might be an NVidia-style software fix.

However, I hope they can at least tweak the thresholds so it doesn't wait until the 3G signal is completely gone before dropping to Edge, so that a call has a chance of not dropping where the 3G coverage is patchy.

[Full of Win]

Originally Posted by Woz Beard

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5B108 Safari/525.20)

Ha!

I've been through 7 phones for other defective reasons, yet all 7 had the same 3G issue? I'm unlucky, but I can't be THAT unlucky.

2%? Think again, Stevie.

.01^7 wow, you are so so lucky

[rageboi]

Originally Posted by Juo100

I get this all the time as well in Central London, to fix it I stick the phone in airport mode then come out.

Ditto... I have the exact same problems in Central London. o2 blame apple, apple blame o2. FUN!

I am not sure who to blame, I have had the phone replaced and the same thing happens. I am leaning towards blaming o2 because it happens in the same areas all the time. i.e. the same cell site.

:-(

[vandozza]

Originally Posted by rageboi

I am leaning towards blaming o2 because it happens in the same areas all the time.

why blame O2 when this seems to be happening all around the world?

[el3ktro]

I'm definitely affected. According to the T-Mobile website Cologne, Germany has almost 100% UMTS coverage, still in all places where I tested the iPhone only has a 1-2 bars UMTS connectivity, while my old Nokia always has full connectivity at the same places. I had hoped for a hardware replacement though ...

[exabytes18]

Steve Jobs sent me an email also. He said that you guys are too gullible.

[n8236]

If it is truly "2%," Steve wouldn't even bother with this. It's obviously much higher than that. I would guess 2-5% of those who buy iPhones probably just complain/bitch/live in the boonies anyways. So the real % is obviously much higher since Steve himself had to address this.

[javaGuru]

I have not had any problems with the reception on my iPhone 3G. But, I have noticed the 3G connection on my AT&T Tilt constantly coming and going. One minute it will be on 3G and then next it's on Edge. This started happening shortly after the launch of the new iPhone. I wonder if all of the new AT&T users are putting a strain on their 3G network.

Also, if this is indeed a software fix. Then why wouldn't it be affecting more than 2%? We all have the same software. I can understand if a small percentage of the phones were made with defective parts.