Real life TEST Antenna issue NOT US only, depending on operator or solved by 4.0.1

I thought I would give you an update from Belgium. Am staying in a weak signal area. I have three networks to choose from because I am roaming: BASE, Mobistar and Bel Proximus.

Just did a real life test for anyone who is interested. Me sitting in the same place at my desk. Before and after I updated my iPhone 4 to 4.0.1.

It shows the problem is:

NOT localized in the US
NOT depending on operator (all operators drop calls)
NOT solved by updating to 4.0.1

My experience:

iOS 4.0

Initially the phone chooses Base and shows 2 bars

I connect the two antennas with my thumb and the phone goes to "searching"

After a minute it moves to Mobistar and shows 2 bars while I am still gripping it

When I release the phone and put it on my desk it shows 4 bars

With grip back to 2 bars.

(To me this shows that the Phone was choosing the weaker tower to begin with and did not switch correctly before dropping signal.)

After update:

iOS 4.0.1

Initially the phone chooses Base and shows 1 bar

I connect the two antennas with my thumb and the phone goes to "searching"

After a minute it moves to Mobistar and shows 2 bars while I am still gripping it

When I release the phone and put it on my desk it shows 3 bars

With grip back to 2 bars.

Bel Proximus is never chosen.

But when I select it manually from the carrier list the phone connects to the network and shows 1 bar while it sits on the desk. Even while gripping the phone that bar will not drop.

But releasing it after the grip suddenly the phone shows 4 bars!!!!

Gripping it again I go to 2 bars.

So the phone chooses the weakest network. Maybe because O2 UK has a contract with BASE and it is a setting in the phone to prefer BASE.

Curious what APPLE is going to say tomorrow. Software did not solve the issue.

I know Apple never said that 4.0.1 would solve it, but don't tell me many people here were not hoping there would be a tweak under the hood. I just shared the experience to dispel any doubts.

Also many of you guys from the US think this is a US problem or an ATT problem. I thought this would clear up the misunderstanding.

Because I have access to 3 networks here I was able to test how 3 different networks interacted with the phone. After quite a bit of reading here I never found a report like this. So I contributed.

In London I have no issues at all. Here I have to watch out how I hold the phone when browsing.

Before I did not understand how this could interfere so much with peoples lives for them to become angry over it. Now I understand. This is ridiculous.

I have had the phone for over two weeks now with O2 in the UK. I hope I can have it either repaired or exchanged.