Ugh. 3G is getting worse.

[mcdj]

I had crappy 3G speeds the first week the phone came out. Chalked that up to network overload.

My 2nd phone had crappy speeds. Turned out to be a defective 3G radio (maybe).

My 3rd phone started off ok 2 weeks ago. But things are going further south on a daily basis.

I just restored a few days ago because the battery meter was showing 100% all the time. That's fixed, but in the past 3 days, the phone simply can not maintain a 3G connection. I get 5 bars, but zero data, or deathly slow data.

Sometimes an airplane mode toggle fixes it, sometimes toggling 3G fixes it, and the rest of the time, and increasingly often, I have to reboot the phone.

If the phone has been on wifi in my apt and I go outside, gotta toggle or reboot to get 3G...even with 5 bars. If the phone has been in my pocket for a 30 min or more and I take it out to use Safari, gotta toggle 3G or reboot. If I go into a building with poor reception and my bars drop, upon leaving the building I have to toggle 3G or reboot to get a data connection.

I could understand if the signal were bad, but almost every time I toggle 3G or reboot and re-connect, I get nice fast speeds right away. This has been happening like clockwork for 3 days. I don't see how AT&T can be blamed in this case.

I'm seriously considering ditching the phone altogether and hunting down a 1st gen with 1.1.4 installed. God forbid Apple would give us a date for 2.1. But if it turns out to be Sept. 30th, my phone will most likely have been sold/traded/tossed in the East River by then.

 

[chicken13noodle]

stick it to the man

 

[mcdj]

stick it to the man

this man?

 

[seedster2]

I commend you for exhausting all efforts until this supposed "fix all" update that everyone is holding out for.

I walked from the upper east side down to bowery yesterday and had mixed results with 3G as well.

My phone gets great reception outside of the city. meanwhile I have friends with 3G capable phones that perform well despite this all being At&T's fault.

Personally, I feel there is no user interface good enough to have to tolerate what you have gone through.

 

[deannnnn]

I say it every day... it's all about location.

 

[179202]

From an outsiders POV, seeing and reading all of the reports (not literally) about these problems, I would hold onto the phone.
Apple, though they sometimes don't admit it, do make mistakes/problems, and when they do, they fix them.
It seems that AT&T don't admit to mistakes, and don't fix problems when they have one.
I'd complain about the provider, not the phone.

Though, the sucky thing in all this is that Apple effectively shot themselves in the foot by locking the iPhone to one provider. AT&T would have learnt by now if all their iPhone users were jumping to other networks, but alas, they're content to have users complain and give the answer 'well, what other network will you get an iPhone on?'

I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say that I can't wait for all of these exclusivity deals to end.

 

[random person]

This thread is helping me to continue to resist buying the 3G! I still want to buy one even though I own a perfectly flawless (OK, there's a slight dent in the back) original iPhone that works like a champ even with 2.0.2 installed. I feel bereft, not having the new phone. But then I read these posts and I find the strength to stand firm and wait until things really get stable.

 

[mcdj]

I'd complain about the provider, not the phone.

Normally I would go after the provider, but as mentioned above, I'm getting 5 bar signal strength (unless the bars are totally inaccurate), and terrific speeds (1.2-1.5mps in a typical speed test) when I actually do connect.

And I failed to mention above that if I keep surfing consistently, the connection is almost always good. It's only when I put the phone away, switch to wifi, or lose a connection in an elevator that 3G becomes unresponsive. This says to me that there's a hardware issue. It's as if the 3G chip goes to sleep when inactive and needs a restart to come back on.

 

[stix666]

I'm seriously considering ditching the phone altogether and hunting down a 1st gen with 1.1.4 installed. God forbid Apple would give us a date for 2.1. But if it turns out to be Sept. 30th, my phone will most likely have been sold/traded/tossed in the East River by then.

Eh? The 1st gen phone doesn't have 3g. If you want a 3g phone that works and believe the iPhone 3g doesn't, get another brand surely. If you want an iPhone, stick with your iPhone 3g but keep the 3g turned off. Surely cheaper and more convenient?

BTW I am not that impressed with the 3g capability either (living in UK). Before my old number ported over, I had two functioning mobiles, the iPhone 3g with a temp number, and a Nokia N73. I carried both around - the Nokia would have 3g coverage in areas the iPhone didn't. Overall, I don't care that much though as 3g is a drain on the battery and I normally have it turned off, relying on Wifi and EDGE instead. The iPhone beats the Nokia on so many levels for me that the poorer 3g (and bluetooth and camera) capability isn't a bother

 

[cellocello]

I did a full restore of my phone (totally fresh 2.0.2 install) ... and I gotta say, my phone is way worse now.

I didn't get ALL the problems people were listing before (****** 3G speeds, dropped calls, call failed, etc.), but now I am!!

It sucks man ... I hope this **** gets fixed soon

(love affair with iphone basically over)

 

[Megalobyte]

My 3G speed has gotten noticably worse in the past 2 weeks or so.

I believe its a bandwidth issue. I'm getting pretty good reception, but the actual download speeds are very erratic and far slower than they were just 2 or 3 weeks back, something has gotten worse, and it sure seems like the network is overloaded lately.

I'm in S Florida by the way, and I used to average about 1.2-1.5 Mbps, now its more like 300-400K. Big difference. I guess I was spoiled by and used to those DSL lite speeds, now through much/most of the day, I'm just a hair better than Edge, not happy.

 

[cenetti]

I'll give it couple more months, if it doesn't get any better, I'll sell it on Ebay and go back to my 1st Gen. I upgraded 3G only for internet radio. For websites and mail EDGE is more than enough.

I'll re activate my XM and use 1st gen phone like I used to.

I am sick and tired of losing connection randomly for no reason. At least couple of reboots everyday just so it can restore connection...what a joke!

 

[maxxscholten]

zomg we see these threads lyke alllll da tymeee

omgggg

 

[pj rage]

Same exact problem here, only this morning, even rebooting the phone wouldn't work and edge wouldn't load data either! Full bars on 3g, full bars on edge, voice works, but no data of any kind worked. Email, safari, etc. My friend sitting next to me with his iphone 3g had the exact same problem. I guess it was AT&T's fault this time? It sucks because I never had a single problem of any kind with data until the 2.0.2 update. Since then, it's been hit or miss whether or not my phone will connect to get any data. Probably because I'm in a high data-traffic area (DC metro area), and my phone liked the extra power from the towers.

 

[Mobile923]

Same exact problem here, only this morning, even rebooting the phone wouldn't work and edge wouldn't load data either! Full bars on 3g, full bars on edge, voice works, but no data of any kind worked. Email, safari, etc. My friend sitting next to me with his iphone 3g had the exact same problem. I guess it was AT&T's fault this time? It sucks because I never had a single problem of any kind with data until the 2.0.2 update. Since then, it's been hit or miss whether or not my phone will connect to get any data. Probably because I'm in a high data-traffic area (DC metro area), and my phone liked the extra power from the towers.

you too? im in the NYC area and this blows the cat

 

[iCantwait]

I had crappy 3G speeds the first week the phone came out. Chalked that up to network overload.......

arn't you the smart ass that has a dig at anyone for posting useless threads?