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AT&T... Less bars in less places

flyingscott

flyingscott

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 2, 2007
189
1
Michigan
I just got one of the iPhones I ordered, love it, not gripes about the phone itself... the problem is with AT&T. I had been a long time Verizon customer and had great coverage. On my way home yesterday, I hit several dead areas and at best had 3 bars.

Here is the coverage map of my "stomping grounds" (keep in mind, I don't much travel above I-69)

ATT.png


I don't get 3G where they claim I would and the edge service is spotty.

My question... is there something that needs tweaking on my phone?
 
First off, I'm so sorry that you live there. :)


Secondly, I have the same issue here in Texas. The coverage for 3G isn't quite what it's cracked up to be. I also notice that sometimes my old iPhone, that my wife uses now, gets more bars than my new one even when it's just Edge for both of us.


flyingscott said:
I just got one of the iPhones I ordered, love it, not gripes about the phone itself... the problem is with AT&T. I had been a long time Verizon customer and had great coverage. On my way home yesterday, I hit several dead areas and at best had 3 bars.

Here is the coverage map of my "stomping grounds" (keep in mind, I don't much travel above I-69)

ATT.png


I don't get 3G where they claim I would, the the extended service is spotty.

My question... is there something that needs tweaking on my phone?
Click to expand...
 
I don't think it's the network, I think it's the phone.

My girlfriend has a (not iPhone) 3G phone. When driving around and being in my area with them side by side, the iPhone loses bars, where her 3G phone still gets full bars. I have excellent 3G service here, and it only went to EDGE once (in the building where I work which is bad for all cell carriers).

AT&T may tweak their network to work better with (what seems like to me) the crappy antenna in the iPhone.
 
There is a rumor that 2.01 has a fix for the antenna bars indicator. Supposedly, the reception isn't worse (yeah right), but the bars aren't very accurate.

I don't agree with this, but it's the rumor.

My new iPHone doesn't get the reception my old one did. I can compare side by side, and to rule out just software regarding the antenna bars, I sometimes get "no service" on my new phone in my house where on my old phone it will still get a couple of bars.
 
flyingscott said:
Yeah, I agree... that is why I was wondering if I call AT&T, can they change some setting in the internals of the phone that may it's reception.
Click to expand...
Nope. It's a network wide thing. It's not a switch they can turn on and off. They may if this continues with more people, they can boost the signal which may help. There is only so much a network can do, there is a point the phone has to do the work.
 
No bars for me inside my house when Verizon had at least 2. I have to go outside just to stay on a call sometimes. I love the phone but I really am not liking the service that AT&T provides. Maybe it is the antenna but I love the phone so much that I will blame the coverage first.
 
I guess I was naive to think that Apple and AT&T would have made every effort to have such a high profile device perform as well (if not better) than any other phone on their network... I guess I was just that, naive...

I will call to complain later :(
 
Less bars in less places would insinuate that you are precisely that. So, what are you trying to convey here? To me it sounds like you have reception problems. That should be "Less bars in MORE places". Less in Less = More than previously.
 
Mindflux said:
Less bars in less places would insinuate that you are precisely that. So, what are you trying to convey here? To me it sounds like you have reception problems. That should be "Less bars in MORE places". Less in Less = More than previously.
Click to expand...

You are correct... I should have stated Less in More.

Less in less is much more desirable. :)
 
flyingscott said:
I just got one of the iPhones I ordered, love it, not gripes about the phone itself... the problem is with AT&T. I had been a long time Verizon customer and had great coverage. On my way home yesterday, I hit several dead areas and at best had 3 bars.
Click to expand...

I am also a former Verizon customer and knew I was in trouble when my first two calls on the iPhone got dropped by AT&T. I'm in Chicago and they are clearly an inferior network to Verizon. Yet they keep putting out those stupid commercials saying "more bars in more places". Where, exactly?
 
rdstoll said:
I am also a former Verizon customer and knew I was in trouble when my first two calls on the iPhone got dropped by AT&T. I'm in Chicago and they are clearly an inferior network to Verizon. Yet they keep putting out those stupid commercials saying "more bars in more places". Where, exactly?
Click to expand...
You're making the assumption that every cellphone is exactly the same. They're not. If your phone can't keep a good signal, the best network in the world won't work.

If you have a Yugo on on a highway, you still can't go 120 mph.
 
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