Bad signal/dropped calls...

[hellodon]

I get really bad reception in my house with my iPhone. If I'm on the phone, I guess I sound like a robot to others except when I'm in a couple areas and keeping the phone completely still. I've talked to my girlfriend who also has an iPhone when she is home and I am out and the same thing happens so I've ruled out the possibility of it being my particular phone. The calls drop pretty often too.

We both switched from T-Mobile back in June when we got iPhones. When I had T-Mobile (for 5 years) I NEVER had dropped calls and had a full signal in my house. I don't understand that....AT&T calls themselves "The Network With The Fewest Dropped Calls" and I literally experience dropped calls daily if I'm making calls from home. Sometimes it takes me 4-5 times trying to dial a number before it rings. I get the "Call Failed" error regularly.

Is the AT&T service just this bad? Is it the antenna's in the iPhones? Is there ANY solution? Considering these are our only phones (no landline) and we spend most of our time at home, it's pretty awful to have this problem there. It's difficult for me to put any blame on the house or the walls which could interfere with signal strength because as I said, full reception from T-Mobile (who apparently is a smaller company with less towers). I don't know what to do. I obviously don't want to lose the iPhone but at the same time, we pay a lot of money to go through AT&T, a lot more than T-Mobile and we're getting bad service. I am going to give them a ring, but I just figured I'd ask around first since I'm sure most people here know more than AT&T reps.

EDIT: Sorry, meant to put this in troubleshooting...

 

[hockeysc23]

While Cingular has good coverage some places it is obviously not ideal everywhere. It seems your house has poor coverage. Have you checked cingulars coverage map to see if they have a tower or something near by your house?

I had cingular back in college and in one town there was just no coverage. You should always check the coverage map before signing into a contract for a cellphone.

 

[macreator]

An expensive option, but worth it if you really want to keep using your iPhone, is to pay the $175 penalty to cancel your AT&T contract, and then unlock your iPhone and get a plan on T-Mobile. It's pricey, and kind of a pain, but if T-Mobile worked well for you in the past, and you love your iPhone, I'd do it.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Definitely check the AT&T Coverage Map...

since I've experienced the same situation with Sprint & Cingular (now AT&T) for the past 14 years, I know it's not the phones or the carriers, but the fact that I live in a valley where my house is right next to the water and the cell phone tower is probably 4-5 miles from my house and I'm in the area that receives on average 2-4 bars. I have to utilize my BT and keep my iPhone in the same spot in the house, that way when it rings, I can answer it with my BT and not drop the call or have a poor connection. I've just learned to adapt and adjust, I've heard my neighbors going out and spending a couple hundred dollars on signal boosters, but I've not made the leap. The AT&T Coverage map also shows 3G in my area and it misses my street by 4 blocks, and everything else is SOLID BLUE!

 

[Aries326]

Sorry to hear that you have poor coverage. I used to be with T-Mobile and when I switched to AT&T for the iPhone, I actually got better signal and reception.

I think you can get out of your contract without penalty. However, if they are anything like T-Mobile, they only give you 30 days to try the phone for 30 days and test if the signal is acceptable.