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Dropped calls several times a day?

P

plut0

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 23, 2009
7
0
Hi, I just switched from Sprint just for the iPhone 3g 2 weeks ago. I love the phone, its the best phone I've owned. I'm in Long Beach CA and I constantly get dropped calls like 4-5 times a day, the calls are sometimes garbled and sounds like I'm hearing wind. Is this normal for an iPhone?

With Sprint the calls are clear and calls are rarely dropped but their phone selection SUCKS!! I took my iPhone to the Apple store and the guy behind the counter gave me another iPhone but its still doing the same thing.
 
Yeah I have the same issue up here in LA. I can't drive 10 minutes without 2 dropped calls. I think in CA especially AT&T's got some issues. Not sure if the iPhone has anything to do with it.

It was never this bad on the first iPhone though. Might be a 3G issue or an iPhone/3G issue.

We'll see if anything changes with the next Gen iPhone.
 
No dropped calls here

I don't have any dropped calls in San Diego. Only suggestion is to make sure you power the iPhone off and on each day. Any issues I have had have been solved by a power cycle (fully turning it off by holding the top button and then swiping to turn it fully off).
 
Not a single dropped call here in Sacramento; in fact, the last dropped call I had was when I was going through the mountains between Sacramento and S. Lake Tahoe. But I expect that there from going into the mountains. Other than that, not a single dropped call.

BL.
 
If you live on the edge of a 3G network or an area with poor coverage, your calls are being dropped because the phone is switching to the 2G band and can't carry the call over.
 
Yeah it's not the iPhone, it's AT&T.
You'll notice that if you travel to different parts of the US, sometimes just a few miles away from where you currently are, you'll see AT&T's coverage varies anywhere from incredibly amazing to the worst cell provider in the world. It's all about location.

Nothing we can do about it but complain and hope that AT&T does something to fix it in the future. =/
 
Domanic said:
If you live on the edge of a 3G network or an area with poor coverage, your calls are being dropped because the phone is switching to the 2G band and can't carry the call over.
Click to expand...
If this is true, then the iPhone itself is at least partially to blame.
 
Thanks for the replies. My gf is already getting annoyed on all the dropped calls. She has Verizon and has the POS Lg Dare. She asked me to join Verizon and to consider getting the Storm, I said HELL NO that thing is a pile of crap. I'm returning the iPhone and I'll wait for the new iPhone and hopefully it'll be better on making and receiving calls.
 
I had the same issue

Hi, I had exactly the same issue with a replacement iPhone. I had poor signal in places, were my previouse fine had good signal. I went into the apple they can run diagnostic and see how many dropped calls/modem resets, the phone has had. I got mine replaced......
 
It is very likely the band issue. If you are in an area where it really bugs you, turn off 3G.

I still think that because of this issue, there needs to be a one button app to turn 3G on/off.
 
plut0 said:
I constantly get dropped calls like 4-5 times a day, the calls are sometimes garbled and sounds like I'm hearing wind. Is this normal for an iPhone?
Click to expand...

Complain about this to AT&T customer service. This was a big problem in my neighborhood for anybody with a 3G smartphone. The engineers did something at the tower software-wise that fixed it.
 
Hope its not like this when I get the iphone in my area. I had ATT before when they were switching from TSM to GSM. I was told the dropped call issue would go away in a year or so. This was back in 01 I think. Hopefully it won't happen again when they switch from GSM to LTE
 
Type121 said:
Complain about this to AT&T customer service. This was a big problem in my neighborhood for anybody with a 3G smartphone. The engineers did something at the tower software-wise that fixed it.
Click to expand...

Normally, I would have laughed at this option. But i have to tell you......

Last week, I had a conversation for an hour with ATT tech. I told the guy to just tell me whats going on and that I am aware of the issues.

He explained that its two fold. They are deploying the 850 spectrum and they are initiating the "Nset"? protocol. The spectrum will penetrate buildings and walls better and the Nset will eliminate all of the handsets that operate on 3g voice only. so all those ****** moto phones will be relinquished to edge.

The problem I had was my phone showing 5 bars of 3g just went to gprs and skipped edge, and when it did so it would drop 25% of the calls. Very frustrating.

To conclude, ATT called me 3 times thurs and friday, and communicated that the work on the tower had been ongoing and they had moved up the antenna 20 feet and deployed 850. Well, i looked at my phone and there was 5 bars of 3g and since then it has been largely resolved. Thank you very much.

I had even bought a magic jack as a backup and do not know what to do when it comes.

Anyway they listened and I am impressed.

Paul
 
I had the same problem. Make sure your firmware is up to date and power your phone off and on again at least once a week. It resets some tower switch settings or sumthing like that. Regardless I was dropping calls like crazy and now very seldom since the power on/off trick.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I actually called At&t the other day and spoke to a regular cs and he blamed Apple:mad:. I borrowed my friend Samsung Impression today to see if I'd still get the dropped calls and sure enough... same damn thing.

I turned off 3g and used Edge instead and I could hear myself (echo). Also had a dropped call on edge. I'll be returning the iPhone, no point of giving At&t over 100 bucks for crappy service.
 
plut0 said:
Thanks for all the advice. I actually called At&t the other day and spoke to a regular cs and he blamed Apple:mad:. I borrowed my friend Samsung Impression today to see if I'd still get the dropped calls and sure enough... same damn thing.

I turned off 3g and used Edge instead and I could hear myself (echo). Also had a dropped call on edge. I'll be returning the iPhone, no point of giving At&t over 100 bucks for crappy service.
Click to expand...

That's funny, they blamed my tree's (and new foliage) in the neighborhood even though I reported my latest issue 1 1/2 months ago (before leaves were coming out). Plus, I had okay coverage last summer until the 3G came out, and then I dropped a bar. I called then and they denied any issues and said it was the phone. One month later a VP of theirs traveling in Europe admitted their network was overwhelmed when the 3G rolled out. Thx

BTW, the techs all go by number of people complaining in their cell tower region to gauge issues. So call in if you think you have the slightest issue!
 
plut0 said:
Thanks for all the advice. I actually called At&t the other day and spoke to a regular cs and he blamed Apple:mad:. I borrowed my friend Samsung Impression today to see if I'd still get the dropped calls and sure enough... same damn thing.

I turned off 3g and used Edge instead and I could hear myself (echo). Also had a dropped call on edge. I'll be returning the iPhone, no point of giving At&t over 100 bucks for crappy service.
Click to expand...

I see all these threads all the time with dropped calls, it HAS to be AT&T, whether they admit to it or not.

I'm on Rogers here in Canada and my 3G has dropped once since August 2008 (when I purchased the 3G).
 
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