I mean, I understand. Apple coverage here in New Orleans is really pathetic but I get by due to my love for the iPhone.
I am moving soon to Chicago so I am hoping their AT&T coverage is better
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iPhone 3G reception
- Thread starter dmelgar
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I mean, I understand. Apple coverage here in New Orleans is really pathetic but I get by due to my love for the iPhone.
I am moving soon to Chicago so I am hoping their AT&T coverage is better
when I'm at work (single story building) my reception is kinda crappy. Mostly three bars and it bounces back and forth between edge and 3g. But wherever else I am I get full service and full 3g as well.
Noticeably better than my 1G iPhone in the same house (No 3G coverage where I am currently...will be able to test out the 3G reception in the next 3 days though).
The better reception where I live is enough for me to upgrade. It gets 2-3 more bars in the same spots when compared with my 1G iPhone.
This is all with 3G off.
The better reception where I live is enough for me to upgrade. It gets 2-3 more bars in the same spots when compared with my 1G iPhone.
This is all with 3G off.
The iPhones(EDGE and 3G) I have, and all of my friends are in the same boat... the iPhone is a very shaky device when it comes to getting a decent signal. You get terrible reception indoors, and when I say indoors I mean anything that has a roof over your head, whether it be your house or your car. Reception outside is decent to great most of the time. The real problem we have here is the power management of the iPhone. The battery DRAINS when you have a signal of one or two bars of 3G cause it is constantly switching between 3G and EDGE looking for the better signal. Of course you can turn off 3G data and get better battery life, but then you would just have a fancier version of a Gen1 iPhone.
To the poster who said that this is a firmware issue, I'm sorry to tell you that you are way off. The firmware has to do with the UI and the bootloader, not the antenna. A firmware upgrade would not be able to make your antenna stronger and pick up better signals. I hope I am wrong so I can get decent coverage on this phone cause I am not getting good coverage with this phone and now I'm kinda stuck with it. Just my .02
To the poster who said that this is a firmware issue, I'm sorry to tell you that you are way off. The firmware has to do with the UI and the bootloader, not the antenna. A firmware upgrade would not be able to make your antenna stronger and pick up better signals. I hope I am wrong so I can get decent coverage on this phone cause I am not getting good coverage with this phone and now I'm kinda stuck with it. Just my .02
Actually, a firmware update could indeed fix things. I think the problem might be one of power management. Several people who had spotty call quality reported that it improved dramatically when they disabled 3G. 3G is, as many have noted, a major battery drain and the iPhone doesn't disable 3G during phone calls. As with all cell phones, weak batteries or old batteries don't get as good reception as new batteries or those not being simultaneously drained by another function.
I think they should let you set it to turn 3G off by default when talking. For me, I'll probably just always have 3G off and turn it on only for browsing.
I'm sorry you alone have to shoulder the burden of clearing up this common misconception, but I happen to understand that 3G technology is intended for both voice and data. Perhaps I could have clarified by saying "turning off 3G when talking on older GSM networks", but that's not the point here...
Yes, 3G affects voice quality on the iPhone. It seems to hurt it in places without a very strong 3G signal. If you turn it off, call quality greatly increases in these places. That's helpful information for people struggling with reception quality and you don't even need to understand much about 3G to use it.
I'm not sure if you wanted to know about the iPhone's call quality in general or if you were interested in knowing 3G coverage in the US, but I'll add my input anyways:
I live in Vancouver, Canada. I've had very great reception with my iPhone 3G. I've had a couple of run-of-the-mill Samsung and Motorola phones before, and with my iPhone, I get MUCH better reception and way fewer drop calls. In fact, I live in a complete concrete building that doesn't transmit cell phone calls very well -- I was getting a lot of dropped calls before with my Motorola -- but with the iPhone, I haven't had a single dropped call yet. This is on both 3G and 2G networks.
I have also noticed that the voice quality on phone calls is quite good as well. I've found that Samsung flip phones have really good quality, Motorola terrible quality, and my iPhone has been somewhere in between. That is to say, I've been quite impressed so far.
Hope that helps.
I live in Vancouver, Canada. I've had very great reception with my iPhone 3G. I've had a couple of run-of-the-mill Samsung and Motorola phones before, and with my iPhone, I get MUCH better reception and way fewer drop calls. In fact, I live in a complete concrete building that doesn't transmit cell phone calls very well -- I was getting a lot of dropped calls before with my Motorola -- but with the iPhone, I haven't had a single dropped call yet. This is on both 3G and 2G networks.
I have also noticed that the voice quality on phone calls is quite good as well. I've found that Samsung flip phones have really good quality, Motorola terrible quality, and my iPhone has been somewhere in between. That is to say, I've been quite impressed so far.
Hope that helps.
My reception is significantly worse. Travel back and forth from Ventura, CA to Santa Barbara, CA. v1 of the iPhone would drop the call once just as you were coming into Ventura. v2 of the iPhone drops at least 5 times on the drive and in no particular area. In Santa Barbara where I used to get perfect reception, I now usually have 1 bar of 3G and sometimes it fluctuates to No Service. I'm very unhappy with either Apple's Product or AT&T's 3G service in this area.
The reason I didn't get the original iPhone was that it couldn't get enough of a signal to hold a phone call in my home office and I don't have/want a land line. I tried iPhones from two friends.
I took a chance on the 3G and I'm pleased to say that with 3G on OR off, I get better reception now than I did with Verizon. In my office I previously got 1-2 bars with Verizon and occasional dropped calls. The old iPhone got 0-1 bars in my office and couldn't hold a phone call. The new iPhone consistently gets 3-4 bars in my office. Gotta be the plastic back.
I took a chance on the 3G and I'm pleased to say that with 3G on OR off, I get better reception now than I did with Verizon. In my office I previously got 1-2 bars with Verizon and occasional dropped calls. The old iPhone got 0-1 bars in my office and couldn't hold a phone call. The new iPhone consistently gets 3-4 bars in my office. Gotta be the plastic back.
Help Please. iPhone 3G reception
Hi there,
i bought an iPhone 3G yesterday, and its a great piece of tech. however, the reception is horrible. At home, i have one bar. While in the same spot, i get full reception on other phones, on the exact same network.
One more thing i'v found is that when my phone drops back to 2G due to poor 3G reception, it is also on 1-2 bars. BUT, when i turn off 3G, it shoots back up to 4 or full ? WTH
I need advice as i can still return the phone. Should i ask for a replacement?
Sorry if i posted in the wrong thread; apolagies if i did.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
any further details:
Location: Australia
Network: Optus
Phone: iPhone 3G 16GB
Hi there,
i bought an iPhone 3G yesterday, and its a great piece of tech. however, the reception is horrible. At home, i have one bar. While in the same spot, i get full reception on other phones, on the exact same network.
One more thing i'v found is that when my phone drops back to 2G due to poor 3G reception, it is also on 1-2 bars. BUT, when i turn off 3G, it shoots back up to 4 or full ? WTH
I need advice as i can still return the phone. Should i ask for a replacement?
Sorry if i posted in the wrong thread; apolagies if i did.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
any further details:
Location: Australia
Network: Optus
Phone: iPhone 3G 16GB
hello, and thanks for a quick response, i checked out the mentioned website, but i can't seem to find the topic in the forums. Can you please post a link? sorry to be trouble.
Thanks
Hi there,
i bought an iPhone 3G yesterday, and its a great piece of tech. however, the reception is horrible. At home, i have one bar. While in the same spot, i get full reception on other phones, on the exact same network.
One more thing i'v found is that when my phone drops back to 2G due to poor 3G reception, it is also on 1-2 bars. BUT, when i turn off 3G, it shoots back up to 4 or full ? WTH
I need advice as i can still return the phone. Should i ask for a replacement?
Sorry if i posted in the wrong thread; apolagies if i did.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
any further details:
Location: Australia
Network: Optus
Phone: iPhone 3G 16GB
I say turn 3G off. It's a battery killer and in some places, a reception killer. Turn it on when you want to use mobile data. I think Apple can improve things dramatically through a firmware update. I think a simple app could be written to toggle 3G on and off and someone will do this if Apple doesn't solve it. I think we should have an option to have 3G off by default and come on automatically only when using data where wifi isn't available. All of these things are possible, so hang in there!
I'm actually using the NetShare Tethering App to post this, my 3G is awesome. Inside my condo I have 5 full bars, I've never seen my phone drop below 3 bars. I got down to 3 bars when I was in the basement, other than that I stay at 4 to 5 bars all day.
Wow, I am so sorry you felt like I was.. Oh screw it not even close to worth it.
Ehhh, I'm sorry actually. Chalk it up to extreme heat and sleep depravation - I was a cranky little beeatch and overreacted to your "once again" thingy.
I just got a 3G today to replace my 1st gen. My reception at home is now terrible, with 3 bars suddenly dropping to 1 or 0 and losing calls.
Never had this problem with my previous iPhone. Unless it gets better, it is going back.
Never had this problem with my previous iPhone. Unless it gets better, it is going back.
Are you using 3G? I heard there were issues where the iPhone 3G hangs onto a 3G tower longer than it should, rather than dropping back to EDGE with a stringer signal.
As an experiment, try turning off the 3G and see if you get the same signal you used to.
With the plastic back, you should get a stronger signal than before - assuming you are connecting to the same tower...
let me guess... optus or vodafone?
heaps of australians reporting similar problems over here - http://forums.mactalk.com.au/47/53900-merged-3g-iphone-reception-problems-worldwide.htm
we are trying to get as many people as possible to contact Apple and their provider to lodge complaints.
there is something wrong with some (all?) iphones. probably a software issue, but who knows. this issue seems to be only on the optus/voda 2100 mhz frequency.