iPhone 3GS UK - 3G connection issues

[popcornuk]

Hello all, first post here, seems like the best place to come to for advice! It's a big one so please bear with me

I took out an iPhone contract in Jan this year with Orange. I've had no issues with the phone or the network until the start of May.

When I have the 3G turned on it seems to randomly drop out with either "Searching....." or "No Service" messages and it won't automatically switch to Edge which means I'm missing calls and texts until I realise its happened. Sometimes rebooting the phone works but not always.

Also, it sometimes says I still have a 3G signal but when I try to call or text it fails which obviously means the connection has dropped and I have to manually switch the 3G off to pickup edge.

This happens wherever I am. Home/Outside/City Centre etc. When 3G works it's rock solid and I get a constant 1.2Mbs download when I run the speedtest.net app.

I called Orange and they told me that there are no outages and said to switch 3G off and use Edge all the time! Which makes having an iPhone pointless to me if I can't use the web on the go. I wasn't happy with the explanation they gave me so I asked for a new SIM and if that doesn't work they're going to arrange a replacement with Apple.

Has anyone had similar issues? If you have, did you get it fixed? I found an old thread from 2008 but the person having the problem stopped posting so I don't know if he/she got it fixed.

Any input would be mucho mucho appreciated!

 

[kerpow]

I'm on o2 and haven't seen that exact problem but often lose connectivity all together. I use the District Line a lot which is mostly overground but has several tunnels. Service will drop out on each and take up to a minute to return, sometimes longer.

A guy I work with has the beta version of iOS 4 and says this is a greatly improved feature with service being restored much quicker. Wait a week or two and then install the update which will likely solve your problems.

 

[popcornuk]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I've heard a couple of people who have installed the os4 beta had less signal issues. I'll defiantly give it a try when it's released. If not a replacement iPhone might do the trick!