I think that many of the reviews have mentioned that the iPhone 4 is able to hang on to more calls in areas of low signal strength (provided that you don't cover the antenna) than the 3GS could. The dropped call numbers could be a number of situations from a bug in the baseband to people covering the antenna on purpose and on accident, we just don't know.
Since cases seem to help I thinking that the <1 more dropped call is decrease.