iPhone randomly dropping signal

I have the same problem.

By reading your sig, looks like you're using 3.0? Most likely a big with 3.0

 

Your signature indicates you are running OS 3.0 Beta. It has been reported that 3.0 Beta 5 has noticeably degraded cellular service. Search the forum and you will find corroborating reports.

It seems as if the Beta 5 baseband was committed prematurely and is still under heavy development.

 

yeah its beta 5 for sure. my girlfriend is running 2.2.1 and never has this problem and since i've installed beta 5 its been happening about the same as yours. only happens when i go to unlock my phone to read a text, make a call, etc etc.

 

While 2.2 is fine for some, you only have to look at the apple help forums shortly after 2.2 was released, the sheer magnitude of people with dropped calls and no service issues was hugely increased, seriously it was chaos and apple seemed to just remain shtoom on the issue. Lots of folk were reverting to the earlier F/W but again this was not without fault as there apparently were issues with basebands and the like

 

You're not alone OP. My iPhone does the same, and I'm on beta 5.
I was stopped off in a bookstore the other day and I had a full 5 bars. I was quickly checking the weather and then 3G decided to go bye bye. About 30 seconds later the phone recovered and went back up to 5 bars. I didn't even move.

I mean, overall my phone drops signal here and there, but I do agree with the others that beta 5 is the issue, because signal drops have not been this bad for me on other firmware versions.

 

It is happening with the 2.2.1 as well

T is upgrading the switches to leverage the N-Set, these are not complete by any means and there are issues. Basically voice will go to edge and if there is a data connection it will bounce back to 3g passing the entire packet off. The issue is if you are in a area where they are still in process, of which there are many, or are in a car and cross over a non switched area you will have some issues.

For those of you on 5.0 call T and re-sync your IMEI, but be warned if you did the MMS hack using a different phone you will lose your ability to MMS

 

You'd think that Apple would have figured out by now how to get the iPhone 3G's radio to function properly. Beta or not, I find it absolutely pathetic that the phone performs so poorly even now, coming up on the one year anniversary of its launch.

Sorry but this is FUD. It's happening here in Japan, too. My wife's phone (same carrier, smae 3G network) continues to work perfectly, but my iPhone since installing 3.0b5 absolutely SUCKS.

 

Count me in here in the UK. Since b5 i've seen the words 'Searching...' and 'No Service' more than having any bars!

I do understand it's beta, so you don't expect everything to work, but it's puzzling that its been fine for Beta's 1 through 4, but what are you going to do, things could be worse

Just fingers crossed b6 will fix it...

 

One would think that if your designing a cellular phone, one of your level one basic priorities would be to make sure the thing can sustain a reliable connection to the network that is at least ON PAR with lesser phones on the same network. In my history of owning phones and being on various networks i have never seen a phone that drops signal this much, signal indicator varies this much, and most importantly, takes so long to find the signal again. If you cant nail the antennae, you should probably just stick to the iDevice, in my opinion this makes apple look like fools.

 

I have a 2G phone running firmware 2.2.1 and for about the past month my bars have dropped from 2 to 1 bar and some dropped calls and a lot of searching at my home location. I have also seen this behavior at my Mom's place about a half hour from me. I called AT$T and they couldn't help me and denied anything going on with their network. I requested they remove their commercial, more bars in more places.

Sidenote: When the 3G was rolled out I went from 3 bars to 2 bars. I also called AT$T then as well and they denied anything going on with their network. About a month later a VP of theirs, speaking in Europe, admitted their network was overwhelmed when the 3G came out.

Yup, AT$T sucks alright.