So much for 3G

[Traxan]

I had noticed the impact of 3G on my battery and decided to switch it off, and a funny thing happened:

Instead of getting 1 bar for reception, I'm getting 5 bars all the time now. Yes, it's always on the Edge network but I get solid reception. It's not like I'm in the boondocks, I live in San Francisco. I'm supposed to have solid 3G coverage.

Any theories?

 

[aphexii]

I had noticed the impact of 3G on my battery and decided to switch it off, and a funny thing happened:

Instead of getting 1 bar for reception, I'm getting 5 bars all the time now. Yes, it's always on the Edge network but I get solid reception. It's not like I'm in the boondocks, I live in San Francisco. I'm supposed to have solid 3G coverage.

Any theories?

I get the same thing here in SW Florida. With 3G enabled, I get 1-2 bars in my place. With 3G disabled, it rarely goes below 4 (almost always a full 5 bars).

I wonder if the 3G frequency has a harder time penetrating walls (kinda like 5ghz Wireless-N). Or, in the alternative, maybe not all the towers have 3G enabled, so it has to reach a bit farther to find an active 3G tower.

 

[philgilder]

less 3g signal is required for the same quality call, so 2 bars of 3g for calls would probably be as good as 5 for edge...

 

[DreamPod]

No need for theories, 3G is a totally different signal, run from totally different cell towers. Thus it is expected that the signal strengths will often be different between the two of them; just means you are close to an Edge-based tower than one with 3G. However, as was mentioned, 3G doesn't need super signal strength - with only one 3G bar I get full quality from my calls. For data, though, more bars helps.

 

[Traxan]

Well that's just dumb. The measure of signal strength is bars. Now we have different rules for 3G?

 

[philgilder]

Well that's just dumb. The measure of signal strength is bars. Now we have different rules for 3G?

signal strength does not equal call quality
and this is true for all 3g iphones
if you turn off 3g for battery, fine, but turning it off in order to get more reception bars is pointless