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Some Customers with iPhone 3G Connection Issues

8CoreWhore said:
DPinTX mention on this thread that an Apple Tech told him some of the phones' 3G antenna's were too short. They swapped his phone out for a new one and that solved his problem. I was wondering where I'd heard this before: Ding! David Pogue's criticism of the GPS function. He said someone at Apple told him the directions wouldn't work well because the antenna was too short. Many people thought that didn't make sense - unless they were actually talking about the 3G antenna - which is how the google maps would load. I wonder if Pogue thought he meant the GPS antenna when in fact he meant the 3G antenna??
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Since antenna length has to be a specific fraction of wavelength, this is a real possibility for the dropped call issue.

As for GPS, the issue with antenna length might impact the number of satellites you can lock on to at once because the GPS signal is fairly weak and prone to interference.

There's a reason that a good dedicated portable GPS costs more than an iPhone and is often larger (and they all have much larger antennas) and heavier. When you combine devices, you make trade off considerations, and the iPhone probably made too many.
 
I live in Naperville, IL and I have a "good" 3G footprint, but I find my signal jumps very easily, where as when I disable it, and us EDGE the signal is much more consistent. I feel like the phone doesn't jump from 3G to EDGE well at all (when the 3G signal isn't strong).

I've gotta say, I'm very disapointed in its performance on 3G, but to be honest, I use the 3G only when I'm out and need to check something on the web.

I still expected more, I work for AT&T and know how 3G works on other devices, its the phone.
 
djinn said:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10015301-37.html

making headlines
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And it's going to make more.. the CNET article has been /.'ed. Someone did have a good question there:

Who the hell is Richard Windsor...



...and what qualifications does he possess to comment on the possible cause of the alleged iPhone reception issues?

Seriously. This story is being widely distributed, but I have yet to see anyone ask about his credentials. Is he an electrical engineer with expertise in the design of cellular technology?

As far as I can tell, he's some financial analyst. So why would anyone consider him a credible source? Since when are the speculations of a financial analyst regarding the rather esoteric realm of RF engineering considered valid.

Am I missing something? Does someone know about his background?
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BL.
 
Poor switching and reception

I live in Memphis, TN and AT&T claims 3G coverage. I have few bars with 3G than Edge.

Many times during the day while I'm using the iPhone, it will switch from 3G to Edge and it is NOT graceful. Whatever I am doing, call, Pandora, etc is disrupted.

Also, once it is on Edge, it will not automatically switch back to 3G.
 
Not saying there isn't a problem, BUT... the 3G was released weeks ago. If the phone is as terrible as everyone is saying, we would have heard about this day one. People buying phones in big cities would have walked outside and tried to make their first phone call and it would have been big news if almost everyone had trouble completing a single call.

The thing I *hate* about cell phones is that reception is always subjective. Unless you have an arsenal of phones at your disposal to test in the same spot, in addition to other test hardware, the comments will always be useless. If you find bad reception, the best thing to do would be to stay put, ask someone with identical iPhone to come over to where you are standing, see what they get, and then find people with the same provider but different phone and see what they get, etc. Make a log and afterwords try to identify the chipsets used in all the phones you tested. At least that is halfway scientific.
 
Los Royers said:
I saw this on yahoo, maybe we can help this columnist out and he can show that these are really big issues with at&t service

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080811/tc_cnet/83011357931001463337;_ylt=AuHK9RGqhpSedwia7QMhs.QxVrIF
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If it turns out to be a chipset issue, there is nothing that ATT can do about it. There would be nothing that firmware could do about it. It may call for a full blown replacement of the chipset, which means recalling every iPhone out there and getting it exchanged.

There's nothing ATT, O2, T-Mobile, Rogers, or any other carrier can do about a hardware issue.

BL.
 
same in OC

solitarycow said:
I live in LA, specifically Studio City, but I'm always in Hollywood and the Downtown area. I notice my 3G signal continuously goes in and out and it's frustrating! Is anyone else having the same problem? I mean this is LA! We should have pretty good 3G signals everywhere right?
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I live/work in Orange county and yes, the 3G signal i've experienced on my iphone 3G is frustrating, it drops on and off. I also have a verizon cell phone from work and i can always do comparison. att signal at home is always 1 bar while verizon signal at 4 bars. att signal in my garage is none, while verizon signal at 2 bars.

by the way, does anybody know how to power off the 3g iphone when it freezes and won't respond to the power off button. i tried holding power off button and home button at same time and it didn't help. The freeze happened to me twice so far (while using Safari) and both times i had to wait until it the freezed screen shut off by default (meaning, until the battery runs out)
 
irun5k said:
Not saying there isn't a problem, BUT... the 3G was released weeks ago. If the phone is as terrible as everyone is saying, we would have heard about this day one.
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try a google search... have a look at the dates on which discussions started on apple.com, mactalk.com.au, and shortly after here.

just cause you didn't happen to read these messages, and the submitted story didn't hit the front page (till today) doesn't mean that heaps of people aren't having this problem! :)
 
I thought I was the only one!

I had a 2G iPhone on Orange UK and changed to o2 to be "legit" I must admit it has been horrific.

I work in the city and the amount of dropped calls - calls to voicemail etc (and low bars) is astounding. I thought at first it was o2 but switching to another phone for a day proved otherwise.

Really disappointed - i have a gut feeling the more than a software update is required for this one...

Or have a few of us got duff ones and the rest are fine?
 
Same Issues

I have the same issues that were described in this thread.
My old iPhone worked perfect. My 3G iPhone drops calls and the 3G is crap. :(

I really hope the 2.1 Update fixes all this. Because right now I am considering returning my iphone or exchanging it.
 
It obvious, this is coming down to a network and coverage issue possibly. Base on my experience, and I know I am a "rookie" in the world of iPhone 3G ownership :p, but I have had my phone about 2 weeks now and haven't had one dropped call yet...with the exception of the normal "dead" zones I'd experience with my other AT&T phones, but this is expected. Last weekend, I had driven from Daly City (CA) all the way out to Berkeley while on my iPhone/BT, and did not dropout anytime during the ride. In fact, I never had such clarity on a call in all of my cellphone LIFE driving across this bridge (and that's 19+ years, folks!) I guess I would have to credit my Jawbone HS for some of this...but thats a different story. I would have expected something, especially, across the Bay Bridge... but nothing happened. The phone performed well in other cities I've been in the BayArea. I was even able to get a 3G data connection in the craziest area of all: downtown Oakland. So, barring that I'd JUST lucked up and got the "perfect" one out of the bunch, I think most of blame for this issue lies in AT&T's network. I believe they haven't been up front with Apple that they were/are not ready to rollout a full 3G network adequately. We'll just have to see how this pans out. Hopefully, by the time I get to YOUR town, this matter will be passe.
 
Just the 3G reception?

Okay - so I have the same stupid 3G range and sustain connectivity problems that others are having here. The range indicator is useless (one bar = great 3G speed... go figure?!).
Just to get the biatch on for a second:
- calls go AWOL >5 mins into a conversation. Doesn't hang up, just goes silent. Doesn't recover.
- simply picking up a phone during a call can screw it up.
- the screen is STILL yellow compared to original iPhone. Bring back the blue.
- I have 9 apps ready to update, but iTunes & iPhone pukes when I update. Can't get rid of it.
- battery life still sucks. No news there.

There are a ton of positives to the new iPhone, but they're heavily outweighed by failure of the most basic items.

I've four more days before I can't return the phone. Geezuz I'm strongly considering throwing it back at Apple.

If I had been Product Manager responsible for these basic failures existing in a 'live' product, I'd have been fired.

Update: just had a thought - calls drop more frequently when the headphones are plugged in. Without it, hardly any (but not no) reception problems.
 
OhEsTen said:
Well it is CNet. They will go to any lengths to dig dirt on any Apple product - even if it means trolling Apple's support forum.
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And they probably go to the same lengths to do the same for any Microsoft product as well, at lets be honest here, they are more likely to find out about Apple problems through the Apple support forum than going to a local bar and chatting to some non iPhone users.


OhEsTen said:
I'm not saying that the iPhone is perfect, but it does beat out every phone I've ever bought. I'm also not having the extent of the problems that others are, but I wonder how much of it could be related to AT&T overselling their network? When I bought my 2.5g iPhone about 9 months ago - I never had any problems with dropped calls. Once the new iPhone came out I have one every couple of weeks. I don't know if it's related to the iPhone 2.0 software, but since AT&T is reporting a lot of new subscribers I'm curious if they're keeping up on their infrastructure to support it.
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When coming to phone calls, you should expect to be able to continue your conversation so long as you can maintain a network connection, you should be able to roam from 3G to Edge service without noticing a difference for phone calls. If the iPhone has an issue passing the calls between the two network types something is flawed, it could be the phone, it could be something with AT&T's network (though it appears to be more global and not just the USA). Either way, both/all parties should be proactive in figuring out the issues as this kind of publicity does nothing to help Apple and its reputation.

The issues are worse for Apple if the customer uses a different 3G phone and does not have an issue, it may not ultimately be Apple's fault, but it is their handset that is not working and the consumer will blame them for it.
 
moz5835 said:
The range indicator is useless (one bar = great 3G speed... go figure?!).
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It's not a range or strength indicator, it's a signal to noise indicator. If you have a very strong signal with strong noise, you may have great performance with one bar. Very weak signals with very weak noise may show exactly the same bars, but have terrible performance.
 
can we all just call this what it is? UMTS is an inferior technology. Hard handoff means a high occurrence of dropped calls, and umts has inferior footprint per btw compared to CDMA. Doesn't matter what the chipset or the operator is (though AT&T is pretty bad). Blame the long history of GSM overselling itself, and nothing else. Suffering iPhone users will just have to wait for LTE.
 
bijannnnn said:
can we all just call this what it is? UMTS is an inferior technology.
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doesnt explain why i can put 3x3G phones side by side, a moto v3x and nokia 6110 get FULL coverage/bars and perform well, and an iPhone drops back to 2G or has "no service."

i now expect a lecture regarding how "bars" are a bad way to compare, but i havnt found a way to get the moto or nokia to give -db values.

iPhone = iPhail
 
Can you improve the reception on the iPhone?

I'm afraid I'm a potential switcher waiting here on the sidelines for Apple/AT&T to offer a solution to these reception problems.

We spend a lot of time camping and in the RV world one just expects poor or no reception in some of the beautiful places we go. But that does not mean we don't try. Directional antennas, amplifiers, careful attention to altitude and orientation are all tricks we try to capture some extra bars.

I see that the iPhone lacks an antenna port and that some vendors offer a quasi-external antenna that gets velcroed to the approximate location of the internal antenna.

So I am curious if those of you who report dropped calls typically wrap your hands around the backside of the phone where the antenna lives or do other things that might block off a little more of the signal?

And do any of you have coping techniques like holding the iPhone above your head between two fingers? Does standing on your roof give you fewer dropped calls?

I'd also like to hear what data rates you are measuring at different number of bars. I, too, doubt that there is any consistency in how different phones decide on how many bars to display.

Could be when Jobs hears about the pathetic velcro antennas he'll concede to an antenna port.
 
v.1

My (version 1) EDGE iPhone from AT&T was the worst, connection wise, cell phone I've ever had. I account this to it being AT&T and the fact that it is my belief that it was also the iPhone itself (as other people with AT&T, there NON iPhone seamed to work in more places than my iPhone did).

The 3G iPhone I am unsure o,f as I have not used it long enough in the same places to tell.
 
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