Some Customers with iPhone 3G Connection Issues

[WindowsGuy]

Yep, bars aren't valid.

But the point of the post is that CDMA is far superior to GSM, not focused on differences between GSM providers. Verizon skipped GSM and is adopting LTE specifically because of these issues. I tried a half-dozen GSM phones on multiple networks before settling on Verizon and CDMA - the coverage simply doesn't compare.

As far as the iPhone, if you couple a poor network, a lousy provider and a marginal phone, the call failure rate is much higher than if any one of the three was of decent quality. Apple had to make too many design tradeoffs in the iPhone to get decent performance, and focused on aesthetics at the expense of performance.

That would be a BIG " iOuch" to all the fanboys out there.

Apple better step up to the plate and make a statement because T-Mobile put out a press release saying it's Apple's problem in their area in Europe.

Steve better be ready for an iButt Rippen that he's used to giving and give a statement soon.

I predict total recall for poor choice of unproven chipset and poor design of placement of the 3G antenna.

 

[brockm]

must be at&t

I would echo the sentiment of other Canadian Rogers users. I have had solid 3G service in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. No dropped calls. Phone has never dropped into EDGE in any of these metro areas.

Despite Rogers being SatanCorp with their billing practices, etc. I must say their 3G network coverage has been nothing short of excellent.

My experience here in Canada, and the experience of other Canadian users makes me think this might be AT&T's problem.

 

[JDOG_]

I've had a myriad of issues with data and reception dropping out completely--even when I'm just sitting in the same spot: next to a window smack dab in the middle of SOMA in San Francisco where there are apparently more 3G-equipped towers than Starbucks.

When everything is working I get full bars and very speedy 3G and EDGE. What's odd is that it will mysteriously drop coverage every once in a while, from no 3G to full EDGE, down to no EDGE before it gives me a no service message.

Part of me wants to go in for a swap, but from the sound of things it could be software, hardware and AT&T at fault. Hopefully we'll find out the culprit soon. This never ever happened with my first gen iPhone from the same location

 

[vandozza]

makes me think this might be AT&T's problem

= fail...


This is happening ALL OVER THE WORLD. USA, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, etc etc.

And guess what? WE DON'T HAVE AT&T...

Sorry to be a jerk about it, but people keep going back to "this must be AT&T's problem, cause my phone is fine." Can we all recognise that it's not just AT&T and move on?

 

[aristotle]

As reported over and over... all other ATT 3G phones are working fine, including my 2nd line w/ black jack.

I really hope it is software, but it isn't looking like it. Even more I really hope Apple steps up soon, even if they say they don't know.

Uh. You might want to check those other devices with an iPhone 3G sim since there have been reports that some people's issues were solved by replacement. Check your "data" connection on your blackjack. Try it with your iPhone sim.

When I had 3G data problems with Fido here in Canada, I was still able to make phone calls most of the time in 3G mode.

There have been reports from users in New York who had great coverage at home but awful coverage in Manhattan.

@vandozza: You might notice that I'm in Canada and while I did have some problems on the Monday after the launch and two days following, the problems went away. I still have my launch 3G iPhone and sim. Stop generalizing. It could be that your provider was having issue as well. It could be that the 3G iPhone uses data more heavily than other 3G devices or usage patterns create heavier usage because of the better browser and app experience on the iPhone.

PS. Your comment = fail.
PPS. I don't know whether to feel insulted that you did not speculate that Canadians had troubles too. Oh wait, our phones are working. LOL

 

[aristotle]

Dupe.

 

[aristotle]

We were ATT customers pre-iPhone and waited patiently for the 3G version.

We have noticed a significant increase in the number of dropped calls and failed calls. We get them nearly daily from inside the house. We've called ATT to report the issue. We were told that someone would get back to us in 5 days, but no return phone call as of yet. Bummer.

Not sure if its a hardware or software issue, but it is real and very annoying!

Interesting. I've never experienced dropped calls on either Rogers or Fido on a myriad of cellphones over the years.

I would not even know what a dropped call is from personal experience. The only time I've had a failed call was when the entire phone network was jammed from a busy time of year.

BTW. I keep on seeing people like windows guy claim that this is happening elsewhere with a well established 3G network.

Somebody please provide reputable links.

 

[WindowsGuy]

Interesting. I've never experienced dropped calls on either Rogers or Fido on a myriad of cellphones over the years.

I would not even know what a dropped call is from personal experience. The only time I've had a failed call was when the entire phone network was jammed from a busy time of year.

BTW. I keep on seeing people like windows guy claim that this is happening elsewhere with a well established 3G network.

Somebody please provide reputable links.

Is CNet good enough for you. Not going to waste anymore time if it's not.

Here ya go. Worldwide dropped call problem link.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/0...-3g-owners%26%23039;-feedback-reception-study

 

[WindowsGuy]

World Wide Problem with 3G iPhone dropped calls

Interesting. I've never experienced dropped calls on either Rogers or Fido on a myriad of cellphones over the years.

I would not even know what a dropped call is from personal experience. The only time I've had a failed call was when the entire phone network was jammed from a busy time of year.

BTW. I keep on seeing people like windows guy claim that this is happening elsewhere with a well established 3G network.

Somebody please provide reputable links.

Here's an article with a quote from T-Mobile from the Netherlands placing the blame on Apple and not their network. Again on CNet.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10015661-37.html

 

[jcdogg]

I bought my iPhone last week and was loving it until today. I tried to make about 20 calls they all ended with "call failed." Most of the time the call dropped after one or two rings. I only got through twice -- one call lasted 5 seconds and the other 45 seconds. I was hoping AT&T was just having problems until I saw this forum.

 

[WindowsGuy]

quote from CNet

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10015661-37.html


Again, it's unclear just how widespread the iPhone 3G reception problems are, but they are being reported all over the globe, and I've never received as much e-mail from Apple customers about a single product issue (even before asking for submissions) as I have over this one.

 

[Stratus Fear]

My experience here in Canada, and the experience of other Canadian users makes me think this might be AT&T's problem.

I think it's at least part of the problem. I mean, I have no doubt that some people probably have lemon phones, but AT&T's reliability seems to vary widely from market to market from what I've heard and is as much a possible culprit. Some cities have terrible issues, but here in Atlanta I haven't had any major issues with my 3G yet (bought on launch day). Most places I've been in the city and on the northern edge of the perimeter where I live I've had consistently good service, with only a few holes here and there.

I see a lot of people complaining about indoor reception. I only get 1-2 bars in my apartment, but I think this is because the majority of AT&T's 3G footprint (as I've heard) is in the 1900MHz band; two older GSM phones I had (a Sony Ericsson K800 and an old iPhone) didn't have much better reception on my previous carrier, T-Mobile, whose entire network is 1900MHz. Step outside, and reception is great. Really I think people in the US need to keep this in mind, even when comparing to 2G reception, because the majority of AT&T's 2G GSM network in some markets is in 850MHz spectrum, which would explain better reception indoors and in general upon switching off 3G.

I will say though that iPhone 3G does appear to take too long to handoff to another cell site sometimes. This can be annoying listening to internet radio while driving, but it's not too incredibly frequent for me. AT&T has 3G 50 miles all the way up Georgia State Route 400 from Atlanta, and I've only experienced this maybe once every other drive up or down the highway.

 

[aristotle]

Is CNet good enough for you. Not going to waste anymore time if it's not.

Here ya go. Worldwide dropped call problem link.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/0...-3g-owners%26%23039;-feedback-reception-study

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10014633-37.html
So far, I've been through half of the pages of comments on that link and they are all in the US with AT&T.

Here is an interesting one from page one:

by sacsucks August 11, 2008 4:21 PM PDT
Im having the issue with a samsung blackjack, in alpharetta GA. It was fine up to about 4 months back, and now it drops calls like a mother. I even replaced the phone. Same issue happens in Santa Monica CA. In both locations in the past I had solid reception with no dropped calls. Now I have decent signal, at least 3 bars, but the phone switches to edge then back to 3g and drops calls. I dont have the frequency.

Note that they are using a Black jack.
Another non-iPhone on page 5:

My wife has a Motorola Razar V3 that is a 3G phone and both her and I notice that the phone drops in and out of 3G connectivity. We live in the Northeast Pennsylvania Area ( Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Mt. Pocono, Allentown ). Also my wife works in New York City and she even notice that even there the phone tends to drop in and out of 3G. I do not think it is the iPhone. I believe most of the problem is with AT&T's 3G Network.

Save for one Australian on page 3, all other comments were from AT&T customers. You were saying?

I did mention already that I had problems for a couple of days with Fido here in Canada but Fido was big enough to admit that it was their problem and fixed it rather than blaming the device like T-mobile in the Netherlands is doing. Other countries were probably having similar issues in certain parts of the network which the iPhone probably exposed due to its high data usage.

 

[vandozza]

Stop generalizing.

I'm not generalising.

Read the discussions at Apple. Plenty of mentions of international iPhone users reporting problems, that have nothing to do with AT&T.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1602608&tstart=0

Hopefully the 1000+ posts will keep you entertained for a while.

Just cause you're not having problems in your location, doesn't mean that other people are all happy.

The 850mhz spectum users are reporting few, if any problems.
People in cities with dense coverage report few problems.

Maybe you're not seeing the problems as you satisfy one of these criteria...?

Your iPhone might be just as broken as the iPhones of people who are reporting problems, it's just that you don't know it yet.

 

[jsanche6]

Not only have I gotten really bad reception, I've also been experiencing closing of apps like safari. Every time I use safari it just shuts down. Just writing this safari closed 6 times. I already reinstalled the software and it's still happening

 

[aristotle]

I'm not generalising.

Read the discussions at Apple. Plenty of mentions of international iPhone users reporting problems, that have nothing to do with AT&T.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1602608&tstart=0

Hopefully the 1000+ posts will keep you entertained for a while.

Just cause you're not having problems in your location, doesn't mean that other people are all happy.

The 850mhz spectum users are reporting few, if any problems.
People in cities with dense coverage report few problems.

I use Fido which uses the 1900mhz spectrum.
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/net_cami.shtml
Nice try though.
I'm looking for quality not 1000+ posts by AT&T users posting multiple times.

Maybe you're not seeing the problems as you satisfy one of these criteria...?

Your iPhone might be just as broken as the iPhones of people who are reporting problems, it's just that you don't know it yet.

Maybe you really don't care about international customers but search on this forum is your friend.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/538308/

The issue went away without requiring a replacement sim or new iPhone.

For a couple days, I could not connect to websites with 3G most of the time. I had to switch to 2G Edge during the network outage which I had confirmed did exist by calling customer support at Fido and having them check with their tech support tier. During that time, I also experienced "no service" with 3g but it has been fine since they fixed their network issues.

 

[guet]

You're accounting for AT&T but 3G iPhone users all over the world are having the problem. I see total recall if no software solution comes to light very soon.

I have seen no such problems in the UK, and it's hard to judge just how widespread they are elsewhere. It's quite possible it's a network problem, and without further investigation it's pointless to speculate.

 

[winterspan]

I'm sure these complaints are all true, but I'm willing to bet they're the same percentage as any other cell phone.

It's just that people don't blog about their other phones. I know I never made a pos on the Internet about my old phone.

bingo...

 

[The Tall One]

A

Doh!

 

[vandozza]

I'm looking for quality not 1000+ posts by AT&T users posting multiple times.

that just proves you didn't read any of the Apple discussion posts at all...

if you are going to be arrogant and turn a blind eye to clear evidence of an emerging issue, then i'm hardly going to waste my time trying to convince you.

and as for me "not caring about international customers" -
a- i'm an international customer...
b- plenty of international iphone users have already reported this problem, even within this thread

and as for the safari issue that you linked to... never seen it. ever.
the issue you were having, and the ones that others are reporting are clearly different problems.

 

[Celf]

b- plenty of international iphone users have already reported this problem, even within this thread

T-Mobile Netherlands admits there's a 3G problem and is blaming Apple!!! They have their own blog (http://iphoneblog.t-mobile.nl/2008/08/iphone-en-3g/) They say their 3G coverage is as good as the competition so they suspect a hardware issue with the iPhone. Users are advised to check for softwareupdates on a regular basis

 

[vandozza]

T-Mobile Netherlands admits there's a 3G problem and is blaming Apple!!! They have their own blog (http://iphoneblog.t-mobile.nl/2008/08/iphone-en-3g/) They say their 3G coverage is as good as the competition so they suspect a hardware issue with the iPhone. Users are advised to check for softwareupdates on a regular basis

Vodafone Australia has also suggested that it's an Apple issue, and not their network.

"Jessica Forrest, Vodafone Australia's spokeswoman, said the iPhone 3G issues were device-specific and nothing to do with the carriers' networks.

"We are aware of the issues on the iPhone 3G and we're working with Apple to provide a solution," she said, declining to elaborate."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/08/13/1218306957900.html

 

[GregA]

I have used 3G phones for a few years, and I'm finding the iPhone is having greater 3G reception problems than other phones. I hope that it's something Apple can improve.

However - even if Apple can't fix it (if it's a chipset problem), there are several software changes they could make that would be a great benefit.

Possible Apple software fixes:
1) When talking to someone on 3G, if the network reception is low move to 2G much earlier. ie: take less "risks".

2) For people with regular problems, switch the phone to 2G as standard, and automatically switch to 3G whenever using the internet.

3) Remember locations with bad or good reception, learn from experience. When the phone recognises a wifi access point, it can use this information to favour 2G or 3G. (I'd manually set our office as a 2G zone if possible!!!)

4) When 'waking up' to check email hourly, wait a few seconds to use local wifi rather than connect via the mobile network.

5) If a call drops while on 3G, immediately switch to 2G for 5 minutes.

The above presumes that Apple wants to try to keep the phone on 3G as much as possible - otherwise I'd encourage #2 for EVERYONE. (Apparently 3G is more efficient for the Telcos...)

ps.
I don't know if I've ever successfully handed off from 3G to 2G mid call. Perhaps the low reception issues are tied together with handoff errors.

pps.
Hopefully these are network issues. The iPhones represent a substantial number of phones that are suddenly "always connected", and this may be more of a challenge than AT&T and others had realised.

 

[phatcat]

Going from the original iPhone to 3G I can also confirm more frequent dropped calls... along with several friends/coworkers.

2.0.1 seems to have helped as I've noticed it switch to edge more frequently than before in weak 3G areas. This at the same time reduces 3G coverage for ATT, but they'll never admit it.

Their customer service dept is also trained to read scripts whenever you call about 3G dropped calls. They'll immediately tell you they never heard of the problem and explain the benefit of the plastic back on the iPhone which improves reception - yada yada yada. But hey, it's their job to tell the consumer they're wrong and their product offering is flawless.

I eventually returned 3G and went back to my trusty 2G iPhone.

-No yellowing of screen.
-More reliable calls
-Better bluetooth quality
-Lower $$ data plan

All the above make the 2G iPHone more valuable than 3G data speeds. I could also care less for GPS.

 

[bdorpetzl]

Your bio says you're from Port Washington WI.

I did an ATT Coverage View Map of the area and you're area is outside of the AT&T's 3G coverage Map.

I don't understand how you can have no problems when you live in an area with no 3G coverage?

So I can't travel cause my bio says I am in Port Washington. Wow, that's reaching. I know I have no 3G in Port, but in Milwaukee and all the places I listed, there is 3G and I am in 3G coverage during the day and I have no problems.