At home in the suburbs of Atlanta with 5 iPhone 4s (32gb - black[obvy]) that I received June 23rd the signal loss can be duplicated, but does not reach "No signal" but
is in direct correlation to putting your hand on the left hand side as we've all seen replicated a million times.
In the center of Atlanta while eating at an area under very good coverage, I could not duplicate the problem at all with 2 iPhone 4s (sorry I didn't have my other 3 on hand). I tried off and on for about an hour while eating, and never was able to duplicate it and even reviewed the restaurant on the Urbanspoon app without losing connectivity.
After 24 pages of this, we all have our own opinions, here is mine:
I believe it is a software issue with the phone "freaking out" at the approach of losing a signal (at home in the suburbs I am much more prone to losing a signal as I start with a lower strength than in the city center). As the theory has been stated, the phone reacts to the approach of losing a signal and switches its frequencies thus creating the dropped calls and loss of connectivity as many have encountered.
I also spoke with my girlfriend's father who has worked with Nokia-Siemens networking for a very long time and has a more in-depth knowledge of phones and connectivity then I can understand through his words, but in a nutshell he doesn't think its a major hardware issue like the "defective by design" guy was ranting about.
To cover my butt, if the iPhone 4 does in the end have terribad hardware issues and Apple doesn't want to recall or refund or what have you, buy a bumper case and ship it to yourself for ~$34, <3
