Apple introduced a new software algorithm into the iPhone 4 that makes the phone search for the fastest, most efficient signal and not necessarily the strongest signal, if the strongest signal is more cluttered with usage, etc. When I am at work, in the city, I cannot make my phone lose reception, however when I'm at my house, I can make it do so. My house is in the country, with 3 bars of 3G service. There is also an old tower that provides EDGE connection within a few miles of my house as well. When I "death grip" the phone, the 3G bars go down and the signal changes from 3 bars of 3G to 5 bars of EDGE. I think the issue is in the phones algorithm that involves tower switching. I think the attenuation caused by touching this antenna is enough to make the phone start "tower searching." The error in the algorithm is that the phone disconnects from the current tower-source before it has found a new one to connect to. So those of you that lose signal completely are seeing your phones disconnect from your current cell source, searching for another one that might not be there. If there isn't another good cell signal within range, the phone would disconnect from it's current cell service and the algorithm error would prevent it from reconnecting, hence why speedtest.net reports 0 down/up speeds, and searching for another cell connection that it can't find: this results in the phone disconnecting and reconnecting when the grip is released. If I am at my brother's house (also in the country but not near a good secondary tower), death gripping my phone makes it just drop to one bar of 3G from 5; however, I can still make calls and use data/internet, but I don't switch over to EDGE. This is owing to the fact that his 3G reception is enough to make the phone not search for another cell connection, yet also goes back to Apple's claim that the reported bars are actually higher than they are. Perhaps those people that lose connection completely are experiencing this algorithm problem with cell-tower reconnects and perhaps this software update will fix the manner in which the phone searches for other cell connections as well as accurately displaying the number of service bars.
Sorry if this is a repost. I searched the forums but could not find any posts about the phone's newly-introduced connection changing. Let me know what you think; I'm not saying one thing or another, just posting possibilities in which I haven't found to have already been discussed. Thanks for reading.
Err0xx
Sorry if this is a repost. I searched the forums but could not find any posts about the phone's newly-introduced connection changing. Let me know what you think; I'm not saying one thing or another, just posting possibilities in which I haven't found to have already been discussed. Thanks for reading.
Err0xx
