iPhone 3G Reception Problems? You're Not Alone - Continued
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iPhone 3G Reception Problems? You're Not Alone, which has been locked. The thread was too long and some browsers were timing out. The above link goes back to the original thread.
I was so excited when I left the building where I work in downtown Portland (OR) and found that I had 5 bars of 3G. I thought that maybe the reregistration actually worked. I had 5 bars all the way home, until I turned into my neighborhood. At that point, when the car was moving I had zero bars. When the car stopped I had 3 or 4 bars. At home I have 3 bars outside and zero bars inside. I live in an area where AT&T swears I should have great coverage.
But, like you, I don't understand why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And, as I said before, I hate to return a phone that has absolutely nothing else wrong with it. I wish that either Apple or AT&T would give a little more info on what they're finding.
I work in downtown Atlanta and have horrible 3G reception on my iphone. Also in the area north west of Atlanta. The coverage map shows I'm fully covered. Also when I turn off 3G I go from 2 bars to 0 bars.
Use the AT&T coverage map for 2G, not 3G. That will tell you what your voice coverage is. If you select the 3G feature of the coverage map, everything turns blue. This is over where the voice coverage map showed moderate at best (at least in my case, and AT&T verified it on a trouble call). I went to two AT&T stores and voiced my concern about my coverage, discussing the SIM replacement and having the update sent, plus the "old iphone" information deletion. They verified my information was correct and at the main store downtown informed me that Apple uses their system to activate when you buy from Apple. So to me, these "cures" only work for those where AT&T messed up the transfer to the new phone in the first place. They bring those phones up to the level of the others done correctly.
The antenna seems to be tuned to conserve battery, as Apple has been advertising battery life vs. other 3G phones (Jobs kool-aid). Those phones get better reception at the expense of battery time. Apple needs to give up a little battery time and increase reception. Also, the older 3G phones (I'm assuming) can't upgrade to the higher data speeds that will eventually be introduced.
For the network, I did some research based on the spreadsheet someone posted earlier in this thread. The cell tower that AT&T said I was getting my reception from wasn't on the list. I also received 1-2 bars of 3G from it or another tower as I approached it and was within a block of it. I then went to the AT&T store to "discuss" my phone issues. A cell tower that was on the list and looking way different from the previous one was giving me full bars of 3G. The other previous tower has to be 2G, period. AT&T is claiming full coverage because they can. 3G will go or seems to go greater distances than 2G (for line-of-sight reception only). It operates on a different frequency than 2G (my understanding). So I get 1-2 bars of 3G from a tower about 2 miles away. I get 1-2 bars of 2G from a tower 6 blocks away because of all the darn trees and other objects in the way. AT&T has also capped the speed of 3G data on most cell towers. They did so by creating the low expectation of 1.544 to the phone, and not increasing the size of the infrastructure pipe to each cell tower. Even if they didn't restrict it, you can't go faster than the pipe (1.544)that feeds the cell towers. I pulled 820kbps late Sunday afternoon from that tower. During rush hour it drops to 320-550. In Europe it appears to not be restricted and the networks are better. An antenna fix from Apple will fix most customer issues there, IMO. Still, wireless transmission is troublesome when it is at the outer range of the tower and not line-of-sight. Trees, buildings, certain electronics and electrical units, mesh screening in walls...... anything that can stop or distort radio waves will do so, and alter your reception. A note to Apple and AT&T: It's not what happens to your beloved product and network that is of the upmost importance, it's how you respond to the issues and your customer. That is what will be remembered, long after the problems go away and are fixed. Peace out.
just a short question: i don't understand why we should look at 2G coverage maps when we want to find out where we should have 3G reception. aren't those 2 completely different networks, antennae, frequencies, etc.?
{quote:title=Michaelworks wrote:}Still, wireless transmission is troublesome when it is at the outer range of the tower and not line-of-sight. Trees, buildings, certain electronics and electrical units, mesh screening in walls...... anything that can stop or distort radio waves will do so, and alter your reception{quote}
but why doesn't this trouble other state-of-the-art 3G phones?
Concerning the battery consumption theory, that a bad 3G signal will conserve battery - from my experience, this isn't correct. bad signal will actually make the phone struggle for reception, will make the phone search for another network, or other cell towers - all of which increases battery consumption.
i live in switzerland and i have no problems with my 3G. I have a black 16 GB version. Software 2.0 ( 5A345 ) installed.
The SIM is about 5 years old and works fine.
Don`t know if only you guys in the US have the problem but for me in switzerland and my friends in germany everything works fine....
I`m sorry for your trouble with your iphones.....
Best regards from switzerland and sorry for my lousy english 🙂
woody100 wrote:
After having a continual dropped call episode, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar in Pasadena, Ca. over the weekend
Usually, when I return something at a store, it will not duplicate what I had
earlier experienced, but in this case, my phone would not even pick up a 3G signal at the Apple Store!
You're lucky. When I went to the Boylston store to compare my phone to other phones, a concierge mentioned that he thinks AT&T installed "something" in the basement.... presumably a microcell. So every iPhone in the store was getting a strong signal.
So far here in Switzerland I have only seen iPhones with lousy 3G reception and lots of dropped and failed calls, seven so far 4 on Orange 3 on swisscom.
Two friends of mine in Germany have the same problems, one is in Cologne, one in Berlin.
unfortunately, also others in switzerland have the problem. there's a blogger in zurich who was actually an early tester (before July 11). he has posted a video, and even outside in the middle of zurich (enge) he get's a weak signal:
I am in Bern as well, same problems as all the people not only in US, but all over the world (Australia, Japan, UK, Germany, Norway, Italy, to name a few from the previous thread).
A swisscom employee had no 3G signal in the swisscom shop in the swisscom headquarters (of all places!) where all other 3G handsets had full signal and he was unable to make a call to me on the iPhone and my call to the iPhone went directly to voicemail. Boy was he embarrassed! A second iPhone fared no better and they didn't have any more in the store to try.
I checked out swisscom to see if it was Orange partially to blame for my abysmal iPhone 3G experience. Obviously not. 🙂
Again, I had dropped and failed calls and no 3G signal at home with the iPhone and I have never had dropped or failed calls there with my Nokia 6280 on the Orange 3G Network. In fact, as soon as I popped the SIM card into my Nokia again, people were able to call me again. The iPhone would also not drop down to GSM if 3G reception was bad and sit with no network for minutes on end.
Ok they were also able to call me when I switched off 3G on the iPhone, but that's not he point, is it?
And now (I work in the data center of the municipal administration) I start getting calls from our employees who bought iPhones and have the exact same issues.
Note: I no longer own an iPhone, I returned it the same day I received it, after I was unreachable for 4 hours, but I have yet to hear from Orange whether they accept the return and cancel my iPhone calling and data plan.
