iPhone 3G Reception Problems? You're Not Alone - Continued

Many think that it may be a power issue, including me.

I often notice that if I wake my phone out of sleep (black screen) it will have 5 bars in my house, then immediately drop to 1 or 2. I never get above 3 here.

This seems to happen quite often, so it seems that it may be trimming some 3G power when in use??

We'll see...

Updated to 201 and reception is worse. I used to get a little reception when in 3G, no it says No Signal. When I turn 3G off, 5 bars of Edge. I was hoping the update would make the phone better at transitioning to edge when the signal was bad. There is no excuse for it sitting with No Signal for more than a couple seconds!

Searching contacts seems better/smoother.

Contacts appears to be much faster, apps are more resopnsive in general. Less lag when opening/closing. However I also have "No Service" on 3G when I used to have 3-5 bars.

Just walked my dog up and down my street (shows in the heart of the 3G coverage on the map from att) Never got more than 2 bars and now back in my house I show a very week signal from my wifi and I can't get more than 1 bar of 3G no matter where I walk in my house. Bummer, I was so excited to see an update.

I got my iPhone on Saturday, have had 4-5 bars of 3G at home, work, and other locations in the Wash DC area. No dropped calls.

Today, I warm booted my iPhone after I discovered the laggy text entry. Now at home I am either getting 1 bar of 3G or 5 bars of EDGE.

This *****. My device does seem to be capable of good 3G reception but something has happened. I will call AT&T.

Install 2.0.1 has solved the text entry problems but did not revert my reception to prior levels.

okay I have just received my 6th iphone replacement. Yes I have said it 6. I had 2 brand new sim cards and yes my last one is ending in the number of 4022. Trust me I wasn't going to take no for a answer when it came to the reception being as poor as it is. I have a hard time believing that is a phone issue which in the begging I wouldn't think otherwise. But driving around and seeing full bars of 3G in some places and then in others 1 bar. Having at least over 50% of my calls dropped. In my opinion after having my last replacement sent today that at&t is pulling everybody's chain when it comes to there 3g coverage. I know other people around the world are experiencing the same problems on different networks is confusing to me. But having over six phones with the same issue its hard to beleive that I have received six defective handsets, but then again nothing is impossible.

Wow!

I downloaded the update through iTunes around 4:30PM PDST and spent the last hour or so driving around Portland, OR neighborhoods testing 3G signal strength.

1) Much snappier responses in all apps and areas
- Downloaded YouTubes "Evolution of Dance" in about 12 secs. ( on 3G - not WiFi for all tags to this # in my outline )
- Opened Showtimes and it fully populated in just few seconds (first time I used it)
- Contacts, Bloomberg, games, all open very quickly
- Safari connected to my bank and loaded the home page VERY quickly.
2) 3G Reception is now fairly constant 4 or 5 bars.
3) Ironically, WiFi reception also seems stronger and much faster at both my home and office locations.

I am VERY PLEASED with this "minor bug fixes" update. Geez Louise Apple. Do you have to put the RDF spin on everything?

Either way, color me the happy camper I fully expected to be 3 weeks ago.

(Please note: This is a copy of the post I originally placed on another forum at 6:16PM PDST. I have been all over the greater Portland, OR area since then and my 3G reception has remained way above my previous levels and at 4 to 5 bars in most areas. Hallelujah! I am truly sorry if your experience does not match mine, but here's hoping that it IS getting better.)

Just updated to 2.0.1 UI seems more responsive now, but still same bad 3g reception. It's gotta be a hardware issue...I live Downtown san francisco where 3g reception/coverage is supposed to be good.

I have updatet my iphone in the morning, but also still same bad 3g reception

My iPhone 3G is having problems similar to those others have described here. The phone will hang on until there is 0-1 bar left. It looks like there can actually be no bars at all but the 3G indicator will stay on. Incoming calls go to voicemail. Outgoing calls drop. Bars will fluctuate wildly with the phone sitting on the desk. Sometimes the phone goes into No Service mode and won't come out for minutes. Usually if you go into settings and turn Airplane mode on and off, it will reset and go back to edge at least. I have also seen this. 2-4 bars but no 3G indicator, no Edge indicator, no GPRS indicator even. Just the 2-4 bars. After 20 minutes the GPRS appeared for about a minute, then edge for a minute, then 3G ... just sitting at my desk! I have just borrowed a AT&T Palm Treo 750w here on 3G and I'm going to do a side-by-side comparison over the next couple days before I decide to return or not. Bummer.

p.s. Black 8G, production week 28, new SIM code, San Francisco / San Mateo California.

sorry, I don't find a solution in the thread specified - or did you mean switching off 3G???

RF Guy wrote:
Apple has chosen to use a very low bar to dBm value, so a lot of people's complaints are just based on what they see on the top left of their phones.

Apple may have chosen a conservative bar to dBm value. However, that doesn't shed any light on why my iPhone gets 1-3 bars of signal while the Apple store employee's iPhone gets 3-5 bars when we hold them a few inches apart.

If you put your phone in test mode ( 3001#12345#) and then quit the application by holding the hme button for several seconds, it'll leave the dBm indicator in the corner of your screen. It's telling that there isn't actually room for more than three characters--perhaps Apple didn't expect to have to display numbers below -99. In any case, you can now toggle between numbers and bars by tapping that corner of your screen.

After applying the 2.0.1 update, my reception isn't any better.

6 handsets, that's bad. but hey it's still unclear if this is a hardware or design issue. and it could be that your exchange phones were all from that (possibly) defective batch. I'm writing this because other people felt exchanging their phone DID help.

so they released a new firmware without addressing this serious problem.

this means that either a) they CANNOT FIX it by firmware (antenna hardware issue), or b) they are still working on it, or c) they just don't take this seriously.

if it's a), i hope they tell us quickly, if it's be i hope they fix this fast, and if it should be c) ...

I had a few moments of excitement last night when the update came out. I was hoping that I would be going back to Apple today to pick up another phone but I will wait.

Doesn't sound like Apple is too concerned with "our" problem. They are increasing production to 800,000 units a week.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10005870-37.html?tag=blogFeed

Also read somewhere else that they extended their contract with AT&T for another year.

....and the (missed) beat goes on.