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

nathan c

that's one person that has has their issue resolves, with hundreds, and probably thousands who havn't. and a decent amount of people will have tried what the OP suggested, and found that it DOESN'T WORK for them.

i've tried all of those "fixes" and there has ben zero improvement. it's a worldwide problem, across multiple carriers.

let's face it, Apple has released a sub-standard, dud product.

hope THIS helps.

Interesting AT&T/Apple Survey received tonight.....

Briefly, I got a phone on launch day, returned it for a new one then finally returned it for good. Waited about 2 weeks and went and tried to get another one from a different batch. Same batch but new SIM card and service is better but not wonderful.

Tonight I got a pretty good sized survey from AT&T but I got the impression that it was a team effort because of all the Apple questions about MobileMe and other iPhone 3g features. But the survey asked about EDGE and 3g AT&T service and even had room for comments. It was fairly involved and a lot of the right questions were asked that would pertain to our reception problems. The thing that hit me the most was the fact that I did not get a survey after the purchase of my launch phone so this is new.

Could it be there are actual discussions going on about reception/signals?????

Well my 16gb and wifes 8gb went back today. They wouldn't waive the 10% restocking fee either even after all my rants. I did get one guy to back out of buying one that he ordered though so that works out in my favor.

The guy there told me that even though I was in the heart of there 3G coverage, the reason I was getting better edge coverage over 3G is that I must have been closer to an edge tower. I said that makes no sense considering the map that shows solid 3g coverage goes for at least 5 to 10 miles either way of my house. I thought 3g was supposed to be superior, how could it be getting beat out for signal over the edge network.

The part that ****** me off the most is that the guy that helped me this time said once again that I was the first he had heard of a reception issue with this phone and there network. Come on, man up and admit there is a problem here and maybe I will come back after you fix it but after that I really don't want anything to do with you or your network. I don't like liars....

That Blackberry Thunder releasing soon on Verizon is looking better and better each day i look for an answer to the problems with the new Iphone.

Sorry to hear of your problems... and your decision to return the two iPhones.

I hope you enjoy your Blackberry Thunder as much as I am enjoying my iPhone 3G.

Cheers! 😉

I have been reading this thread from the beginning and have held off switching to AT&T from Verizon and buying an iPhone because of this thread. So, if there is anyone from AT&T or Apple watching this thread, it is hurting your business. Fix the problem.

I went to my local Apple store today and every iPhone in there had 5 bars on 3G and smoking fast download speeds. How do they do that? What is different about the Apple store iPhones?

My 16gig went back today .... I'm not happy about it by any stretch ... I picked up a curve from verizon and as someone asked it was like going from a tricked out ferrari to an impala. Although the call quality and reception are top notch I miss the ease of use of all the features. I was not a big user of the 3G services and may not be done with my switching over. I wish the best of luck to all who are experiencing difficulty. Anyway best of luck.

@david meyer 1, 2 posts above -

might be a silly question, but are you sure they were on 3g?

in the apple stores they are usually connected via wi-fi, so the downloads of course are quick. when connected to wi-fi the 3g symbol is covered.

many people have reported that apple/at&t have the 3g turned off in the settings, and are using wi-fi to demonstrate how fast the phone is.

did you check in settings that 3g was indeed on, or turn off the wi-fi to reveal the 3g logo?

Message was edited by: vandozza

David Meyer1 wrote:
I went to my local Apple store today and every iPhone in there had 5 bars on 3G and smoking fast download speeds. How do they do that? What is different about the Apple store iPhones?

And what's different about my iPhone and many others who have normally functioning units? You can't judge the picture by threads on forums. That's a product support forum. People come here to vent when they have a problem. People that don't have a problem rarely post about how everything works as expected.

Think about it - Apple sold more than a million of iPhone 3G units just in a first week. It already more than a month passed since the launch. Do you really think if all or most of these million iPhones were defective and unusable as phones there would be something more than just few boiling forum threads?

The Survey sounds interesting. I was at the SF Apple Store today; looking for some gadgets, also have a friend working there. I decided to just watch the Genius Bar, I must have seen a dozen or so iPhones turned in within the hour I was there, with more folks in the cue waiting to address their concerns.

I asked my friend how many iPhone issues come in on an average day?! He said "100s in the past few days." This could be because of the weekend I figured; folks having weekends off, so I asked him about that. He said "100s even on the weekdays." Then I figured, it's one of 2 stores in SF, so maybe that explains the high volume. He replied "There are issues with 3G, EDGE, both systems, the iPhone; both software & hardware, and it isn't over or an easy fix."

I know particular system service is not great everywhere you go, some get good EDGE signal, others don't, some get good 3G, others don't. Yet, loosing calls or service weakness seems to be part of the issue along with what my friends are experiencing; lost Contacts, lost Email accounts, phone shuts down every 30 secs after start up, and so on.

Sort of unrelated, but I purchased my first Mac (Macbook 13") just 10 months ago; the hard drive died in 6 months and had to get a new one. Then another issue arose after the new drive and they had to reinstall the operating system. with all my Macbook issues, this is why I left the world of PCs.

These iPhone issues has kept me away from buying one. I think it's great that Apple Stores have the Genius Bar, but when you watch how many folks come in every single minute, you realize there are some major issues, not just with the iPhone, but with Apple. You sit in the store and watch about 50% of the folks head straight up the stairs to the Genius Bar.

Hopefully, they'll work something out, but I'm skeptical.

Oddly, to follow-up my last post, I went back over my other posts, notably one I have for my MacBook hard drive dieing @ 9 months. 6 more folks followed, also dead Hard drives; whether a hard drive manufacturer issue or an Apple issue, since it's in their computer, there is just too much breakdown going on. Instead rushing to get to market with new gadgets to please shareholders, maybe it's time Apple develops a strong Quality Control Unit during production.

updated one of our iPhones to 2.0.1 last night ... so far, have only tried it in the house (dock-side location), but it's a whole lot snappier - even within itself, plus it seems to get more bars, which I was suspicious of (it was just a software update, afterall), but it is clearly much faster at downloading all sorts of stuff in Safari & iTunes ... the 3G signal still waxes & wanes, a lot, and when it drops into 2G it seems to tend to stay there, but 3G does come back ... no sign of Edge, yet ...

all that with Wi-Fi off in Settings, 'so I can see how it works as a 'phone ...

I'll try it out & about later ... typical Lancashire weather outside - I'll wait for the rain to ease-off a bit !

Hi, I had the first iphone and when the 3g came out I had to get it. The thing is I have had none of these problems you all are having except for 1 thing. My 3g won't automatically switch from E to 3g. I have to manually switch it but it has no problem going from 3g to E. Here in Mobile, Alabama, we do not have 3g yet but is supposed to be here within the next week or so. I work for the railroad and therefore have to travel to New Orleans, Louisianna quite often where they have had 3g since right before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast. Once I manually switch my iphone to 3g i have no problems with reception, call dropping or anything else. Everywhere in New Orleans and the surrounding smaller towns have excellent coverage for 3g - full signal everywhere. I also know of a couple other people that live there and have a 3g iphone and they are also not having any problems with theirs. Maybe New Orleans has had 3g long enough to work the kinks out of their system there or maybe i have one of those 3g iphones without any so called "hardware problems". I really don't know. Call dropping here in my home town was a problem about 2 weeks ago and lasted about a week and quit and that was for the old iphones and the new 3g iphones too. 3G speeds in new Orleans are from 800 to 900 kb/s to a little over a mb/s using i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html. Screaming fast! I got my iphone opening day and the serial number starts with 85827 if that helps anyone.

klopus wrote:

David Meyer1 wrote:
I went to my local Apple store today and every iPhone in there had 5 bars on 3G and smoking fast download speeds. How do they do that? What is different about the Apple store iPhones?

And what's different about my iPhone and many others who have normally functioning units? You can't judge the picture by threads on forums. That's a product support forum. People come here to vent when they have a problem. People that don't have a problem rarely post about how everything works as expected.

Think about it - Apple sold more than a million of iPhone 3G units just in a first week. It already more than a month passed since the launch. Do you really think if all or most of these million iPhones were defective and unusable as phones there would be something more than just few boiling forum threads?

Generally I agree, Some "satisfied" users, however, may not know they have problems. There are, for example, those who post, basically, "Hey, love my iPhone 3G. What does 3G mean?" Such users may not be aware of 3G performance issues, 2G/3G switching issues, etc.

just came back from a friends house (city center, well covered area, both 3g and 2g) and got no service most of the time.

this thing is going to be exchanged as soon as there are replacement units available for in-store swapping here.

Here the comments I left on an apple discussion:

To be honest the 3G network in Sacramento is extremely unstable and unreliable.
I have been looking at the coverage map of sacramento and driving up and dow due to work.

I have pin pointed the different longitude and latitude location and cross referenced them with the 3G network coverage map.

ATT says it is stable and available in reality it is NOT!

First of all don't trust the info from ATT and if you have bought your iPhone, trusting the ATT information about network coverage, please drop me an email wit your email address and I will include you in a class issue against ATT, they should provide accurate information!!!!
my email tom_es@yahoo.com

Tom
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I have spent 1 hour on the phone with ATT today, both customer service and tech support were really pleasant but were not able to solve the problem.

ATT confirmed that in my area there is coverage, or should be coverage.
They made me set to 2G and back to 3G... nothing.
They ended up the call by saying that there are many users that have experienced problems with iPhone and ATT 3G network. They said that is it a known issue that seem to be related to the iphone and that the Apple and ATT technicians are working on it but with no solution.
I have challenged the statement by asking if I were to have another ATT 3G Phone the 3G network would work, the answer from the technician was yes it would.
This week I am walking in an ATT store and ask them to make me compare and test an other 3G phone.

I will keep you all posted.

Anyway any ATT complain should be mailed to:
AT&T
Consumer Services
340 Mount Kemble Ave
Room N208
Morristown, NJ 07962
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First of all let me apologize to ATT, I have to admit I have jump on them before having all the facts... to be honest ATT track record did not help and Apple track record made it look all different.

As I have said yestarday, I went to a ATT Store (Folsom CA).
I asked to compare network bars between the different 3G phones and my iPhone (and also the one in their display)

The Motorola had 5 bars, my iPhone had 0 bars.
To view the comparison here it is:
http://www.virtualemotion.com/images/IMG00023.jpg

I do understand that bars on the phone may be different from the phones, however we are not talking about 1 or 2 bar difference but a complete 5 bars.

I was stunned about what I have discovered and I really look forward for an official Apple response.
Tom
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Guys here my latest update.

I have gone to the Apple Store (scheduled and appointment online) and talked with one of the Genius (Tech support).
I have to say they are always pleasant and helpful.
He ran a diagnostic test on the iphone and checked the issues I decried on their knowledge database. I also showed him the image I had taken in the ATT store and quoted it in the case history.

He said that it is not the first time it is reported and that tech.support is working to find a cause/solution to the issue. He acknowledge it is a known issue with no solution.
I asked him to replace the phone (I had other few issues) and so he did but my reception did not solve the problem.

While I was in the store I walked around to check the reception of all the iphones. All had zero bars on 3G...just a case?

One last thing, I was able to find online the cell tower location for ATT, I have noticed that I have perfect reception at about 500 yards from the tower, as I move a little further away, the reception drops immediately... just some additional facts.

Keep me posted on the events or news you may discover.
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Your website is great, the official ones. If you search in google "cell phone tower location" you can find a good number of links.

Sprint tower is about 10miles (air distance) away and I have a very good reception at my house.
ATT tower is about 1 mile away (air distance) and I have zero bars.

Again the issue is not ATT but iPhone.