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

ive had some teething problems since i bought my white 16 gig iphone from the apple store in birmingham uk, the small but annoying glitches eg freezing and typing lag seem to of improved since the latest update in fact i get no dropped calls and can get a good signal on 3g 99% of the time, i upgraded my old 2.5g iphone so now have the black 1 too. could it be that 3g is still in its infancy in the U.S ? i think we will see more hardware fixes very soon the os on i phone needs some tidying up which is dissappointing for an apple product.

add me to the list. I live in Westchester County in NY. I commute every day between NYC and home and the 3G reception is awful! My blackberry on ATT works just fine. If that doesn't scream IPHONE issue, I dont know what does.

APPLE, ANSWER THESE COMPLAINTS!

I am in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of PA U.S. I am getting shoddy reception with my iphone 3g. I have changed the sim cards, instructed to do a restore of the phone, reset network settings. I am supposed to be contacted by AT&T on Wednesday. I am already looking for a new phone because I can't see this being fixed anytime soon. I have no proof as to the problem, but I believe its a hardware problem. My wife has a Moto Z9 and gets excellent reception. That fact tells me its the phone not AT&T. On the upside, both AT&T and Apple CSRs were professional and nice to deal with. If I take this phone back, I will not dump AT&T. I have been with them for 4 trouble free years.

Same issue here around the metro Atlanta area. I get 1 bar of signal strength when I initially turn on 3G. Once the 3G service drops to EDGE, the only way I can get a 3G signal back is to turn 3G off and then back on. The phone will not automatically switch back to 3G even if its in the same place that it had a great 3G signal previously. Also, if I turn off 3G in an area with poor 3G reception, I received 4-5 signal bars on EDGE. What gives?

Sure would be a pain to have to replace all these phones...hope its not a faulty Infineon chipset like MacRumors is saying. C'mon Apple... fix the problem!

Here's my input.
I live in NYC, have a week 27 iphone.
Terrible dropped calls, darth vader voices, just horrible horrible experience.
Sitting here now, clear night, should be good reception.
In actual fact, 1 bar with 3G, 5 bars when turned off to EDGE.
I will be changing this iphone pronto.

im sorry but you are completely wrong, the reason that some 3G iPhones users are believed to be experiencing a less than satisfactory time using there phones has to do with a immature chipset. The good thing about this is that apple can fix this with a new software update

Couple of extra details about my iPhone 3G problems in Mountain View, CA:

Phone built: week 29

400 meters from 3G tower:
EDGE: -71 to -85 dB
3G: -103 to -113 dB (both inside and outside building)

100 meters from 3G tower:
3G: -55 to -75 dB

Most writers (here and elsewhere) have suggested that a software update will not fix a defective radio chipset. Instead, there seems to be a belief that if the problem is the radio chipset, only a physical replacement of the chipset can cure the illness.

May I ask what leads you to conclude a software update can resolve the problem?

It seems to me that this is the busiest posting day on this thread/subject so far.

I suspect that the various print and electronic media (primarily Internet media) reporting on the iPhone 3G's failure as a 3G communications instrument is helping draw many frustrated users here (and yes, even some lucky souls who have been blessed with a fully functional iPhone 3G are contributing).

I hate the phone - I love the gadget (not an original declaration).

My wife has a 2 1/2 year old Moto v550 with ATT. I have an iPhone 3g. There are times when she has a very strong signal and I have no signal (Edge). Frustrating.

On my phone (week 27 - 16GB white), the handoff between 3G and Edge is seemless. Sometimes I might hear a tiny little pop of static, but most times I don't even notice it.

HI!

I'm not so good at english, but try to explain my experiences...
I had Iphone 3G, no SP lock.... (I sold it because this problem)

I made a simply test:
With my Air I use a Huawei e270 HSDPA modem (USB). It is a HSPA modem, because the upload is maximum 2mbps, download is maximum 7.2mbps. This modem has the following speed at home (my house) : 3420/1048kbps.

So I put the sim card to the iphone, and made a Speedtest: it was 500/280kbps. It is slow. So I tried to tune it. If the phone is in my hand about a horizontal position - the speed is only 500kbps (down). If I hold the phone vertical, betveen my two fingers at the heigth of the Home button, touching it on the edges - the download speed increased to 960kbps. So the hands cut off half the signal (it not depends on the orientation (vertical/horizontal) (shadowing the antennas)... - dont hold it in your hand 🙂

I made a second measuring:
I've sent a mail with a 4.37MB picture attached. It was 5984kb (full mail). The Air got it about 15s (with Huawei modem), the Iphone got it about 83s.

So I made two measuring, where the Iphone was a lot slower than the Huawei E270 on the same place at the same time ....

The Huawei has the 3x-5x speed of the Iphone (downside)(upside is not the same technology (HSDPA vs HSUPA)...

This is a bad joke! It is so slow, that I sold the Iphone and use the old Huawei to reach the 3G network.

Now I know why I didnt found HSDPA specifications (speed) on the http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html page!!!

One item of interest I found today.

I finally had it with the 3G reception after it being pretty spotty lately, and after trying everything, including watching my friends new LG shine get a steady 3 bars [about -95 to -85 dbm] in the exact same place I was for an hour.

I went to the Apple Store and made an appointment. What I found surprised the daylights out of me. One man overheard me talking to a 'Genius' who was helping make appointments, and said, "That's disappointing, I currently have 5 bars of reception!". This piqued my interest, so I walked over to him and asked to see his phone.

First thing I did, have him turn off the wireless, which is one by default and explained to him, when he kept it on you couldn't tell what cellular network you were connected to unless there were no 802.11 connections floating around. After this it proceeded to show the EDGE network, which I explained to him was the network the original iPhone operated on and that he paid for a 3G iPhone, meaning he should be on the best network AT&T has to offer. When asked what the difference was I told him call and data quality and speed are greatly improved - think near talking to someone next to you when it's working. It wasn't connected to a 3G antenna [although mine was connected to one that happened to be in the mall, barely with half a bar]. I showed him how to reset it so that it would connect to the 3G network, and how to know when it's on, etc before his appointment with a Genius. Meanwhile, I didn't notice the crowd of other iPhone 3G users who were sitting there listening to our conversation, and following the same steps to show their phones weren't connecting either. Lo' and Behold, even a brand new owner was seeing the same results! Yet 20 feet forward you could get 5 Bars [-75 to -85 dbm since mine never goes below that for some reason which I find odd.]. All of this struck me like it was out of a storybook, and I felt sorry for the Genii who will be answering a ton of questions soon from about a dozen iPhone owners. But what I also found is Apple's staff is not teaching users or wasn't instructed to teach users ABOUT the possibilities the networks use for their phones, even when the one customer I spoke directly to had paid $100 for a class!

At this point, I am not sure if a replacement phone, which will be my third total phone so far in < 6 weeks since I had a launch day phone], will fix the problem if Apple hasn't fixed the chipset. I'm firmly convinced at this point, as I wasn't before, that it was just the network since my phone would perform ok in certain places. After seeing what I saw in the store, and experiencing what I see is a complete failure to communicate and acknowledge what's happening [although the Apple Store Staff has always been extremely helpful and sympathetic, thank you Santa Clara Apple Store Employees!].

This issue needs to be fixed, and the media coverage that is floating around it is finally a good thing because it may push Apple and/or AT&T to find a better solution, or move faster with whatever fixes there need to be. I know that using 850 MHz on the spectrum is not the only solution to this issue, and won't be - a lot of this is Apple's doing as well.

I’m having the same 3G problem as most. Full bars on 3G and then my reception drops to zero bars and I loose the call. I contacted AT&T and I have never had such horrible customer service in my life. Hang-ups, fake customer service names, double billing....Is this an iPhone problem or just AT&T's lack of service? My iPhone has been nothing but perfect, with exception of my dropped calls. I may go back to Verizon...15 days to make my decision, so much for more bars in more places!

I just needed to go on record stating that I am having the same issues with my 3G. The fact that either one, I get no 3G reception or at least not anything good enough to complete a call or that two, even when I am moving through an area with 3G coverage my calls drop if It needs to switch back to the EDGE, I basically just have to keep my 3G signal turned off at all times. It is useless to me. I paid for a 3G phone that can't use the 3G network. This is very frustrating. The second I switch it back to EDGE, the signal jumps up and everything is fine. I live in Temple City, CA. and work in Pasadena CA. The ATT 3G coverage map states that I should have Best to Good coverage at my home in Temple City. I have NO coverage even when I am outside.