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

It' a PAIN that nobody came up with this earlier. We've spent days trying to find out what could be the common problem of so many people using the iPhone WORLDWIDE.

Could it be that anyone who has these problems lives in a building that is painted?

That is the solution. we should all use iPaint instead.

"That is the solution. we should all use iPaint instead." - Nice one. However:

I don't think it's "iPaint" we should use. I think Apple use a different one called "Whitewash" - don't they? They seem to use it an awful lot.

Throwing my two cents in. I've been in very populated areas (New York City, New Jersey) and the "Call fails" over and over again--even when I've got good 3G coverage.

I would be very interested to hear about solutions to this problem. Glad to hear I'm not alone.

Best,
Lewis

Having the same issue in an eastern suburb of Cleveland. AT&T map shows we should have good 3G coverage.
We have 2 16G phones and go from No Service to 2 bars inside our house (Edge not 3G). We get full bars of 3G at the end of our block!
Yesterday my wife dropped 4 calls driving home.

We have an appointment at the genius bar tomorrow. Hopefully they have a fix of some type for this. Of course you can't return the phone now that it has been more than 14 days!

Not happy with Apple on this fiasco.

Quote from Bloomberg Financial today (sorry if this is old news):
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Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest maker of semiconductors, declined to comment on an analyst report stating Apple Inc.'s 3G iPhone has reception problems because of a chipset supplied by the German company.

``The 3G iPhone has been out for a month, but signs of problems are appearing that should give competitors some breathing space,'' Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura International Plc in London, wrote in a note to customers dated Aug. 12. ``We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier.''

According to Windsor, 3G iPhone users complained about dropped calls and loss of reception while in good coverage.

Infineon spokesman Guenter Gaugler wouldn't comment on the report when contacted by Bloomberg News today. He also wouldn't say whether the company supplies the components to Apple. Cupertino, California-based Apple also declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Hippin in Frankfurt at ahippin@bloomberg.net.
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Old iPhone on AT&T: No major problems.
New 3G iPhone on AT&T: Huge problems.

Not only do I drop calls here in Denver while sitting and now moving or even touching the phone, but what's happening just as much is this:

While talking on a call, within a few minutes, there will be this silence in my earpiece. I can't hear anything. The first few times I thought I dropped the call but by the time I looked at the phone and brought it back to my hear, the silence is gone and the person is still talking. That silence lasts about 5 full seconds and happens on virtually every single call I've made on this thing.

The friends at the Apple store aren't so friendly anymore on this topic. They are impatient and won't help saying they can't do anything and to just deal with it. Sad. Even the customer service at the Apple stores has degraded. All is fine when we're purchasing. All is not fine when we're concerned about the sub-par performance of a very expensive phone.

This is not good news:

http://www.engineerlive.com/in-our-opinion/20534/apple-stresses-cost-reduction-f or-iphone-3g.thtml

I see a lot of complaints of how the phone is not passing the call from 3G to edge correctly. That should only be a valid complaint if you live in an area on the outskirts of coverage. I think the majority of people here live in an area that boast excellent reception on the AT&T map.

Since I live in an area that boast excellent coverage, my expectation is to have a constant full signal all the time. We shouldn't have to jump through hoops just to get reception. JUST FIX IT. PLEASE!

I suspect that most writers on this forum, even if they are experiencing problems, would have no way to tell if it is a chipset or software based problem. People get hysterical when they experience a problem and sometimes jump to the worst case scenario. How anyone here would be able to tell that a problem is a result of a chipset is beyond me.

Also, the device does have firmware and potentially an update to the firmware could have an impact on the unit.

Really, given all of the factors involved, new device, recently updated software, new network deployment, networks under stress and users who are unfamiliar with this sort of experience could easily result in a circumstance where people believe that the device is defective when it is not.

The real test would be to carry another 3G device on the same network and to really use it, test in under the same conditions. Just looking at the bars on the other device is not necessarily and indicator of the network quality. You'd want to make a call or use data. For all we know the network is bad for both device and the iPhone is just better at indicating that the network is not reliable, so its giving you inconsistent bars. Who knows.

I am not trying to discount that people are having problems, I just can't figure how a user of the device would isolate it to a chipset without doing real testing and really some hardware diagnostics.

I think I have a very defective iPhone. yesterday alone, the phone reset itself completley 4 times. I mean to the point where my entire home screen is reset to defaults, and you get the confirmation message telling you how to change the look of the home screen.

My battery, if I get 10 hours of light use I'm thrilled

Network, sometimes I get email, most of the time I don't (Exchange server email)

Signal quality, and jumping bars, well lets just say, I don't even move and I can see the bars doing a dance.

I have tried doing complete resets, restoring from backups, you name it I've done it, but for the past 2-3 days, the problems have gotten much much worse. In my area we don't have an Apple store, however I just happen to be in Chicago on business and have an appointment tonite at 730 with the genius bar. I paid serious money, considering I bought out a plan on another network, and bought the phone as well as getting a very expensive voice plan giving me North American coverage... I expect to be supported, and to have a phone fulfill its basic duties... hate to say it but my +Windows Mobile based Motorolla Q+ walked circles around this phone in terms of usefulness, and ability to perform, and be stable.

Message was edited by: PuckPuck

Well,

if you read the posts here you'll quickly see that many people, especially in Markets with mature, stable 3G networks have done just that. It's not about bars. It's about the iPhone having no network, dropped and failed calls and bad call quality where other 3G handsets have none of those issues on the same network, in the same location, at the same time.

One of my coworkers still has an iPhone 3G, his third, he rarely has any 3G service in our office and calls often go directly to voice mail, while my Nokia 6280 happily makes and receives calls on 3G, while displaying the full four bars of signal strength. and yes, we are using the same carrier.

+The real test would be to carry another 3G device on the same network and to really use it, test in under the same conditions.+

This is what some people HAVE done, in this thread and the original thread.

result: they could make phone calls with their Nokia/other device while their iPhone 3G showed no service.

It definitely isn't the network.

if it is the iPhone 3G hardware or firmware, this I don't know. but the fact that the signal keeps jumping up and down even when you move your hands around the phone suggests to me that this is an antenna issue.

I'm not an expert though and the most knowledgeable persons on this probably sit in cupertino. they just need to share their knowledge.

As a long time Apple customer, both personal and professional, I find my recent experience with the iPhone 3G and MobileMe to be very upsetting. I can't believe I sold my old iPhone 8GB for this horrible white iPhone 3G 16Gb. Since day one I've had terrible 3G signal strength (in DFW, a heavily covered area), abysmal battery life (with and without 3G enabled, bluetooth off, and wifi disabled), serious interface slowdowns (keystrokes taking placing 15 seconds after typing), and poor ipod performance (slow to respond, forgetting track location, skipping, repeating.) Don't even get me started on the constant need to 'reboot' the phone because Safari and Map crashes.

That doesn't even include all the terrible issues I've had with the half baked mess that is MobileMe.

I work in technology, and understand it's not perfect. But that does not excuse what is obviously an attempt by Apple to capitalize on the iPhone's success and turn out a sub par product.

Come on Apple, admit there's a design issue with this phone, the longer you wait the more of these lemons there will be out there for you to replace.

On the fence about whether or not to get one? DON'T!

I refuse to use my contacts at Apple corporate to get the help I need, but never get from Apple support. Because I want to see what a normal customer would have to suffer through with this product. My experience will heavily influence my future personal and professional purchases, as well as whether or not I continue to be a shareholder.

Definitely the hardware/software - not the network.

Last week, I called apple iPhone support about the reception issue. They instructed me to go to my local Apple store for a visit with the 'Genius Bar'. The 'Genius' on duty acted like he never heard of the reception issue and offered to replace my iPhone at a later date.

Saturday night I received a call that my replacement was in stock - so yesterday I made the voyage (25 miles) to the Apple Store.

HERE IS WHERE IT GOT INTERESTING FOLKS - I was told the NEW POLICY is not to replace the phones and hope that the 2.0 update cures the problem. I was totally dumb struck and a bit peeved that I have now driven 100 miles during two visits for nothing. Apparently, the new policy occured somewhere between Saturday Night and Tuesday Night.

I asked to speak with the manager who would not see me but told the 'Genius' to replace my iPhone, which cost me another 2 hours of my life to restore its function. The new phone has cheaper construction - the buttons stick out too far and it feels different. There is also a noticeable lag.

So, officially from Apple - it's the phone and not the network.

My son has used an LG 3G phone for over a year and its works just great. It is not the network.