iPhone 3G reception versus iPhone 1G reception

Ah, this is where the finger-pointing begins between AT&T and APPLE I'd say.
While I never owned the 1G as you refer to it, I do own the 3G for 3-days and have noticed 3-4 dropped calls in my local area, whereas I never had the issue while on Verizon for 5-yrs now. So while that doesn't answer your question... I would assume APPLE will tell you nothing has technically changed internally between the 1G and 3G other than the 3G having a plastic back cover... therefore, the reception from either phone should be the same and that it is an AT&T issue. On the flip side, AT&T will say that nothing has changed with their 3G technology (ask in person so you can watch them evolve into Pinochio); therefore, if there were no reported problems with the 1G, then it has to be something about APPLES "3G iPhone's" technology and not AT&T's 3G network. While both have some merit in their argument... we do know that the 3G network may not work as well in buildings, etc. and that it's "available" bandwidth with the significance of more 3G iPhones being in use has to cause a drain on it.. which is why they are having to add more 3G towers... remember IT 101? The analogy of bandwidth with a highway? So, if in 2000 you had a four-lane highway capable of handling "x" amount of traffic during rush hour with no issues and in 2008 that same highway is now experiencing 10-fold in additional traffic volume... guess what? So as APPLE was caught by surprise by the increase in volume demand and sales of the new 3G, so was AT&T in being able to ramp their systems and servers to accommodate the increased traffic. There are system performance tools out there that proactively manage the performance of heterogeneous and multi-vendor networks, thereby, pinpointing areas of potential and actual performance degradation before they happen, generating reports in advance in id'g problematic areas of concern prior to systems failing. These systems also provide flexible and scalable thresholds to accommodate system demand fluctuations. I would wager that AT&T has not invested in the right system to anticipate and accommodate the load they are experiencing. As for APPLE... if it is a 3G issue, it will require a hardware update most likely and I will leave the rest up to your own imagination on how that will play out. That's my story and I am sticking to it...

3G and EDGE connections are different networks, transmitting on different frequencies using different equipment in both the phone and the tower. So it's perfectly normal for there to be a difference in signal strength between the two, especially since 3G doesn't penetrate buildings as well as EDGE does. AT&T says they are upgrading their 3G network in many areas to increase signal strength.

There's also a second issue, which is that there is no standard "signal strength to bars formula." If a cell phone detects a signal strength of 13 dB, it could display that as one bar, two bars, 87 bars, six bars and a dancing monkey, or anything else the phone maker wanted. The iPhone 3G tends to show a pretty low number of bars for 3G, even with acceptable signal strength. In short: if your phone is working properly, don't sit there and count bars. 🙂

I just purchased an iPhone 3G too and have experienced similar symptoms. My first impression was fantastic. It was a Saturday. I had a long (1.5 hour) phone conversation while I was walking all around my house (1st floor, second floor, attic, but I didn't go down to the basement). The call was crystal clear and things were great. The signal strength indicator was pegged at 5 bars all day long. I discovered Pandora.com radio and went out for a walk and it switched from my home WI-FI to the 3G with no trouble and I listened to the radio for an hour an half.

Then Monday rolled around. The signal strength was fine until about 9am or 9:30am then the signal strength indicator dropped to zero bars and fluctuated back and forth between one and zero all day long (mostly zero, and once in a while up to 4 or 5). Then on Monday evening it was back up pegged at 5 bars all evening.

This leads me to believe that the signal strength indicator is also related to the load on the network. I guess the phone makes a connection to the tower, but then the tower fills up and drops it off, so it has to look for another tower. There seems to be one tower on the edge my range that isn't too busy, but the signal is very weak here. The closer towers have stronger signals, but they are much busier during the day.

Then I turned 3G off. I have WI-FI in my house, so it wasn't getting used anyway. The signal strength indicator is now consistently fluctuating between 4 and 5 bars, calls are clear and don't get dropped.

I think the problem is clearly with the capacity of AT&T's 3G network in my area, the Hensley district of San Jose between downtown and Japantown.

I'll try this for a few days before transferring my land line phone number to my iPhone. If it turns out that I can't get perfect voice phone reception at home, then I'll simply return the phone under the 30 day policy.

Before we start pointing fingers lets gather some real data first. As noted above, bars are no measure of signal strength. However, iPhone does have a proper signal read out if you know how to get to it. Field Test mode is used by network engineers for all kinds of neat things but in this case we can use it for signal measurement.

Go to the Phone app>Keypad and dial 3001#12345#. This should enter the Field Test app. In the top left hand corner is a signal measure (Technically it's a measurement of background/interference:signal). The more negative (The higher the number) the worse the signal and obviously the inverse is true as well (Lower is better). Remember that your 3G signal will change drastically if you leave an urban area since the number of towers they use to rely the signal is very low.

Some of my own measurements (I'm in Vancouver Canada) 71 is the clearest signal that I have achieved on the 3G model. This gave me a data throughput of over 1300 kbs over 3G. On a regular day in and around buildings downtown I will get between 80-85 and get 500-800 kbs over 3G. Once I have a signal that is 90+ I start to drop maybe 1 in a hundred calls. iPhone switches over to 2G if the signal reaches 97.

Post your results as well (location is important too) I'm very curious.

I know there are now lawsuits and endless discussions related to this issue, with finger pointing between Apple, AT&T, and even the chipset manufacturer. I know there is an issue, but today I had an experience that made me think the defect is not across the board. I have had crummy 3G reception with TWO separate iPhones, so I know it is clearly widespread, but I now have my doubts about it being universal on the device...

Today I sat next to a woman with a new iPhone who said her husband's phone dropped calls like crazy but hers was great -- then she opened it up and showed me her 5 full bars of 3G. I've had such terrible 3G reception in general I've got it switched off to keep from dropping calls. I switched my 3G on and it went from 5 EDGE bars to barely 1 bar of 3G. This while sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HER. Hers never wavered from a full 5 bars!

How does that happen?