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

Hey Baseliner,

You are very welcome!

The Apple store will always take care of you!

Enjoy the phone 🙂

Doug

Did you have to make an appointment PATRICIO_NY?

Here's an example of what happened tonight. This type of thing happens often. Do you think I have a defective phone?

I had 3 bars of 3G. I get a call and missed it, listened to the voice mail, then called back.
About 30 seconds in to the call I hear a loud static then disconnected.
I try to call back, but I'm unable to place an outgoing call. It just showed "Calling XYZ" and would sit there until I'd cancel it or it would read "call failed.
After 4-5 min of trying this I turned on airplane mode for 15s (per troubleshooting tips) and back off. 4 bars of 3G, still can't place a call.
Airplane mode again, and back off.
4 bars of 3G. Call is placed successfully, and I get more voice mails.

The other person had tried to call me and the phone didn't ring (it went to VM.)

I've also called my phone and heard it ring, ring, ring (in the ear piece of the calling phone) for 30 seconds and go to VM, but the iPhone never rang.
Again plenty of 3G signal.

I've scheduled an appointment at the Genius bar. I hear that's what you're supposed to do. I'm concerned that if I get a replacement it will be someone else's broken refurb.

Oh well, we'll see.

Also I've done a full restore (without restoring the backup) several times and I'm on 2.1. This hasn't helped.

occasionally we've had to hold the home button for maybe twenty seconds, to restore normality (mainly with app's), and once or twice we've had to hold the power & home buttons down for ten seconds or more, to get things back on an even keel ... so could be worth trying these, too !

BTW, we find our 'phones go to voicemail much too quickly - maybe if we were to activate voicemail we'd be able to change that ? Also most e-mails seem (seem) to come-in unannounced (no sound, no vibrate), despite the settings being to announce them !

Message was edited by: Christopher John Hunter

You don't have to hold it that long. If you press the Home button and the running application doesn't respond then it gets terminated by the iPhone OS after about 20 seconds or so.

AVRHack wrote:

What's important is how well the phone holds the calls and/or pulls down data. For me the N95 and iPhone show 2 bars in a relatively poor reception area but the iPhone almost immediately bails out when you try to make a call or surf the web, whereas the N95 just works.

Same SIM, same place, same network - only difference is the phone.

Totally agree, if apple had the only 3G phone available then we would all be blaming our local networks, of course they have their own faults due to false coverage maps. But a lot of people have experienced 3G using other manufacturers phones and found the reception to be much better than the iphone, in my own case I have a Nokia E51 and even though the 3G signal is lower than the iphone represents (with 2.1 the signal bars are totally false, 3 bars ~ -107dBm!) it maintains this connection, my iphone shows 3 bars then after a couple of mins jumps back to GPRS (which is useless for data). I would prefer apple reverse the false signal meter indication, at least I knew where I was with 1 bar!

Yes, already had checked with this site, UTMS O2 base station just up the road. Pity my phone cannot see it 😟 , the Nokia has a better sense of direction 🙂

Hi,

My iPhone now regularly drops network connection and signal is marginal most of the time. Wifi is also marginal.

This problem has arisen SINCE I did the 2.1 upgrade. I have performed a RESORE, made no difference.

It's changing my attitude towards the iPhone, which is now loosing it's appeal, fast!

Anyone know of a store in Manhattan that has the SIM card reader and card station app Doug mentioned? I have called around to a bunch and every store claims they do not have it or have no idea what I am talking about...Have the same issues over and over. In certain locations like my apartment (and on the patio) my calls drop when i have full bars...and it continues to show full bars throughout but for some reason it cannot hold the call.

For all of you who are still having 3G problems, check out this website and go through the steps and see if it helps at all (This is for AT&T members):

http://www.iphone3gworks.com/

You'll see an update 3G Fix on the middle of the right side of the page. It's worked for a number of people that I've talked to and hopefully it will help others.

How can changing your SIM card improve the receiver performance of the phone? This makes no sense to me. Can you explain in more detail why you think this will work? The SIM card is most certainly not the "brain" of the phone. I think you're wasting people's time with this advice.

Regards,
Greg

So if I were getting a new phone from AT&T, how do I tell if the SIM card is "new" so that I won't need to go in and do a swap later on (if there exists reception problems)? I couldn't read the full text for the "why doesn't AT&T fix this" FAQ cos there was a vote thingy on top of it.. thanks!

Hey Greg,

You are correct. The SIM is not the brains of the phone. But according to AT&T its the brains of the network! This procedure absolutely solved our issues. Any many others. Not everyone... but a lot of peoples. The trick is properly initializing the SIM. Even Apple is now recommending this procedure.

Thanks,
Doug

Hello Dhy8386,

Wow... hard to believe that AT&T in Manhattan does not have a SIM card reader! Unbelievable. Try calling AT&T Corporate Headquarters. Call during office hours (8-5) they are located in San Antonio, TX. (210) 821-4105 or (210) 223-0095 and ask for Jim Callaway. He is the SEVP Executive Operations.

Of course you will not be able to talk with him, but you should be able to get his secretary. If the "operator" asks why you are calling (and probably will)... reply with "I'm returning his call".

Thank,
Doug

A former rep over on Howard Forums told me that you don't need a new SIM (that it's not necessary.) They can do a CARD upgrade on an existing SIM.

He said 8/10 people an OTA (over the air) update solves problems.
For the other 2/10 people the CARD upgrade solved the issues.

I had to drag the info out of him. In typical rep fashion, he wanted to know what other means of troubleshooting I exhausted (implying that a SIM update would do nothing.)

What I just don't get is that if these SIMs need to be updated, why doesn't AT&T update them?
They just let people live with poor performance?

Another rep said he's never heard of a card upgrade station.