GSM buzzing in earpiece during calls

Hearing Aids, telephones, and a few other unshielded technologies can pick up the feedback of "GSM" signals in all types (GPRS, Edge, and 3G). If you are using a hearing aid, your doctor or another agency may know of a shielded hearing aid.

http://www.gsmworld.com/health/links/hearingaidfaquser.shtml#ques5
Would a different aid help?
Before thinking of changing your hearing aid it would be worth while to try different mobile phones to see if there is one that is suitable (See Question 3). Some hearing aids have higher levels of immunity to interference than others. In general smaller aids worn in the ear have higher immunity, than those worn behind the ear. It is important for the user to try a new aid with a mobile phone to confirm that it does not cause interference before accepting it. It is also important to remember that the power level of the phone?s transmitter changes with geographic location and therefore the radio signal is likely to be greater in a rural situation than in the centre of a town. The radio frequency that the phone is using may also change if it is a dual band model. The phone should therefore be tested in a range of situations with the hearing aid, as it may not be satisfactory in all conditions of use.

i too have had this problem, though it is very light and i can usually only hear it when there is silence in the phone call (neither party talking).

mine does this, never used a phone in which the earpiece wasn't properly shielded before so anyone saying its normal is not reading what people have written. my 3gs didn't do this.

have a genius appointment thursday, was told i would get a new phone as its clearly a hardware issue and not a very common one as very few people have mentioned it online.

otherwise the phone is stunning, antenna issue exists but hasn't affected my actual use. beyond accentuating the earpiece noise perhaps as the phone is dropping into edge instead of 3g.

will post thursday with results.

i went to the g bar and they gave me a new phone.

it was very noisy there so i couldn't really test it, got home and still has the same sound.

the call starts on 3g and its perfectly clear and as my hand is partially covering the antenna strip 3g drops and i start to get gsm noise.

the chances that i got two phones with faulty wiring are very unlikely but possible, i rather assume its because i don't have a great signal in my house and am dropping out of 3g quickly and causing the interference. i suppose its possible i have never noticed this before as i have never had a phone with a stupid antenna design that drops so easily.

guess a bumper will help protect the signal and thus the call from dropping out of 3g and stop this noise from occurring.

to be fair its only really noticeable when somewhere quite quiet, though maybe thats always going to be indoors where ones signal is on the weaker side.

i wonder why more people have not noticed this,

could some more people try this out. go somewhere quiet, turn 3g off on your phone in network settings and then call another phone but don't talk, just listen to what should be silence.

do you hear silence?

bump.

Yes the radio noise is there when in edge mode but it's barely noticeable and nothing I'd call abnormal for a wireless device. I've heard that same noise on plenty of other phones in the past.

3G, however, is clear as can be but I suspect that's due to different frequencies/modulation for that service.

Bump.

Just want to make sure the community knows this problem still exists.

I have an iPhone 3GS, and recently started hearing the loud GSM noise. I haven't seen many others try to describe the actual sound to confirm that the issues are the same, so for me it sounds like consistent Morse Code. The explanation for why it occurs that I've found (GSM Radio Frequency Noise) makes sense, but is unacceptable.

The phone is meant for human communication, clearly if I wanted to communicate with clicks and beeps, I'd stick to telegraph.

Please provide an update for us Apple! I realize that you cannot control the means in which the carrier utilizes their communication technology, but an audible network not only doesn't seem secure, it's also a serious quality control issue.

Yes, i have the same problem when holding the iP4 in my left hand (non 3G) but when i switch to the right i have no problems, going to take it to the G-bar and see if i can get a new phone.

I could not agree more with you guys. I have exchanged my iphone4 twice already but all three phones has the same issue (interference sound). The bizarre thing is, my husband and two of my other friends do not experience this problem, I wonder if it's the network because none of them are using O2 which is what I am on. I feel helpless, irritated by this sound and very disappointed with Apple. P.S. my old iphone 3G is perfectly clear.
Any comments on how to resolve this as the genius bar cannot help on this?

I've got the same problem. I've only just started noticing it, but I'm indoors in a quiet area where I have terrible service and really am only able to make/receive calls in here sporadically. When I'm outdoors I don't hear it, but probably because the ambient noise blocks it out.

The sound it's making in the earpiece speaker sounds like the GSM interference noise you hear in computer or car speakers when a cell phone is near them. Very faint but noticeable in a quiet environment.

Dut-dut-dut, dut-dut-dut, duhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

I thought about going for a replacement, as it seems that not all iPhone 4s have this problem, but it also seems that enough of them do to the point that a replacement would likely not help.

Have received a third iphone replacement with this problem has anyone managed to find a solution?

If I'm in an area of poor coverage it gets very loud and annoying

Can it be sent back to Apple for repair rather than replacement I wonder?

I too have started to notice this noise. It's very faint and exactly as described on this forum (like when a phone is trying to search for network when placed near a loudspeaker.
As others here are reporting that taking it back for a replacement doesn't seem to help, I can only assume that we've to put up with this. Admittedly, I'm very rarely in a completely quiet environment so hopefully it won't be too annoying.
I can't confirm whether it's not present when the phone has 3G signal, as here in Coventry the common places I use my phone don't get it!!!
I think I'm going to keep an eye on it and if it get's worse, I'll complain. If all mobile operators get their finger out and update their entire service coverage to 3G this will probably go away.
Other than this issue, I love my iPhone 4...not had any other issues at all.

Very disappointed to learn about this.

I received my iPhone4 this morning, and after a pleasant experience of restoring the back-up of my previous iphone to the new one I made a first test call. I immediately knew something was wrong. I heard a buzzing interference sound during the whole call. Much like the one that can occur in loudspeakers when an 'active' gsm device is near by.

I have contacted Apple to report the problem and got frustrated at some point because of their lack of customer support here in Denmark! I mean, a brand new device that was delivered about an hour before I have to call Apple about this issue and all they could offer was a 'repair' solution. This would mean that I wouldn't have a phone for about 10 days, and oh, no replacement phones are available from Apple during the repair period.

After talking with some guy higher up the hierarchy at Apple, he assured me that a brand new phone will be shipped to my home.

But after reading the posts here, I guess this won't solve a thing. It is indeed the case that I have rather bad signal coverage at home with my current provider. I guess it holds true for me that I have only experienced these problems over Edge and not over 3G.

Was anyone able to fix this? Or did Apple at least acknowledge it and said they were working on a fix?

I just received my 4th iPhone 4 32GB from T-Mobile Germany with the very same issue. I' getting tired of sending it back and having them sent a new one and I kind of doubt they'll send me a 5th one...