iphone 3GS, no service on 3G

Try swapping the SIM card between your phone and your dad's.

If the problem stays with the phone, it is a hardware issue.

If the problem stays with the SIM card, contact your carrier to get a replacement SIM card.

I have the same problem. My wifes phone is on iOS 4.2 and I am on 4.3.4 (upgraded a few days ago). After I upgraded I lost 3G completely. When the 3G radio is on I get "No Service" repeatedly. My wife's phone right next to mine will have 4 bars! I swapped the SIM cards between the phones and the problem is definitely phone specific (not SIM card related), as the iOS 4.3.4 phone continued to exhibit the "No Service" problem with her SIM card in it. I have tried resetting my network, hard reset on the phone, restoring from backup, etc. All to no avail. If I turn off the 3G radio, I get 2G (Edge) consistently and without issue... it's just slow.

What did Apple do to break my 3GS phone in iOS 4.3.4 and when can I expect a fix???? In the mean time, I will not update my wifes phone as hers works currently. Clearly this is an Apple iOS issue and not a carrier issue (we both use AT&T).

Help!

Thanks,

John

jheimann wrote:

What did Apple do to break my 3GS phone in iOS 4.3.4 and when can I expect a fix????

Apple did nothing to break 3G in iOS4.3.4 and it clearly is not an iOS issue. Clearly, if it was an iOS issue, millions of other iPhone users would be experiencing issues and that simply is not the case.

what you describe is a very likely hardware failure that unfortunately coincided with the iOS update.

If the normal troubleshooting (e.g. reset, restart, restore) has been performed and the issue persists, the only thing left is hardware failure.

Diesel, thanks for the information. I see lots of posts with people having the same problem I am describing. It is also quite possible to have a software bug and not have it affect every phone (millions of people) as you suggest. I develop software for a living and know the pitfalls.

I will update my wife's phone tonight and see what happens. If its a coinsidence, then my wife's phone will upgrade without issue. I'll post back with the results.

Thanks,

John

Checked signal on my wifes phone 4 bars of 3G. Upgraded it to 4.3.5 (4.3.4 is no longer available) and now she has the same problem as I have. No service with 3G radio turned on. Turn off 3G and she (and I) have 4 bars of 2G (Edge).

I fail to see how this can be a hardware problem, given that prior to upgrading both of these phones, they worked fine and afterwards no service with 3G.

Deisel, now I have two disabled phones 😟

Apple, what are you doing about this???

Has anyone ever considered the fact that this may be a ploy by apple to force people to buy a new iphone??? I mean really it's not just a few people, search the web, its hundreds of thousands! I have 2 iphone 3gs and both have signal loss and no reception 20-30 times a day. I don't even know how many missed calls i get in a day, but thats a loss of business for me. I don't have the money to buy 2 new 600 dollar phones again!

If apple does not fix this issue soon or replace my 'out of warranty' but still like 'brand new' phones i will head down to the local apple store and tell everyone i see not to buy an iphone. I may not get a new phone but apple might lose 100 sales that day. Then i'll be happy!

You've been hit by the known bug that Apple has thus far been ignoring. You can try complaining to Apple, but so far they've said nothing. The bug appears to have been introduced in 4.3.3, and persists even in iOS5.

Do a search of the forums and many have experienced the same thing. Absolutely an iOS bug, since for most of us it was working fine prior to 4.3.3. But clearly there's something else in play, since not everybody sees this. But since Apple has totally ignored the complaints, obviously they're not interested in trying to troubleshoot with us.

Anyway, try turning off 3G, but leave 2G/EDGE enabled. You'll probably find your signal strength stabilized, and you'll just have to live with slower data.

Once again, as soon as there's discussion of a bug, this discussion gets "branched to a new discussion" that I can't read. Seems to happen as soon as evidence of a bug is raised. Curious, that.

Anyway, to be clear, I'm not really convinced this is any form of malice on Apple's part. A bug snuck in at some point (I believe in the 4.3.2 -> 4.3.3 timeframe), and since the percentage of users affected remains small, it's just being ignored.

No one here can "do something useful" beyond suggest that you follow basic troubleshooting steps as outlined in the User's Guide.

Frankly, update to the latest version of iOS.

I find it humourous that someone would be so stupid as to deal with an issue like this for six months without addressing the issue with their carrier and/or taking the device to an Apple store.

FYI, we're all user's like yourself, so stop being a ***** and telling others what to do.

first of all:
I followed the basic troubleshooting steps, nothing good
I got the latest iOS

I contacted my carrier and they said it is the phone since several other people reported the same issue.
I've been very busy in the last 6 month so I couldnt check for fixes etc. so i just deal with the edge instead of 3G

The last thing, there is no Apple Store in Romania so good advice

I had no problem with you my friend on start but you just wanted to show me how stupid I am for posting in a old thread. please find something else to do with your life

Hi all,

I also encountering the same problem. The last thing i did to my iphone 3gs was to remove the SIM card to another phone for testing. After placing it back to my iphone, my 3G shows "no service" while my 2G is still getting full bar signal. I tried replacing my SIM first, which didnt work well. I then tried with another SIM which also turned out to have this problem. I tried mounting my SIM on another phone andwas able to get full 3G Signal.

Since this is a hardware issue (antenna issue), I searched on ways to boost the antenna signal and found that the SIM card holder also play a part in affecting the signal!! (never knew that is possible).

I tried shim my SIM card from the back with a post it pad, didnt work. I tried inserting a piece of plastic (cut out from my new SIMs plastic card) on the end of the SIM to secure it. It gave me no service.

Beware not to get the plastic jamed in your SIM card reader.

I remove the plastic and place my SIM back and my 3G signal is back to full bar!!!

Conclusion, the SIM card placement can play a part in causing this intermittent 3G no signal. Iphone 3GS's SIM card try has quite a bit of clearance and that may allow the SIM card to be out of position. the SIM card reader's contact may have dirt particles on it. If your iphone is working fine, try not to remove the sim card.

Thanks Michael, this worked for me! I got a 3GS and all worked fine except for no 3G network ... EDGE works fine. So I swpped a SIM that was showing 3G connectivity to the 3GS and it shows 3G data. So the next step was to contact my service provider (H2O wireless) and had them transfer my number to the new SIM. At first it didn't work so she had me shut it off while she reset the network settings.. I turned it back on and VOILA .. I now have 3G! I think the problem was caused by a worn out SIM card.... I swap it out a lot to different phones I work on,and the contacts were messed up. I was ready to tear apart the new 3GS and replace the dock connector to see if the problem was hardware, so thanks again! It WAS the bad SIM! Easy fix!

exactly same thing here.... please apple give us some help because its just too lame to let it like this since so many people have the same problem

Uh... why in the world are you digging up a year old thread?

cause i have the same problem since 6 month ago, i tried lots of stuff to fix it and i could'nt. instead of being a jerk do something useful