Update to iOS 5 Signal Problems?

I have remained faithful to my iPhone 3 GS and it worked perfectly until this IOS 5 upgrade. Now I'm constantly losing signal and internet access : it comes back after a few seconds but that's enough to lose a phone call or be logged out of on-line applications. Infuriating and I find it quite careless of Apple to release an upgrade with such a very basic flaw - this is something which quite basic testing should have highlighted. Let's hope they're working 24/7 to fix this.

This is driving me bonkers! I drop one call four times! 4! it was supposed to be a quick 10 minute call but it turned into a 30 min. call b/c I had to keep calling the other person back. It is so embarrasing 😟

I was so excited to upgrate my IPhone 4 to the new OS and now I wish I would have waited to find out what type of problems everyone was having. I refuse to upgrade to the 4S when I have a perfectly good phone, well perfectly good before this upgrade. All I want to do now is throwing against the wall!

I have also noticed that the battery drains pretty quickly, I assumed that it was due more apps (maybe?).

I have a 3GS and I performed the update to iOS5 last week. While I am not too impressed with it being billed as the biggest/best update, the phone did work great for a few days after I performed the update. Today that has changed. It dropped a call and kept the 'phone' screen on the display. When I clicked end call, it stayed there. If I click the home button, it goes back to the home screen, but the green band "touch here to return to the call" is displayed at the top of the screen. If I touch there, the phone blinks one quick time -- like it is trying to display the phone screen, but goes back to the home screen. At the same time I noticed that the phone is searching for service. I rarely see my iphone searching for service. It seems to do this every 30 - 60 seconds. It will also do this when trying to send a text message. I have also noticed the battery life is not as good as it was when I has iOS 4.3.3 (which for the most part was flawless on my iphone). Today the battery seemed to go down very quickly (probably because it is constantly searching for signal).

I have done a restart/reboot (hold home button & power button until the apple displays) a few times since I noticed the issue. I have dropped 5 calls now since this issue started this afternoon. My iphone is basically useless right not in this state.

I'll throw my name in with those having issues. I had no signal problems with my Verizon iPhone 4 prior to upgrading to iOS 5. Now it's often at one or two bars at home and work, and it's not unusual for callers to get sent directly to my voice mail. Between the signal problems and the battery life issues since the "upgrade", I'm very disappointed.

I have AT&T iPhone 3GS. I have same problem I calledAT&T Customer care... They don't even know that there is problem.Surprisingly they suggested to change my phone..

At least Apple would have released some kind of note thatthere is problem. If apple releasing phone or new product... they make bigadvertisement campaign. When there is problem they hid details (not to mention,they may come up with comparison with some other device maker ... saying thatwhen they upgraded the software they also had problem).... It is surprising, Apple can not manage 5 devices 😟 software.....

It is out of 7 days frustration with my iPhone.....

I saw this problem with my wife iPhone 4.

I tried disabling 3G and my signal is now stable. Previously it have medium recption and then about every 20 seconds or so it'd drop down to 1 bar with no 3G and then eventually regain medium reception with 3G. Actually it's quite good now. It's not ideal but it's better than an unreliable phone. Does this work for anyone else? I think the battery is lasting a bit longer as well. Hopefully apple with patch this soon then I can switch 3G back on.

Ahh... thnx god every1 is going thruu this night mare hope Apple will look at it and fix this thing ASAP..**** its giving me headache every now and again.. Y do they built something new thats not any better than the old one?????

Let me just chime in and say that my wife has not stopped complaining about the call quality from my Verizon iP4 since I upgraded to iOS5. There is deffinitley something wrong. I switched to Verizon for their impecable call quality in my areas, and now it's on par with AT&T. Not good!

I’m having the same problem as sskillett, but with an iPhone4. I updated to iOS5 last week, used the phone successfully for about 5 days, and then yesterday (Oct.29th) it seemed to be searching for a signal about 70% of the time. I know it is not a local network issue, because I had driven around quite a bit during the day. So about the problem:

When I call a number, there is no indication that the call connects. The phone remains in the “calling…”status. If I touch the “End” button the button grays out like as if it is ending the call, but it remains in the “call ending…” status. The Phone app(?) of the software remains indefinitely stuck on phone screen (keypad). I can press the home button, and do other things with my iPhone, but if I return to the phone app then I am back at the phone keypad. I cannot end the call that supposedly is ending.

I should mention that the person on the other end IS receiving a call, but when they pick up there is no ability to talk to each other. Also, I have tried disabling 3G and enabling airplane mode to end the call manually, but neither work. Also, when returning from airplane mode, the “searching…”indication is replaced with full bars, but I do not believe this means that it actually connected and instead is a UI glitch. General > Reset > Reset Network Settings resets the phone back to a no-call-active state, but when I call a number again the problem returns as before.

I cannot use my phone, and this is very frustrating. If this problem persists, I may look for alternate phones; this is my first week into my first iPhone…

Same here, my 3gs keeps dropping network connection since upgrade to os5 even when I have 2 bars it won't send texts!!!! if I swap the sim to my Nokia I get full signal. Apple get this fixed ASAP or I will not bother with an Apple product again, too often we have had to put up with poor connectivity and battery life issues.

The easiest way to correct it is to connect it to your iTunes and click the restore process. This will reload all the firmware files and all of your data. It even offers you the opportunity to create a backup as the first step (you definetly want the backup). This resolved the exact same problem for me on my iPhone 4 and my wife's 3GS.

A couple of minutes after restoring, my phone is working. Thank you for the help.

Hopefully it continues working.