I have the answer.......finally !
Spoke to a Vodafone rep.....and funny enough they are having problem with apple over the 'no service' resolution. Both disagree with each other.
It's down to the following. The Apple 4s has been designed so that it should be on a 3G network all the time, there's no option to disable 3G. So it's constantly searching for 3G, so because it's searching it will show 'no service'.
So everyone on this board that has a lot of problems will be in service area where it is not always 3G so hence not all 4s users are getting the problem.
Solution...... There is no fix. My first 4s was terrible so I cleaned installed the 06 fix and got a new card from Vodafone which made it much much better. The reason I know when I get no service that it's down to the 4s it that my wife has a 4. It has 4 bars when I have none. Apple will not admit any liability because they don't think it's there fault. They blame it on the networks for not having 3G.
The Vodafone rep also said that turning off the cellular data on the 4s works for some users and not others.
Hope this is of some help, but if you live in a area when 3G is not always on, you will always have problems with a 4s.
If your UK based then I learnt something today. If after the signal bars you phone says 3G then it's obvious. If it says E it means 2g. If it says UK then it means it's on 3G but no data.