iPhone 4s losing data connection multiple times/day

Have you tried to switch off the 3G Antenna? It seems the problem comes from the antenna. Apparently they did not fix it well with the 4S.

I don't think 4S owners can switch off 3G sadly.

Yes, you can. I had the same problems, so I swtiched the 3G antenna off and it works fine. The problem is that the so called 'international' Apple Care warranty doesn't allow me to replace the iphone in Europe (bought in the US), so I should go back to the US to change it.

You can switch the 3G antenna off (more specifically, disable 3G data services) in Settings>General>Network. Let us know if you still have problems.

How does disabling 3G data services affect cell phone usage? And receipt of data, if 3G data service is turned off? Does that mean that data can only be recieved via wi fi? If so, that wouldn't seem to be a very practical solution. What am I missing?

You are just missing the fact that the only alternative to replacement (and being lucky with it) is to work with wifi or Edge network (i don't even know whether the edge network exists in the US). It should work with the 2G network if the 3G antenna is disabled.

Got it, thanks for the clarification. It's a trade-off.

I'm on an exchange server as well for work, but I have had the same problem with a fresh iOS install and no Exchange setup. Mine still does it to this day even after trying all the supposed fixes. I strongly believe this is a hardware issue. My phone gets so hot that it's uncomfortable to hold when I experience the data issue and the battery will drop 10-15% every 20 minutes or so even while just sitting on my desk doing nothing.

I'm on an exchange server, too. I thought my phone was fixed two months ago when I turned off the Cell Network Search. Sadly the problem returned about three weeks later.

I did notice that my battery life was much better without the Cell Network Search. So ajoiner460, you might try turnning of the Cell Network Search. (Assuming you haven't already done so.) It didn't fix my disconnection problem but it did keep the phone from running the batter dry when I did have a problem.

I'm had a new symptom crop up. My phone will loose it's WiFi connection even if I haven't left the house. It's happened several times in the last week. When this happens, I can fix it by just going into and out of Airplane mode. When I'm away from the house on 3G/4G and loose the connection, I need to reboot the phone. Airplane mode does fix the problem in those cases.

I am not using Exchange with my 4s neither I was with my 3GS. One detail I can tell you is that as far as I remember I never noticed this problem in Miami; when I was living there I had my 3GS and when I moved to seattle I started to notice the problem with my 3GS; then one day I went to an ATT store and they replaced my SIM card; the problem became less anoying but it never disapeared completelly so I waited until I updated to the 4S some months ago but...

here I am after doing a quick search on Google about this issue...

I work in Two Allen Center in Houston, TX with coworkers on both ATT and Verizon, we have iPhone 4 and 4S. There are about 50 iPhone users I've talked to and who all have fine service outside of the building, but once we go inside the phones show 5 bars of 4G service, but in reality have no connection at all. Literally as soon as I leave my highrise office building the bars will drop to 3-4 and I will regain signal.

Given this info, we think that this issue is due to interference with the 4G signal. Possibly a signal booster since these are very common in high density urban areas to help the signal get through buildings, walls, and glass.

We have found that Verizon doesn't have the issue and ATT does. On the ATT 4 you can at least get a signal if you disable 3G, but on the ATT 4S this toggle is not in the settings anymore.

I did some really basic googleing and found that Verizon and ATT 3G/4G service have a few overlapping frequencies. So possibly if there was a really strong Verizon booster in the area it will interfere with the ATT phones.

For those reasons I don't think a new SIM will help, but I'm going to try. And the Locations Services doesn't help either, it DOES make my phone say No Service of go to EDGE, but I still get no signal. In the end, I think this is due to some interference in highly urban areas.

This is very interesting, and makes sense. We use a signal booster in our building that doesn't work very well. Suddenly we'll lose all cell connection (never mind data connection), and there are dead spots. Then, of course, our phones will show cell bars but the data connection is lost. Our phones are AT&T. So then does this make the problem a hardware of software issue?

Thanks for confirming this. As you can see, we have spotted in the previous messages the problem with the 3G/4G antenna.

dv82, it is not the antenna. As you can see, the antenna works fine when we leave a certain location. The problem is that at a certain location there is interference with the 3G/4G signal before it even gets to the antenna. The iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S all exhbitit the same issue, in the same location, when on 4G but are fine when they are are switched to EDGE. (All the blackberry's at work do the same thing too). As you know, the iPhone 3GS and 4 have different antenna's, and so does the iPhone 4S. So it is not the antenna, of any of the devices. It is the 4G signal, not the antenna.

We don't have 4G signal where I am now in Europe. It can't be the 4G signal and my iphone is factory unlocked, so it has nothing to do with AT&T network. In my office, all other Iphones work perfectly. It is an issue with the antenna in certain locations (for me almost everywhere and ALWAYS abroad it doesn't work). It has clearly problems with some frequency of the network, but it is not the network to cause this as for other phones work fine, it is the antenna that doesn't work well in these occasions.

Ok, thanks for adding.

As for 4G, the US companies have decided to use typical marketing BS use the term 4G for 3G+ (HSPA+). So when we say 4G we really mean 3G/4G. As opposed to 4G LTE.

Onwards, you definitely have some interesting points. Obviously different things could be causing different problems here, but let's just assume that it's all the same and try to solve it for all of us.

Along those lines it seems like the culprit is definitely interference of some sort. This interference happens in only certain locations, since it is being immediate by some other device/tower/booster in that immediate area. It is possible the iPhone 4S does not do a good enough job interpretting all the signals and seperating the signal from the noise. I guess the only way I can investigate this is try a bunch of different phones, in the same location, all on 3G/4G. So that's what I will do. I'll find a coworker with android, windows, blackberry, etc.

In the meantime, I guess it looks like some poeple have success replacing their phones, some have success with new SIMs, and some have no success at all. That stinks.