I am fortunate enough to have both a carrier store and an apple store in my area. I am not a cell phone engineer nor a software engineer but I do repair electronics to the component level for a living. After updating my iPhone 4S to iOS 5.0.1, the phone started getting "No Service" after phone went idle for about 15-30 minutes in multiple different locations that I have had perfect service in since iPhone launch. To get service back I would have to turn phone off/on or airplane mode on/off. Then, until phone went idle again, I had full bars of service. At times, when the phone displayed "No Service", I could make and receive calls. I contacted Apple about this problem, they said it was the SIM card. I got a new SIM card, and the problem was still there. I contacted Apple again, and this time Apple claimed it was a carrier tower problem so I had AT&T issue a service ticket in my area to check the towers. AT&T said the towers are good, it must be an Apple problem. Apple says it is because I restored phone from a backup and I have corrupted data on my computer. I did DFU restore on phone and set up as brand new phone. Problem still there. Long story short is that AT&T says that it is Apple's problem, Apple says it's carrier problem etc. I had 3 new SIM cards and 3 4S's is this 3 week period. Finally, with nobody acknowledging a problem and no solution in sight, I switched back to my old iPhone that had worked perfectly for years. Now this phone was getting a "No Service" message as well. I could turn 3G off and the phone was fine. The iPhone 4S doesn't have the option to turn off 3G. So it was more of a carrier problem than an iPhone problem in my opinion, from the steps that I had to take on my own to troubleshoot the issue because Apple nor AT&T would acknowledge an issue. This was very annoying. My question is this though: Why won't the phone automatically switch to the 2G network if 3G is not available? It seems to me, my problem was more with the carrier 3G network but I would think that the phone would go to 2G if 3G wasn't available. In my opinion, Apple also has an issue. Nobody will say anything though. People all over the world are having this problem on multiple carriers. There is one thing in common: the iPhone. I am very disappointed in the way Apple has handled all of the issues with iPhone 4S. Apple seems more concerned about the bottom line now than customer care. This will probably be my last iPhone.
