The word is that there is always a batch of phones that have signal issues and battery issues with every firmware update. I'm inclined to believe this, but seems the chances with iOS 7.1.1 - 7.1.2 of being a problem are much higher.
I have an iPhone 4S on 7.0.4. I've been wanting to move to a version that has the SSL fix for a while, but lately Apple's updates have been sketchy so I've held off and simply stopped using that device for anything important. I'm going to upgrade it to iOS 7.1.0 using the recovery mode method in iTunes and leave it there until there's an iOS8 release that also isn't horrible.
If you're on iOS 7.1.1 / 7.1.2, you may as well hop on the update train to iOS's 8.1+.
This is all very un-Apple, and it's odd that they're having problems considering the entire product is vertically integrated.