iPhone 3g Reception Problems

[NSXrebel]

my iPhone 3G reception is so crappy I hate it I like my iPhone 1st Gen so much better I hope they give us phones that actually work

Turn off your 3G and it will work just like iPhone 1st Gen, well maybe a bit better. Full bars and all.




People, the problem is mostly with 3G coverage, or lack of. Turn off 3G and you won't be dropping calls. Just turn on 3G when you need it, it also helps conserve battery life. Apple needs to come up with a better way of automatically switching to EDGE when 3G coverage is poor. And it does not take 1 1/2 to switch from 3G to EDGE.

At home I get 1 bar of 3G at best, but no biggie, I have wifi and computers if I need to get on the internetz. So I just keep 3G off while I'm home.

[iBwizzle]

YES! Thank you God this is happenin' to Apple! Apple and AT&T are two greedy faggots! I pray that it is an hardware problem so they have to replace the 3 milli 3G iPhones sold! Apple should have continue sellin' the first gen iPhones and just released another version worth upgradin' to! A front camera, higher resolution, a better GPS, A2DP Bluetooth, copy and paste, mms and 32/64GB models! I got my mind made up, I'm stickin' to my first gen! Class Action Suit?

____________________________________________
We are not the same, I am a hater...

[DuRo]

How i get different reception just walking around the house , the room full bar , the living room 2 bars. who's to blame Apple or AT&T. But I'm in apple's favor i think at&t its to blame for various reason.

[dooley19]

I'm laying on the couch typing this now and I got one bar on 3G and it jumps to full bars for a few minutes and back down to 2 and 3 bars then 1 bar! I'm getting tired of this.

[fletch33]

I just pay no attention to those stupid bars. That will just frustrate ya. Seriously I don't care if shows 1 bar, 5 bars, or even 0 bars as long as it works and doesn't say no service. I think part of the problem is the "bars" and what actual service your getting anyway.

[scudder]

I have a 3G iPhone on O2-UK contract and when I turn on the 3G in settings/general/network, my normal signal drops from 4-5 bars straight down to 1 and sometimes 0.

I took it into an O2 store last week and when I showed him the phone the woman next to him said "why does it say BT Genie as the carrier? this has been hacked" so it gave me great satisfaction to explain the history of O2 to an O2 employee and that O2 used to be called BT Genie up to about 6 years ago, She quickly shut up, ha ha, although my iPhone 3G had actually been pwnd previously

Anyway the guy told me to come back when they have more in stock but this would just be pointless because the issue would be the same.

Can anyone post their comments if they have both an iPhone 3G and also a 3G nokia phone or a blackberry and check what the signal is like in both phones in exactly the same place? that would be interesting.

Whoa! How do you still get Genie coming up, is that a 6 YO sim? If so it cant be 3G. Of course, being an old git I remember Genie, I also remember when it was BT Wireless!

[SPECIFIKLYVAGUE]

I'm about to throw this damn thing in a box for 3 months while they figure it out....
Bakersfield, ca....I used to have FULL BARS 94% of the time with my 2G, right now, on my 3G, I intentionally have 3G off, so I'm on edge & it seems to be working normal enough,....but it is definately the phone + the network, I have the 3g wireless aircard for one of my laptops, side by side, the 3G is PATHETIC....keeps saying "no service" while on 3g when it's kicking down to edge, then can't seem to decide which network is better...
Also, I noticed ANY large objects, walls, human body, radio, my plasma tv, all but kill the 3g reception........this sucks!!
Almost like running an quad-core CPU & having a 56k modem as your connection....errors galore?!!!! Dropped calls, etc, etc....

[crnxlf]

I'm about to throw this damn thing in a box for 3 months while they figure it out....
Bakersfield, ca....I used to have FULL BARS 94% of the time with my 2G, right now, on my 3G, I intentionally have 3G off, so I'm on edge & it seems to be working normal enough,....but it is definately the phone + the network, I have the 3g wireless aircard for one of my laptops, side by side, the 3G is PATHETIC....keeps saying "no service" while on 3g when it's kicking down to edge, then can't seem to decide which network is better...
Also, I noticed ANY large objects, walls, human body, radio, my plasma tv, all but kill the 3g reception........this sucks!!
Almost like running an quad-core CPU & having a 56k modem as your connection....errors galore?!!!! Dropped calls, etc, etc....

Modesto, CA here and on my 2g I had full bars almost 100% of the time, now I have 1 to 2 bars now, I got kinda lucky and stretched my arms with my phone in my hand and was able to grace upon 3 bars but when I moved my arms back to normal position I lost it. But as for people saying they lose calls, knock on wood, no dropped calls for me as of yet. I get ****** signal but the calls all seem to go ok.

[nahart86]

I had really ****** service so I traded my phone in and got a new one which is a little better but not much.

[DaveiPhone]

My 3G reception was so bad that I returned my phone back in August. After reading of significant improvements with firmware 2.1, I decided to give it another try. The difference is night and day. Spots that had ZERO bars before, now have 3-4 bars and clear reception. I'm starting to suspect that they made a silent hardware change around the same time, though this is a tough thing to prove since I don't have access to any older 3G phones.

[bhz1]

upgrading to 2.1 fixed all the signal problems for me.

[skipper]

I had the original iPhone up until about a month ago and it never gave me the problems that the 3g gives me. I got the 3g late enough that it came with 2.1 installed already, but that still didnt do anything. I still drop more calls than I ever did, less bars in more places, etc.

WTF apple/at&t???! I want to say its an overloaded 3g network, but people here are talking about how much the software changes/changes in sim cards worked for them. I dont get it, what is the missing link?!

If I ask at&t for another sim, would they need to see my phone (in a very modified state) to give me another one? If so, im sure theyll pull the "we cant do anything if your phone is jailbroken" card on me.

[Lancaster]

Reception on the 2G is poorer than when I use the same sim in a number of different phones at the same location (my office). The iPhone is easily the worst for reception. Some of the phones I tried are:

HTC Diamond
Nokia 6300
A couple of older Smartphones.

I think I know the reason why.

The iPhone reception in my office is just about non existant - usually no signal. As soon as I put it in the charging cradle, I get a signal and I can send and receive texts.

I believe that Apple have reduced the power available to the receiver when it is running on battery to extend battery life. The problem is, they seem to have overdone it.

I would rather live with a reduced battery life and have a better signal personally.

[tom q]

I was running 1.1.4 on 2G with perfect signal in Modesto, CA. I upgraded recently to 2.1, jailbroke it, installed apps, etc. Now I have 1 - 2 bars and a lot of dropped calls. I don't think it's a problem with the unit (2G or 3G), it is definitely a firmware issue. Can the DEV's come up with a fix for this?

[pncntigger]

I have had both 2g and 3g phones on TMobile. Never had any issues with reception or dropped calls.

[Lancaster]

@ pncntigger:

Have you never been in any areas of borderline reception?

[CaptainChaos]

My reception on 3G is quite good, but there are often little chirps and beeps when talking to another person who is on the 3G network as well. They are loud and irritating. It is not an issue when talking to someone on the Edge network.

[reyza]

Mines working pretty solid on 3G. It's got 5bars majority of the time, even in my basement. Signal is partly due to the carrier as well.

[radiomean]

Hmmm..

I have later model iPhone 3G on Voda ;-) in UK and get 5-4 bars in the country on GSM..
When I go up to town, and it goes 3G (or really HSDPA) it obviously switches over and again I get 3-5 bars.

I am on 2.2 FW and I can't say I have had signal issues.
I use it a lot for data and even in the train it seems to work fine.
There does not really seem to be an issue with my unit..

Maybe (I hesitate to say it....) it is an issue with the 3G networks in the USA being much less mature than in UK and Eu.

Oh I have an HTC TyTN 2 as well and signals seem pretty comparable, swapping over SIMs..

[BenzoHartt]

Recently AT&T advised me that i would need a replacement SIM card. I went to the corporate store to get it replaced yesterday. Has anyone else had to do this? Did it have any affect?