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Handhelds Businesses Hardware Apple

Infineon Chipset May Be Cause of IPhone 3G Issues 298

Posted by kdawson from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
JagsLive sends along a CNet blog piece about a plausible theory to explain the iPhone 3G connection problems many users have experienced. Apple has not acknowledged any such problems. "Richard Windsor of Nomura published a research note... Tuesday singling out the iPhone 3G's chipset, made by Infineon, as the probable culprit for the reception problems we reported on Monday. The dropped calls, service interruptions, and abrupt network switches experienced by iPhone 3G users reminded Windsor of similar complaints five years ago, when 3G phones were first launched in Europe. 'We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier,' Windsor wrote. 'This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users. Some people will not experience these problems as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows.'"
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Infineon Chipset May Be Cause of IPhone 3G Issues More

Infineon Chipset May Be Cause of IPhone 3G Issues

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  • No. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:08PM (#24575043)

    Crap testing is the cause of iPhone 3G issues. There are always issues before a product is released. The testing is supposed to find them. Something as obvious as this issue indicates that Apple didn't give a shit about testing.

    • Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:32PM (#24575367)
      ...And why would they? Not only do you have a devoted Mac rumors bunch of people who will blog about a suspicious scratch on someone's iPhone, but you have the fanboys who if Apple markets iCrap they will buy 10 of them, and then 5 more when the price drops. Not to mention the fact that Apple is half-way open source and Unix based it keeps the tech guys buying it. Really, Apple can't even test an iPhone outside of a secret underground lab without it being leaked. Take that plus the fanboys and you have a company that can't and has little need to do testing.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by bigstrat2003 ( 1058574 ) *
        They do have little need to do any testing, but their difficulty in keeping it secret is no excuse whatsoever for not testing their shit. Your cult fanbase backfires sometimes? Oh, cry me a river. You still have to test your shit if you want happy customers, just like every other company on earth.

    • Re:No. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by PainMeds ( 1301879 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:45PM (#24575505)
      There are always issues before a product is released. The testing is supposed to find them.

      You're not too familiar with Apple products, are you?

    • Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by paanta ( 640245 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:01PM (#24575727) Homepage
      No, the problem is that the fan base is insane and expectations are through the roof. If two blackberries in a million are faulty, it'll never make it onto slashdot. The two account execs who own them just don't care about the product enough to bitch. If two iPhones in a million show up with some hairline cracks on them, all of a sudden it's on Consumerist and MacRumors and every other tech website.

      Sorry, but all products have flaws. You're delusional if you think that even 1% of companies are able to find all the bugs in their product before it makes it out the door. Even my f-ing Honda has had recalls.

      I think the goal is consumer satisfaction, and Apple has consistently proven themselves capable in delivering a product that people love. The problem is that people love it so very, very much that they're willing to spend 30 hours posting about perceived slowness in the interface or perceived slowness in download speeds. Ultimately, no one is producing a product like the iPhone that surpasses the iPhone's user experience, and that counts for a lot.

      • Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)

        by lymond01 ( 314120 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:33PM (#24576081)

        perceived slowness in the interface

        It's real, I tell you! The slowness is....ooooh, shiny Apple Logo on the back...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tyrione ( 134248 )

          Stating it and proving it through a test environment are two entirely different realities. For cryin' out loud there are plenty of developers around here dealing with TCP/IP, switches, wireless protocols to wired protocols to discover where the bottlenecks reside.

          Having consulted at AT&T Wireless I'll be my left nut that the main culprit is on THEIR END.

          In reality it will be a compound issue between both Apple and AT&T.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by peragrin ( 659227 )

            actually having used my iphone, half of the problem is with at&T's shitty 3G coverage. I literally traveled 3 miles in a straight line along a mostly flat plain. at each end of the line I had a full signal, in the middle of the line I couldn't get anything in 3G or edge.

            I have 3G coverage at home and at work, but since I work in a metal building I have to go near the walls to get any kind of decent signal(that doesn't matter which phone I am using) So my battery life on 3G drains massively limiting me

      • Not to be pedantic, I think you're conflating regular old wonky products, which account for about 2-5% of iPhones, Blackberries, DVD players etc. and arise from the inevitable crapshoot of quality control, with "bugs" and poorly designed products, which necessitate an en-masse recall or revision. I mean, if 20,000 iPhones out of a million have dodgy screens or Just Don't Work, then those 20,000 get replaced by the manufacturer or the store under warranty. If iPhones are designed in such a fashion that they

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by hellwig ( 1325869 )
        If I buy a $10k Toyota Yaris and the tires fall off, I pretty much figured that was bound to happen.

        I buy a $600k Ferrari Enzo and there's a fingerprint on my rear-view mirror, you're damn right I'm driving that thing back to the dealer and demanding he fix it.

        Apple has forced this upon themselves by being so proprietary (it's supposed to work better because you can't repair/replace it's parts) and so expensive ($600 phone? no thanks).

        If they were just a normal company, these flaws are expected/co

        • Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) * on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @08:07PM (#24576937) Journal

          If I buy a $10k Toyota Yaris and the tires fall off, I pretty much figured that was bound to happen.

          What we have here are consumers behaving like battered wives. This joker accepts that ten thousand dollars is not enough to expect the most basic utility of a product. There are those who would criticize another consumer for complaining about getting an iPhone (or Yaris, or Xbox, or iPod, or MacBook, or...) that is a lemon. That is how badly misused they have been by our consumerist system. When we buy a product and it doesn't work, we should blame ourselves for not having spent enough money, or, get this one, for expecting too much.

          No wonder corporations are having such an easy time replacing government in sovereign nations. Consumers don't even have enough self-respect to expect the most basic value from a product (or service). This has got to be related to the reason people vote Republican, even faced with incontrovertible evidence that it is against their own best interests.

          I don't know about you, but this seems like a pretty shitty way to live. If the public were my sister, and her husband were to treat her the way the corporate culture treats consumers, I would tell her to divorce the bastard, or perhaps poison his coffee.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by icebike ( 68054 )

            What we have here are consumers behaving like battered wives.

            You are officially on notice that I am stealing that line.

            Mod parent insightful.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by YeeHaW_Jelte ( 451855 )

          "If I buy a $10k Toyota Yaris and the tires fall off, I pretty much figured that was bound to happen.

          I buy a $600k Ferrari Enzo and there's a fingerprint on my rear-view mirror, you're damn right I'm driving that thing back to the dealer and demanding he fix it. "

          Funny you chose this comparison.

          Toyota is know for its absolute dependability, it has the lowest failure rate of all car makes, while Ferrari probably has one of the higher failure rates, because their cars are made to be pretty and fast, not depen

      • "Apple has consistently proven themselves capable in delivering a product that people love" ...except for MobileMe..... though maybe they will salvage now that they turned it over to the iTunes team. Don't think AppleTV is a raging success yet either.

        It is a knock against Apple that they are so secretive in their product launches that they can't really beta test new products so when things go bad they can go bad in a big way. That was apparently the case with MobileMe, it wasn't tested well at all to han

    • Re:No. (Score:4, Funny)

      by clang_jangle ( 975789 ) * on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:09PM (#24575801) Journal
      Are you kidding? Apple products face the most rigorous real-world testing known -- the real world! Those of us who've used their products since the 1980s know this well, and we never buy the new stuff until the masses have tested it thoroughly for us and at least Rev C has been released. Typically, by then it will be perfect. Although sometimes it pays to wait for Rev D -- that's usually the final version, and the most featureful.

      • hehe. Its funny because its true !

      • Re:No. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Nefarious Wheel ( 628136 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @09:56PM (#24577729) Journal
        I worked for Apple in Cupertino during the Apple ][ / Apple /// days. The transition happened then.

        Woz was a genuine engineer, and in his spec all Apple ]['s were burned in over 4 days in a hot room (50 degrees C) before they were packaged and shipped to the stores. The ]['s were very well known for reliability, which along with excellent packaging (yep, not all Jobs' competence is Reality Distortion Field) very few were returned for any sort of quality issue.

        The Apple /// was a slightly different issue -- there was a problem with a clock chip supplier that worked as an object lesson that you can outsource a lot of things, but responsibilty (if not actual testing) can't be one of them.

        And due to pressures of IBM's release of the flawed but powerfully marketed brand-new 8086 based PCat that point, the first real competition in the business world put pressures on Apple that it hadn't encountered before, thus a decision to release what they had in bulk to gain market share and risk returns overrode the impulse to limit supply by running them through that hot room first. This was the first disjunct and marketing lesson (see Apple and "Black Friday" and "duck quack synthesizer" if you can find the reference) for a company that was learning about how to go from company to corporation in one huge lump. Apple grew from $0.5M to $0.5B in gross sales that year, in their defense, and that's a huge amount of change to absorb.

        Money wasn't really a problem, learning to land the fish was.

        Imagine -- if you have a job that moves dirt 1/2 ton at a time, you're fine buying a half-ton pickup to move it. You can even scale that up a few times. But if you're suddenly faced with moving a million tons of dirt, you have to find a more complex solution than simply buying a half-million trucks. Everything Apple suffered during that phase was a result of the huge success of the Apple ][. That kind of scale didn't bother IBM, but we had trouble finding places to put people and other concerns of gearing up.

        • Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)

          by Nefarious Wheel ( 628136 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @11:58PM (#24578523) Journal
          Screw the karma, I'll have to explain the reference. The Apple /// had serious problems, and the Macintosh wasn't on the horizon yet. IBM brought out their Personal Computer. Mike (I think it was Markkula, could be wrong (get off my lawn!)) walked around firing everybody responsible, and a fair bit of collateral damage as well (this was during the hazy Silicon Valley heyday where the industry moved very fast on things). His reason, overheard at the time -- "IBM has just brought out a competing product. The interest on their petty cash reserves is more than we bring in in a year, and you guys are trying to invent a duck quack synthesizer."

          When my lady and I bought a Mac LC in Tasmania a couple of years afterward, one of the system sounds available during the demo was a lovely "Quack!". We utterly pissed ourselves laughing in the showroom. Never explained why. Those crazy Yanks...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ChrisA90278 ( 905188 )

      "The testing is supposed to find them."

      Even in theory testing can't find all possible problems. A simple example would be if, let's say some defect caused one of of every ten millions phones to catch fire and explode. One would need to build over a hundred million test phones to detect a trend.

      What we've got here is something like this. It seems to an intermitent one in ten thousand type problem. It affects a very few users for a few minutes now and then. The phones are not really broken they just perf

  • From my iphone 3G (Score:5, Funny)

    by Frion ( 942886 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:09PM (#24575061)
    I have no idea what connection issues they are tal

  • Shit (Score:4, Insightful)

    by alexborges ( 313924 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:10PM (#24575073)

    I knew i shouldve waited.

    Again bitten by Jobs's first-out-the-door gizmo.

    I was also the proud owner of a tibook 400... yeah, the one that spontaneusly broke appart from heat due to the "TI" part (although it did look cool at first).

    I guess some of us will never learn.

    • that's ok (Score:5, Funny)

      by Colin Smith ( 2679 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:12PM (#24575115)

      I guess some of us will never learn.

      Not your fault, it's genetic.

       

    • Re:Shit (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:28PM (#24575327)

      It's pretty simple to get over. Stop joining the hype-wagon whenever the company releases a new product, that means don't follow the news every time Job's jerks off to his own press. The fanboys and paid astroturfers get suckers into a frenzy for $PRODUCT every time.

      Try this (but don't pull the trigger!) Go over to avsforum and chose a manufacturer of TVs. Look at panasonic or pioneer if you like plasmas, sony, samsung or sharp if you think LCD are you thing. Look at the hysteria over up-n-coming $MODEL. Come back daily and keep up to date on that model. Within two or three weeks you'll be on the verge of pre-ordering it. At this point, delete that bookmark and don't comeback for a couple of months. The same thread(s) will be full of owners pissed off with the issues of this round of models, full of fanboys pretending the problems don't exist exhibiting cognitive dissonance, and hot prospects asking owners about $MODEL. As soon as real owner tells it like it is, they'll be jumped on by those that can't bear to think they didn't get the $BEST_THING_EVER. It's really funny.

      Of course, at some point you will desire a new product, or what you have craps up. After watching a few rounds of the above, you'll know you can pick up the $BEST_THING_EVER a few months after initial release for a fraction of what people paid. And guess what? Your friends will be just as impressed by whatever it is, and probably don't follow model numbers anyway.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by maynard ( 3337 )

      My TiBook 800 has lasted a good six years and is still ... sorta running. I use it primarily to display streamed music and video. And it's still useful as a backup laptop in case the new one gets borked.

      And I have to say that in Boston I've had no trouble getting good 3G reception on my iPhone. However, I've had plenty of other bad things to say about that purchase. Jailbroken, the iPhone is just yummy. But out of the box, it's pretty worthless. And the App store is just pathetic. Good luck returning an app

      • That's the problem - Apple just doesn't have enough resources to do app QA/testing that they're pretending to be doing. They are obviously cannot keep up - problem reports take a *week* just to get a standard canned reply "we're looking at problem and will contact you soon". I'd say - lift the NDA, loose the grip and let the market sort the crap out.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tyrione ( 134248 )

          That's the problem - Apple just doesn't have enough resources to do app QA/testing that they're pretending to be doing. They are obviously cannot keep up - problem reports take a *week* just to get a standard canned reply "we're looking at problem and will contact you soon". I'd say - lift the NDA, loose the grip and let the market sort the crap out.

          Man you're kneck deep in crap. For a company of over 20,000 employees they do have the resources and are even hiring. Apply if you want to help. Otherwise, keep swimming in cocka.

          • Except that the vast majority of those employees are just drones who work at their retail store. The people who actually make products are surprisingly few compared to other similar high-tech companies.

            And yeah, they're hiring in the sense that they're putting out job offers. But they're having a tough time actually hiring people, what with how they overwork people to death and don't pay very well.

    • > I knew i shouldve waited.

      Bwaaaa ha ha. My company has adopted the iPhone, but I talked a co-worker into requesting one so I could have his nearly-new Treo 680 to replace my elderly falling-apart 650. That should get me through the next year of iPhone bug fixes, capacity increases and inevitable price drops.

      Oh, and I'd like to personally thank each and every one of you for being unpaid quality assurance. (Evil laugh, rubs hands) by the time I'm ready for one, it'll be bug free! Well, maybe not

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Professor_UNIX ( 867045 )

      In your defense, this IS the second generation iPhone so I wouldn't expect this kind of issue. They should've had 3G models in testing since before the original iPhone EDGE model was released. Problems like this are inexcusable.

  • Firmware? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cleatsupkeep ( 1132585 )

    Can this be fixed by a firmware update? It said something about the stack which made me think firmware, or is it just shoddy hardware?

    • Re:Firmware? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Serious Callers Only ( 1022605 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:25PM (#24575273)

      Can this be fixed by a firmware update? It said something about the stack which made me think firmware, or is it just shoddy hardware?

      Can this hypothetical technical flaw, in an unknown chipset which the iPhone may possibly use, be fixed in in a possible future firmware update?

      Possibly.

      However a story from a cnet journalist quoting a financial analyst on a technical problem where they're not even sure of the chipset in question is not very credible. I haven't heard of any reception problems on other sites - I wonder how widespread they are?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by carbona ( 119666 )

        Speaking for myself, 3G reception problems have been pretty widespread on two separate 3G iPhones (I returned the first one because the vibrate switch was nearly impossible to toggle). I'm in Los Angeles, in and around Hollywood and the west side, and 3G reception goes from one bar to full bars and then back down to EDGE on a regular basis, even when my location has not changed but a few feet.

        Having said, I have not had a dropped call and voice quality seems to be at least as good as my 1st gen iPhone, but

        • Re:Firmware? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Serious Callers Only ( 1022605 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:06PM (#24575767)

          That's interesting. I haven't seen any dropped calls as yet on mine, or signal problems, it's 3G all the time. It may depend a lot on the network AT&T has in your area I guess.

          Seems odd if it is an iPhone specific problem that complaints haven't been more widespread. Suppose the way to test it would be to put the same sim in a different 3G phone when experiencing problems with the iPhone and see how it works? I'm sure there was a time when journalists did that kind of testing before writing an article, instead of filling it with easy speculation.

          • That's exactly the same behavior a friend of mine has with his 3G phone. Not an iPhone. So perhaps it's just that 3G service is flaky, or AT&T sucks, or whatever.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Belial6 ( 794905 )
        The iPhone that I got from work has really crappy 3G reception. I just assumed that the terrible reception was par for the course. Of course, I've also had the phone stall on me for 30 or 40 seconds at a time, had the browser app crash numerous times, and had one full phone crash that required a hard reboot. I'm not saying that the phone is crap, but there is definitely a wide margin for improvement.

      • For me it's dependent on location.

        I live in Washington, DC. My iPhone 3G has nearly flawless 3G reception with very fast data rates in DC.

        Recently I've traveled to Albany, NY; Seattle; and Portland, OR. The reception was very good in Albany, although I dropped back to EDGE a couple of times. It was excellent in (north and downtown) Seattle, with no problems.

        But since arriving in Portland I've had problems nonstop. I've had 3G calls drop; web pages stop loading over a 3G connection; and "No Service" in

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rudolf ( 43885 )

        However a story from a cnet journalist quoting a financial analyst on a technical problem where they're not even sure of the chipset in question is not very credible.

        I agree with your comments, but it triggered a question. Why isn't the chipset known? Hasn't someone opened up an iPhone and looked at what chips are in it?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It it's a problem in the UMTS stack - yes. If it's a problem with the chipset itself...maybe. If it's a problem with a channel being desensed...maybe. There are alot of reasons for dropped calls and TFA has no real info other than guessing.

  • Who the hell is Richard Windsor... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by calstraycat ( 320736 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:21PM (#24575215)

    ...and what qualifications does he possess to comment on the possible cause of the alleged iPhone reception issues?

    Seriously. This story is being widely distributed, but I have yet to see anyone ask about his credentials. Is he an electrical engineer with expertise in the design of cellular technology?

    As far as I can tell, he's some financial analyst. So why would anyone consider him a credible source? Since when are the speculations of a financial analyst regarding the rather esoteric realm of RF engineering considered valid.

    Am I missing something? Does someone know about his background?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Bender_ ( 179208 )

      Yep, now we have analysts predicting and solving engineering problems. What's next?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bender_ ( 179208 )

      Am I missing something? Does someone know about his background?

      Probably his main background is that he works for a competitor of Infineon. Why would he single out a third party supplier otherwise? Even if it was a broken part, it would still be Apples fault to design it in.

    • In order of level of accuracy we have:

      • Company making a full disclosure (almost never happens)
      • Wisdom of crowds (individual guesses are wrong but the average of all the wrong guesses tends to be more accurate than...)
      • Individual guesses (some get lucky, most miss)
      • Company refusing to acknowledge any issues lest they have to pay for an expensive recall.

      He may not be an expert in the field. Statistically, pulling a name at random out of the phonebook still has a greater chance of finding the right person than a

  • goddammit (Score:5, Funny)

    by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:30PM (#24575351) Homepage Journal

    can you iPhone people just ATH and drive?

  • So I'm not crazy (Score:5, Informative)

    by colin_n ( 50370 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:32PM (#24575373) Homepage Journal

    I have noticed a lot more dropped calls on the iPhone 3g. Between the poorer battery life, the dropped calls, and the inability to unlock the sim, the upgrade feels like a downgrade from my old iPhone.

    • From the issues there, it seems like more of an 'upgrade' to your old iPhone.. I know if I was getting a GSM phone, I'd get the first gen iPhone. I know quite a few people up here, in Canada even, that have one and has never caused them headaches.

  • Schadenfreude (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Alsee ( 515537 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:33PM (#24575381) Homepage

    Good. I hope Infineon goes friking bankrupt and dies.
    They are one of the manufacturers of Trusted Platform Modules.
    That puts them right near the top of my shit-list.

    -

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by learningtree ( 1117339 )
      I can see your point. But just for your information, Infineon is one of the most innovative companies in the VLSI market, with some very good products in the communications and automotive domain.
      As for the ethical issues associated with Trusted Platform Modules, pretty much every VLSI company (Freescale, STMicroelectronics, TI etc) has products catering to this domain.

  • Odd (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slimjim8094 ( 941042 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:45PM (#24575511)

    I've been getting better reception on my 3G iPhone than I had on my Razr (also 3g)

    Battery life is pretty crappy, have to recharge it every night. But that's all I need. I think that has more to do with the big honking screen than any chipset issue.

    I have noticed that the signal indicator likes to sit at around 1 bar, but it's a bit deceptive because it works fine for a while (feels like empty on a car... still goes for a while anyways)

    I know an anecdote isn't true for everyone... maybe he's in a bad signal area? Maybe he has a defective phone? I haven't seen what he's talking about.

  • Why is this a problem? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ForestGrump ( 644805 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @05:46PM (#24575523) Homepage Journal

    AT&T has the best network around - More bars in more places. So this flaw should never be visible to the end user...unless AT&T has been lying to me.

    Grump

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Sponge Bath ( 413667 )

      ...unless AT&T has been lying to me.

      As an ATT stock holder, I thank you for believing those lies.
      Thank you, come again.

    • Yes, they have been. They may get more bars in Maine or Wisconsin but where the vast majority of the people live on the coasts the reception is shit. I can't get decent reception at my own house and I'm literally 5 blocks from a major freeway. I also get shitty reception in my office which is right off the 405 and 55 and next to a freakin' airport! ATT sucks and worst of all is their horrible customer service. Also note they just raised SMS messaging fees so it now costs more to message someone on your same

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lupine ( 100665 )

        As an iphone owner who lives in wisconsin I can assure you that we do not have great service.

        The interstates and towns over 7k usually have service, but if you go a few miles out into the countryside there is no signal. US Cellular provides the best comprehensive service in wisconsin.

    • "More bars in more places."="Our network was designed by drunks."

    • I'm not saying you do, though you may, but why do people believe there is any relation between the number of "bars" and whether your phone works or not? Seriously am I the only one that's noticed that having 5 bars doesn't mean that my call is any more likely to get through? Maybe it's just the fact that I'm frequently going in and out of service areas and that the cell network wasn't designed with mountains in mind but I have never seen a solid correlation between the number of "bars" and how good of a con

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Seriously am I the only one that's noticed that having 5 bars doesn't mean that my call is any more likely to get through?

        Oh. A Verizon customer. :-D

        But seriously, the bars tells you the strength of the tower signal as seen by your phone. Your phone's transmitter is much weaker, however, and depends on high gain at the tower to detect the signal. It isn't at all unusual in areas with high reflection (e.g. mountains) to find spots where you can see a slight signal from the tower because of constructive

  • I've had tons of connection/signal and dropped call problems ever since I upgraded my old non-3G iPhone to the 2.0 OS. I think this is a software problem.
  • It's because Batman installed his tracking transmitters in every cell phone in the world. That's why reception is spotty.. duh!

  • I think the 3G chipset problems and all these 3G phones failing back to Edge has made my iPhone V1 drop more calls and suck more. I never got great Edge reception at my house but since the 3G came out my phone drops calls all the time.

  • It's an AT&T Network problem. Fido was similar (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aristotle-dude ( 626586 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:51PM (#24576283)
    Looking at the thread on the Apple discussion boards, this seems to be an issue with the popularity of the new 3G phone and the inability of the AT&T 3G network to be able to handle the extra data load with such an internet enabled device.

    I experienced a similar issue for a few days in Canada with the Fido and others with the Rogers 3G networks shortly after the July 11th launch. Within a few days, the problems mostly went away where I live and now I get great reception even at work.

    There may be a few faulty 3G iPhones but this is mostly caused by a combination of faulty AT&T sims and problems with their network stability and capacity.

  • New 3G Network (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @06:52PM (#24576301)

    I work in the industry. I know AT&Ts' 3G network is new and really unproven. 2G service is way more reliable. I have a BlackJack and when I have it set to 2G I have awesome coverage with no problems. With my blackjack on 3G I get dropped calls. Jerky sounding calls. All with full signal all over town. I've tried other 3G phones with same results. I think this is common for any new network that hasn't worked out all its blemishes.

    This is not an iPhone chip issue. It is a network issue.

    • For real. They are botching the 3g install in my town. All of my calls have been classified as roaming, though it's nationwide calling. Other things such as loud beeps, dropped calls, and other weird stuff are common among me and my 3G network friends.

  • Can't blame Apple.

    But we can blame the stuff that Apple chooses.

    The the winner (Apple) goes the spoils, but to the problems go the companies that deal with Apple (Infineon). Shame on Infineon for not making sure Apple succeeds.

  • Sorry Charlie (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ez151 ( 835695 )

    Living in same spot 10 years, always spotty reception on att ( also had for 10 years, first att, then cingular, then bellsouth, then att) and always spotty reception.

    My last 3 Sony-Ericksons had the same bad reception, but at least I was ALWAYS able to make calls, staticy, but i cold make and receive them. Had maybe 5 -10 dropped calls ever. ALWAYS able to make calls whenever, wherever.

    Now fast forward to the present iphone 3g and I go sometimes 5 minutes with that frackin Call Failed.... crap. Already had

    • Try another service provider. Oh, wait... you bought a phone that was locked to a specific service. Serves you right.

      I can't believe you're paying that much per month for service and can't make a call, and you're WILLING TO KEEP DOING SO. WTF? I'd be getting a full refund since they aren't keeping up their end of the bargain, and finding another carrier. One who doesn't ass-rape you. Well, at least not as much.

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