ITS THE PHONE NOT AT&T

Cosmo2

MY CALLS ALWAYS GET DISCONNECTED - IT HAPPENED AT LEAST A DOZEN TIMES YESTERDAY AND A COUPLE OF TIMES TODAY - AND I WAS IN THE CITY NOT SOME REMOTE LOCATION.

I CHANGED MY IPHONE 3G WITH A NEW ONE AND THE SAME ISSUE

P.S. I LIVE IN ATL

Cosmo2

This poll isn't going to say much. How many people actually had a different AT&T 3G phone and used it in the same places? Not many. I'm one of the few, I had the Cingular 8525. I can say with certainty that iPhone 3G reception is awful. I think it may even be defective.

And to anyone saying "just turn off 3G in the settings" - that's the stupidest advice I've ever heard. The whole point of this phone is 3G. That's why it's called the "iPhone 3G"

lifterus

I live in West L.A. and was a former 1st gen iPhone user. I sold my old iPhone to a co-worker as soon as I activated my new 3G iPhone. Big mistake. The reception on my old iPhone kicked this new iPhone's ass on EDGE. 3G reception is hard to come by if i'm in a building, specifically my home. I get 5 3G bars here @ work, but that's because I work for a mobile game company with signal boosting antennas on the roof. No where else do I get more than 1-2 bars of 3G. I also get that 'no service' message every couple of days, for no reason. 3G is supposed to deliver faster internet speeds and better call quality. I've had dropped calls on 3G and sometimes when the mic catches a sound on my end, the other person's phone goes completely silent, so interrupting someone speaking will blank out for 2 or 3 seconds. I was fooled by the 3G coverage map on the AT&T site too. But, I'm past thinking it's mainly AT&T's fault. Like the original article states, the issue is world wide, affecting people on other carriers. The apple discussions thread about this has people from Germany, Japan, UK, and others all complaining about their reception. It was already stated before, but switching 3G off helps. Although, it's silly to have to do that if i'm paying an extra 15 dollars a month (+10/data & +5/txt) to own/use this 3G iPhone. Oh, and the 2.0 firmware lag on contacts and typing is trash.

braceyoself

My reception SUCKS! It's alright in some places around town but it usually sounds bad and frequently drops my calls most places. Grrrr...

CampSteve

I had a RAZR V3 before my 3G iPhone and my reception in my area was mostly 5 bars. With my the 3G iPhone, I'm SUPER LUCKY to get 3 bars. I usualy only have 1 or 2.

It's the phone, it's NOT ATT.

JEmlay

@matt buchanan: It's a disease. I'm seeing someone about it.

Monty

@MorganRW:

You live too close to me. quit hogging all the reception!

Irvine (Home): barely two bars. Switches between Edge and 3G all the time.

Huntington Beach (Work): a bar, MAX. only way I can get 3G is to sit in my car in the parking lot and masturbate furiously.

The masturbating doesn't really aid the reception, but it does make me feel better.

Parapraxis

Mine (2G) is usually great in Germany, if I could just hear the damn thing ring!

lyndwode

Ah yes, slowly but surely people are realizing how subpar AT&T's 3G coverage is. I love they're ads. BEST COVERAGE (*based on global coverage). FASTEST 3G NETWORK (in the 10% of the country it's in).... it's like Sprint used to do MOST POWERFUL NETWORK (what does that even mean??).

I don't think Apple should be let off the hook here either. They also don't quite deliver in some areas of the iPhone that they say they do. Like when the 1st one was unveiled Steve jobs said you could use Yahoo mail to get push "just like a Blackberry." Right. And now I hear MobileMe isn't quite up to snuff. And don't even get me going on their "cheaper" campaign.

Even if it's not, it all comes off like smoke and mirrors.

Either way, iPhone reception is a joke.

OK. I'm gonna stop. I'm sounding like an Apple basher and I'm really not. I love their stuff. But they're in bed with AT&T on this one and not delivering the goods.

We deserve better.

GregBee

I live and work in Orange County, CA and on my daily commute of about 20 miles, I consistently drop calls no less than 5 times including sections of the 405/5. In fact I even tell people "I'm about to drop you so I'll just call you back" when I hit these zones. I was with AT&T before buying the iPhone and had the same problems and drops with my 3G WinMo phone while the iPhone does seem a a bit worse. 2 observations. The AT&T 3G network is weak and spotty even in areas supposedly covered. Second, it appears that the iPhone software is not as aggressive in switching to Edge when 3G is dropping out. Kudos to Apple though on software design. Previously when a call dropped, my caller and I would both assume we dropped the call. Now my iPhone clearly states onscreen "CALL FAILED" letting me know I'm the jackass and will even return the call automatically by simply unlocking the phone with a finger swipe. 2.1 OS I would like to see an auto call return option on failed calls. Lets face it. America's mobile network blows as I have had droppy reception from T-Mobile Sprint and yes even that bespectacled spokesman prick Verizon. Since it sucks and we all know it... fix it and make the phones handle drops better. More bars in more places... they must be talking about bars where you go to chase ass and get smashed. Can't be signal bars.. no way.

MorganRW

Wife and I kept our 2.5G iPhones and they are great for reception everywhere. And now that OS 2.0 has sped up page rendering through Safari, we noticed that getting on the web is almost 200% faster than before. Compared to a friend's 3G iphone and we almost got our pages rendered as fast as him.

Get this..our kid has the Blackjack II, which is also 3G, and it ALWAYS has full bars here in Queens and GREAT RECEPTION! 3G hardly ever goes off..and he has better battery life. Go figure.

juliusa

I do get fewer bars with the 3G. I haven't had problems with reception though.

rallycar27

Bars seem to fluctuate, but call quality is always good it seems, even at 0-1 bars of signal. In my office I got no reception with Rogers, and still dont so I guess that was to be expected. I was using a Treo 650 before which is supposed to be great for reception, iPhone 3G seems a bit better.

steaky

Reception around the parts of SoCal I typically haunt is really good. Not so good indoors as outdoors, but that's to be expected so long as AT&T has it on the 1900 MHz band.

KBeat

UK O2: Mine usually swaps between 1bar 3G and full Edge in the house and varies outside.

Even on 1 bar I've never experienced any dropped calls or distortion. According to O2 we're not covered by 3G here anyway.

sparx104

Verizon Kicks At&t right in the pants! I just switched to buy the iphone. All Carriers should be advertising
"What good is a phone when you cant even make a F*&$# call!!"
"What good is 3G when your always on the EDGE!"
With Verizon i could get service in any garage, now when i go into a big building i loose reception. What the hell is going on? I thought At&T was a huge company!

SilenceisGolden

@tnkgrl: Please stop flogging your blog.

Back on topic:

Not too bad. I only had 6 dropped calls in a 30 minute period this morning. Of them, one happened when calling AT&T to complain about dropped calls.

I'm under a skylight on the fifth floor of a 5 story building at Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street. The reception is much better when it's calling on the EDGE network.

To put it in perspective, the reception and dropped calls are worse than on T-Mobile, but not too much worse. T-Mobile was pretty bad about dropping calls too.

OMG! Ponies!

My findings here: [tnkgrl.wordpress.com]

tnkgrl

From my old iPhone to my new iPhone, I've noticed a remarkable increase in call reliability and audio quality. EDGE full bars seems to be crap compared to 3G two bars. The only performance glitch I've seen is that sometimes use of 3rd party apps causes a freeze which lasts 20-30 seconds. Nothing that a software update couldn't fix.

johnnyabnormal

looks like I ranted... Woo hoo rockaway!

etaripamai

My reception SUCKS. IN fact, I had someone in a room with me who had the firs generation iphone, and I put them side by side. The first gen had full bars, and mine had 1.5 - 2 bars. I had my 3G option switched off.

So, yes, the reception has SUCKED. I get a "No Service" message regularly. This thing is a pile of worthless shit. I have the cheapest plan (nearly $100, inc text messages) and I cannot use it. I might as well go back to Tmobile (where I had to pay a $200 ETF) just so I can use a fucking cellphone that can actually connect to the "Network with the fewest dropped calls".

What a load of bullshit. ATT + Apple SUCKS big time.

Stacky Botrus

@melikespi: not to rant but turning off 3g defeats the point of the phone. Not like I don't turn it off, but I would kill for better 3g service outside of manhattan. On the east side, service is spotty. Out in queens and Brooklyn, service is akward sometimes. Last time I checked, the rockaways are in NYC and we has 3 g service. Apparently atthasnt gotten the goddamn memo and visited the rockaways lately. Also, as a person who frequents areas north of NYC, I do agree, allthough service doesn't reach anywhere near where it's supposed to. To be quite honest, att might be loosing my fucking money, my future buisness, and all want to have an iPhone. Plus my fuckig keyboard can't keep up with how fast I'm typing this. Ugh. This was probably the biggest mistake ever. I have fill 3g bars at the broad channel stop, but wait, as soon as I cross Jamaica bay, this phone is just another stone to skip across it.

etaripamai

I want to hear more about 3G penetration.

getz76

@tiger66:
weird, i got crappy 3G in glendale last weekend

yertle

why wont ya'll mention the other raging story. bluetooth bluetooth :(

turi319

i get two bars max inside of my house. as a matter of fact in my neighborhood i only get 3 bars max.sometimes i even leave 3g, i go to endge. as soon as i go to pasadena or glendale i get full service in 3G

tiger66

@cHiCkenCOW:

Gizmodo is a gadget blog, and the 3G iPhone is hot shit right now. So either get over it, or quit reading Gizmodo.

dead_red_eyes

So G3 Penetrates better!!!

sfokevin

3G phone reception is terrible for me all over Boston. If I turn 3G off I have excellent reception.

cbandes

I get great 3G reception in my area. But it is kinda weird. I either have full 3G bars or full Edge bars. There is no in between. But, for the most part I never lose 3G coverage in my area (East Central Florida) Most of the time when I do lose coverage is inside a building. But, then I get full Edge signal.

dirtybird1977

I get great reception, but the bars show that I am not.
If I turn off 3g and go to Edge, the pages load slower, but I get full bars.

It makes no sense.

DeadWriter

Infinitely better than the last carrier I had, Metro PCS.

*shudder*

leetXcore

Phone reception seems fine, it's just the internet connection is bad if you have your hand cupped around the bottom back of the phone (like you would normally hold it.)

I would be willing to bet that at least part of the problem is that the power to the 3g radio has been reduced in an attempt to preserve the battery, which is unforunate, since battery life is the #1 complaint and 3G reception is the #2. In other words, Apple has done a #2 on you.

waterwizard

My EDGE is perfect. My 3G is good outdoors, but indoors I can only manage 1 bar. However, that seems to be a problem more with calls than with data transfer. With the phone getting 1 bar of 3G, I get the occasional dropped call. My data transfer albeit a bit slow to connect to something, is surprisingly fast with just 1 bar of 3G once it connects to a site or youTube. All in all I'm fairly satisfied, but 3G definitely needs to be able to penetrate walls better.

i BaldEagle

Almost no bars at home. The other big three carriers are great at my house. No 3G either. The DeathStar's coverage map (which I looked at before my iPhone purchase) on it's site is useless.

Damn the Empire, if I could build an X-wing it would be doomed.

rockstar

@Monty: Why would you take the poll if you don't have one? But I will add the option for you!

matt buchanan

I've found that if I've got full bars with 3G it works great! But anything else I have to switch back to EDGE. It's just unusable otherwise.

bonedog73

I get a lot of failed calls, but when I try again it usually goes through. It might just be a network thing, but I never saw friends with at&t having the problem before...

yertle

Can we please change the name of this site to www.allabouttheiphone.com.

cHiCkenCOW

Mine's good :shrug:?

I get full bars inside at work (Edge) and I get more bars in my house than my previous LG flip (mostly Edge). 3G is spotty at my house and I can only usually get 2 bars or so on 3g

highfloydelity

This is related to 3G coverage.

I always have 3G reception, from 2 bars to full reception.

I don't have 3G reception on two places though... my house, and my work

lol

Neone

I used a number of PDA phones since they first came out. Now I carry a modern, though boring, Samsung flip phone.

It has this really cool feature that I've fallen in love with. When people call me, it rings. When I open the phone, they can hear me and I can hear them.

It's really awesome.

hakubak

Is 'bars' a legitimate measure of reception? Does 1 bar or 2 bars actually have a quantifiable measurement?

If so, tell me what exactly 1 bar means?

My understanding was that it varied from phone to phone, where it is just a relative signifier between some arbitrary minimum signal and another arbitrary maxiumum signal.

If the mins and maxes don't match across all phone and all manufacturers, there is no way to quantifiably measure this.

Best you could do is talk on both phones and make a qualitative judgement, but then you are not just testing reception but bandwidth, and the cell network itself.

Alluvian

I was just playing with mine as I have been having crappy reception with my phone calls. My old EDGE iPhone always had great reception whereas my new 3G has had the hardest time.

I just switched it back and forth from 3G to EDGE and back... on 3G in my current location it fluctuates between 2-3 bars, when I switch to EDGE, it fluctuates between 4-5. I guess I will be keeping it on EDGE... I thought for sure Denver would have a decent 3G network... guess not.

qphayes

*this* ...stupid no edit button...

BadBoyNDSU

I've noticed (after walking around staring at the thing enough times) that it'll go between 4 or 5 bars with EDGE and 2 or 3 (or even 1) bars with 3G. That makes me wonder if the display is set up so even 1 bar with 3G is stronger than 5 bars with EDGE.

Just a WAG. Maybe someone can confirm?

zyzzyva

Someone uses thing to make voice calls?

BadBoyNDSU

@sos10:

Switch the 3G radio off in settings and it will always use the EDGE network.

Also, check [www.wireless.att.com] for a listing of all network coverage (EDGE and 3G) in the U.S. I've noticed 3G coverage is slowly creeping its way north of NYC, although good coverage really stop in White Plains =/ Looks like no coverage for me!

melikespi

Call me crazy, but when you put a poll out that has no option "I do not own the stinking thing" for a device that was just released, I have a finsky that says your results will be questionable, at best. Hey, but maybe I am the only one that does not own an iPhone and has a rare disease that does not allow me to pass up any online poll.

Monty

My 3G reception is great where I can get it (i.e. when the 3G icon shows up). Just not sure those AT&T maps are accurate at all as to where you can get it.

dogcow

3G reception is surprisingly bad, even in urban areas and near major roadways that you would expect to have more than one bar, or in many cases that I have seen, just edge.

What happened to all that boasting by AT&T about a beefed up 3G? Beefed up from nothing I guess.

And the LAST thing they should be advertising is "more bars." More like, "A bar if you're lucky."

I really wonder if they just beefed things up in Cali to satisfy Apple. Here in Boston, coverage is pathetic. Let's hope the continue to improve. Fast.

jwardell

2G is far better than with the previous iPhone. 3G is good. Only thing I noticed is that in some areas 3G is weak (while 2G is strong) and the iPhone remains trying to use the weak 3G network instead of switching to 2G.

sos10

Hey, does iTwoCansandstring get live MLB scores?

Youtube?

i'm down.

nosebleed

For people complaining about iPhone 3G reception, how does this compare with other people in the same location using other 3G capable phones? Basically is this phone related or tower/location related?

twilight-arc

i should mention that i live in the capital region of new york. We have 3g coverage throughout most of the region. I haven't noticed worse reception in edge areas though.

k2snowboards88

Looking at "bars" is a terrible way of gauging reception. "Bars" correlate to signal strength differently for each manufacturer and model. I get less bars with my second generation iphone than with my first generation. I get one bar in a lot of places with my second gen where i would get 2 or 3 with my 1st gen. That one bar makes perfectly clear calls on my 2nd gen. I also get that one bar in a lot of places where i didn't get reception at all with my 1st gen. With my 1st gen iphone calls with 1 bar would be filled with static and useless.

To sum it up, my 2nd gen has vastly improved effective coverage, and vastly improved reception everywhere.

k2snowboards88

I don't live in a 3G area, but I held out for the 3G iPhone anyway, and now I've got two 3G iPhones, operating only on EDGE, and they both get horrible reception in the places that matter most to me - my house and my office. This really took me by surprise because I had tested a friend's AT&T Motorola flip phone a while back and got great reception in both those places. If things don't improve, I'm going to have to take these phones back, eat the $60 restocking fee, sell all the accessories I bought while waiting for the phones to arrive, and go back to Verizon. I'm hoping that I just have defective phones either hardware-wise (so I could exchange them) or software wise (so that maybe 2.0.1 will solve the problem), because it will break my heart to have to go back to my Moto Q.

re-cyclist

Well being that I had the 8525 before and can compare, I know my 8525 spent a majority of time on the Edge and when I had 3G signal it was 1 or 2 bars (Work in Irvine, CA) and home (Mission Viejo) I had zero bars. Just guessing, it seems that the iPhone was designed thinking that the 3G coverege would be better. Hopefully a software tweak to jump to Edge earlier and better will be all that needed.

@JEmlay - Im thinking your V3 was not 3G wich would explain why your signal was better with your Razr. In your settings, switch off the 3G and you will see the signal you had before. 3G for whatever reason just doesn't seem to have the same range as EDGE.

MorganRW

@braceyoself:
I forgot about that. I also get NO SERVICE in places I had perfect ATT reception before. I can't make calls at all then.

JEmlay

My 2G has had lousy (non-existent) EDGE connectivity the past few days...

FritzLaurel

I live in a coastal Florida town, and have never, in 5 years of living here, gotten more than 1.5 bars of signal through 3 different carriers (ATT early on, Sprint and Nextel). Two weeks before the launch, ATT 3G came online in my area, and one of my employees showed me his 3G-capable phone with full bars inside our office...which NEVER got signal before.
Needless to say, I am pretty stoked with the reception of the new iPhone 3G, and I have full signal with great voice (and data) quality both at home and work for the first time ever.

Meatlocker - still a man, despite his white iPhone fetish.

AT+T shows my house (and about 1/4 mile surrounding it) is covered in the 3G range.

I have 1 MAYBE 2 bars if I lean out the window.

T-Mobile worked throughout my house (including the basement).

Wi-fi doesn't make up for this at all...

Crazymonkey

Most of them who are complaining doesn't understand how 3G works nor probably had never had a 3g cellphone to begin with.. worst, they just didn't do the power cycling to start a good run. My iphone 3g, have good reception, battery last quite some time, I got no complains... yet...

MDIFILM

"More Bars In More Places" refers to AT&T's policy of subsidizing drinking establishments, so you'll have a place to stop for a quick one (and use the AT&T payphone) after you try to get your cellphone to work.

wpns

My original iPhone would suddenly lose all bars randomly and at times all the Edge bars would be there no problem. I replaced the iPhone with an N95 and I have full 3G signal all the time. When I browse I have 3.5G most of the time, it's awesome. I'm in the Orlando area and I have 3G pretty much everywhere. Average speed is approx. 1 Meg, but I have had up to 1.5. Not what I hoped from 3G w/HSDPA but much better than Edge. Hopefully it will only get better right?

Fountainhead

It's great, but no 3G in Bloomington, IN is sad.

Schalliol

I get perfect reception almost everywhere except indoors in Los Angeles/Glendale/Burbank area.

AT&T should really up their "penetration". The 1900mhz spectrum really blows when I need to imdb "five easy pieces" at 2 in the morning to settle a bet. I suspect I'll soon be reporting an unintentional "drop test" if I have to keep drunk-stumbling outside to get decent internet speed.

CribbageLeft

In my house, I only get 1-2 bars, which was very unexpected as the AT&T map shows my town and all the towns around it being completely saturated in 3G.

However, despite the bars, data performance is good, but reception quality varies widely.

I love my new iPhone but to be honest the AT&T 3G deployment is comparatively lame.

Which is great for Apple, as next year they will be out of exclusivity with AT&T and everyone will be canceling their AT&T contracts to get a new CDMA iPhone with Verizon or Sprint.

brundlefly76

Well although I do not own one, I had a look in an O2 shop in the UK (colchester) it was nice to see they had zero bars for O2 3G in store, and they use wifi to demo the phone.

I had to laugh as even an O2 shop could not get a reception, having said that I did not check the other phones, although interestingly my T-mobile in the same shop can't get a signal at all. But then again T-mobile is next to useless at times.

ukmacgeek

This happened with the first iphone, apple will put out software updates that will tweak the power of the radio. This is what you get when you stand in line for hours, a product that needs people all over to test it for their market. Give it two to three months and the reception will be better. The reception on other 3G phones is better because the radio switches to what ever is strongest EDGE or 3G. I do not think the iphone dose this YET.

BrunellaBabcha

Yes yes I having the same exact problems on edge 4-5 bars and 1-2 bars with 3g but my thing is if they marketed the iphone 3g to be twice as fast at half the price then it should be that way but most of us are using the edge network or even wifi so why should we have to dish out an extra 10 dollars for having 3g once in a blue I think we should petition to have the first month free data with all the problems they (at&t, apple) has given us. Also I hate the fact that you go to the at&t store and ask them a question about the problems your having and they say its an apple product we dont know anything about it you should ask them. For god sake at&t and apple conjointly should have handled the launch and such better

basketballphile

I am in the same boat as most of the other posters. When I am on 3G I lose signal and it bounces back and forth from 2G with full bars to 3G with no bars. I have just turned 3G off and I have great reception here in Denver.

leif189

I live in Miami and there hasn't been a time that I have noticed losing 3g signal (Areas range from Bank vaults, Comm closets, random areas, etc). About the reception - I have been complimented by at least two or three people that I sound noticeably clearer... Got rid of my dingleberry Curve for the iPhone. <3

EzraNardywomps

...which I resolve by just turning the damned thing off, my fiancee however is not so easily consoled.

Wormfather is Wormfather

What really burns me is that in so many places there just enough 3G to make my phone pick it over edge but not enought to, ya know, even send a fucking text message!

Wormfather is Wormfather

It is not the 3G phone.... it is the 2.0 update also on the 3G. My 2G began getting less BT signal as well as cell signal. I exchanged it at Apple and they gave me a 1.1.4 phone. Got home and it was great. Did the update and same ol thing. So they did something with the 2.0

darrinpruitt

Ide hate to break it to you Gadget fans that jumped on to the status band wagon but even though this phone maybe slightly defective, its not completely its fault its the network and even though GSM is worldwide network it is a dead out of date worthless network i mean come on if two of the towers get to close to each other they partially cancel themselves out thats why at&t has random dead spots everywhere. So i hope your happy with the worlds greatest touchscreen paperweight, and while your busy looking for service il be having a good time with my better in every way shape and form LG Dare. As for those of you that would argue with me on what is better ive had all three the Iphone is a great product but the network just doesn't compare in quality or speeds.

hnry45

I'm content with my purchase, then again I only turn on 3G when I need it. ie, AppStore, surfing the web and downloading my emails in the am and lunch time. otherwise I use my Wifi connection at home. Call quality has been great, a tad echo-ish through the headphones.

jhilla

Definitely an issue with AT&T's purported ramp-up of their 3G coverage during the few weeks prior to the iPhone 3G launch. I've had the phone since launch day and can toss my name in the 'iPhone has awful 3G reception' hat. So, that's that.

What really irks me is when I compare the iPhone on a level playing field to my work phone, a T-Mobile Blackberry 8700G, both using the EDGE network. The BB is able to fetch and maintain a signal consistently (4-5 bars), even though some of the new Big-Dig tunnels (I'm in Boston, MA), whereas the iPhone just displays No Signal.

The funny thing that I've noticed (which sorta proved the whole antenna being on the bottom schematic) is that if I hold the iPhone upside down, presto! I get some solid signal. Could be a h/w design flaw, could be remedied with a firmware update... who knows? At the very least, I'd love for Apple to release some sort of statement acknowledging this issue. Because, it really is an issue.

bmatiash

Reception in Cupertino is not very good. However, I went to the Apple Company Store to get a case. Full bars for 3G. I was surprised my phone was not white hot.

PaineAte

Well, I can tell you this. I don't know about 3G reception because I still have an original iPhone, but the 2.0 update has certainly killed the "calls completed" rate. I get "call failed" about 7 out of 8 times now. Certainly didn't have that with the 1.x firmware. They screwed something up for sure.

Ashman

I didn't buy the 3G, but have the first Gen. When I upgraded the software to 2.0 thats when I started to have reception problems.

humanporkrind

I work in the bowels of a 5 million square foot complex of buildings and have decent reception anywhere that isn't actually underground.

FWIW, I get one or maybe two bars in 3g, but the call quality is A-OK.

ppiddy

@MorganRW:
I have tried it without 3G and it's the same crap signal. I believe the only time your bars reflect 3G is when then 3G icon is displayed? I hardly get that at all.

JEmlay

I work in Philadelphia and live in a major suburb. In both locations the reception is worse than Sprint's. The weird thing is that at home, I'll have no service one minute, and a few minutes later i might get 4/5 bars.

cmsjustin

Really good in Phoenix area and kind of shity in LA but who gives a shit the phone is just down right Bad Ass!!!!!!!!!!

Denial

EDGE is a completely different network than 3G.

When people say: "My reception is great, I get full reception in EDGE, and 1-2 bars in 3G," that means their 3G reception is horrible.

For all intents, it's best to ignore EDGE reception if you believe that you're in a 3G area with AT&T (or other carrier world-wide).

If you're on 5 bars of EDGE, yet should have 3G, that's a problem.

I can be next to my friend's Nokia N75 with full 3G reception and my phone goes between 1-2 bars of 3G, and EDGE. Pathetic... (it's my 2nd iPhone 3G with the problem too)...

dcdttu

Uh, Nokia ROCKS!

Fountainhead

I have no problem with Rogers network reception or HSPA coverage in Canada using the iPhone 3G. I guess in the USA AT&T still needs to upgrade some of their towers to support HSPA and not just EDGE. Hopefully they improve their network before my next trip to the USA.

imagine-engine

The crappy reception of the iPhone 3G is Apple's fault, not AT&T's. It's a bad piece of hardware with a pretty user interface on top. The antenna design is by far the worst of any phone on the market today, and it shows. The reception sucks and to maintain call quality the phone has to broadcast at ridiculous power levels, which directly translates into short battery life and it cooks your brain too. None of the major cell phone manafacturers would have let a phone with such a terrible radio go out the door.

jepzilla

Look. To start, I just wanna say I love what apple is doing and iphone. 2g works great (in Bethlehem, Pa and everywhere else I travel too) but 3G needs work! I have to say I am dissapointed with ATT. My 2g iphone w/ the "new att" was aWESOME!! ... then I got the 3G and BAM! the old att... crappy signal. Also, my gps on my iphone 3g says I'm somewhere out in the middle of the ocean. It's almost like if the phone can't triangulate your location, the gps chip won't kick in. Flew into EWR, and I couldn't get my gps to work at the airport on 3G. Great Job Apple, everyone else catch up!!!

LoralieToad

Bad reception isn't due to AT&T's network. The design team should have spent a little less time worrying about Steve Jobs and a little more time worrying about James Maxwell. Because the iPhone 3G has simply the worst antenna of any phone on the market.

jepzilla