3G vs. Edge re: dropped calls

Howdy.
I have a 1st gen iPhone that is still serving me well, except that I cannot use it in my house (Brooklyn, NY, row house). Any calls I make or receive get dropped within 30-45 seconds. Since I am in the house and can use a land line, I live with it.
Now that my contract is running out, finally, I am wondering if getting the 3GS would solve this problem. I can't justify the upgrade for the nice camera, as much as I would like to, but if I could use the phone in my house it would be worth it.
Any thoughts? Anybody else have this problem?
Thanks!

Maybe, but it might take a lot longer then you think! I used to live in University Heights on Adams and Oregon St, and Verizon had the same problem. Full bars one minute, no service the next. They were never able to fix it, so I had to switch to T-Mobile. To this day I think the problem still exists over there. I almost think it's TOO MUCH signal as opposed to not enough. What blows me away is just 8 blocks away from my house there is only 1 BAR of 3G signal from AT&T! I don't understand it (except here I am on the 5th floor, and 8 blocks away I was on the ground!).
On the other hand, AT&T is sending me a replacement SIM card tomorrow, I doubt that will fix it, but who knows. I have been very impressed so far with the customer service from both Apple and AT&T reps regarding this issue.
You get American employees who speek very good English who are friendly and want to solve your problem. Let's hope that never changes!

Similar Messages

  • Dramatic increase in # of dropped calls

    iPhone 3GS, OS 3.1
    Well, maybe not "dramatic" but there has been a noticable increase in the the proportion of dropped calls--not sure when it started, possibly with the update to 3.1
    it is possible that this is something to do with AT&T's ability to keep up with the demand on their 3G network (I am in San Diego), but this is becoming untenable--if I go to a Genius at the Apple store to get them to have a look, are there any diagnostics they can use or will they just tell me it's AT&T's problem?
    thanks

    I'm a high volume user with O2 and experience on average 7-10 dropped calls/day. The problem coincided with 3.1 upgrade to 3GS and cannot be attributed to faulty sim card, network, poor atmospheric conditions or my odd socks.
    Interestingly enough I noticed 3.1 was able to hold either a 2G, Edge or 3G signal better than 3.01 when surrounded by metal structures. Network service would be lost with 3.01 and yet with the cell in in the same position with 3.1 it can hold minimum Edge and generally 3G full signal.
    3.1 appears to be slightly more effective & reliable with 'hopping' but its still not as seamless as BBold.
    I'm an Apple supporter, however they have some significant challenges to correct fundamental functionality we expect from a cell.
    I'm close to switching back to BBold as there are only so many times you can answer 'I don't know what happened to the connection' before appearing incompetent. I guess if I'd wanted an iPod I would have bought one.
    Lets up hope Apple accept problems exist and resolve timely before the poor product quality seriously negatively impacts their reputation.

  • 6 dropped calls in 45 minutes conversation

    Yesterday going and coming form work (in New York- Staten island to Brooklyn
    )I had 6 dropped calls in 45 minutes conversation, that never happen to my iphone before, well occasionally I did get some dropped calls, but not as much as yesterday.
    It was pretty weird, I did the reset of the phone and didn't fix the problem.
    I'm guessing something happened with the signal(network)
    Does this happen to any of you guys???

    i live in a suburb of Chicago, att's map shows me in a 3g area, but for the past week i rarely have an Edge connection, and when i have it on 3g i get booted to edge while on safari/maps, and if i make a call on 3g i get call failed everytime(as soon as someone picks up), which is making me wonder, and id like an explanation besides using just edge, the point to paying the extra money for 3g if i cant use it.....
    so id have to say i am having the same problem.
    conclussion- i want to switch back to the orignal iphone

  • Is 2.1 still dropping calls for you?

    It is for me. No improvement at all. Steve Jobs says this is a small issue and only a few people are experiencing it. Are you one of the few?
    I have four phone and all of them drop calls. This is not some remote area, this is in flat land around southern California (Newport Beach).
    I also know 10+ other people I work with that have the same problem.

    I am also experiencing dropped calls but mostly when using 3G. If I am using EDGE the problem is not as severe. I live in Baltimore MD. I had posted a question here: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8093328 but will repost in this thread.
    If you are on a call and moving and you move from a 3G into a non-3G area will the call always drop or will the phone attempt to pick it up on edge before losing it all together? Also, can the phone maintain a connection if you switch 3G cells? I suspect that one of the reasons we are having so many dropped call problems is that the AT&T 3G service is so spotty. If iPhone could somehow switch to edge as a last resort before dropping the call we might not loose as many calls.
    Is the dropped call problem an issue that requires replacement of the phone? (i.e. have people replaced their phones and found it fixed the issue?)

  • Dropped Calls. Whose Fault ?

    Is this an Apple hardware issue or an ATT Network issue ?
    I am CONSTANTLY getting sropped calls talking to my wife on a family plan.
    Is this an Apple issue or an ATT issue ?
    I have had sooo many problems with this phone that I have an appointment Saturday to swap it out for a new (at least that's what they said) phone.
    I'm wondering if this will actually do anything.
    My phone still has the same old problems (contacts lag, sometime text lag) but admittedly I have seen an improvement recently of the EDGE/3G issues. I have a stronger than usual 3G signal around my home. It may be that ATT have "lit up Astoria" as I have heard on other posts.
    Not sure what to do.
    Do I swap it out, or wait for the next <groan> software update ?

    Sphilpot wrote:
    What do you mean too many dropped calls?? I maybe drop 2 a week, but no phone is never going to drop calls. I had some issues when I first got the iPhone 3g but once I started doing a daily power off/on cycle I was fine. Cell phones do need to be turned off and on so they can reconnect with the towers and download over the air updates. Also a new sim card might fix the problem. I had the AT&T 8525 and it was dropping a lot of calls but we put a new sim card in and it fixed the issues. Hope this helps.
    I moved here from the UK, and never, repeat, never, had dropped calls on my T Mobile or 3 service in the UK. For the past 2 years here in the US, I have had T Mobile service. I never, repeat, never experienced any dropped calls. I hardly ever had to reset my iphone. That is the honest truth.
    Since joining ATT, a matter of several weeks ago, I have experienced dropped call after dropped call. Literally EVERY SINGLE DAY.
    <Edited by Moderator>

  • Everyone having issues with i4s:Activation issues,dropped calls,no SMS,no Network...read this for a temp fix!

    All,
    for all the users out there that have issues with thier new i4s having:
    dropped calls
    no SMS
    no Network
    Activation Issues
    MultiSIM issues
    etc.
    You guys must DISABLE your SIM PIN!
    I know this is not the best thing to do, but until Apple fixes this, this is the only solution right now!
    -> Settings
    ->Phone
    -> Disable SIM PIN
    ...done...
    Cheers

    Truth of the matter is ATT was not ready for this. I was ready to turn in my 3G
    and go back to my old iPhone when a tech rep at Apple told me to turn off
    3G. I went from full bars at home to only one when 3G was on and all of my
    calls were getting dropped. After the rep told me this I replied, "excuse me?
    You mean the reason I bought the new iPhone, so I can talk and email at the
    same time on the 3G network, is not even doable yet?" He replied that they've
    been telling customers to turn off the 3G and then the phone would work fine -
    which it did. Now I just keep it on the edge network and hope that one day the
    3G network will be up to speed and I live in LA! So give it a shot and turn off 3G.
    Thanks ATT!

  • Does turning off 3G reduce dropped calls?

    I had iPhone 3G for a couple weeks and returned it due to the high number of dropped calls and poor 3G reception. From the recent barrage of complaints, it's clear now that there are issues with the iPhone 3G feature. It never occurred to me to switch off 3G to see if I get better reception and reliability with calls but it has been mentioned in a few posts that that's a workaround. So is it a good workaround until Apple fix the 3G issue? I am considering getting the iPhone 3G again but only if this is a reliable workaround for the dropped calls issue.

    Well, there are 2 potential outcomes from the 3G issue, either a firmware upgrade fixes it or a product recall happens because of the defective Infineon 3G chip. Either way I expect to get 3G performance sooner or later. In the meantime, I can get AT&T to credit me for only using Edge (and not 3G). Does this seem like a reasonable compromise? The other option is to wait for the real 3G fix and see if it works. I suspect if the firmware upgrade doesn't fix it, a hardware redesign with a different chip (presumably) will take perhaps up to 1 year.

  • Reception & Dropped Calls with 4.0.2

    I upgraded to 4.0.2 a couple of days ago and since then I have dropped 7 calls. In the entire month and a half leading up to this I dropped 2 and 1 of those was my fault (covered up the lower left corner before I knew better). I spoke with my wife and a couple of friends and every one of them has also noticed this problem. Now I want to know if everyone else has noticed this or is it just a local thing (Jenison/Grand Rapids MI area).
    As a side note my batter drains a heck of a lot faster since I upgraded as well.

    I have had a similar issue with respect to dropped calls. I'll be talking and then I realize that it's eerily quiet on the other end and pretty shortly thereafter the call will drop. My iPhone4 is my primary phone for work so this has been a huge problem this week. Prior to the 4.0.2 upgrade, the phone work pretty much flawlessly with very few dropped calls here in NYC. This week I feel like throwing it out the window more often than not.
    I went to my local AT&T store to see if that was an issue in my area or with my specific device and he told me that my best bet was to do a reset on the phone (hold down home + top button past the shut down screen until the phone restarts) and wait for 4.0.3 software, which he claimed would be out in the next 2 weeks. He said I'd likely have to do that hard reset at least once a day to keep the dropped calls to a minimum. I did the hard reset and had a couple of calls, which were mostly conducted without issue. Once I did get cut off but it's hard to say if that was my phone or the far end party because they were talking on a Bluetooth headset while driving.
    Tomorrow once work starts I'm going to try out running on EDGE to see if that solves the issue as well.
    Apple has been annoyingly tight-lipped about this one because it's pretty clearly a 4.0.2 issue. Oh well. Hopefully these temporary fixes can hold me over until 4.0.3 or whatever the next update happens to be. Hopefully this isn't treated like the alarm clock bug that's existed since 1.0 (i.e., ignored).

  • Immediately dropped calls

    Yesterday, whenever I made a call, the call would be dropped (with "call failed" on the screen) within 3 seconds. Very irritating.
    I found that if I turned the phone off, then back on again the problem went away.
    Do the Apple folks trawl this forum looking for ways to improve the iPhone?
    Message was edited by: Peter Ritchie, spelling corrections

    I've had this same problem with dropped calls. I live in the Seattle area however. It really got much worse after the 2.1 update. I would get at least 4-5 dropped calls a day.
    While it is true that that turning off 3G and switching over to EDGE will get rid of the dropped calls, this is really a temporary solution. I mean, it is the 3G iPhone after all so no sense in using it on "crippled" settings.
    Here is the chronology of what I did and the solution I've come to. I think I have found something that works but it is a little early still (so far NO dropped calls and no calls going straight to VM for 3-4 days)
    I first rebooted my iPhone...still dropped calls.
    I then reset my network settings....still dropped calls.
    Then I switched out SIM cards....still dropped calls.
    Then I did a RESTORE but NOT from backup. I knew this would be a little painful but I was willing to try anything. Now just know, if you don't sync your iPhone with Outlook or MobileMe or something, you will lose all your contacts and appointments. I would recommend actually doing a quick sync before you do a full restore in case you wanna transfer any new info from the iPhone back to your computer including Apps and iTunes purchases. Just know that regardless, you apps will all reset to there initial settings. This is kinda a pain (you'll lose game saves, apps preferences, etc...)
    The restore process will take me about 20-30 minutes to reinstall the software and everything (not sure but I've been told could take up to 45 minutes)...just be patient (do it before you go take a shower or times when you don't think you'll need your phone). Afterwards, you may notice your iTunes content by default does not transfer over but your apps should. You'll have to go into the iPhones settings on iTunes and check off what you want to sync over.
    So far so good....No dropped calls. I suspect somewhere along the line...the firmware or OS became unstable or corrupted but doing a full restore fixed it. I am not sure a restore from backup works and you could certainly try that first but it sounds like it does not work.
    Good luck.
    Arman...

  • 4.3.2 iPhone upgrade and dropped calls.

    Since upgrading to the 4.3.2 OS three days ago, I've been experiencing numerous dropped calls on the order of one every minute.  Calls linger in limbo before connecting and then drop.  Antena signal reads 3 bars.  I'm missing calls too.  I live in the same area and have NEVER had a problem with dropped calls until this update and it is really causing problems.  Why?  Is the phone failing?  Is this an update problem?  Is this a network problem?  Is anyone else experiencing this?

    I am experiencing the same issue here in Germany, Network is T-Mobile.
    Since upgrade to 4.3.2 I have dropped calls regularly with my iPhone4!!
    This is getting more and more annoying.
    What happens is: I am starting a call or am receiving a call. The call stays up for 1-5 minutes. During that time (randomly differs from 30 seconds to 5 minutes) all of a sudden the person on the other side does not hear me anymore! I am still able to hear him/her! After around 5-10 seconds after that happening, the connection is lost/cancelled. This is happening independently of the amount of bars, meaning it does not matter whether I am having 5, 3 or just one bar.
    Please Apple solve this!! I cannot use my phone anymore the way it is supposed to work! Never had this issue before the upgrade in the same places - in fact, before the upgrade, I did not experience ANY dropped call whatsoever!!
    BTW: I tried reboot, reset of all settings, backup, etc. - no positive effect.

  • Dropped calls and no service in my house...why am I even paying a phone bill?

    I've been a Verizon customer for probably around 6 or 7 years now. I've had plenty of different devices and was always happy with my phone. A few years ago, service started to get horrible in my house. I would barely get service and my phone would drop calls. I have spent hours over the past 2 years on the phone with reps. Some were very helpful, and some were very frustrating. I have put in service tickets and even changed out my phone to try to get better service. Let me also note that AT&T customers get perfect service inside of my house. I don't even want to hear the excuse that Verizon doesn't guarantee service inside of a building due to building materials. The last time I checked, I didn't rebuild my house in the past few years with new materials. I use my cell phone for business when I'm at home, so it is extremely important that it works inside my house. I put my most recent service ticket in almost 2 weeks ago and there is STILL no resolution. I also won't accept if the only resolution is me buying a network extender.. I'd rather pay an early termination fee and leave before I'd ever spend money on another Verizon device. I have had 2 reps in the past week tell me that they would call me back and I never hear anything. I also have been told that they would resolve it by a certain date, only to find out that now they are saying it's going to stay open until they can figure it out. I rely on my phone for work now more than ever since I recently starting working from home, so how can I accept the fact that I am waiting around and paying for a phone that doesn't work when I need it the most? For all of my trouble, they offered me a $20 credit on my account. I shouldn't even use the word "offered" because I was the one who mentioned that I should be reimbursed for my time. I'm so sick of wasting my time on the phone and I am truly disgusted with Verizon. As a long time customer who has spent thousands of dollars over the year paying for Verizon service, I would expect to be treated much better than this.

    I am not in the same boat, Verizon works absolutely everywhere I go and I am super happy with the service. If the service started not working however, and I got no resolve, I would just cancel it and switch providers. No point in paying for service you can't use, especially where you live.

  • IPhone 4: Blank text messages, dropped calls, slow Internet connection

    I thought I was going to be so happy with the iPhone 4 but I am very dissatisfied... Every time I am on the phone the call drops, called AT&T and they can't help and transfer me to apple, still no answer from both parties. I could not believe that they said to use DUCKTAPE.... Are they being serious??????
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    I just bought a couple of iphone 4's last week (one for my wife and one for me). After two days of using it, my wife commented that her sister (who lives in Los Angeles, we live in Seattle) was receiving "some" messages blank. Originally I thought it was related to my sister in law being on a T-mobile network or just because she was using a different phone.
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  • My phone is dropping calls, doesn't ring all the time-goes directly to voice mail, do no recieve alert on when a text is recieved

    1-My phone does not ring all the time upon recieving an incoming call, it goes directly to voice mail.
    2- Not recieving alert tone upon recieving a text message.
    3- Dropping calls also

    We have the same problem widespread in our company with iPhone 4's and 5's:
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    - Drops the call for no reason even though signal strength is good
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  • HT1386 Just downloaded 7.2 into my Iphone 5 what a mess.  Dropped called no audible notifications for email or text messages.  Went to the apple store and reset phone to original specs. Now trying to restore apps and music and itunes will not recognize th

    Just downloaded 7.2 into my Iphone 5 what a mess.  Dropped called no audible notifications for email or text messages.  Went to the apple store and reset phone to original specs. Now trying to restore apps and music and itunes will not recognize the phone.  I have gone thur the steps for windows 7 and still nothing???  I have downloaded the newest version I itunes too. 

    Hi Midwestboy,
    If your iPhone isn't being recognized by iTunes on your Windows machine, you may find the following article helpful:
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    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
    Regards,
    - Brenden

  • Repeated dropped calls...again :-(

    Lately, I've been experiencing a high number of dropped calls. I have had this happen in the past, and the agent asked me to call (I believe) *52-but seeing as though I have forgotten the * code, I didn't want to do anything else to further jeopardize my service. But service has been getting worse lately with all the dropped calls, on 2 of 2 lines I have. And , sometimes, when I get through, (separate issue lately) either I can hear the other party good and they cant hear me or vice versa and yes, I have tried restarting the phones as I was told to do when I first brought this to Verizon's' attention; but that seems to be only a quick fix. Yesterday, during a conversation with my mother, the call was lost. I looked at the screen and it said no signal, then no sim, them 5 of 5 bars, all within seconds.

    I would start by visiting a VZW corporate store and getting them to change your SIM card.

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