Another 3G Data speed problem on 4.1

Question

Hi All,
Background info first:
Using Win 7 Ultimate, iPhone 3gs 16gb, iTunes 10.0.0.68
Located in Milton, Ontario, Canada (near Toronto), Rogers Cell network
While my iPhone was on os 4.0, everything worked perfectly, I was getting 5 bars of service almost anywhere I was, and the 3g data was almost always fast (about 99% of the time it worked without an issue). On rare occasions my signal strength would dip to 4 bars, but that was the worst of it.
I then upgraded to ios 4.0.2, and things have been downhill from there. My 3g speeds are generally terrible now, I usually get 1 or 2 bars, occasionally I will get 3 bars, and only once have I seen 4 bars. Needless to say, I can't really get online with much reliability anymore.
I then noticed an update and upgraded to 4.1, things are even worse now. My geocaching app refuses to connect to the gps, it just hangs, and I am frequently missing phone calls (phone doesn't even ring, I just get a text telling me I missed a call). Battery life is all over the map now as well, some nights I will go to bed with battery at 100%, and when I get up it is at 88%, other times it has completely drained.
I contacted Apple, they told me about the problem where the signal strength wasn't being reported properly, and now I am just seeing what my true signal strength is. I don't buy that at all, because if that is the case, then if my phone was showing 5 bars, and I was actually only getting 2 bars, I was still able to get really fast speeds, now that it is "correctly" showing 2 bars, I am getting terrible reception. Apple support suggested I contact an apple store and book an appointment.
Went to apple store, met with the genius bar guy, he was really helpful, he thought it might be my sim card, so he gave me a new sim card, and then he decided he might as well give me a new phone in case it was the device, new phone came with os 4.0.2, so the only thing that really fixed was the geocaching app, but to get all of my contacts back, I had to restore from a backup, and I am back at 4.1, and no data speed.
I contacted my cell carrier, and they can't figure it out either (one of the reps even told me to jailbreak my phone so I could downgrade to an earlier os).
My mother in law has an ipad, on the same carrier, and she lives way out in the middle of the countryside. She gets 5 bars at her house, I get no service.
Just wondering what people think is the issue, is it phone + os, or is it network?
My thought is that it is the new os, my wife has the same phone with os 4.0, but on a different carrier, and she always gets 5 bars of strength.
Thanks
Mike

Answer 1

Hi mlethbridge
to clarify, I am not interested in jailbreaking the phone at all, I was just shocked that a customer service rep actually suggested I do that.
Yes you have to wonder sometimes
When I first contacted apple customer support, they told me to try restoring from a backup, did that but no change, then I restored to a new state, but I was still getting the 3g speed problems.
When I received the new phone from apple, I did check the data speed, and it was still slow.
So was it just slow or so slow that it was timing out before it would load anything?
The geocaching app problem has been solved, I don't know why, but when I checked in Location Services, geocaching was turned off, that was a real simple fix (boy I feel like an idiot on that one), but that obviously didn't help the 3g speed.
Yes, I wish sometimes all things were that easy to fix.
As for the contacts, I always just kept them on my phone, count that as a lesson learned, they have all been synced over to my computer now.
Good to hear, I would hate to see a post saying 'all contacts lost how do I get them back?'
I personally treat my phone a portable storage device and never have anything on it that I cannot afford to loose.
The point I was making with the iPad comparison is that my mother in law and I should be getting almost identical speeds (I am aware that the antenna might be a bit different in the iPad, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference), so I am not sure if it is just the way my cell network interacts with the new firmware, or if it is just the new firmware itself (if that makes sense?)
I know what you mean, I'm not sure of the specs of the ipad v 3GS, but yes I would expect them to be reasonably similar.
I did a bit more testing today, and went for quite a drive out to my brothers, the closest cell tower to him is about 5kms away (from my house it is about 1 km), and I was actually getting 4 and 5 bars out there, and the data speed was pretty good (not as good as I was used to, but it was a speed I could live with), but back at my house, I am getting only 1 bar again.
On the surface of things, it sounds like its working as it should, all be it a bit slow maybe.
I am really waffling as to which is at fault, is it the firmware or my cell network.
I was recently discussing a roughly similar issue with another user where his connection on 3G was timing out Unfortunately we could not determine if it was firmware or carrier in the end, his problem just evaporated and his data just suddenly came good, which was great for him, but a bit frustrating for everyone as the cause was never found.
In that case everything was attempted. You can read about here http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2570292 if you are interested.
Try a few things;
Make sure that you have the latest carrier setting file. It is possible that with the new 4.1 firmware, this file also requires updating. I know my carrier updated their's (Telstra Australia) after the upgrade.
This should be an automatic thing, but it doesn't hurt to check. Connect your phone to iTunes and check for updates. If there is a carrier update available you will prompted to download it. Alternately, in the iphone go to Settings > General > About and if there is an update available, you will be prompted to downloading.
I think that you want to determine is just what speed are you getting.
My first step would to download a speed checker app, I use Speedtest.net app, but any free tester will do and use it to test your download and upload speeds. Compare this with different locations within your house and also where you are showing a much stronger signal. You will probably find that it varies a bit depending on your location.
See if you can compare it with another iphone on the same firmware, same network, same location, or compare it with the ipad, but I think it would be better with another iphone.
What happens if you turn off 3G and access only by Edge, speeds will drop because Edge is slower, but by how much? And WIFI, what is data like on it?
What happens if you restore to 'new' and just sync the speed tester app. Does that resolve anything? This will determine if something else in the background is causing the issue.
On that though, what other apps do you have running at the same time that could cause a slowdown? Mail? Facebook? Streaming Music? If multiple apps are running that require internet connection and then you open Safari to browse all the apps share the connection speed between them, so it could appear that the internet connection is slow.
Hope this helps a little