As I have mentioned earlier, the overall feedback from iPhone users about iPhone firmware 2.1 that was released by Apple last Friday has been very positive.
It seemed to have fixed most of the known problems with iPhone firmware 2.x.x such as dropped calls, slow iPhone syncs, iPhone apps crashing issues, 3G reception issues, Apple Logo Screen of Death problem.
However, this Apple discussion thread points out that iPhone 3G users are still reporting reception issues after upgrading to iPhone firmware 2.1.
Here are couple of complaints from iPhone 3G users from the Apple Discussions thread:
“I’m
getting more bars but the 3G signal still drops down to GPRS after a
couple of minutes, i.e. no improvement over previous releases."
“I
just bought my iphone yesterday and asoon as i got home the reception
was terribal so i updated it to 2.1 and instead of getting no bars i
get 1 to 3 bars but it goes off and on and turns 3g off and goes to
edge.”
If you had gone through the list of improvements in iPhone firmware 2.1
that Apple had published, it actually did not suggest that there would
be improvements in 3G reception. It had only mentioned "improved accuracy of the 3G signal
strength display".
So even if you might observed better signal strength (more bars) post iPhone Firmware 2.1 it does not mean your reception issues will go away.
Another method to check your iPhone’s signal strength is to look at its dB meter. You can access the dB meter by going into field test mode, which is done by dialing Dial *3001#12345#* then press “Call”. dB is measured in negative numbers; the closer to zero, the better the signal strength so a dB reading greater than -50 is considered a good signal.
Its widely speculated that the 3G reception and dropped calls that iPhone users might be facing post iPhone Firmware 2.1 is not Apple’s fault, they have done as much as possible to help AT&T fix the issue. The problem now lies with AT&T and could be due to bandwidth issue which can only be fixed by putting more towers and placing them closer together.
We would love to hear your feedback and expert opinion on this ongoing reception issue that some iPhone 3G users are still facing in the comments.
[via iPhone Atlas]
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