As all iphone users have experienced, I get my fair share of dropped calls.  Actually, live in the the San Francisco / San Jose Bay area, I get more then my share. I wrote about ways to reduce dropped calls back in 2009 as a response.

So when I saw the new antenna layout for the iphone 4, which places the antennas outside as part of the iphones structure, I wondered if this could help the situation.  Unfortunately, as I look around, I have not seen any data on whether or not this new antenna has been tested to make any significant improvement on radio transmission and reception.  It ‘should’ be though.   When it come to antenna’s, the bigger the better.. in general. However, this antenna is exposed, so how will human contact over time affect the antenna’s performance?  It could actually make it better in some cases.  Remember, these are radio waves were are talking about here and the body can serve as a type of antenna depending on the freq and other environmental factors.

But the Antenna was not the only reason we have been dropping calls on AT&T.  There is the network itself. If you have ever been to a conference where there are lots of iphones, and in the tech / socMed world that is the rule, AT&T’s performance tends to degrade.  Although its gotten WAY better, its still an issue.

So can we expect better performance with the iphone 4?  I would say yes.  Enough to change my mind from leaving AT&T at the end of this month??  I guess we will just have to see.