So, can software along fix this?  Perhaps.  Based on what I have seen, it takes time for reception to die out which could mean there is some sort of power drain when the two antennas are shorted out for a long time.  Now how technically can they solve this I’m not sure.  Perhaps apply more power to the antenna?  Pulse the power to changes the sync’ing of the two antenna so they do not cancel each other out?  I dont know.  But I REALLY hope they explain it.  And an old time geek, I would LOVE a full story on this.  And I will of course update once I find out.

But one other thing… its only been THREE DAYS since the iphone 4 has been out and already we have an update?  And what about the dead camera issues that have been showing up on the boards?  Will that get fixed too?  Once thing about the update, will be interesting to see how it gets deployed eh?

Seems like it may be neither based on what I have heard so far… based on how you hold the phone.

In general, the antenna is bigger and on the outside of the phone.  So right off you would think that reception would be better, and thus fewer dropped calls unless holding your hard around the antenna causes issues, which I wrote about a few days back on my post called ‘Will the iphone 4 with the new antenna layout reduce dropped calls?’ and its seems my concerns around attenuation have been confirmed with this video that went out yesterday.  (video at the bottom of the post)

Now here is the fun part.  Steve Jobs answered back an email on this subject and he’s replay was basically, do  not hold it in a way to reduces reception or put it in a case.  Sigh.  Great.  So I have to wonder… did anyone TEST for this? 

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.

So what does that mean?  …  Umm.. not much.  The reason many people complain about AT&T is not the speed. I have played with t-moble and verison (have not played with a sprint phone in awhile) and I can tell (at least it feels like it) that AT&T seems to run faster, especially when I’m downloading a large doc. So as Gizmodo pointed out, AT&T’s pipes are fine.  At least at the moment they were.  Dont tell me that the next time there is a tech convention in SF. The problem many people have with AT&T, and I experience this daily in my office, is the bloody thing does not work!  So yea, 3G on AT&T is great, esp when you are uploading live Video where every sec of increased speed matters.

Now if your the type that pushes and pulls lots of data and need it now, then perhaps its worth putting up with the limited network.  In my case, 15% more speed in exchange for 15% more coverage, I’ll take the coverage.

Curious about how the tests came out in your city?  Have a look at the graphic below, or better, check out the link at the beginning of this article.

Yes, I’m sure you have have all heard about AT&T’s new product, the 3G microcell.  This device will connected your iphone to your home network giving you voice and data.  Now, if I lived outside of a normal population area, outside of the ‘claimed’ service network, I could see the justification for such a service.  But if you are in the heart of the city, like San Francisco, and whole area’s are ‘cell purgatory’, then this is just insult onto injury. From the sites I’ve seen so far, everyone is screaming bloody murder on this one. Another AT&T public relations FAIL.

To be fair AT&T are not the only ones: … Sprint charges $20 a month for its AiRave femtocell and Verizon charges $250 for its Network Extender box. T-Mobile charges $10 a month for its @Home service, which uses Wi-Fi instead of a cellular connection, but does the same thing. … (Gizmoto)

As for me I’m still under contract, so I’m just going to wait it out and move to another service.  Its a shame too because the iphone is still the best smart phone out there so far. (iTunes not withstanding).

Here is a link to an article I wrote for iphoneLife giving tips on reducing dropped calls.  Although it was written for 2.0, its still relevant today.

4 tips on reducing iphone dropped calls

Well, the 3.1 SDK is out and not much has been mentioned on fixing this issue short of this line.

..iPhone Software 3.1 also reportedly improves battery life on the iPhone 3G S, updates the “Carrier” profile for U.S. users to “AT&T 4.2,” as opposed to “AT&T 4.0,” ..

Now I this does not mean its going to improve the situation, and I’ll looking for something somewhere, but its better then nothing. Still, after being used to good connections since the 2.1 update, I’m really bummed to have to return to watching where I place my phone calls again to avoid dropped calls. 

– original article written in ~Oct 08 –

It’s no secret that the iPhone has been having problems with dropped calls and sound quality. Interestingly, the problem has increased since the 3G came on the scene. Although Apple and AT&T have been improving the situation bit-by-bit, dropped calls are still a reality. Because of this, I thought I would share a few tips that may help reduce the number of dropped calls and improve overall sound quality.

Cell phone reception

A cell phone is basically a small two-way radio. When you make a call, the iPhone connects to the nearest cell tower(s) using radio waves, much like the reception on your AM/FM radio. Your voice is converted into a digital signal (a series of 0’s and 1’s), transmitted to its destination, and converted back to an audio signal on the other phone.

The quality of the call is based on signal strength, again, much like the reception on your AM/FM radio. In addition to turning the tuning knob to adjust for frequency (on older radios), many people find that you can improve reception of a weak signal by adjusting the antenna and moving radio closer to a window or a different room. You may not get a perfect signal in all situations, but if you can get a strong enough signal, you will be able to understand and enjoy the content.

The situation is similar with your iPhone and other cell phones. Concrete reinforced walls, tall buildings, and your distance from a cell tower can reduce signal strength and interfere with the digital transmissions. Fortunately, even with one or sometimes zero bars, you can still make and receive calls. Unfortunately, the sound quality may suffer, and if signal gets to be too weak you can experience the frustrating “dropped call” on your iPhone.

Improving reception and preventing dropped calls

Keeping in mind how cell phone reception works, let’s now look at a few tips for improving your connection and reducing dropped calls.

1. Use the iPhone’s “Field Test” mode to determine best reception levels

Fig 1

The iPhone’s Field Test mode gives technical information on how well the iPhone is connecting to the cell towers. Although there is a lot of information that you can glean from the Field Test, in this tip we’re only interested in the signal strength received from the cell tower, expressed in decibels (db). To determine this, activate the Phone application, bring up the keypad, type in *3001#12345#* and press the Call button. This brings up the Field Test main menu. Note that you should see the signal strength bars in the upper left corner of the screen replaced with a number indicating the strength of the signal in decibels (Fig. 1).

The signal strength is indicated as a negative number (I’m referring to the absolute value here, not the numeric value), and the lower the number, the better. For example, the -75 shown in Fig. 1 is better than a -99. Typically, if you are getting a good signal, you should be seeing something between -60 and -80. You can use this feature to determine where the best reception is at work and at home. If you’re having problems with dropped calls, favor those locations.

At home and before I updated to the iPhone 2.1 OS (apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/) I’d get a -95db signal at my desk and -103 to -113 on my couch. A day after the update I was still getting the same values, and even dropped a call that afternoon. Three days later I was getting around -77 at the desk and -85 on the couch. I believe that AT&T may have increased the power or perhaps updated the firmware on the cell towers in my area. If you have not upgraded to the iPhone 2.1 OS, go ahead and check your signal strength, upgrade to 2.1, and check the signal again to see if there’s an improvement. There are a lot of fixes in 2.1 as well as 2.2—you should upgrade regardless!

2. Turn off 3G to improve phone performance (and conserve battery power).

Unless you are in an area with good reception, you’ll probably get better performance with 3G turned off. As I write this paragraph, my iPhone is sitting on my desk with 3G turned off, and I’m getting a db signal of -79. When I turn on 3G it changes to -103 (remember that a higher negative db number indicates poorer reception). I normally keep 3G off all the time to improve cell performance and conserve battery power. I only turn on 3G when I plan on browsing the Web or downloading an app from the iTunes App Store.

3. Hold your iPhone at the top.

If you are in an area with weak reception try holding the iPhone near the top, making sure that your palm does not cover the bottom of the device. The antennas for the iPhone are located in the bottom of the device. If you wrap your hand around the lower part of the phone, you can degrade the signal slightly. Using the Field Test feature I found that I would see an improvement of about 4 db’s when I held the iPhone near the top. It’s not a big improvement, but when your signal strength is weak to begin with, it could be the difference between completing a call and dropping it. Better yet, leave the phone on a table and use your hands free headset.

4. Use a hardwire headset instead of Bluetooth

I have found that I can sometimes improve the signal by 3db when I use a plug-in headset with the iPhone. I’m guessing the headset cable is acting like an extension to the internal antenna. In addition (and probably for the same reason), some bloggers say that plugging a USB cable into the iPhone alone, without connecting it to anything else, will improve reception. My results were mixed when I tried this.

Finally, I noticed that when I first got my iPhone, I got better reception when I kept it connected to the AC power adapter while I talked. I even purchased a USB extension cable so that I could remain connected to the power adapter while I walked around the room. Unfortunately, this technique doesn’t seem to be as effective on my device since I upgraded to the iPhone 2.1 software.

AT&T moving to a lower cell frequency

Since the iPhone 2.1 software update (and the apparent cell tower changes from AT&T), my iPhone’s reception has been better. However, there are still occasions where reception is poor, and I still drop calls now and again. I’ve heard the AT&T cellular network primarily uses the 1900MHz band in the US, but it’s working to expand its use of the lower frequency 850MHz band. This is important because lower frequency signals spread farther and penetrate walls easier, both of which should improve reception and reduce dropped calls.

I hope these tips will keep you chatting on the phone instead of yelling at it when your call drops.

Post Script..

THIS is one of the reason I LOVE having SBSettings.  I can turn 3G on and off using a single swipe then click.

I did a search on google and found nothing, so this could be some local issue, but 4 dropped calls in 24 hours???   I’m going to give this a few more days.  If things do not return to normal then perhaps some extended testing is required.

Has anyone else experienced this?

{Update … I posted an old article here on reducing dropped calls.  Hope this helps.  }

So I figured, ok, yet another useless update.

However, a day and a half later, I finally jailbroke (pwned) the phone and did another field test.  This time it was coming in at -77db. (lower is better folks) Hmmm.. So the question is; was ATT slow in updating the software on their towers or did jailbreak actually improve my iphone performance!!  Well, I’m pretty sure it was ATT, but its fun to think it was jailbreak.

So far, I have not had another dropped call, but I do not use the iphone that much (mostly a skype user) so I’m not sure we can jump to any conclusions.

Oh, BTW, to get the field test, get to your phone keypad and enter *3001#12345#* then click call.