Not every iPhone is equal
As per usual, the weekend rolled around and we headed up to Stinson Beach armed with our iPhones. In between catching rays and laying out my friends I wanted to check out the new features from Meebo and Facebook for the iPhone. Strangely, the EDGE network was very either/or--it was on...or completely off. Spotty coverage with the EDGE network? Surely not.
In another comparison, my friend Max and I were waiting for a table at a popular crepe place in San Francisco's Mission District and were surfing the net via our iPhones. Yet, we noticed that while my iPhone had 5 bars of service from AT&T, Max's had one, then none, then one.
Not sure why, but I'm sure it has to do with towers, transmission rates, data compression...But you would think that two identical iPhones bought from the same store, at the same time, would be alike. Think again, I guess.
Kevin Ho is a San Francisco attorney and the owner of a brand new iPhone. He'll be writing about the experience for the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
my friends and i would have service that was allover the place. We have a theory
that the network allows you to bump reception from other phones because at&t
may have a widespread network but when it comes to holding a signal not so
much. Now i have verizon i rather would have gsm for the fact i have more
selection but verizon has a network that really stays strong and consistent.