Apple acknowledges iPhone 3G reception issues

Apple has admitted that the last iPhone software update was designed in part to fix reception problems.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has finally acknowledged the iPhone 3G's reception issues, confirming that the iPhone OS 2.0.2 software update was designed to fix those problems.

A company representative told the Associated Press overnight (thanks, Macworld) that the latest update "improved communication with 3G networks," after weeks of silence regarding the reception issues reported by iPhone 3G owners around the world. Apple was reportedly working on such a fix last week, but Monday's update was labeled with the briefest of descriptions--"bug fixes"--making it difficult to know exactly what was addressed with the update.

The thing is, it's not clear whether all of the problems have actually been fixed. Several people have told me that the update did in fact dramatically improve their reception: one CNET employee is now getting reception on the BART subway system in places he never did with his iPhone 3G. But other readers who have been in contact over the weeks we've been watching this issue say they are still having trouble maintaining a connection to the 3G network in places said to have excellent coverage.

A former Apple employee, Chuq Von Rospach, reported on his personal blog earlier this week that those-in-the-know at Apple think it will take several months for a fix to be developed by Infineon, believed to be the source of the reception problems. So perhaps the 2.0.2 update isn't the complete fix, but a starting point for putting the reception issues to rest.

[Hardcoregeek]

I just purchased a 3G iPhone yesterday afternoon and as I walked out the of the store I had a very low signal but at the time I knew that 2.02 was out and was hoping that the 2.02 would fix the signal issues, how ever I was on the 3G network and the phone never switched networks at all. Well I did not have a chance to updatet the phone till I got home and after the update, I saw no difference. Well it was late so I went to bed. Now I have been turning off 3G network and almost instantly I have a full signal. I turn 3G back on and I have little to no signal and even get the No Service...I cannot belive that ATT/Apple is charging us more for the unlimited data package for use with 3G and it has been months and still no solution to the problem. Do you really think that ATT/Apple is going to be in a hurry to fix the issue becuse they are getting paid either way and we have to deal with the connection isuses!!!!!

[YankeePoodle]

Same here. I have turned the 3G for most of the time to get a better signal

[UITD]

Send it back. That is your way of saying SCREW YOU. There are other carriers and phones.

[M C]

Of course, the update can't perform magic and give people great reception in areas with spotty 3G service.<br /><br />And 3G service is spotty in plenty of areas.<br /><br />It would take some sleuthing (comparison in areas with known good 3G reception with another type of 3G phone as a control) to make any kind of judgment on whether the issue is completely fixed, sorta fixed or not fixed.<br /><br />Still, I expect a long list of "my phone still gets just 2 bars at home therefore Apple better fix it" posts.

[Lerianis]

If 3G service is that spotty, then Apple should have stood up to the people who wanted that functionality added to the iPhone 3G and told them "No, it is not a mature technology yet, we are not going to add it to our phones."<br /><br />Personally, my father is having trouble with his LG Trax phone, it doesn't want to connect to the Edge network at our home for some reason, and the BS we got from AT&#38;T is that "They are fixing towers!".... Wrong. It's been a month since they told us that, and service has not improved one whit.

[Cliff3]

&gt;Still, I expect a long list of "my phone still gets just 2 bars at home therefore Apple better fix it" posts<br /><br />Actually, my phone reception ranges from 1 bar to No Service at my home, located in an area described as having the best coverage by AT&#38;T's coverage maps, and where no reception problems were acknowledged by an AT&#38;T service rep. It's rather inconvenient to be talking to someone and just have your call end when the phone drops the signal. Did someone QA this product prior to release?

[UITD]

Its 2008, nearly 2009. If these carriers cant get PHONE RECEPTION to work, then screw them all. My old bag phone from the late 1980s didnt have any of these reception problems. Clarity was perfect. Phone worked all over the northeast USA. Then they go to digital and we took a step back. Then they go to 2G and now 3G and we continue to takes steps backward.<br /><br />The insane part is you people actually PAY for these devices and the service - so you keep feeding these idiots the food they want. Money. They dont give two craps about you as a customer or your so-called customer service experience. You simply allow their CEOs and upper executive management to fatten their wallets and go to Arizona for spa treatments with fluff girls.<br /><br />Fools.

[dcdttu]

Yea, my phone wasn't fixed at all. At best, it's now in EDGE more than before the update, presumably because it knows that the 3G signal is so weak, it might as well be on EDGE.<br /><br />All the while, my friend's non-iPhone's are on 3G all over the place, and mine is on EDGE...

[jaybarrow]

so if this new 2.0.2 update is only a band-aid on the real problem, defective Infineon chips, what's the permanent solution? we all get new Infineon chips or new iPhones? In the meantime I'm paying more for a 3G plan that I can barely use and dropped calls.

[Galaxy5]

Don't jump the gun - these chips are programmable to a degree, and there's still no evidence that there is actually a fault in the Infineon chip that can't be programed around. One of my problems with Krazit's guessing game on this topic is that a lot of people hear "problem" and think "defective, can't be fixed", which is usually NOT the case.<br /><br />I'd be more inclined to think that it's not so much an inherent problem with Infineon's chips as it is the way the phone handles handoffs and network selection. Calm down, folks. 2.0.2 seems to have done good things for my phone when it comes to hoping between 3G and EDGE networks.

[Vegaman_Dan]

You know, I've never had to update the firmware several times a week on my cell phone to make it work . It just works out of the box. Sure it's just a RAZR without all the fancy features, but... when it comes down to it, I can always make and receive calls because it's a cell phone. I'm wondering why it's necessary to keep updating a device to make it work when it should just work out of the box like the rest of the industry.

[gotrsx6]

i've never posted before on this, but yeah, no difference 2.0.1 v 2.0.2, still waiting for them to fix the problem.... sounds like a recall to me - except they can't recall it because they don't have a contract with a company to make a chip that will work with their lousy closed program, domineering business plan.. OOOPS

[Galaxy5]

"sounds like a recall to me - except they can't recall it because they don't have a contract with a company to make a chip that will work with their lousy closed program"<br /><br />"by gotrsx6 August 20, 2008 10:19 AM PDT"<br /><br />Total BS. You don't have any idea what you're talking about.<br /><br />After 1996 (and some of you know what I'm talking about) you'd better bet that Apple has contracts that bind their suppliers to severe penalties for screwed up or out-of-spec parts.

[danielwsmithee]

@Vegaman_Dan<br />The iPhone just works too, just like your RAZR. Everyone can make and receive phones calls no problem. The 3G data connection could be better but the phone still works perfectly as a phone.

[matttx]

3G is both voice and data. If there's an issue communicating with the 3G network, resulting in dropped calls or an inability to make calls altogether, then it certainly isn't working perfectly as a phone. In fact, the loudest complaint out there is that everyone CAN NOT make a receive phone calls no problem.

[lslobo]

I disagree strongly. My phone reception was decidedly better with my non-iPhone. Signal reception for calls is ridiculous. As regards being an all-in-one device to access content and other apps the iPhone is fantastic. When it comes to be being a phone, the opposite is true.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I haven't had a single dropped call on my RAZR. I'm not sure iPhone users can say the same thing, and in fact even Apple acknowledges that the problem exists. It simply does not work out of the box or else Apple wouldn't have have had to release two firmware updates in a month on top of the original release and are already working on the third.

[Galaxy5]

I've been pretty happy with the service and usability of the phone, but the 2.0.2 update did noticeably improve EDGE and 3G reception at my office, which is...ah...out in the Bay, shall we say.

[Galaxy5]

"by gotrsx6 August 20, 2008 10:19 AM PDT"<br /><br />Total BS. You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[mrgoodall]

i concur wholly, sounds like a pile on.

[dcsitdir]

Do I smell a Class Action lawsuit naming Apple and AT&#38;T??

[Galaxy5]

No, you probably smell a lot of clueless people who think they understand cellular technology and a lot of half-baked conjecture by: 1. customers who have never had a 3G phone before and, 2. a lot of first-adopter types who think that because the phone has a fast data rate that it should do so anytime, anywhere.<br /><br />Unrealistic expectations: Apple's fault for setting them and remaining silent in the face of ATT network and iPhone device problems, and customers' fault for having them.

[hooterboy31]

I`m in. Let me know. You can`t call me at home because I have no reception.

[gsmiller88]

What do people expect from a phone on AT&#38;T's network?!

[gefitz]

People with Ipod-phones don't need to make calls...if they did they would have spent 1/10 the money on something that works. What they do need is to be seen using their new touchscreens...so Apple's next update will probably be a patch to allow those users to LOOK like they're on the 3G network. It'll probably simply make the 3G light flash when the phone is actually accessing data via EDGE...most users probably wouldn't know the difference.

[gefitz]

People with Ipod-phones don't need to make calls...if they did they would have spent 1/10 the money on something that works. What they do need is to be seen using their new touchscreens...so Apple's next update will probably be a patch to allow those users to LOOK like they're on the 3G network. It'll probably simply make the 3G light flash when the phone is actually accessing data via EDGE...most users probably wouldn't know the difference.

[Seaspray0]

You, sir, are the Winner! I love the post!

[Galaxy5]

"by gefitz August 20, 2008 10:32 AM PDT"<br /><br />I've never seen more haterism than with this new Apple product. What, exactly, is your problem with people who choose to purchase it? Do you feel as if your advice has been ignored by millions? I suggest that perhaps you dwell on more important matters in life than what other people do with their money - especially when it's a personal choice that doesn't hurt anyone else, like a cell phone.

[jaybarrow]

gefitz, you don't know what you're talking about. anyone with a clue would notice the difference between 800 Kbps and 40 Kbps.

[Galaxy5]

I've been seeing over 1Mbps with a four-five bar 3G signal.

[wratbatblue]

I sympathize completely with Hardcoregeek (first post here). The problems he describes with 3G with and without the 2.0.2 update are exactly what I'm experiencing. I began getting "No Service" in my home area, which had already been weak, 2 days before 2.0.2. That update did exactly NOTHING to fix my 3G troubles. Thanks a lot, Apple. I think they owe all of us with these issues a certificate for a free iPhone III when it is launched.

[anilsudh]

Keep Dreaming!!

[MadLyb]

The key is there are two separate issues. Reception and bandwidth.<br /><br />The first is pretty obviously in Apple's court, but the second is mainly on AT&#38;T because they did not provision for the significant increase in traffic, so everyone is getting throttled, even folks not using iPhones. I know my HTC's throughput has dropped significantly since the 3G iPhone went live.<br /><br />It's like being the in the old days of cable Internet where you only got the advertised speed at 6 AM in the morning when nobody else was using the circuit.

[Galaxy5]

I just gotta add for the record...we were hearing about how great 3G was going to be....back in 2001. <br /><br />In fact, it was 3G hype that helped nudge existing high-speed mobile wireless providers like Metricom into bankruptcy (along with Metricom's horrible marketing team). Nearly eight years after Metricom was dissolved and the assets and technology sold, the cell companies show up with a half-baked product that barely manage to hit Metricom's Ricochet over the air speed. <br /><br />3G hype would be almost comical, were it not for the customers who are discovering that the networks aren't big, aren't as fast as promised, and the fact that the Ricochet modems in 2001 were supposed to be hitting 10Mbps by 2006, had the company stayed in business.<br /><br />Really - my fist-day-of-sale iPhone works well as a phone, iPod, and PIM. The data rates are not spectacular, but have surprised me, especially when moving at 70mph on CalTrain. I'm sure that as ATT's 3G network and subsequent generations of 3G devices reach maturity, few people will even care about speed.

[chris8051]

The bottom line is that it is a hardware problem. Chances are you will never totally fix the problem until you replace the hardware. These firmware fixes are stop gap measures in an attempt to mask the actual hardware problem. Bottom line existing phones will never work properly on the 3G. Only phones manufactured after the hardware is fixed will work 100% properly.

[anilsudh]

Bottom Line is you don't know squat about anything!!!

[Galaxy5]

"The bottom line is that it is a hardware problem." Oh, you work for Apple or Infineon?

[mrgoodall]

I think the issue is that for most people having Apple, a company that was supposed to be left for dead years ago, come back and become a socio/technological/media darling is, well, unnerving to some people. Having them constantly push boundaries with devices that other companies have brought to market before is also unnerving. They've had hit after hit after hit, and compounded success to the point that people are ready to see a failure, a real implosion. But thats the nature of man. <br /><br />There have been game changers before, but nothing grabs the public's attention like Apple products, so yeah I get why Krazit has et al have posted story after story on blog after blog, it grabs eyeballs, and more page views more money; thats how this thing works. <br /><br />My only issue is that rather than pretending to be act like a journalist, CNET be responsible, yes there are some folks that have been affected by said iPhone issues, I have a 3G iPhone and happen to be completely issue free as are many people i know that have 3G and 1st Gen iPhones in Jacksonville. No issues here. Maybe part of the issues are that some people are expecting 3G to be faster than their cable modems, or forget about the fact cell phone tech still isnt perfect after all these years, CALLS STILL CAN AND WILL DROP. Or maybe, its as I first asserted, some folks just want to feel good about themselves by dragging something or someone else down. Apple has always made good to its customers, so allow them time to make good, if they dont, then hit them where it hurts, in the pocket.

[kaibelf]

Mrgoodall:<br /><br />You make it sound like people are just after Apple because of their recent resurrection. I counter with the belief that people rightfully expect "premium" products at very high margin to provide what's promised. If I go out and pay for a BMW, I better not choke me way down the street in a lemon.<br /><br />Sure, some technical companies make mistakes, but I mainly take exception with the comparison of this debacle to standard fare for cell phone buyers. Sure, calls can and will drop, but not at the rate we're hearing about, right in the middle of large cities. It was a complete Apple misstep, and while I personally laud them for their marketing savvy and ideas, they really screwed this one up as far as logistics and manufacturing. Even Steve Jobs misses the shot sometimes. And the silence after these problems surfaced is all the more frustrating. Even a "we're working on it" would be better than nothing.<br /><br />As for Apple "always making good to its customers"? MobileMe, anyone? Ick.