Cell Signal and Reception Issues on 3GS after iOS 4 update.
There have been reports of reception issues on iPhone 4 and there is some debate as to the reason for it. Most seem to indicate that the problem stems from skin contact on the external antennas, specifically skin contact bridging two of the three antennas causing some manor of “short”.
While the 3GS does not have external antennas, I can say that I have noticed a steep decrease in cellular radio performance after updating to iOS 4.
The iPhone is having a hard time locking onto a cell tower and the signal strength reporting is 20% to 30% LESS than it was with iPhone OS 3.2. Thinking this might be some manor of misconception on my part I took my wife’s iPhone with 3.2 on it and side by side my phone with iOS 4 reports lower signal strength.
Call drops are also now more frequent than with 3.2. I don’t have any way of quantifying it, but I am now getting more “Called Failed” messages when in the middle of a conversation.
Living in rural Tennessee means that I sometimes move in and out of coverage as I drive. With 3.2 I knew where on certain roads coverage would drop off, and I would ether not be on the phone or warn the other person on the call that I was about to drop, then call them back. Of course knowing where coverage was lost, I also know where coverage picked back up. With iOS 4 the “dead zone” is much larger, with calls dropping out 1 or 2 miles before the pervious spot.
Getting signal back is also different. In the past with 3.2 my iPhone would pick up signal again rather quickly. Now with iOS 4 it seems to take forever for single to be found again. I’m also having an issue were if my phone has been off-network for several minutes, it will take 10 to 15 minutes for the phone to pick back up on single even when I’m in a known spot with full single strength (as measured by my wife’s iPhone). There have been several times when I have had to restart the phone just to be single back. I would get a single bar after coming back on network, but I could never make a call, nor would the single strength change.
Overall the call handling in iOS 4 has been a big disappointment. I fear Apple may have rushed an unpolished OS out in order to complete with Android.
