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3G speed in Chicago Illinois vs other US cities?

Gotta agree with this. The notion of turning off 3G on a product called 'iPhone 3G' is ridiculous. We were sold on a faster, more reliable phone, and in some folks cases, it's anything but.

gandalf18 said:
Yep, I am that impatient when I've paid the money for it because it should just work :) Had to replace my original iPhone after it got damaged. I hardly ever experienced a dropped call previously. With the 3G iPhone I've had numerous dropped calls and very uneven signal strength in areas where the original had no problems. So it's not just the Chicago network, which can be iffy, but is related to the iPhone itself. I'm not raging mad about it by any means, but I am disappointed. A visit to the Genius Bar is in my future. Not quite ready for primetime in my opinion...
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Well I just tested my iphone on testmyipnone.com....here are results on three separate tests: 3G= 0.06 mbps....0.08.....then 0.06. On EDGE 0.18 Mbps.

That is pretty bad IMO....time for visit to apple store???
 
Yah seriously im not trying to be patient when I am paying extra for supposedly faster speeds. Also does anyone get that little square with the dot instead of 3G that is really starting to get on my nerves. Also today was an even worse day it said NO SERVICE like 2 times during my day. I also dropped atleast like 10 calls...If i see call failed one more time im gonna lose it. Does anyone suggest going to the apple store or to AT&T store?
 
I went to Apple store yesterday and they told me it was an 3G network issue. The tech's iphone, his co-workers, his friends all are experiencing weak 3G coverage in the Chicagoland area.

On my ride to the store (about 15 miles), I virtually had zero bars but when I pulled into the mall parking lot, it jumped up. When I entered the store, not only were the twenty iphones on display showing FULL 3G bars, so was mine! It turns out they have a booster in the back for 3G.

So I guess we have to play the waiting game until ATT addresses this. I thought I read here on this forum about a poor chip set that Apple uses...maybe they address the 3G with an update to chipset. From what I'm hearing/reading, Blackberry users with ATT 3G are not having our issues.

So in the meantime, when I'm home or in a wifi area, I'll turn 3G off and wifi on. If I'm out and about, turn 3G off use EDGE...if I need data, say a prayer and hope for 3G coverage. It's pretty sad that we have to pay $30 a month to use the iphone this way in my opinion.
 
Mixed... if you look at my earlier posts, going back to a phone with 2.0 on it, I was getting some pretty decent speeds. For some dumb reason I updated to 2.02 this morning and I get edge at home now (where I was getting 3G) but 3G at work, where I was getting edge. Either way, I haven't managed to get anything over .5mbps yet where I was getting about 1.2 prior (on 2.0). Can't figure out if it's Apple, or AT&T. Obviously the update affected something, but I can't see why Apple would build an update that reduces speed and reception on the phone..

BennyBlades said:
After the latest download no change in 3G on my end. Zero to 2-3 bars at best. Anyone else in the Chicagoland area seeing anything different??
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yeah man this is def the iPhone. I'm from northbrook. On average I get about 600kbs on 3g. When I take my iPhone to the city I get 5 bars pretty much everywhere I go. My average speed in Chicago is around 1-1.5mbs.
 
Ok... even more puzzling results (I suppose). After playing around with it all day yesterday, I got as high as 120k/sec but that's mostly at night, or early morning. During daytime use it doesn't get anywhere near that. So here's what I've concluded:

• The phone is NOT the problem..it CAN reach high download speeds.
• The network is busy during the day, less busy at night, and this seriously affects download speeds.
• 2.01 and 2.02 update affects 3G/EDGE connectivity negatively

So basically, both Apple and AT&T suck. Seriously, how hard could it have been to build a proper 3G phone here?

stevoeddz said:
yeah man this is def the iPhone. I'm from northbrook. On average I get about 600kbs on 3g. When I take my iPhone to the city I get 5 bars pretty much everywhere I go. My average speed in Chicago is around 1-1.5mbs.
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Chicago reception

I just upgraded to 2.0.2 and the transfer rates are actually slower than the previous. No bump in speed at all. Since 2.0.2 I have not registered 3G at all. Although 2G was faster... LOL Go figure... Although i am down to 30% dropped calls. Much better than 75%. And that was with 3+ bars... I live downtown and my old Iphone never dropped calls. The new phone is performing horribly downtown.
 
No Data?

I've had full bars, but no data all morning (EDGE or 3G) whereas I usually get full bars of EDGE at work with no bars of 3G (My office is in a high-rise).

I'm in the Boeing building... anyone else having this issue?
 
It's odd, I live directly next door to Boeing (Randolph and Canal) and I get 4 bars of 3G UNTIL 8am in the morning, and the phone switches to EDGE (can't figure that out either). At this point, I don't think there's any way to pinpoint problems because they're so all over the place.

manchoi44 said:
I've had full bars, but no data all morning (EDGE or 3G) whereas I usually get full bars of EDGE at work with no bars of 3G (My office is in a high-rise).

I'm in the Boeing building... anyone else having this issue?
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Just got .65Mbps from my office where I normally have EDGE only. Actually, now that I'm posting this, Ive lost both my 3G and my EDGE connection. Oh wait.. it just went to EDGE. So bizarre.
 
Just ran the speed test (am in Chicago) and got 376 Kbps/46 kB/s.
Have been getting a lot of dropped calls lately.

This sucks. :(
 
Los Angeles

Just one more for the sake of comparison. Ran from testmyiphone.com, in downtown L.A., with 3 bars 3G reception from my living room. I got 1.32 Mb/sec down, and 0.13 (yes, that's right, 1/10) up. 3G coverage is somewhat spotty in L.A., but generally very good downtown, and when you've got it, speeds are excellent.

On the other hand, when I was in Manhattan a week ago, it seemed to work great for a day or three, and then went bad like 3G service was non-existent for several days. I kept having to switch to EDGE mode just to get internet service to work - it would be showing five bars 3G coverage, but I would just not be able to access the web, and then would work fine after switching the phone to 3G off mode. Anyone else experience 3G not working for extended periods of time when coverage seemed good? (Wondering if I've got a bad phone - I've also had it start showing "no service" at which point it had to be reset to start working again...)
 
Ok... wow. So for those of you who know Chicago well. I was eating at McCormick and Schmicks lastnight, outside on their patio (On Wacker, across from the new Trump Building).

Anyway... check out this speed. I didn't even know 3G could go this fast. Using my phone there lastnight was even faster than Apple shows in their commercials. If we could get this kind of service consistently, I'd be a VERY happy man.
 

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My iPhone 3G works great in my home town of Memphis, but during a trip to Chicago this week I had to turn off 3G to do pretty much anything. With 3G on I got "No Service" a lot and wven when I didn't email wouldn't go through and calls would drop. With 3G off I got the slow but consistent serviceone would expect from EDGE.
 
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