How can an iPhone have full 3G bars but no service?

[Briankeith82]

How come at work (center city Philadelphia) I get no 3g reception, yet I have full 3g bars on my phone? Can this be fixed? If I move around the room sometimes to certain areas, it will work. however, the bars stay the same, it always shows me having full coverage. i am in the middle of Philly for god's sake. 3 blocks from city hall. CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS???

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

You must be getting some interference from somewhere. I've experienced this in several places and not just with the iPhone.

 

[The Governor]

Is it an isolated occurrence or does it happen constantly?

I've had this happen sporadically, mostly when traveling between random dead spots within the 3g coverage. I'll have full 3g bars, go to make a call and not be able to with "no service".

I don't know if there is any fix for it, it just comes and goes. Definitely not a problem only for the iphone though

 

[Briankeith82]

Is it an isolated occurrence or does it happen constantly?

I've had this happen sporadically, mostly when traveling between random dead spots within the 3g coverage. I'll have full 3g bars, go to make a call and not be able to with "no service".

I don't know if there is any fix for it, it just comes and goes. Definitely not a problem only for the iphone though

This happens in and only in my 10 x 15 office constantly. The thing is, I can hold the phone over my head three feet and get service. It is so weird. My second question is, would at&t or apple consider this a hardware issue or just a case of bad luck, sending you packing out the door empty handed with bad service?

 

[The Governor]

Sounds like a dead spot.

You could do a few tests

1. borrow a coworkers iphone 3g and see if the you still don't get service
2. borrow another 3g enabled att phone and see if you get service

 

[duckkg5]

Are there any wireless phones around your desk? Like landlines, not cell phones.

 

[Briankeith82]

Are there any wireless phones around your desk? Like landlines, not cell phones.

I have a land line at my desk and a desktop pc. Nobody in my office can afford an iphone so that may not be an option for me

 

[duckkg5]

I have a land line at my desk and a desktop pc. Nobody in my office can afford an iphone so that may not be an option for me

Hmm well I know a few months ago, someone contacted Apple about losing service on the subway and not being able to get it back when he got outside - they told him to switch airplane mode on, then off. Maybe try that?

 

[The Governor]

I have a land line at my desk and a desktop pc. Nobody in my office can afford an iphone so that may not be an option for me

Any luck while trying another 3g enabled att phone?

 

[Briankeith82]

Any luck while trying another 3g enabled att phone?

negative. i dont have access to another 3g to test at work. i cant imagine that there 2' by 3' dead zones in my office but literally perfect service in other areas. It seems rather ridiculous to think that i can get better service if i hold the phone a few few feet above my head or a few feet to the side. how far is apple from developing the 3rd gen iphone? Or for that matter, how long will it take to reach a 4g network?