Have 2G iphone son has 3G seems to have better reception from ATT. I am in rural area and ATT does not know we exist. Reception in house is horrible. ATT can't even maintain our land line. We only have edge here so 3G 4G is never going to be here so is a non issue. I just would like to have a usable phone. I am hoping to have much better reception with new 4G phone, any thoughts or experience with all three phones. Note, ATT and Pioneer are our only options, Pioneer is GDMA so no Iphone there but much much better reception. Wife's nokia gets almost identical reception as Iphone. I believe ATT's push to move upgrade up is to get as many 4G's out as possible, because if outer steel antenna indeed does improve reception then the problem will go away. Love the Iphone been Mac user since 84.
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Iphone antenna history
- Thread starter ernies
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Some one had linked to a story about this very thing. Try and hunt it down.....
Found it: http://www.wirelessweek.com/Articles/2010/06/iPhone-4-Antenna-Big-Improvement/
Swiped from another thread here on MR.
Found it: http://www.wirelessweek.com/Articles/2010/06/iPhone-4-Antenna-Big-Improvement/
Swiped from another thread here on MR.
You could try the 3G Microcell from AT&T to at least improve reception in your house: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/
Yes I have heard of people getting these for free if they call and complain about bad reception at home.
I just got the 3G Microcell last week. I am in a similar situation as the OP, except have no signal at my house. I must drive at least a mile down the road to get a signal. Before the flaming starts on ATT's coverage, I knew about this ahead of time. I just wanted the iPhone!
This new microcell will allow me to get rid of my Vonage service($34.93 a month) and add their $19.99 unlimited minutes w/microcell plan. You also get a $100 rebate on the unit if you add the unlimited plan, bringing the cost of the unit down to $50. In my situation it will pay for itself within 3 months, and I now have 5bars of 3g signal throughout my house. A definite win for me.
I forgot to mention that you must have a broadband connection to use the microcell.
This new microcell will allow me to get rid of my Vonage service($34.93 a month) and add their $19.99 unlimited minutes w/microcell plan. You also get a $100 rebate on the unit if you add the unlimited plan, bringing the cost of the unit down to $50. In my situation it will pay for itself within 3 months, and I now have 5bars of 3g signal throughout my house. A definite win for me.
I forgot to mention that you must have a broadband connection to use the microcell.
Thanks for the link. That was a good read. I hope it improves the signal issues with the phone.
Microcell doesn't need any coverage. It creates its own coverage utilizing your broadband internet. All it needs is to be hooked into ethernet and to be near enough to a window that it can get a GPS lock to make sure it actually is where you tell ATT it is, and then you will be set with service
AT&T 3G MicroCell from att website (ATT says it will not work for you so do not expect it to work). You need a 3G phone and a GPS lock on your home not 38 miles from where you are(that's were ATT GPS lock puts me). So for $350.00 you think I can get home phone call service I am already paying for + $20.00 a month for data service I am not . By the way that will not fix the 50 areas within 10 miles of my house that have no phone service. I live 4.5 mies from a city of 8000 people. I have to get within 2 miles of town for respectable 3 bar service. We are not in the back of the ATT bus we are hanging on the back bumper.
The iPhone 4 will not have better reception, despite the new antenna set up. If it did have better reception Steve would have sold that feature.
No he wouldn't. You think Steve Jobs would openly admit that?
"Hey everyone, since the previous few versions of our iPhone have sucked due to horrible reception and antennas, we have redesign the phone for improved reception."
Yeah, I can see the backlash now to Apple OPENLY ADMITTING the antennas on the previous iPhones are sub par. No, Steve Jobs would not admit that. Ever.
You've got it all wrong. The Micro-cell plugs into your broadband connection and creates a miniature 3G network throughout your house.
You are lost my friend..you just need a broadband connection and to have a GPS lock somewhere in the United States--it does not have to be an area that has 3G or any other type of ATT service...All you need is: a 3G phone (so no first gen iphone), a GPS lock somewhere in the United States, and a broadband connection.
Your situation sounds like an ideal reason to get a microcell. I picked one up a few weeks ago and I get great reception all around my house in the yard.
He did sell the feature. He just left out the part where he says "it's not really AT&T's fault you've been getting crap service on your iPhone".
That doesn't make any sense. It's not like he went up there and said, "our old processor, screen, camera and software sucked! We're going to fix it today, here's iPhone 4!" Yet he still sold all those features as big improvements.
I don't recall him saying saying about better reception, nor have I found anything on the webpage about it. So it is unlikely that it does have better reception.
Makes perfect sense.
What doesn't make sense is someone flat out stating that the new antenna will not improve anything. Please provide some sort of factual information to back that up if you don't mind.
Otherwise, don't post stuff like that because all you're doing is talking out of your ass.
Makes perfect sense.
What doesn't make sense is someone flat out stating that the new antenna will not improve anything. Please provide some sort of factual information to back that up if you don't mind.
Otherwise, don't post stuff like that because all you're doing is talking out of your ass.
I'm not making anything up. However, if there were some improvement with the antenna Steve (or at least Apple's website) would have said something about it. There's no way they would let a huge improvement like that slip without mention.
Obviously they only told us about the antenna so people would speculate that it improves reception, buy the phone, placebo effect makes them think the reception is better and everyone is happy.
You have not given a good reason why this new antenna design would improve reception, it could very well weaken reception there's no data to say one way or another.
Exactly. Same thing applies to your comments. Lol
We will know in a few days time.
Here's one: simple physics.
Larger antenna equals greater radio performance 99% of the time. Cell phones are nothing more than fancy two way radios.
If the antenna gets bigger, you get better reception, and the new iPhone antenna is HUGE compared to most other phones out there.
Sure, simple physics. However, there are more variables than just size. For example the shape (the iPhone radio has an odd shape that likely dampens receptions), material (don't know about that one), current, etc. I'm sure there are many other variables I just don't know what they are.
And if size were really that important then extending rabbit ear antennas for television should vastly improve reception, but it doesn't. So that basically disproves your theory of simple physics.
You still have yet to give a reasonable answer as to why Apple hasn't touted this better reception, a feature many have been begging for. That fact alone makes it unlikely that reception in this phone has been improved in any way.
If you don’t have experience in electronic communication design don’t guess, as you obviously don’t!
Increased aerial size does not mean you have better reception!
The aerial is designed for the wavelength of the signal that it is going to receive.
Using the formula for c =fL where c is the speed of the wave, because all waves except sound waves are transverse they travel at the speed of light which is 3*10^8. F is the frequency of the wave which is in Hz, L stands for lander but i couldn’t find the actual symbol for lower Lander so I used L. L will equal the wavelength. The wavelength /2 will equal the total length of the aerial, if there are multiple signal being used then the wavelength is averaged.
Here's another possible reason why the antenna design would improve reception.
The human body is a conductor capable of taking on and releasing electromagnetic force.
The antenna for the new iPhone is on the outside of the phone, and thus can be directly touched by you.
At the right frequency and wave length, the antenna can actually pass on its pulse to your body, essentially turning your big dumb head (and the rest of your body) into an extended antenna.
This only works with certain waves, but it is definitely possible that this could occur.
Again I'm not saying this is actually what happens with the new phone, I'm just throwing some science at you, and letting you know that it's a possibility.