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Philadelphia 3gs

T

thomasjon

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
30
0
I have a 32 GIG iphone 3gs. In the last month I have dropped more than 50% of my calls. I live in and work in Center City Philadelphia.

I have returned my original 3gs to apple for a new phone, problem is still here.

Restored from backup and setup the phone as new, still have the problem.

Replaced Sim Card at ATT - same problem still exists.

ATT Said to switch it to EDGE and I will not lose or drop calls.

CAN THIS BE RIGHT? I cannot use 3gs on my phone? I have used 3g on the last iphone and it always worked ok. What should I do? Should I swap the phone out at Apple again? CRAZY!!!!!!!!
 
you have a number of things going on here..

what are you having problems with? just phone calls and/or data?

Losing 50% of your calls is normal...I'm surprised Apple gave you a new phone for that reason.

If thats your only issue, you now understand why people dislike att. phone is normal..no issues.



a bigger issue would be if your data (like internet) isnt 3G even though its say 3G on your phone, and that could be solved by a replacement, but it sounded like your only issue was with voice data.
 
I'm in Philly too.

Here's my situation. When I got my iphone in June I had a few problems with calls dropping. After 2 weeks it went away and was a pleasure to use... until about 2 weeks ago.

Now I am having a similar siutation to you. Yesterday I only made 3 calls and had a call failed in the middle of each.
 
Thanks for the replies

I guess I can say I am glad I am not alone...Not really.

I took it to the store again today because I was there for my Mac. They said to turn it on and off once a day and that should clear the issues up.... hmmm

Why don't I believe them. I guess the only solution right now is to Switch to EDGE then switch back to 3g if I need any of the features of the Iphone other than calls - Makes me happy to give them $200 a month.
 
My girlfriend lives right in the city, and I live 10 minutes outside. Almost each time we're on the phone, we experience a dropped call (we both have 3G iphone's). Sometimes she will try to call me and the phone call will not connect (this has all been within the last month or so). I have not switched to 'Edge' so I can't comment on if that works any better.
 
I've been getting a ton of dropped calls out here in Lancaster, too. It's gotten pretty bad. The weird thing is, I also have a Blackberry, a Fuze and a G1 and NONE of them are as bad as the iPhone, even with 3G enabled. If I had to guess, it would be that the problem is a combination of a subpar radio in the iPhone and the subpar carrier known as AT&T. I think the honeymoon is over, it's time for Apple and AT& to either put up or shut up.
 
I just moved from Philly and the 3G service was terrible. Tons of dropped calls and lots of problems connecting to the Internet. I did the same thing you did and returned my phone to the Apple store and got it replaced with no difference. Then a couple of months ago o moved to Buffalo and all of my problems went away. I have not dropped a single call since I moved here.

Moral of the story, AT&T sucks in Philly.
 
nburwell said:
And the best are the AT&T billboards on I-95 which brag about the "best 3G coverage in Philly."
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's like saying "The best Phillies bullpen pitcher". Doesn't mean any of them are worth a damn, just that one of them is actually better than the rest of them. ;-)
 
thomasjon said:
I guess I can say I am glad I am not alone...Not really.

I took it to the store again today because I was there for my Mac. They said to turn it on and off once a day and that should clear the issues up.... hmmm

Why don't I believe them. I guess the only solution right now is to Switch to EDGE then switch back to 3g if I need any of the features of the Iphone other than calls - Makes me happy to give them $200 a month.
Click to expand...

As for turning on and off daily...

I have problems in my area with internet connectivity, dropped calls and calls blowing into voicemail without the phone ringing, even with a decent 3G signal. I JB'd the phone and installed iStat (the old version). Every time I had the dropped calls and internet connectivity problems, I went into iStat. Sure enough, the memory was full. "Free Memory" and I was good to go again.

Turning the phone off and on will also free the memory.

The problem is that when the memory is maxed out and you get a call, it will likely drop. YMMV.

It's a workaround and not a guaranteed solution, but it does help. So does toggling Airplane Mode, for some reason.

As for AT&T, The key is to take copious notes of location, dates, and times of the dropped calls. Then, call Customer Service. Do exactly what they recommend (another SIM card, restore, whatever.) If the problem still exists after their suggestions, they just might issue some service credit.
 
In Philly, I haven't had voice problems -- not in the city often enough, I guess but I've had a lot of data problems. I've been able to acquire 3G for data by going into airplane mode than going out of it. Sometimes smacking it logically like that has helped.

There's often a faint philly-wifi (or something like that) signal that seems to interfere. Shutting off wifi has also helped.

Frank
 
I live outside Philly (Chester County) and work in Wilmington and Newark, DE.

AT&T blows.

My solution: a BlackBerry from Verizon. Number of dropped calls in 3 months = zero.

Oh, and to Thomasjon - Pat's or Geno's?
 
Jim's Steaks

Even though I live right by Pats and Genos, I prefer Jim's on South. Much better quality meat. Pats and Genos are only good when you are wasted!!!
 
I live right outside of Philly in Delaware County and I have been having a lot of dropped calls. I called them and they said it was "normal" for the iphone to drop calls. I said well what 1 in 4 calls or 1 in 100 calls and the lady just said "its 'normal' for the iphone to drop some calls". The lady was nice and gave me a $20 credit but still have the problem. Dropped a call 5 times with the same person and it was at midnight. Very annoying
 
xraydoc said:
I live outside Philly (Chester County) and work in Wilmington and Newark, DE.

AT&T blows.

My solution: a BlackBerry from Verizon. Number of dropped calls in 3 months = zero.

Oh, and to Thomasjon - Pat's or Geno's?
Click to expand...

When I had my BB on Verizon, I had not one dropped call. My dropped calls started once I got my iPhone. Ironic.

Jim's on South St. has, by far, the best cheesesteaks. Tony Luke's is also good. IMO, Pat's and Geno's are simply tourist traps.
 
nburwell said:
When I had my BB on Verizon, I had not one dropped call. My dropped calls started once I got my iPhone. Ironic.

Jim's on South St. has, by far, the best cheesesteaks. Tony Luke's is also good. IMO, Pat's and Geno's are simply tourist traps.
Click to expand...
Ha. My girlfriend lives in South Philadelphia on the wrong side of Broad. We actually were just walking by Pat's and Geno's yesterday and we had this conversation. Jim's is by far the superior sandwich. No question if you've tried all three. Jim's is even better at CBP. I think the quality of the meat and bread is just superior. It's not really about how it's cooked, for me.

Anyway, I owned the 3G from January through June. I had a handful of dropped calls in that time. I went to the 3GS and by late July, I've been getting dropped calls everyday. There are times when I believe this is actually the phone, and not AT&T. For instance, there are times when I try to dial out and it tells me the call failed immediately when I press send. It's like it didn't even make an attempt.

Also, I travel A LOT for work. AT&T is absolutely atrocious in Ohio and NY. NY especially. It gets a lot better the farther south I go, for whatever reason. Maybe less people cluttering the towers. The 3G coverage stinks and the speed in 3G areas isn't anything to write home about.

Anyway, something happened with the Philadelphia coverage and it's not due to saturation/volume. The drop in quality and reliability was extremely abrupt this summer. It's time for AT&T to fess up.
 
Another Philadelphia sufferer

Can't me in as another call drop sufferer in the Philadelphia area. I have done everything ATT told me to do: restart the phone and removing the sim card-failed. Get a new sim card-failed. Took the phone to Apple which ran diagnostic tests. These tests showed I had an average of 4-6 dropped calls per day yet no modem resets. This indicates the phone is fine but it is the ATT's fault. The minute the iphone goes to Verizon, I am outta here. This is coming from a lifelong cingular/att user.
 
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