Poor GPRS Performance

[imacken]

I had a thread going on the Apple forums about the apparent poor performance of the iPhone on GPRS/2G networks compared to other 2G phones. This seems to be particualrly true in low/poor strength areas.
The sort of thing I'm talking about is the iPhone having 'searching' or 'no service', yet putting the same sim into a 2G phone gives a good signal.

Now, the response I got from one of the experts there was that because the iPhone was optimised for 3G, there had to be compromises, and the GPRS aerial was one of them. This seemed pretty surprising to me.

I tried to get other technical people to comment on that statement, but no-one did.

Anyone here got any thoughts on this?

 

[TwoBytes]

1:As for getting signal, the 2g was apple's first iteration of a mobile so i think they had trouble with the materials, antenna, etc. They got it right with the 3gs and will get it even better

2: Other 2g phones seem quicker because they are not loading a full colour webpage! That's why it seems slow.

3: Welcome to GPRS. It's cheap, it gets the job done - voice.


On another note, i have a similar experience when on the tube that passes overground and then underground - when underground it says it has signal when it clearly doesn't. It's just the lag of signal and the time it takes the phone to receive signal and then relay it back...similar to how light travels etc.

Don't sweat it.

 

[imacken]

Thanks for that, but I'm only talking about the ability to receive/make/hold calls on GPRS compared to other 2G phones in GPRS only areas, nothing to do with data speed.
I'm trying to discover why the iPhone is poor in this respect compared to 2G handsets.
As I said, it's the situation where the iPhone is struggling to get/keep any signal on GPRS, put the sim into a 2G (e.g. K850i) phone and the signal strength is fine.

 

[instaxgirl]

An issue with your phone? (also, I can't tell which iPhone you have)

Part of the reason I was so happy with my iPhone 2G when I got it was that it's signal strength was vastly improved over my previous handset (both on O2).

Now, to be fair, I thought that old handset was absolutely shocking for holding on to or finding a signal. The iPhone seemed like a return to form - most of the time I have full signal.

Unless I'm underground the iPhone always has at least 3 bars, most usually 5 and GPRS. I always have GPRS if I have a signal. Even when I was in the middle of nowhere this week.

EDGE unfortunately is another matter.

 

[imacken]

An issue with your phone? (also, I can't tell which iPhone you have)

Hi.
No, it's not an issue with my phone. (It's a 3Gs, BTW.)
I've had my phone replaced by Apple and it made no difference, and my wife's 3Gs is the same.
There are many people who have posted with the same issue on the Apple support forums.
I'm talking about the ability to hold/receive signal in low/poor GPRS only areas compared to 2G only phones with the same sim.
Where there is a good 2G/3G strength then the phone is great!
I thought that there might be someone here who could confirm what has been told to me on the Apple forum, i.e. the 2G aerial is a compromise and is by design going to be inferior to 2G only handsets.