Why would a 3g have more bars than a 1st gen in a NON-3g area?

[JennaLDS]

I have searched for this, and came up with nothing.. At my house, I have anywhere from 0-2 bars with my 1st generation, and my friend has 3+ bars with her 3g. We are in a NON 3G area.. I have called Apple and AT&T and the only way to fix the problem is to buy a new phone with an out of warranty price.. (Cant upgrade for a while) Can anyone possibly explain this?

If you have rude comments, please do everyone a favor and keep them to yourself..

 

[pisces03x]

metal vs. plastic backing?

 

[jav6454]

2G service and 3G service are entirely different. Both use different signal interfaces and require each their own separate hardware at the Cell site. You might be receiving poor 2G service because either:

a. Too many people use the 2G interface (aka 2G dumbphones or other 2G handsets) and it saturates the cell site and thus gives poor performance.

b. 2G service is poorly maintained or not given enough priority as many customers embrace/use a 3G handset.

c. The signal wavelength for 2G service might be a higher form of wavelength (the 1900 or 2100MHz) which are not good when it comes to penetrating buildings. The best wavelengths to penetrate buildings are usually the lower ones (850/900 MHz).

Also, don't rely on AT&T coverage maps. Those just give you an idea where coverage is and how expanded it is. Also, they are not updated continuously. You area might be new to 3G and you might not have noticed.

 

[TSX]

Did you try rebooting?

 

[JennaLDS]

metal vs. plastic backing?

Hmm I dont know if that is it or not, when I talked to Apple and AT&T they stated that, that really shouldn't affect it that much.. not THAT much of a difference anyway. Maybe 1 bar, but not 3 or more.

2G service and 3G service are entirely different. Both use different signal interfaces and require each their own separate hardware at the Cell site. You might be receiving poor 2G service because either:

a. Too many people use the 2G interface (aka 2G dumbphones or other 2G handsets) and it saturates the cell site and thus gives poor performance.

b. 2G service is poorly maintained or not given enough priority as many customers embrace/use a 3G handset.

c. The signal wavelength for 2G service might be a higher form of wavelength (the 1900 or 2100MHz) which are not good when it comes to penetrating buildings. The best wavelengths to penetrate buildings are usually the lower ones (850/900 MHz).

Also, don't rely on AT&T coverage maps. Those just give you an idea where coverage is and how expanded it is. Also, they are not updated continuously. You area might be new to 3G and you might not have noticed.

When I talked to AT&T Friday, they said that 3g still had not been updated. And the sad thing is that I live right in town.. hmm.. I guess Ill just have to suck it up, and fork out the money for a new phone..

 

[jav6454]

When I talked to AT&T Friday, they said that 3g still had not been updated. And the sad thing is that I live right in town.. hmm.. I guess Ill just have to suck it up, and fork out the money for a new phone..

EDIT - Seems I misread the first Post. Both are you are on EDGE right OP? If so, then the extra EDGE bars are attributed to the more powerful X-Gold 608 baseband chip the the iPhone 3G carries. The S-Gold 2 is not as nearly as powerful, so that can make up for differences in signal strength.

 

[-aggie-]

AT&T reps can say whatever they want, but in the end, it's the phone that does the talking.

Example is your friend. He gets 3G even though the AT&T reps say different. Trust me, you area is 3G if your friend gets 3G in your home.

I don't think she was saying the friend got 3G in the home. If so, then the OP was meaningless. I think she was saying the friend had 3 bars of EDGE on their 3G, while she has 1 bar. The original iPhone only gets EDGE; no 3G. If that was not what the OP was saying, then......

 

[JennaLDS]

Yes she was getting edge as I assume.. Like I said there is NO 3g in my area yet.

 

[jav6454]

Yes she was getting edge as I assume.. Like I said there is NO 3g in my area yet.

Then it's the stronger chip in her iPhone. That's the difference between the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen iPhone.

 

[freediverdude]

One other explanation might be that the antenna in the phone has been improved on the later iphones versus the original iphone. I know I had it happen to me between a sony-ericcson handset and a nokia one time. I took my sony-ericsson into AT&T complaining that I only got 1 bar at home and could not make calls, even outside. They told me that nokias generally had better antennas, and sent me home with a nokia. And sure enough, I usually had 3 bars all the time on the nokia in the exact same spot. I think a lot of it has to do with the antenna inside the phone.