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Wahoo! First comment.

Apple really needs news like this to maintain consumer confidence. I do hope it's true. I'll be buying my 3G iPhone in just six weeks.

This also bodes well as proof for Apple against that lawsuit claiming the iPhone 3G was not getting 3G speeds. And Apple is still working on another firmware update to improve it even more. Again, more proof against that trivial lawsuit that will not win against Apple.

This is what I've said all along. The problem is with the networks, and the performance would be roughly the same with any 3G phone in a given location. This blows any lawsuits or recall rumors out of the water. Steve was right to be concerned with 3G availability a year ago if it's this marginal in some areas now.

Apple could offer a free "Can you here me now" app that would report network performance when ever anyone wanted to share the data.

With a GPS location, date, time, up load and down load speeds an app would clear this problem up quickly and give valuable network information to the carriers.

True, it's the carriers who are the problem but Apple advertises the phone as twice as fast. Regardless of whose fault it is, we're still paying $10 more per month (plus another $5 per month to get the 200 messages back) for a phone that is pretty much the same speed as before but has spottier coverage. The best thing about the new phone is the screen, other than that my experience has been worse than before (not that much worse but more dropped calls and more dead spots where there is no service). Hopefully the network will catch up with the phone's capabilities.

Aug 25, 08 - 10:08 am Comment from: jarrettdailynews

Wired is just stating what I have been saying all along. Everyone has been blaming Apple on this 3G issue. Funny how until now phone reception has always been about the carriers networks. Goes to show how much communities hate a winner.

"It's Apple's fault my iPhone doesn't work"

No, Just like always, all networks have some areas where coverage is great, and some where coverage isn't so great.

For instance, take I-40 through New Mexico and you will find that on At&t;you will have great coverage almost all the way through the state, it's amazing. Now, if I go right down the road to work here in Tucson, I get okay reception in the parking lot, once inside I get zero bars or no service.

I have used At&t;, verizon, 360 ( AllTel ) and a few pay as you go's. Cell service is the same everywhere, it's a crap shoot.

With unlimited data plan, it is very easy to jam the cell network in a congested area.

"With the release of iPhone 3G in July, its usage market share rose markedly from 0.16% to 0.19%. However, when tracking weekly numbers, the week of August 10 shows a huge surge in usage to 0.31% market share." Mobile browsing with iPhone has jumped 2X in a month.

Aug 25, 08 - 10:14 am Comment from: Jubei

Thats what I tell people all the time. It's AT&T;and their crappy network, not the iPhone with a problem. I tell them to contact AT&T;and keep contacting them till they get the message. FIX your network.

Aug 25, 08 - 10:15 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

@ FDTPSP;

And when iPhone is tested using scientifically accurate and accepted means, iPhone 2.0 is MORE than twice as fast as its predecessor.

Regardless of whose fault it is, we're still paying $10 more per month (plus another $5 per month to get the 200 messages back) for a phone... and?

Last time I checked, AT&T;'s pricing plans were still set up and implemented by AT&T;.

Unless your running an iPhone on a super secret (and yet undiscovered by the masses) Apple 3G network, EVERY complaint you have needs to be directed towards the carrier.

Aug 25, 08 - 10:16 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

your=you're

I love how people think that just because they have a mobile phone, it should work everywhere they go.

How come no one whines and cries that there aren't Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere they want to go that are free and require no logins? Apple promised you could use your iPhone on Wi-Fi connections, didn't they? And that it would be faster?

It was very common knowledge that AT&T;had a very limited 3G network, even just a few months before the iPhone 3G was released. It takes time and money to build out a network – leases need to be negotiated, towers built or upgraded, networks upgraded, bugs worked out – so this is a work in progress.

I haven't heard anyone say that Apple was right NOT to have a 3G iPhone when it first came out over a year ago. Looks like Apple was correct – 3G isn't quite ready for prime time, at least not for the level of use that iPhone users expect.

I love my 3G iPhone but I'm not totally letting Apple off of the hook because they are the ones, after all, who are making us use AT&T;here in the states. They need to push AT&T;to fix their issues. I've had calls dropped in the center of a major city. That's crazy.

I agree with undawater(??), the cell phone hardware and performance is only as good as the service allows. Apple selected ATT for the maximum $, and their financial models still show (apparently) that's the way to go, so they are just as responsible for the dropped calls as 3G is.

Don't advertise and sell a fast car if it's built on a crappy transmission that randomly downshifts from 5th to 2nd gear.

Apple could only choose between AT&T;and T-mobile since they use the worldwide 3G standard - WCDMA. Verizon's 3G is not popular outside of US.

Could you imagine if Apple chose T-mobile instead?

Aug 25, 08 - 10:56 am Comment from: alansky

Regardless of the problems that Apple is having or not having with its hardware, anyone who doesn't know how crappy the mobile networks are has not been paying attention. Performance is and always has been just plain pitiful—a slice of stale Wonder Bread for the price of a deluxe ham sandwich.

I'm not surprised by the results of the Wired Survey. The problem is that America is a nation of whiners. We want immediate gratification NOW. Or we throw a hissy fit. What's amazing is that we've come this far, this fast. A year ago, AT&T;barely had anything amounting to a 3G network in place. Fast forward to today, and tremendous strides have been made. My take is that the iPhone has helped AT&T;finance much of that build-out. But there is more to do. And building out an infrastructure takes time.

Think of how long it took to build a railroad system that spanned the US. Or how long it took to build out a freeway system following the passage of the Interstate Highway Act in the 1950s. Like it or not, infrastructure is one of the core reasons why the US economy has been so vibrant for decades relative to other countries. (That may be changing for many reasons, but an advanced infrastructure moved commerce more efficiently than other countries with greater natural resources than the US.)

Likewise, building a vast archipelago of 3G towers (and optimizing them) across a land mass the size of the US is a hugh undertaking. In this case, the iPhone may be something of a victim of its own success, one in which demand for high speed wireless exceeds the ability of the available 3G towers to handle the load in certain areas. That will change.

Perhaps the greatest genius of Steve Jobs is his ability to sense what people want before they know they want it. Here, Steve and Apple had to temper expectations in launch of the first iPhone, knowing full well that the 3G infrastructure simply was not in place. It's barely in place today. But look ahead one or two years, and all this will likely be moot.

It's a wonderful problem to have. And it's indicative of the exciting time in which we live. I only hope the whiners will come to understand that, just like 1950s families did when TV was a new phenomenon.

Aug 25, 08 - 11:11 am Comment from: elgruga

@ Lightning Bolt

Unfortunately, its all the 'advances' that have turned the USA into a nation of WHiners - like 1950's TV fantasy world, for example.

At least the 'net has some semblance of free communication.

BTW, here in VAncouver BC, Rogers, who are not the worlds greatest co. have supplied a fairly decent 3G netwrok, and I am getting good speeds and connection everywhere I go in the Greater Vancouver area.

Of course, we had to wait a YEAR until we got the iPhone here...but we did have the unlocked phone on Rogers, and it was always good.

Funny thing - I have always had a great time with my iPhones, unlocked and locked, ( a total of five, I kept upgrading) and not one fault in hardware or software, right up to today.

I think there are many out there who also have had an unblemished iPhone experience and still do.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so the Whiners whine on.

Before everyone jumps on the wagon to blame the networks' sluggishness of performance as the cause of all performance issues, I want to point out that this study does not reveal any data that's relevant to the performance of iPhone 3G itself. iPhone itself still may or may not played a part in the problems we've heard so far.

And the massive recall trolls look for something else to lie about. Too many idiots, not enough muzzles.

I believe there was a statement about "transition products." Perhaps the change in connector is part of this, and what if this is not the nano but the replacement for the classic, or simply an iPod?

My apologies, wrong thread for the last post. If it can be, it should be deleted.

@Sixvodkas

There is no doubt that AT&T;is the weak link in the iPhone chain. However, I'm simply comparing my experience with the first generation iPhone and the new 3G model. My wife has my old iPhone and she gets full reception in a room where I get No Service. That the new phone is "capable" of more than twice the speed is immaterial if you can't get access in the first place.

In 3G areas where I do get full access I haven't noticed any significant improvement in data transmission--certainly nothing that makes me say, "Wow! Thats a lot faster than the first generation phone."

Whiners? I don't know what you're talking about. Right, we were told that there wasn't enough support for 3G in the first place. That didn't stop us from wanting 3G technology in the newest iPhone. Anyone would expect this newer technology in an Apple product.

But, the big thing that people were complaining about was the story that was out a few weeks ago, where an immature chip technology may have been the culprit for bad 3G connections. This is what everyone was whining about. If that's not true, then it's the 3G network, which could be what the "Wired" survey seems to portray.

Now whether that survey proves this or not, is up for grabs.

Hello!!!

I am lucky enough to live in DC, where connection is pretty good, even though not everywhere...

Anyhow, I was in SF and the connection sucked... It was so bad that I actually ended up just texting people that I needed to contact... It was aweful... Thinking that this technology come out, like a couple of miles away from SF is an insult to people living there...

I was so mad that I actually called AT&T;to ask them to stop lying with their "more bars, everywhere," and "less drop calls" all over TV and mags.
I was offended when these people at AT&T;told me that my iPhone might have an issue and that I needed to bring it back to the AT&T;store where I had bought my phone for them to change it...
RUBBISH I said... When I was still on T-MObile and was calling my friends using AT&T;, I had drop calls... Not from my end, but from my friend's end... They always ended up calling me like 5 to 9 times in order to finish a conversation...

What I think is that AT&T;is actually making money on these people who don't have unlimited talk time's. SILLY I say... I accused AT&T;on this phone call that I was very unhappy that my parents, living in France have to call me at least three times in order to have a FULL ocnversation, knowing that they have to pay more for a simple connection, than just stay on line with one...

Anyway... AT&T;is the worse service in America... I am still wondering why APPLE actually chose these losers...

Aug 25, 08 - 01:52 pm Comment from: ragarcia

Interesting how Wired did not do a 'Does 3G Suck or is it the Handheld?' article until people had the iPhone.

This confirms what we all know, before the iPhone people just did not use their handheld to surf the web or for other 3G maximizing features.

The carriers free ride is over.

My wish for Apple would be for them to sell 1st generation iPhones through T-Mobile. Then I would buy one. AT&T;service is horribly unreliable and has been that way for years.

MW: get-as in get with it Apple!

Until they are able to do the same test with two different phones at the same place and time, all this test says is that everyone is testing a cell phone. Without comparing to other phones what is the point?

Aug 25, 08 - 03:28 pm Comment from: Mr. Peabody

You can all say what you like, but it never ceases to amaze me, the whoopla that ensues when a product is Apple branded. It's not all bad of course, the "whoopla" that's come from Apple's iPod products has been mostly good, but for the iPhone, and in spite of it's incredible non-phone feature set and potential, much of the whoopla is tending to be more and more negative.

Here's the thing, just about every comment I see here and elsewhere about bad reception can and has been said about every carrier. Some will argue that they never had problem xyz until they switched to Verizon or T-Mobil or ATT, but others located in other places will argue that they did have those problems.

Common folks, it's a wireless device, and it will always, at least in our life times, suffer from the myriad variables that naturally conspire to keep any kind of wireless infrastructure from being completely trouble free. Heck, not even wired communications infrastructures are trouble free. And by the way, proximity to the factory where the device is manufactured can in no reasonable way be assumed to be in any way correlated to how well the device does or should actually work - I mean really - please.

Where I live choice is a non-issue, as in I have none - no choice, that is. It's Verizon or nothing. This rural area is actually very well covered by today's standards of cellular coverage, and yet it almost never fails that when I need a seamless, uninterrupted call for data or voice, I get a drop. And, it's not always in the same place. What the hell! Most weeks I'm fantasizing about how I get a class action law suit together against Verizon Wireless for their endless shenanigans, combined with the relative unpredictability that goes along with a wireless service.

All that Apple has done, (and not to in any way diminish what they have indeed done - again), is to create a device that takes full advantage of the cellular service technologies that we're all beholden to - Read that as: Stuck with. The only thing that makes having a cell phone even remotely more interesting than being a fundamental necessity is the iPhone and the way it's designed to try to take full advantage of existing cellular technologies.

Final point, and again from some of my previous postings, I don't believe that Apple simply "chose" ATT. More likely ATT was one of the few that was willing to forgo some of its MS "Partnership" dollars in order to get on board with another Apple success story. And no I don't know whether or not ATT is an actual MS Partner or not (isn't everybody?) - but you get the point. In other words, some problems will inevitably be Apple's, and not a few are going to be ATT's.

So, stick with it, let Apple and ATT know that you won't be a customer for ever if you're not always convinced that they aren't going above and beyond to improve their product and service respectively, and don't try and put the blame for all of the iPhones reception issues on Apple because they're not providing the service, just the device that utilized it.

Mr. Peabody
iPod Touch

Aug 25, 08 - 06:03 pm Comment from: MobileAdmin

All the complaining is amusing. Apple didn't have a lot of choices here. Apple shopped the iphone and Verizon laughed at their concessions to carry it and said no thanks. Apple wants to run the show and treats the iphone like another ipod and it clearly is not and they have zero control over the carrier network.

Sprint and T-Mo are 2nd tier carriers here so At&t;was the best fit considering they only had to build one chipset for global roll out. I think after this all shakes out you will find Apple used a cheap 3G chipset that is flacky and 3G nationwide is a good year away in the states.

Um. I have been saying this stuff all over the place. Finally some "news" sites are actually presenting some data from some research, in what amounts to a genuine leap forward in journalism.

Incredible!

Would like to know where all you mob on the comments forum have been hiding out though. It has been a bit of a lonely voice for the past month.

I'd just like to point out this to the finally intelligent set of posters on this board.

If you consider (or actually use) the iPhone, it starts to be bleedingly obvious that 3G is there for two reasons. One, to release the phone everywhere else BUT America since it really is still another year away minimum from having a 3G network. Two, that cellular is simply roaming wireless in an iPhone and 3G is manageable.

iPhone 1 and 2 as far as being a phone go neither need 3G. Actually NO phone does, since EDGE/GSM/CDMA/2.5G can handle multiple calls, SMS, MMS and even pretty quick email headers or optimised mobile web pages.

The two big sales points of 3G are 1) video calls, messages and little videos, all 3 are lame blocky few frame a second jobs with bad audio and 2) Acceptable (just) data transfer rates.

On point 1) Thankfully Apple figured out that the world is still a generation of network away before video will be even acceptable and didn't make yet another over featured handset with crap in it that wastes development dollars.

On point 2) While data transfer rates are acceptable there are MANY factors that will make it slower. In fact Telstra (Australian Telco) states that its rolled out nation wide 3G network while capable of 7.2Mbps to expect 550Kbps up to 1.5Mbps.

The next crying out that needs some of this new found journalism is battery life. As it very clear the majority of posts and "articles" are from people who have never used a 3G phone before.

I have actually switched 3G off on the iPhone since it serves no purpose unless I MUST cell-surf YouTube to impress my friends or actually have a genuine reason and cannot access WiFi.

I am sure even with push that email headers and previews or the odd change in a tiny bit of contact data will come down nicely and still in the background on EDGE. It must be the case or the Blackberry would have died a horrid death of being totally useless about 6 years ago.

That Wired's survey was peace of crap. I woke up this morning and I didn't have 3G or any other connection. I had to retype my pin-code to get it connected again. My friend's Sony Ericsson has no 3G problems with same carrier.

And yes, we have a good 3G networks here in Europe. So why some calls still drop?

"Wired.com would like to extend a thank you to each of the 2,636 who participated in the study (4,200 if you include those who insufficiently participated)."

Not very good survey if 1564 of 4200 wasn't able participate. Was that because of bad connection or because of Zeemaps problems?

Aug 26, 08 - 11:13 am Comment from: EvilRonin

I disagree with MDN that this is the best scenario possible for Apple. While I'm still not convinced there are not possible issues with the chipset, if it did turn out to be entirely the networks everywhere, that means it's completely out of Apple's control as to when, and if, the issues are fixed. In the meantime people will just know that there iPhone doesn't work as expected. Unless Apple throws the carriers under a bus, they'll have to sit there and take the PR beating for the marginal performance of their phone. Apple doesn't win in that situation.

Aug 28, 08 - 09:42 pm Comment from: Greg L

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Aug 28, 08 - 09:43 pm Comment from: Greg L

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Aug 28, 08 - 09:45 pm Comment from: Greg L

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