iPhone on O2 - Bad coverage

CyberDave

I seem to have 'No Service' more often than I have coverage on my new iPhone. It may just be where I am everyday and I know some places have better coverage than others. I have noticed as well, that some text messages that I may have received in the morning, I wont receive until later that evening. I have also noticed that if there is no service and I just leave the phone down for a few minutes it will pick up a couple of bars. Are these regular problems to be experiencing with iPhone and O2. I have recently switched from Vodafone. Thanks.

godskitchen

CyberDave wrote: »

I seem to have 'No Service' more often than I have coverage on my new iPhone. It may just be where I am everyday and I know some places have better coverage than others. I have noticed as well, that some text messages that I may have received in the morning, I wont receive until later that evening. I have also noticed that if there is no service and I just leave the phone down for a few minutes it will pick up a couple of bars. Are these regular problems to be experiencing with iPhone and O2. I have recently switched from Vodafone. Thanks.

Its the iphone, not O2. Mine is the same, as are most of the ones that friends have.

Apple probably call it a feature.

20 Times 20 Times

I had noting but trouble with the reception on my iphone. In the end i had to get rid of it.

TrueDub

godskitchen wrote: »

Its the iphone, not O2. Mine is the same, as are most of the ones that friends have.

Apple probably call it a feature.

I don't have any of these problems on my iphone, but I'm on Vodafone. Seems to me it might be a combination of the two.

CyberDave

I'm so sick of all the s**t that's missing from the iPhone. No built in MMS, bad SMS app, no zoom on the camera, no built in video recorder or voice recorder or FM Radio. I am beginning to regret ever getting one now. They have deliberately left off some important features that come as standard on most other phones. An attempt in my opinionto get iPhone users into the App Store. Ps. I know there are alternatives for everything that's missing, but this is stuff you expect on a phone that costs you so f**king much.

Kashkai

Agree totally with Cyberdave. I got my iPhone as a present 2 weeks ago and the novelty has well and truly worn off. Awful battery life, never seems to have coverage, no mms etc. I'm tempted to go back to my 5 year old Siemens but the wife would be put out after spending €170 on the iPhone.

godskitchen

Guys, look over my posts from the past................I am the biggest iphone slagger there is.

I wont go into all it short comings, what I will say is, lately, since I have stopped caring about it getting scratched (was planning to sell so I could get a Palm Pre, now looks like that will not be out for a while) well since I dont care about it anymore, I have started to get more out of it.

Its hard to explain, and after a long week I wont even try.

Let go guys, its just a phone, an overpriced phone, a phone thats too shiney, a phone used in the main by assholes.

Tom Dunne

godskitchen wrote:

a phone used in the main by assholes.

No need for that. You can get your venom out without having to resort to juvenille insults.

godskitchen

A Dog Named Boo wrote: »

No need for that. You can get your venom out without having to resort to juvenille insults.

Hey its my opinion man, I am not forcing it down peoples throats. It is my opinion because the people I have come across with iphones/those that aspire to have one, are from my experience a certain type of person.......

Tom Dunne

godskitchen wrote: »

Hey its my opinion man, I am not forcing it down peoples throats. It is my opinion because the people I have come across with iphones/those that aspire to have one, are from my experience a certain type of person.......

You are entitled to your opinion, you are not entitled to call people assholes.

Take it to PM if you want to discuss this further.

strecker

CyberDave wrote: »

I'm so sick of all the s**t that's missing from the iPhone. No built in MMS, bad SMS app, no zoom on the camera, no built in video recorder or voice recorder or FM Radio. I am beginning to regret ever getting one now. They have deliberately left off some important features that come as standard on most other phones. An attempt in my opinionto get iPhone users into the App Store. Ps. I know there are alternatives for everything that's missing, but this is stuff you expect on a phone that costs you so f**king much.

Yep,
Good point re. 'getting people into the appstore'!
It's just an add-on to itunes!
And on-topic: yep, my iphone had attrocious reception on o2 in locations where my lady's e71 worked flawlessly! It's a pathetic piece of fashion jewellery :P

BostonB

You can to the app store via an iTouch if thats all you want.

drunkmonkey

is the problem when it's jumping between 2G and 3G signal, or is it just a poor phone for reception....still toying with the idea of one for my 3 sim but i'm always nearly in a 3G area so I don't see much problem or is there...?

BostonB

I'd compare it with another iPhone if you can. I've seen other people have reception problems which were due to a faulty iphone, which when replaced didn't happen with the new one.

mobius42

I had some minor reception issues with the 2G iPhone, but not with the 3G. It seems that the aluminium back of the 2G reduced its reception. The only thing I've noticed regarding 3G signal is that it can be poor indoors due to the fact that it's at a higher frequency. Hopefully they'll do here what they're doing in the US soon: swapping the bands that 2G and 3G signal use to improve reception.

godskitchen

mobius42 wrote: »

I had some minor reception issues with the 2G iPhone, but not with the 3G. It seems that the aluminium back of the 2G reduced its reception. The only thing I've noticed regarding 3G signal is that it can be poor indoors due to the fact that it's at a higher frequency. Hopefully they'll do here what they're doing in the US soon: swapping the bands that 2G and 3G signal use to improve reception.

No it helped with reception.

Gryzor

godskitchen wrote: »

, a phone used in the main by assholes.

talk about single-handedly proving a point :rolleyes:

godskitchen

Gryzor wrote: »

talk about single-handedly proving a point :rolleyes:

Yes I would include myself in that for being sucked in by he Apple marketing machine.

I am disgusted with myself.

:rolleyes:

beer enigma

CyberDave wrote: »

I'm so sick of all the s**t that's missing from the iPhone. No built in MMS, bad SMS app, no zoom on the camera, no built in video recorder or voice recorder or FM Radio. I am beginning to regret ever getting one now. They have deliberately left off some important features that come as standard on most other phones. An attempt in my opinionto get iPhone users into the App Store. Ps. I know there are alternatives for everything that's missing, but this is stuff you expect on a phone that costs you so f**king much.

I suspect you're right on that - I recently had a bust up with o2 as the screen broke & they wanted 5 days for the repair & offered a standard phone (eventually) whilst it was away.

As I'm a heavy business user (1000 minutes a month), they eventually offered to courier me out a 'test' phone, but said that they had to get sign off as it had 'several' unlocked new features that were not currently available on the phone.

Unfortunately I didnt get to see the phone as mine was ununsured & when I heard that Apple wanted €250 for the repair I told them to get stuffed & had the screen replaced elsewhere for €100.....

Gryzor

godskitchen wrote: »

Yes I would include myself in that for being sucked in by he Apple marketing machine.

I am disgusted with myself.

:rolleyes:

sell it then, and move on....rather than insulting every other user of the device..

sucked in by the Apple marketing machine?? The downsides of the iphone are well known to anyone who cares to check before they buy, maybe research a bit better before u buy next time??

Tom Dunne

CyberDave wrote: »

I'm so sick of all the s**t that's missing from the iPhone. No built in MMS, bad SMS app, no zoom on the camera, no built in video recorder or voice recorder or FM Radio. I am beginning to regret ever getting one now. They have deliberately left off some important features that come as standard on most other phones. An attempt in my opinionto get iPhone users into the App Store. Ps. I know there are alternatives for everything that's missing, but this is stuff you expect on a phone that costs you so f**king much.

In replying to posts like this before, I have pointed out two things:

1: Research. Before committing to such an expensive gadget, people really, really need to research what a device such as this can do. And more importantly cannot do. I actually had ruled out the iPhone, in favour of the N95, until I actually got to try one out in an Apple store. I don't need a camera, I don't need an FM radio, I don't need Bluetooth connectivity, so the iPhone did suit me. Horses for courses, really.

2: Context. Remember, this phone was designed in the US. They are, for the most part, way behind us in terms of mobile phone technology. So what is important to a European user (e.g. MMS, FM radio, good camera) is not as important to the US consumer. Also, I personally believe features such as copy and paste were (a) deemed not as important (b) not implemented as they couldn't get it to feel right. Same with Bluetooth - I don't believe it was important to US consumers when the iPhone was being designed. From reading on the 'net, the actual Bluetooth chip in the iPhone is actually capable of doing all the A2DP streaming, file sending, etc, they just didn't implement it.

Mr Bloat

Just for the record, I have great reception on my iPhone in most areas and I do a lot of travelling for work. There is occasionally an issue when moving from 3G to 2G, particularly while driving but even that is rare, to be fair. To the best of my knowledge, I've only had a couple of occasions where I didn't have a good signal when others did.
Also for the record, I'm not an asshole....

seamus

A Dog Named Boo wrote: »

From reading on the 'net, the actual Bluetooth chip in the iPhone is actually capable of doing all the A2DP streaming, file sending, etc, they just didn't implement it.

Indeed the beauty of such a "connected" phone is that there is little preventing Apple from implementing much of the missing stuff in a firmware/OS update. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to write a software FM radio using the earphones as the aerial.

mobius42

godskitchen wrote: »

No it helped with reception.

No, it didn't. Metal interferes with phone reception. Look it up on google or ask anyone living in a house with metal lined walls! Why do you think they put that black piece of plastic on the bottom? Also, on the iPod touch they put that piece of plastic in the top corner for the wifi.

Tom Dunne

godskitchen wrote: »

No it helped with reception.

mobius42 wrote: »

No, it didn't. Metal interferes with phone reception. Look it up on google or ask anyone living in a house with metal lined walls! Why do you think they put that black piece of plastic on the bottom? Also, on the iPod touch they put that piece of plastic in the top corner for the wifi.

Could either of you provide links to prove your point? No hidden agenda, I am actually curious.

Personally, I would have thought the metal case would improve reception, if it is constructed correctly.

seamus

People experience difficulties where there are metal linings or large metal lattices surrounding them due to an effect which is best represented in a Faraday Cage.

The same effect can be shown where a metal case surrounds a piece of electronic equipment, but it is very important that the electronics inside and the case do not connect at any metal points. A metal case would only improve reception if the antenna was connected directly to the case itself. This could cause other problems though, most notably static or direct electricity could travel through the case and destroy the electronics inside.

Aluminium, having a relatively high electrical conductivity, would act better than many other metals (including copper) as an electromagentic shield and this would indeed reduce the quality of the signal on the phone.

mobius42

A Dog Named Boo wrote: »

Could either of you provide links to prove your point? No hidden agenda, I am actually curious.

Personally, I would have thought the metal case would improve reception, if it is constructed correctly.

I would post the links but I'm posting from my iPhone and I can't copy and paste!

Seamus has explained it better than I could anyway.

CivilEx

mobius42 wrote: »

Hopefully they'll do here what they're doing in the US soon: swapping the bands that 2G and 3G signal use to improve reception.

Is this being undertaken by AT&T at the moment.. I had heard that they were reducing 2G coverage and I suppose on the basis of swopping bands the concept makes sense.

Any evidence that any Irish Networks are going this way?

CyberDave

I generally have the 3G on my iPhone turned off to increase battery time, maybe that is why I have bad reception all the time...

drunkmonkey

Why would you turn off the 3G, sherly it dosn't improve battery life by that much, if the iphone is anything like the apple products I know it's usually a battery firmware update that has the most effect, not sure if there's such a thing for the iphone...

CyberDave

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Why would you turn off the 3G, sherly it dosn't improve battery life by that much.

I read it on some forum somewhere. I have had it turned on the last while doesn't seem to be making any improvement to coverage.

Tom Dunne

CyberDave wrote: »

I read it on some forum somewhere. I have had it turned on the last while doesn't seem to be making any improvement to coverage.

Turning off 3G would probably save battery, not improve reception.

Turn the brightness of the screen way down also, I'm talking to 5-10%. That will make a helluva difference.

drunkmonkey

CyberDave wrote: »

I read it on some forum somewhere. I have had it turned on the last while doesn't seem to be making any improvement to coverage.

Have you the latest firmware on the phone, that might help the battery... http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

The signal thing is either o2's fault or you've a dodgy phone...

Lord Nikon

Im work I have zero reception with 02, no problems with Vodafone or 3 network though. I rang 02 and they said that in the contract they cannot guarantee coverage indoors.

Can they say that? Like it's not as if I am underground or anything or in Fort Knox, yet I walk out the door and I get nearly full coverage.

BostonB

How can you guarantee a signal will penetrate all buildings? The O2 mast must be further away than the masts and can't penetrate your building for some reason. Also some phones are better than others, have you tried swapping sims with the other people who's phone work on other networks.

Lord Nikon

Most of my collegue phones are SIm locked but the 02 phones have same/similar problem. Signal improves standing beside a window, but I dont get paid to stand beside a window

Quazzie

I think a lot of the problems people are having with the iPhone is that they expect too much from it. I bought the iPhone expecting it to be a great phone, it isn't.

What it is, is the worlds best iPod that can make calls, surf the net, and send SMS. If you start to think of the device as this it suddenly feels like a much better device. I think Apple are guilty of promoting it as the worlds best phone, which in fairness it isn't even close. Worlds best gadget - Perhaps?

seamus

Well after my Sony Ericsson K800i went for a little swim, I got my hands on a Samsung Tocco (for free). After using that for nearly 6 months, the iPhone does appear as the world's best phone.

What gets me about it is the little touches. So when you put the phone to your ear, the screen blanks, and when you take it away, the "end call" button appears. Tiny, simple enhancements that make it so much easier to use than other phones.

Tom Dunne

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

What it is, is the worlds best iPod that can make calls, surf the net, and send SMS. If you start to think of the device as this it suddenly feels like a much better device. I think Apple are guilty of promoting it as the worlds best phone, which in fairness it isn't even close. Worlds best gadget - Perhaps?

That's always been my point. If you think of it as a phone, you are going to get fairly annoyed fairly quickly.

If, however, you think of it as a device that plays media, connects to the internet, oh, and happens to make phonecalls too, then you are onto a winner.

Of course it has it's shortcomings, what device doesn't?

It's all about expectations.

TrueDub

Tom Dunne wrote: »

That's always been my point. If you think of it as a phone, you are going to get fairly annoyed fairly quickly.

If, however, you think of it as a device that plays media, connects to the internet, oh, and happens to make phonecalls too, then you are onto a winner.

Of course it has it's shortcomings, what device doesn't?

It's all about expectations.

Couldn't agree more. When people ask, I say it's not great as a phone, and there are probably better mobile internet access devices out there, but when you add it all together it's excellent.

In my opinion, obviously. Your mileage may vary. I'm not an Apple fanboy, but neither am I an Apple hater.

NullZer0

Would have thought this is related to the software the phone is running.

What baseband?