Antenna issue, perhaps it really is a non-issue

kjl

So I recently went to Belfast and picked up a brand new iPhone 4. Its great, battery not as good as I hoped, but not bad.

So I am on Vodafone with it, and you know what? Nothing happens when I give it the death grip. The bars don't go down at all.

The phone is running 4.0.1 and in fairness I have 3g switched off, but I don't lose a single bar and I have done it mid call many times without dropping a call or even losing sound quality. Perhaps the real culprit here is AT&T?

This is my 4th iPhone now and I've always had a habit of just using sbsettings to turn on and off 3g whenever I need to looks something up. I miss my jailbreak :P

With all this negative press apple have been getting people are actually forgetting this is a deadly phone, and now you dont have to worry about the antenna if you're on vodafone. Ill test with the rest and report back.

rebel.ranter

You are probably in an area with very good coverage.
There are two problems with iPhone related to coverage reading that the bars give. The first one is the antenna location, when you put your hand over it you probably dud experience a drop in dBs but the bars never picked up that drop.
Apparently the algorithm that Apple use to represent coverage levels through the "bars" is flawed, i.e. The received dB level is translated into a "bar" reading, the translation being used is flawed. I think the ranges used for each bar level is skewed, full bars has too great a range compared to other handsets, so a small drop in received dB could result in a dramatic drop in signal bars.
Of course it is only part of the problem, the antenna design is also flawed, there's no getting away from that.

mad muffin

rebel.ranter wrote: »

You are probably in an area with very good coverage.
There are two problems with iPhone related to coverage reading that the bars give. The first one is the antenna location, when you put your hand over it you probably dud experience a drop in dBs but the bars never picked up that drop.
Apparently the algorithm that Apple use to represent coverage levels through the "bars" is flawed, i.e. The received dB level is translated into a "bar" reading, the translation being used is flawed. I think the ranges used for each bar level is skewed, full bars has too great a range compared to other handsets, so a small drop in received dB could result in a dramatic drop in signal bars.
Of course it is only part of the problem, the antenna design is also flawed, there's no getting away from that.

They fixed the bar issue in 4.0.1

Heliosvector

a 20db drop is nothing if you are in a good coverage area like a town or city. i dont think irish will have much of an issue since we have more signal posts per square km perhaps??? since this country is so tiny

bkehoe

In addition to the OP potentially being in a strong signal area, he also has for some unknown reason switched off 3G.

This would mean that his phone is just using GSM which operates at 900MHz or 1800MHz, thus having greater penetration properties so an 'obstacle' such as a hand in the wrong place would result in far less attenuation of the signal!

akadesign

Let's not get too techincal here, there are other thread for that.

Bottom line for me the iPhone 4 performs much better for me than the 3GS, I have yet to drop a call or hit a no service area. Both where common on my 3GS.

Yes I'm in Dublin and yes I'm maybe a bit of a fanboy, but it works.

bkehoe

akadesign wrote: »

Let's not get too techincal here, there are other thread for that.

Bottom line for me the iPhone 4 performs much better for me than the 3GS, I have yet to drop a call or hit a no service area. Both where common on my 3GS.

Yes I'm in Dublin and yes I'm maybe a bit of a fanboy, but it works.

I wasn't disputing the claims, just saying why the OP probably gets his results. I've posted before about my results with my iPhone 4 which I have for over a month now, and as someone who travels extensively and worked as a rf engineer, I'm happy to say that the 4 works far better than my 3G or 3GS and maintains service where others drop back to GPRS.

quintron

Afaik we also 'share' antennas in this country, unlike the US. Result better db signal strength overall. That's the glass half full thought for the day.

OCD

quintron wrote: »

Afaik we also 'share' antennas in this country, unlike the US. Result better db signal strength overall. That's the glass half full thought for the day.

If you mean we share masts, then yes, we 'share' but as far as sharing antennae, that is wrong. Each operator has their own magic box at each site. Most sites are multi operator sharing site provider space (say a room or the corner of a field) but they do not share equipment. Meteor do use some of the O2 network but those areas are restricted to where Meteor do not have a signal.

bkehoe

quintron wrote: »

Afaik we also 'share' antennas in this country, unlike the US. Result better db signal strength overall. That's the glass half full thought for the day.

Not quite sure what you mean here, but the US is actually set up for superior 3G coverage than Europe as they have started to use 850MHz for 3G as well, thus delivering far better coverage inside buildings and in rural areas (although so far the rollout has just been in major cities I think).
The density of cells required in a typical US city is mind boggling when compared with the likes of an Irish or even British city. Just think of how many people there are in Manhattan all using their phones. That is why US networks have been having major difficulty with sufficient capacity.
That said, I've always been impressed with AT&T in the US every time I'm there when roaming. 3G coverage is impressive compared to here and an example as to how it could be done here.

Interestingly, the iPhone4 does support UTMS (3G) at 900MHz, something previous iPhones didn't, and Vodafone has performed trials of 3G at 900MHz. Maybe someday we'll see this (it'd make up for a lack of EDGE) although some say that someday pigs might fly too