Ah-ha, Now that makes sense (The iPhone Problem)

HandyDad -

You are right, there would be issues with any phone using particular bands as they approach saturation. It is very possible that such issues has occurred, though I wouldn't be surprised either that carriers like AT&T wouldn't be to eager to fess up about it.

I agree, I just said the explaination makes sense as to why it is a worldwide problem. I would also ad that it makes sense why some did not see an improvment right after the upgrade.

Maybe it is a combination of the iPhone pulling to hard and a less mature radio set. I will still stand beside this making sense. I wouldn't put money on it yet however

So if it is in fact the cell becoming overloaded, wouldn't that mean that everyone using using it would experience dropped calls, etc, not just the iPhone losers, I mean USERS? Have there been reports of more dropped calls or probs in general w/ att since the iPhone 3G launch?

jcjdoss -

Actually, and more darkly, what the source was saying, caged in some babble about power, is "we (AT&T and Apple) are going to reduce iPhone 3G download speeds so that multiple 3G streams can't overload a tower."

In the digital age and given current compression techniques, a single cell tower can only handle so much bandwidth. A single 3G data stream uses as much bandwidth as several voice streams and a tower usually transmits much more data than it receives, so 3G downloads can make up the biggest portion of a single tower's overall load.

The article correctly states that noise increases with load. Noise can be partially offset by increasing power to the tower's transmitter, but the technique is limited. Increasing transmitter power also increases the size of the cell and the risk of interfering with adjacent cells. Towers "don't run out of power", they just can't ramp up power further without encroaching on and degrading the performance of nearby cells.

The short version is AT&T has determined that some of their towers are overloaded, causing 3G performance issues and dropped calls. Because 3G downloads in theory are the biggest contributors to the overload, an update was created by Apple to reduce the rate iPhones can download data via 3G. Most users underutilized their 3G connections anyway, a situation encouraged by the language of their two-year contract, so most will never notice the reduced responsiveness of their 3G connection.

Of course, AT&T and Apple were probably PR-wise not to just come out and say that they are dialing down everyone's 3G.

I have seen it asked, if this is so, why don't other devices fail when accessing cell towers that have run short of power serving iPhones with pre 2.0.2 firmware? This is a good question, IMHO FWIW IANABCL ROFLOL.

Without actual stats regarding the amount of people having issues with 3G stratified by device there is no real way to determine whether or not the problem is the phone or the network. Taking one phone and running tests on it the way the Swede students did does not mean anything.

Listing an update as "BUG FIXES" certainly doesnt convince me to update what is otherwise a perfectly working cell phone. We have seen in the past, bug fixes often introduces more bugs!

Apple, let's start by giving your EU's a real explanation of critical updates.

Happy to report, very few dropped calls if any.