I have had ATT wireless service for about 8 years now. I have had multiple phones during those years, as have my family members who’ve had phones on my plan. Some phones get great reception, others drop calls constantly. My daughter’s Samsung Propel had terrible reception. We could be sitting side by side on the couch and I had four bars on my Sony Ericcson Walkman phone, and she had no bars on her Propel. Same service, same contract, same couch, same house. Big difference in reception. Prior to my Sony phone, I had a RAZR, and its reception was awful most of the time.
I have since replaced her Propel with a Pantech Insight. I also have the Insight. These get amazing reception even with only one bar, or a bar coming and going, while my husband’s LG flip phone is only adequate with five full bars.
So I’m wondering, maybe the poor reception on the iPhone has nothing to do with the service provider, but instead with the device itself. I hear so many complaints, so often, I have to wonder if the device is to blame, and not always the service provider. And if this is the case, then why aren’t we making the complaint known to ATT and to Apple: if a low-end smart phone like the Pantech can get better reception and fewer dropped calls and 3G than an iPhone, on the same service provider in the same location, then maybe the device needs some tweaking.
Something to ponder.