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iPhone service pains exist across the Atlantic too

By | December 29, 2009, 9:16am PST

Summary: It’s not just AT&T that has issues with all of the buzzing iPhone users. The United Kingdom’s O2 mobile service has issues with the device too.

It’s not just AT&T that has issues with all of the buzzing iPhone users. The United Kingdom’s O2 mobile service has issues with the device too.

As we previously mentioned, AT&T is considering charging iPhone users for Internet data usage as its finding it difficult to handle all of the activity, particularly in dense urban areas like New York City and San Francisco.

Well, now iPhone 3GS customers across the pond are also dealing with repeated dropped calls and stalled Internet service. According to the Financial Times, O2 reps say its due to an “explosion” in Internet usage demand, particularly in London, and O2 has even apologized to its users for the problem.

It doesn’t sound like they’re planning on charging their users more for extra data service (they’re even installing 200 more mobile stations in the British capital to help ease the problem), but I wouldn’t rule it out.

And just to add to that, I’d like to mention as a both an AT&T and Orange France iPhone user that I’m always having reception issues, no matter what country I’m in. Maybe the world just isn’t ready for the iPhone…

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Mobile, AT&T Corp., O2 Plc., Smart Phones, Internet, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: iPhone service pains exist across the Atlantic too
pessimist 30th Dec 2009
I believe All phones and internet devices require a handshake receive/transmit link. Overall it looks to me like the Apple, and some other devices are a bit less sensitive on the receive end of the equipment OR on the output power side of the radio (or both). In other words perhaps SOME devices can reach a more distant cell site and get through. It would not suprise me if Apple is holding back on output power so as to keep the "time til flat" competitive. Or maybe a component in the case is harmonic with the transmit signal and thus soaks up some of the output - then the link is broken.
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Usb Modems
jdbukis@... 29th Dec 2009
Account for more traffic on uk networks than mobiles.
02 also got fined for not having good enough 3g coverage a few years ago, perhaps there problems have been long coming.

Although having said that I am on 02 in bristol with the palm pre and the signal is pretty good.
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That story is repeated everywhere
NonZealot Updated - 29th Dec 2009
Although having said that I am on 02 in bristol with the palm pre and the signal is pretty good.

This myth about the iPhone saturating bandwidth would make much more sense if everyone suffered from dropped calls after the iPhone was introduced on a network. Yet time after time, location after location, it is only the iPhone that suffers. Perhaps the iPhone's technical weaknesses aren't exposed until bandwidth becomes stressed but when every other device is happily working, it doesn't shift any of the blame away from Apple. Apple, yet again, fooled the general public into buying a device where form over function ruled the design team. And yet again, the Apple marketing department is out, full force, paying people to apologize for Apple and to shift the blame elsewhere, anywhere, but where it belongs: 100% on Apple's shoulders.

iPhone sufferers, there is a syndrome to describe your pain. I believe it was invented in Stockholm.
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Let me get this straight.......
OhTheHumanity 29th Dec 2009
You have issues all over the world with reception and you want to blame the network and not the phone? I find it hard to believe that everyone's network is that bad, especially when other phones seem to do just fine on them. Looks like Apple may need to rip off some more Nokia IP to get the phone working a little better.
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Good point. It really is pointing to the iPhone
John Zern 29th Dec 2009
as being the inferior component in the whole thing.
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So now the phone is at fault when the connection sucks
wackoae Updated - 29th Dec 2009
It is funny how the phone is now at fault for the lack of good connectivity that the service does not provide. Yet nobody complains about the Crackberries when they have the same issues on the same networks. They blame the carrier.

Honestly, it is like somebody blaming the server for the badly cooked food at a restaurant.
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That's your problem
NonZealot Updated - 29th Dec 2009
Yet nobody complains about the Crackberries when they have the same issues on the same networks.

In general, other cellular devices don't have consistently bad connectivity. When there are Blackberry outages, they have been the fault of the network and have been resolved quickly. This iPhone "dropped call" phenomenon is consistent, unique to the iPhone (other devices at the same time, place, and network don't have problems), and is happening all over the world.

Your premise that no one blames the Blackberry for bad connectivity is fatally flawed because Blackberry devices don't have bad connectivity. Blackberry devices don't drop 30% of their calls, unlike the iPhone, as admitted to by Apple.
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Yes the phone is at fault......
OhTheHumanity 29th Dec 2009
How come I am not hearing about other web enabled devices having connection problems on AT&T. I would expect that if the network was causing the problem I would expect other devices to be hitting the skids just as the iPhone because after all its the network, right? I have read countless stories of iphones side by side with another phone and the connection being totally differnt for the devices on the same network. Of course its always the iPhone with the lackluster signal. Please for this to be happening world wide surprises me especially on networks that don't have iPhone saturation like AT&T does. Being a network engineer the signs are very telling and from what I have heard and read and I would caution any wireless company about selling these devices because it obviously is not looking good for AT&T and the like and you can bet your house that Apple will not be taking any of this blame no matter how much is truly known behind the scenes.
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Agree...Yes the phone is at fault......
NattyBoh 29th Dec 2009
I was in NYC two weeks ago and my AT&T Blackberry bold could not place a call, nor could any others with a Bold. However, my co-worked with a Blackberry Storm standing next to us was able to place outbound calls. Seems like the phone, but I never had these issues on Verizon.

Must be the map.
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So the misfits are the users, not the 'toy' itself
Boot_Agnostic 30th Dec 2009
and the network not being primed for useage? The phone can handle the bandwidth of user demands
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RE: iPhone service pains exist across the Atlantic too
pessimist 30th Dec 2009
I believe All phones and internet devices require a handshake receive/transmit link. Overall it looks to me like the Apple, and some other devices are a bit less sensitive on the receive end of the equipment OR on the output power side of the radio (or both). In other words perhaps SOME devices can reach a more distant cell site and get through. It would not suprise me if Apple is holding back on output power so as to keep the "time til flat" competitive. Or maybe a component in the case is harmonic with the transmit signal and thus soaks up some of the output - then the link is broken.

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