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The Mobile Gadgeteer

Matthew Miller & Joel Evans

Did the iPhone 2.0.1 update improve the 3G/EDGE auto switching?

By | August 5, 2008, 1:14pm PDT

Summary: I bought my white iPhone 3G last Friday and by Sunday night I was already thinking of returning it to Apple for a refund, primarily due to poor reception issues. I was at the Seafair hydroplane races on the shores of Lake Washington on Saturday and the iPhone couldn’t get a signal, while my N95-3 could at least get a voice connection with the same AT&T SIM card. As you know Apple released the iPhone 2.0.1 software update that was labeled as “bug fixes”. One major improvement that I am seeing is that the reception capability has improved with the working 3G/EDGE data auto-switching.

Did the iPhone 2.0.1 update improve the 3G/EDGE auto switching?I bought my white iPhone 3G last Friday and by Sunday night I was already thinking of returning it to Apple for a refund, primarily due to poor reception issues. I was at the Seafair hydroplane races on the shores of Lake Washington on Saturday and the iPhone couldn’t get a signal, while my N95-3 could at least get a voice connection with the same AT&T SIM card. As you know Apple released the iPhone 2.0.1 software update that was labeled as “bug fixes”. One major improvement that I am seeing is that the reception capability has improved with the working 3G/EDGE data auto-switching.

There are generally 3-5 bars of AT&T 3G reception at my desk, but before yesterday when I headed into the bowels of our brick and mortar building in downtown Seattle my signal dropped down to 1 bar or no signal. Using this same AT&T SIM in a Nokia E71-2 or N95-3 gave me at least a couple bars with a workable signal and connection. After this new iPhone update I am seeing the iPhone 3G now switch to EDGE quickly and at least maintain a wireless signal so I can browse the web, check email, etc. while somewhere other than my desk (like the bathroom). I actually see it go from 1 bar on 3G that then falls down to 0 and then switches to 3 or 4 bars of AT&T EDGE. IMHO, this is a major improvement in the iPhone 3G and has helped me decide to keep the device for now.

I also noticed that I was able to maintain a signal along my entire Sounder commuter train route this morning, whereas on Monday the signal completely cut out from time to time.

Have readers also seen this improvement in reception functionality?

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Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases most of his devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “keeper” or “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. He is one of three hosts on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and runs the Nokia Experts website. Matthew started using mobile devices in 1997 with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 90 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (iPhone), Google Android, and Windows Mobile operating systems. His current collection includes a Nokia N85, Nokia E71, Nokia 5800, Nokia N810, Apple iPhone, HTC Advantage, T-Mobile G1, Palm Treo Pro, HTC Fuze, MSI Wind, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew co-authored Master Visually Windows Mobile 2003, was a member of the Nokia Nseries Blogger relations program, and is a member of the invite-only Microsoft Mobius mobile device evangelist group. He can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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RE: Did the iPhone 2.0.1 update improve the 3G/EDGE auto switching?
cmagesh 6th Jan 2009
i update mymobil but it showing insetsim what todo
0 Votes
+ -
Emailing in the bathroom?
phillipd76 5th Aug 2008
Kinda skeevy to be emailing/browsing web in bathroom. I
hope you don't let others borrow your phone.
It didn't help here. My iPhone 3G has always been
too slow to recognize when it ought to give up on
the 3G network and switch over to EDGE, and it
still is.

I'm in the habit of clicking the thing into Airplane
Mode for a few seconds then back out, forcing it
to reconsider all of its wireless connections. That
usually helps overcome the occasional inability to
get an Internet connection.
since the update if I switch 3G on in a non-3G area I get no ATT
service at all. Dead phone. This did not happen before update.
I have not updated yet but have seen a stronger 3G signal in the last couple of weeks in the Seattle/Bellevue area over the last couple of weeks then I did during my first week or so using the phone (I purchased during first week of sale). I was wondering if ATT had made an network update in the area to cause this improved reception.

Looking forward to trying 2.0.1 to see if reception improves further.
i update mymobil but it showing insetsim what todo

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