Remember our previous discussions about the Apple [AAPL] iPhone 3G signal/reception problems, and how it seemed unlikely that the Infineon 3G chipset was the problem, despite a financial analyst’s belief that the hardware was responsible for all of the problems. But at first glance, it does not make any sense that the chipset would be the cause because the problems did not manifest during product testing, but instead manifested in the wild.
Since not every iPhone 3G owner is experiencing the erratic signal problems, and since the problems appear limited to only a handful of metropolitan areas, there must be a more realistic reason or cause for this.
Daniel at RoughlyDrafted proposes a more rational explanation for the iPhone 3G problems, and he links the problems with the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware update released to resolve them. Simply put, the UMTS signal demands as preset in the iPhone 3G are too taxing on AT&T [T] transmitters when overwhelmed by a large quantity of active devices. And since not everybody was updating their iPhone 3G’s to the 2.0.2 update, the power control levels of non-updated iPhones continued to wreak havoc on the overstressed transmitters. So densely-populated cities with a large bunch of iPhone 3G users would result in some of those users having signal problems as we’ve seen reported in the metro areas in question as more people have continued to buy and activate their iPhone 3G’s.
For iPhone 3G owners, the lesson to be learned here appears to be: update your iPhone ASAP to the 2.0.2 update.
N.B.
Now if only Steve Jobs would rush me an iPhone 3G for testing over here, so we can have more definitive information on this interesting development!
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