Whirlpool

Hi Guys,

I moved from Vodafone to Optus with an iPhone 3G and have noticed that i'm getting absolutely terrible coverage on Optus. I don't recall ever having "no reception" when I was on Vodafone and and having to walk around the house and office looking for reception now.

I spend 90% of my time in my office in the heart of North Ryde and at home in Eastwood I get ZERO reception everywhere but my front balcony.

Is this a common thing with Optus or do you think the iPhone causing this?

Try switching off the 3G and see whether it changes...

Wow

I turned 3G off like you said and instantly get 100% reception, what's the deal?

adztee writes...

what's the deal?

I don't think there is a good explanation for it... but the increased apparent reception when 3G is turned off is a reflection of the underlying voice network signal ie. GSM.

The 3G is the data component and many of us have found it to be poor to non existent.

Moral of the story is that when 3G is turned on you might still have excellent voice services even when there is hardly a bar of 3G reception...

adztee writes...

I turned 3G off like you said and instantly get 100% reception, what's the deal?

iPhone supports UMTS850/2100MHz and Optus' 3G network has UMTS 900/2100MHz.

Higher frequencies have worse propagation characteristics — they don't penetrate buildings well, are affected by bad weather/distance from base stations/signal reflection etc.

The Optus GSM network operates in the 900Mhz band (and 1800MHz in limited areas).

Scaramouche writes...

The 3G is the data component and many of us have found it to be poor to non existent.

Um, no.

In this case, you're using 3G to refer to the network type – WCDMA. WCDMA networks are not reliant on 2G networks (i.e. GSM) for voice transmission. If you want an easy "proof" of that look no farther than NextG. It still manages voice (and everything else) in areas where there is no 2G coverage, from any carrier.

Having said that, if there are issues with signal (for example), handsets can transparently fall back from WCDMA (3G) to GSM (2G) during a call.