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The way I understand it, it was an Apple issue, not an AT&T one BlackAdder Send a noteboard - 18/07/2010 07:16:35 AM
As I mentioned, I'm seeing similar things (on Vodafone), so I believe it is the way Apple set the phone to calculate and display the signal strength, not AT&T.

since yours is only two days old, it may be the "corrected"

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/news/latest/iphone-4-silent-recall-may-already-be-in-effect

Pretty much it seems that apple is now applying a microlayer of nonconductive material around the antenna. Look at this picture in the second link. If you hold the phone in a certain way where your hand is bridging the 1st antenna with the 2nd antenna your hand will be a conductive surface and detun the antenna slightly. This will reduce your signal by 24 db. Now applying a non conductive surface on the antenna such as a microlayer of plastic, tape, or a case will reduce your signal slightly but not 24 db.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

The old way AT&T was measuring bars is as follows

5 bars 91 to 51 (lower is better)
4 bars 101 to 91
3 bars 103 to 101
2 bars 107 to 113
1 bar 113 to 107

The new way AT&T was measuring bars


5 bars 76 to 51 (lower is better)
4 bars 87 to 76
3 bars 98 to 87
2 bars 107 to 98
1 bar 121 to 107

107 is where you start having trouble
113 causes you to drop calls.

Thus if you had a signal strength of 89 (5 bars with the old metric) hold the phone in the correct way with no nonconductive materials breaking your conductive hand you could drop your signal to 113 and now get drop calls. From 5 bars to 0 bars instantly based on how you hold it.

Now a days your phone may have the same signal at 89 db before you hold it, but now it is reporting 3 bars and if you hold it the wrong way it would be 1 bar. Furthermore now a days it appears at&t is using a microlayer of something to make the metal less conductive when you hold it.
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I downloaded the os update yesterday and I've seen the bars drop significantly - 17/07/2010 07:44:37 PM 604 Views
Re: I downloaded the os update yesterday and I've seen the bars drop significantly - 17/07/2010 09:17:39 PM 572 Views
It's not hard to see why they chose the previous method - 18/07/2010 06:35:40 PM 694 Views
That was the only thing I could think of... - 20/07/2010 09:23:41 AM 525 Views
Your signal is the same - 18/07/2010 03:59:47 AM 800 Views
Thanks for that link - it was a great read - 18/07/2010 07:06:25 AM 564 Views
My HTC Desire (on Android) was about that easy. - 17/07/2010 10:36:09 PM 599 Views
I've not been able to get mine to lose signal either. - 17/07/2010 11:41:29 PM 666 Views
Couple things about the drop calls - 18/07/2010 03:57:26 AM 624 Views
The way I understand it, it was an Apple issue, not an AT&T one - 18/07/2010 07:16:35 AM 635 Views
You are correct, I said the wrong name - 19/07/2010 02:54:01 AM 580 Views
I just checked the box - it was made in Week 28. - 18/07/2010 01:18:32 PM 575 Views
You should change "AT&T" to "Apple" throughout this post *NM* - 18/07/2010 06:46:05 PM 275 Views
No matter how I hold my blackberry - 18/07/2010 06:04:04 PM 600 Views
Further proof that you're old...... *NM* - 20/07/2010 09:24:19 AM 262 Views
I have a Palm Pre Plus through Verizon.. - 19/07/2010 10:18:53 PM 622 Views
The Pre rocks - 20/07/2010 09:25:37 AM 590 Views

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