Norway Article Suggests iPhone 4 Issues Involve AT&T Network
Jul. 30th, 2010 by Dave Courbanou
Here’s a new spin on the iPhone 4 antenna and signal reception issue: Norway’s largest newspaper (think, The Wall Street Journal for Norway) suggests the iPhone 4 reception issues are related to AT&T’s U.S. network rather than the iPhone 4 antenna. Here’s a closer look at the claims.
A tip of the hat goes to Appleinsider.com for translating the story. The nutshell version goes like this:
The iPhone 4, HTC Wildfire, Nokia E71, and iPhone 3GS get taken to a remote part of Norway, on the outskirts of cellular provider who services the iPhone in Norway. All phones were subject to the death grip. All phones saw attenuation of signal. But the iPhone 4 did not do any worse nor better in the lineup.
But here comes the more interesting part: the article suggests that AT&T’s U.S. network, rather than the iPhone 4, could be causing the iPhone 4 reception issues. Moreover, the article mentions a Norwegian site named Amobil, which said the iPhone 4, as tested, shows no evidence of poor design and said integrated antennas normally are affected based on how phones are held. The Norwegian article also cited Amobil saying that mobile networks in Norway are “much more robust than AT&T’s network in the US.”
AppleInsider, along with the person who helped translate the Norwegian article expressed his own experiences with the iPhone 4, stating…
“I have myself tested the iPhone 4 and tried to replicate the signal loss close to one of Norway’s major towns without being able to get even one less bar.”
Can this save Apple, even just a little bit? Will this continue to spur rumors about a better iPhone for Verizon or a competing network? All this news falls on the backdrop of Apple’s continuation to prove signal attenuation by adding the Droid X to the lineup of videos showing phone signal attenuation.
Meanwhile, we’ve reached out to AT&T for comment about the iPhone 4′s performance on AT&T’s network.
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Just to put a coupple of things in perspective:
- Østmarka is just outside Oslo (the most densly populated in Norway) and not really the wilderness. Just 15 minutes by car or 20 minutes by bus from the central station where the drug addicts do their trade.
- True – this particular area is a forest area with small valleys and lakes, but it is by no means wilderness.
- Norway/Scandinavia is well covered wrt GSM/3G networks.
- The area is known to have spots where coverage is poor.
- The newspaper (VG) would be proud to be associated with WSJ – but in Norway they are as tabloid as it gets.
- To WSJ it’s probably more like an insult.
- The story illustrates the (lack of) proportions wrt the iPhone “issue”.
I know this because I lived in Oslo for years and used the area for hiking and mountainbiking.
Look no matter what Apple does they will continue to dig their own grave. I mean it does have some great features but white or not the iPhone 4 has major design flaws. Design should never come before function and usability. Apple seems to have forgotten that.
I mean the iPhone 4 held the number one spot in the top ten ranking on pc world. Once Apple gave that press conference they took it down with out explanation. However, http://getyourgadgetsgoing.com/ took a look into it. The results are rather interesting.
You mean: YOU took a look into it.
That’s ok.
Failing to mention that the link = you is not ok. It sucks.