Iphone4 reception issues Telstra Next G

[bikeholden]

Well I have finally had it..one who's office is in the sky is sick to death of the rubbish reception of Next G whilst in the air.

I find (mainly) in built up areas in the metro ie Brissie / Syd / Melb you can rarely receive or make a decent phone call.

Sounds to me like the phones can't move from one cell tower to the next fast enough.

Anyone else having these issues.

I have taken up with both Apple and Telstra on behalf of all of us.

I am tick tacking with engineers from Apple in US and need some specifics.

So please let me know what your experience is..

I have summarised main issue as follows:

1. When making a call...you have full reception bars...as soon as you press go...it goes into "searching" mode and can't make a call for ages

2. When receiving a call...lucky to answer before drop out or only lasts a minute or 2.

3. Seems to be once I am away from city it gets a little better.

4. Doesn't matter if 1500ft or 10Kft.

Hopefully they can both smash heads and make it work properly.

Look forward to your commm.....ooops dropped out!!

[Robdog]

G'Day Bike,

I have just got back from a trip into Western QLD with an iPhone 4 (and a Zulu headset) and had no trouble anywhere once about about 2000AGL with reception. Won hands down over the 3G and 3GS we also had. Also I never have any trouble in built-up areas... maybe it is your handset?

[Paul Alfred]

My Iphone4 has been great with Telstra 3G. There are obvious black spots across the deserts but other than that, as soon as the bars are registering there are no probs. Looking forward to seeing what 5 is like....hopefully not long after the US release next month.

PA

[JCJ]

I have very similar issues. When in rural area's,great reception. When near major towns/cities I have the same issues. I just put it down to the towers being closer together in the cities, so the signal going from tower to tower, does not make it as high.
Just my take on it.

[eocvictim]

I don't know if I should answer this without a helmet and bat in hand or not... Are you serious? The network isn't designed to service phones which are hurtling past 5 towers at 250km/h above their intended elevation. In my personal experience the iphone 4 is by far the best phone to use in an aircraft. Out of the several nokia's and "next G" phones I've used the iPhone will always hold reception longer, is very capable of making calls and internet connections up to FL250. No phones work well around populated areas because of lost connections and network congestion between towers.

[nitpicker330]

Exactly as ecovictim says. A mate who works for Telstra says they were not designed for use by fast moving platforms above ground........simple.

[Howard Hughes]

Best phones for flying are phones with a blue tick, sadly the Iphone is not one of them!

[glekichi]

+1 to eoc's comments.

I'm addition to that, the telstra network beats the other networks hands down when flying. I had optus then vodafone then telstra all with an iPhone 3GS. Telstra was the only one that came close to performing when in the air.

Telstra has stated that the iPhone 4 meets the blue tick standards for reception but they won't give it one because it requires the bumper or a case to meet that standard.

[peterc005]

Flying around Victoria I find my Telstra 4G iPhone 4 works fine. Usually i just need to hold the handset upto the window, clear of the cockpit sides.

Hopefully the 4G network will replace the need for HF radios for remote area coverage.

[bikeholden]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the feedback.

I'm not complaining...just trying to help Telstra and Apple find a solution for us.

Don't get me wrong...the Iphone 4 works great..when it works..we have it hotspotted to an Ipad and is fantastic.

However, the E51 Nokia next to me as a back up never loses reception nor any of the "old" mobiles (in heavily built up areas).

I understand the tower thing...but come on if it works on "old" phones surely they can make it work on "state of the art" smartphones.

Telstra and Apple have both said they understand what's going on...

For all you guys in Sydney...next time you do a jolly in the harbour...try and give someone a call...next to near impossible most of the time..not all..

And thanks for the feedback...keep it coming..

[Capt Claret]

I didn't know there was/is a 4G network.

[Jack Ranga]

When it's 3g there will be 4g, and when there's 4g there will be 5g, and when it's 5g there'll be..............

[Old Akro]

Reception gets a lot better outside the metropolitan area. I had always believed it was because they "tune"the metro antennae to have less vertical spread.

I run a fleet of Next G phones and we have trialed many. The current Telstra crop are not so good and the Telstra brand ZTE ones are shocking. We have gone back to buying old LG TU550 phones from ebay. The iphone actually benchmarks very well against "blue tick"phones. I suspect that the reason it doesn't have it may be apple vs Telstra politics

[VH-XXX]

When it's 3g there will be 4g, and when there's 4g there will be 5g, and when it's 5g there'll be..............

Not quite!

4G will be available shortly within 5 kms of the GPO in each city and ONLY for laptops (using a dongle or similar), not for your mobile phone.

For me, IPhone 3G:

2 bars and quality phone calls yesterday at 2,500ft on departure from Marree, outback South Australia.

Also yesterday whilst over Melbourne CBD at 7,500 ft, listened to all of my voice-mails without interruption for several minutes. If it's an issue with roaming over towers it sure as hell would have happened there yesterday!

[nitpicker330]

Good timing chaps

Telstra 4G network launched today!!

Only avail within 5 km's of GPO in Capital cities but being expanded.

Claims twice the download speed

Optus and Vodafone coming soon.

[Howard Hughes]

not for your mobile phone.

If you source a 4G compatible mobile phone it will work, at this stage the dongle is all that Telstra are offering.

[Jack Ranga]

When it's 3g there will be 4g, and when there's 4g there will be 5g, and when it's 5g there'll be..............

Alright then! Maybe not

[Capn Bloggs]

Originally Posted by Triple X

2 bars and quality phone calls

You'll make Captain one day...