Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues' • Hacker News Board

Re: Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

#41

Post by Rexxar » Sun, Jun 27, 2010, 9:08 PM UTC

carbocation wrote: post #39

Rexxar wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your "explanation" is wrong, even if you have more upvotes than philwelch. Decimation was a form of military punishment in the roman army where one soldier on ten was killed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army) )

No, you should re-read my comment, since my "incorrect" statement says exactly the same thing that you said. Or do you feel that there is a substantive difference between what I said ("strike down 1 in 10" and "reduces it by 10%") and what you said ("one soldier on [sic] ten was killed"). My guess is that you misread my statement and thought I said that it reduces the signal to 10%. But I didn't say that, and in fact…

I have indeed misread your comment. Sorry.

Re: Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

#42

Post by gojomo » Sun, Jun 27, 2010, 9:08 PM UTC

tinotopia wrote: post #23

gojomo wrote: post #14

On my 3gs in central SF, the 'bars' indicator is already almost useless... it can show 4 or 5 bars, and I'm still unable to initiate calls, receive calls, or hold a clear call. It's so untrustworthy that in my more paranoid moments I wonder if some prior software update included a 'inflate the bar count' change. This talk of fixing iPhone4 issues with an OS update makes me wonder the same thing. Maybe they'll just sm…

A large part of AT&T's perception problem seems to have to do with their congestion, not their RF performance, in a few places. This might be one of those situations where more information would be useful. The ideal solution would be to charge a higher price (e.g. a 'minute multiplier' — show this next to the signal strength indicator) for traffic in congested conditions — but this would present marketing problems, M…

Definitely, AT&T's problem in SF has a large congestion-related dimension. I know, because for the first ~2 years of AT&T service, it was annoying but not totally useless in my home neighborhood. But in the last 6 months, it's collapsed. Long periods where call attempts and SMS-sends fail, and where the signal meter oscillates between "no service" and 4 bars -- but even 4 bars may not allow calls and SMSes to succeed.

Congestion means they have lots of paying customers in the area -- so even without congestion pricing, they ought to be able to plan and maintain capacity here. That they have not is evidence of the lack of proper competition, aggravated by Apple's exclusive deal.

Re: Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

#43

Post by carbocation » Sun, Jun 27, 2010, 9:38 PM UTC

Rexxar wrote: post #41

carbocation wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you should re-read my comment, since my "incorrect" statement says exactly the same thing that you said. Or do you feel that there is a substantive difference between what I said ("strike down 1 in 10" and "reduces it by 10%") and what you said ("one soldier on [sic] ten was killed"). My guess is that you misread my statement and thought I said that it reduces the signal to 10%. But I didn't say that, and in fact…

I have indeed misread your comment. Sorry.

No worries. Sorry I responded so adamantly.

Re: Steve Jobs on iPhone 4 Signal Issue: 'There are no reception issues'

#44

Post by moe » Mon, Jun 28, 2010, 1:07 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #42

tinotopia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large part of AT&T's perception problem seems to have to do with their congestion, not their RF performance, in a few places. This might be one of those situations where more information would be useful. The ideal solution would be to charge a higher price (e.g. a 'minute multiplier' — show this next to the signal strength indicator) for traffic in congested conditions — but this would present marketing problems, M…

Definitely, AT&T's problem in SF has a large congestion-related dimension. I know, because for the first ~2 years of AT&T service, it was annoying but not totally useless in my home neighborhood. But in the last 6 months, it's collapsed. Long periods where call attempts and SMS-sends fail, and where the signal meter oscillates between "no service" and 4 bars -- but even 4 bars may not allow calls and SMSes to succeed…

Living in a civilized country (europe) I can only shake my head whenever I read about the issues the supposed "last remaining Super Power" has with their mobile networks.

Over here we get annoyed when we stumble into an area without HSDPA coverage which makes our data-rate drop from 400 kB/s to around 30 kB/s...

But dropped calls and such are mostly an unknown. I can't remember having ever experienced one except when driving through a tunnel with the car. Our main network (t-mo) is pretty much everywhere until you drive really far out into the woods. Even in rural areas my phone gets to choose between 2-3 networks most of the time. Smaller networks have roaming agreements with t-mo, so phones just seamlessly switch as needed.

You americans have my pity.