if you are in an area of good coverage, coming from multiple towers, very few people notice/report/experience problems.

also if you are with telstra, you are unlikely to have issues based on what people have been reporting here.

i can't fault any other aspect of the iphone except it's reception, any other issue will 100% be fixed with software updates. im hopeful the reception issue can be solved by software as well.

It depends entirely on where you are, why you need it and what level of service you find satisfactory and what you are comfortable paying for that service.

I feel for the people on this thread experiencing problems, and hope they are sorted soon, but unfortunately, they would appear to be in the minority. Most people are fairly happy with their iPhones, regardless of carrier.

i think there would be many more reports if the "average consumer" even knew the difference between 2 and 3G though. it's my opinion that there would be many more complaints if people realised the reason their iPhones were working well was that it was still on the 2G network.

im completly unable to prove this however, as the "average consumer" is unlikely to come here to report problems.

spoke to optus once again today, had to call them for a few reasons -
- check on unlock process (which I still havn't gotten)
- online billing access
- business plan release date
- the possibility of getting a new(er) SIM to try

after going over my story again to the operator, I was transferred to an optus/singtel "iPhone engineer/technician." this guy was in Singapore.
(i should know, lived there for 4 years and hearing the singlish gave me flashbacks - lol)

he was able to tell me that my current SIM card was manufactured in FEB '08, and stated that the SIM was NOT the problem. however after saying this he arranged to mail a new(er) SIM to me, to confirm this theory i suppose.

after he did some "network stuff" on his end, he came back and told me that everything looks fine from optus' end (of course! )
he gave me a reference number that when quoted enables me to 1 for 1 swap my iPhone for a replacement unit. however i do have to go to the place of purchase. hello 5 hour round trip!

most likely i'll at least try a newer phone, with my current sim and see if there is any improvment, however it's not really a fair test as ill be a long way away from a "known" network to try this replacement phone. i bet it has 5 bars service till i get home... lol.

well, I received a call from an optus engineer tonight. It seems that they are calling it a phone issue. The engineer even admitted to me that it's a network wide issue, not just isolated. I'll await the call from them tomorrow. Nice though to finally have optus admit that the phones aren't functioning properly.

I'm with Optus and have been using mine in and around Darwin and Perth (CBD to 20k out) with everything from 1 to 5 bars, no dropouts and good data speeds even on one bar. I have a 16G MB500X model.

JD

interesting development

macrich, any mention if it was a software or hardware issue?

On the train there is an area between 3 stations where it drops to one bar on 3G, browsing is still fine, so wondering if just reads lower than other phones, it is painfully slow though to switch between 2G and 3G.

The Optus Engineer suspects the antenna to be the problem. His suspicion lies in the fact that the antenna isn't sensitive enough for the 2100MHz networks.

Hmm.

I wonder if Optus was wise enough to keep Apple on the hook for any defects in its products (if this is bad enough to be called a 'defect').

And if so, what does that mean for us?

Been following this thread for a while with great interest.
Hanging off getting an iPhone at the moment until thing settle down. Considering moving from telstra to optus.

On the iPhone what is disabled when running 2G. What services are require 3G.
I understand the slowdown in speed but what stops working completely in 2G.
So does email, internet & GPS continue in 2G but just slower.
By 2G I mean in non 3G mode.

Everything still works on 2G, but speed wise you're looking at GPRS (dialup and below speeds).
Just got off the phone with Optus, their response was, "obviously this isn't the phone for you". I said to them, tell me one phone that can do all that the iPhone can do and is compatible with Mac. They had no answer for that apart from Blackberry. Even then, it costs a fortune to implement Push services for Blackberry.
I told them that if they continue selling phones that don't work on their network properly, then they should watch their backs for the ACCC. This could be seen as a breach of the TPA not to mention a breach of the Fair Trading Act.
I think I'll just wait for the TIO deadline to come and then sick the TIO onto them.

Thanks macrich for clearing that up.

Watching with much interest the outcome of this discussion.
Not a good response from optus "obviously this isn't the phone for you"

i still hope the fault is in the software controlling the antenna, and that a fix can be issued.

if its actually a hardware issue then i think ill return the phone and wait for a later revision to see if that fixes any problems.

unfortunately we have no way of telling which if it's more hardware or software yet.

what a crappy customer service reply.
it's obvously not the phone for anyone on the optus network if it doesn't work correctly. i would have been pretty upset with them if given this response!