Call quality and dropped call issues seem to be one of the biggest complaints about Apple’s 3G iPhone. MarketWatch ran an article today pointing the finger at the 3G chipsets in the phone, made by Infineon Technologies. According to the report, the chips are sseing one of their first large-scale deployments through the iPhone–not something I think Apple made the best decision on. Given how easy it is for Apple to draw any sort of criticism over the slightest problem, it seems strange that they would choose and unproven chipset for their phones.

It’s likely the issue will try to be fixed via a patch for the iPhone, but it’s unclear if that kind of a fix will work or not.

I personally have not had significant problems with my phone compared to my 3G AT&T 8525. I have very limited service currently in my office, but this seems to be a problem for both my phones, as well as other people on my floor–across carriers. I’ve actually found the call quality to be, in my opinion, better than my 8525. That being said, I do feel that already weak 8525 3G signal was actually marginally better that what I see on my iPhone.

People have complained about poor handoff between the 3G and the Edge networks–but this was something I experienced with my 8525. So I question how much of the problem really resides in the iPhone itself, and how much of it is due to the poor quality of AT&T’s network. Ever since I switched to AT&T a few years back I’ve questioned their “fewest dropped calls” slogans.

But at least I’m now dropping calls in style…


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