Accortding to an unnamed source from within O2, AT&T’s problems aren’t all their fault. Apparently the iPhone’s hardware really is to blame, at least in part. The source says that the iPhone was the first device to use a radio (the hardware bit that talks to the cell tower) that drops the connection as soon as it’s finished doing what it’s doing, which saves battery life but is much harder on cell tower sites.
It’s not horrible, according to the source, but a network that isn’t configured to handle that kind of thing will take a serious beating. That explains much of AT&T’s problems early-on. It also confirms something we heard a while back defending AT&T’s lackluster network performance and blaming the iPhone. Apparently they may have been right.
What’s worse is that now other smart phones are starting to adopt that chip to save their battery life too, compounding the problem.
via-Ars Technica

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