According to a report published in a Swedish technical magazine there may be a hardware problem introduced during mass production of 3G iPhone. The magazine called Ny Teknik, a famous Swedish engineering weekly reported that it has obtained a report that showed some handsets' sensitivity to 3Gnetwork signals is well below the level specified in the 3G standard.

 

The observation is contradictory to promised offers from 3G networks where customers have been lured of faster Web surfing on cell phone browsers, and feasibility of video calling. Reportedly, the main cause of the problem is defective adjustments between the antenna and an amplifier which in turn catches feeble signals from the antenna, hence poor 3G connectivity and slower data speeds.

 

However, Francis Sideco, from California-based research group iSuppli Corp commented that the connectivity problems described by users could be caused by any of a number of parts, from the phone's antenna and amplifier and the radio frequency transceiver to the baseband that processes the digital signal and sends it to the speaker or screen.

 

Francis further said that a faulty part could cause the phone to think there isn't enough signal strength to keep a call connected, and hence could prompt the phone to display too few bars. Notwithstanding, the reasons cited by the company behind lesser number of bars in handset, connectivity is just the latest of Apple's problems with the iPhone 3G.