At one time or another, we have all sang this song. Lately, especially with the release of the iPhone 4, this song is all too common. Now, to be clear, I am not blaming the carriers for OEM's making bad devices, that would be ignorant. It seems some people like combining issues into one picture, which is not my intent here. A bad design is just that, and its mfg should correct or replace it at no charge (much like Apple did after the iPhone 4 fiasco). What I am referring to specifically is signal loss. Most of the problems people are having lately are related to reception issues, regardless of what phone or carrier - no bars, dropped calls, dropped packets, etc. That is a carrier issue, not a OEM issue. If the supporting infrastructure does not work properly, than the device will not function as expected (think of your office network when a server is down, similar concept). My point is that we as users need to give the carriers time to implement their upgrades so that the networks function correctly with the newer and more demanding devices...then our devices will function as expected. Not our problem right? Wrong, we users set the demand, and in this case, supply is struggling to keep up. Therefore we need to be patient and wait for the "market" to adjust. I hope that will happen sooner than later because we users are not slowing down. In fact, with companies migrating to cloud based services (quickly) mobile devices will become even more popular as they replace desktops and laptops in the business world, further adding to the already congested cellular data infrastructure. The carriers know the complicated road before them and are rushing to make right...it just takes time.
Remember when 3G came out and how many complaints users had about dropped calls and not being able to access the Internet? That was before everyone had a smartphone too...in that case, as is the case now, the network could not keep up with the users. It took years for the network to catch up, and it is still not perfect today, though it is functional and healthy technology.
Since it will probably be asked, "what about the stupid antennae location problem with th eiPhone 4?" The whole issue with the iPhone 4 was not necessarily because they put the antenna in a bad place, it was a combination of AT&T not being able to handle the increased data demand along with the current demand on its infrastructure AND the new software (iOS4.0) having a bug in the way it interpreted the cellular signal coming in. That was quickly fixed with a software update (remember iOS 4.0.1) and Apple had started taking back iPhone 4's and swapping them out for 3GS's at no charge, even refunding the difference to make good with the customer. AT&T still has work to do with regards to its signal strength to the masses, but so do Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon.
Be patient my friends!
Here's a link to a similar issue with Droid 2: http://www.redmondpie.com/motorola-droid-2-falls-victim-to-antennagate-users-complain-of-signal-loss-even-without-touching-the-phone/
