iPhones not receiving calls

The cutting edge of technology is a cruel mistress
My iPhone has a nasty habit of not receiving calls, and I'm not the only one. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be something that is easily fixed. I have called technical support for customers, and eventually for myself, hoping for something with some semblance of a fix. Here's what I have been able to gather:

Rogers has been marketing the hell out of 3G phones for about a year now. Any phone that is marketed as a Rogers "Vision" phone is 3G. Ever since they launched the 3G network, they have been filling it up, and it is still young.

July 11th, 2008. Enter 250,000 iPhones, adding an enormous strain to a relatively new network. Apparently, the iPhone has broken the 3G network. Without understanding too much about the specific technical details, the 3G network, in its current strained condition, cannot be relied upon to deliver phone calls at all times. Moreover, somehow the way that the iPhone interacts with the 3G network makes it more susceptible to these network issues.

How to make it work
Don't call tech support about this issue unless you like being frustrated. They will take you through a series of troubleshooting steps that will ultimately not solve your problem, because the problem is not your phone - it's all 250,000 of your phones ganging up on the network. I've found that resetting the phone (Hold the Home and Start buttons simultaneously for about ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears) seems to be a temporary fix. Another band-aid solution that seemed to last me about a day or so was to reset the network settings by going Settings>Reset>Reset Network settings (don't worry you won't lose any data). You should also make sure that you are on the most recent version of the operating system, which at the time of this writing is 2.1, by plugging into your computer, opening iTunes and clicking "Check for Update".

Ultimately though, at this time, as far as anyone is able to tell, the only surefire fix is to keep 3G turned off when you want to be 100% sure not to miss a call. Do this by going to

Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G

Turning off your 3G will unfortunately reduce your browsing speed dramatically, so make sure to turn it back on when you want to use the internet.

I will continue to monitor this issue the best that I am able to and keep everyone posted. On the upside of this frustrating issue, an incredibly cool app was launched for free today and all iPhone users should hit up the app store immediately and (warning - clicking the following link will open iTunes) download it.

TRG