How smartphones are bogging down some wireless carriers

The fact that the US lags behind many other countries in both broadband capacity in general and wireless networks specifically is nothing new. But the fact that almost all of the complaints from iPhone users come from the US suggests that AT&T's network is at least partially to blame. In fact, users in other countries have told Ars that they don't experience the kinds of problems that US users often report. Well, other countries except one.

Several users in the UK, almost all in London, reported issues that were very similar to what we've heard from users in the US (and experienced ourselves): frequent dropped calls, lack of voice mail notifications, inability to make or receive calls even when the signal looks strong, and inability to make data connections. These problems were happening on the O2 network, which for several years was the UK's only iPhone carrier. The carrier apologized to its customers late last year for the spotty service as it trumpeted network improvements meant to address the issues. An O2 employee contacted Ars to explain what caused the problem, and explained how newer smartphones are changing the assumptions that carriers use when configuring their network.