Poor reception and dropped calls-Microcell

[fetalsono]

My family is at their wits end. We all have iPhone 4's with bumpers or cases. The reception in our house is horrible and worse than with the 3GS phones. I have twice tried the ATT Microcell and while it improved the number of bars, the garbled speech was a problem. I tried everything with the microcell, rebooting, re-registering, moving the unit, etc

Is there any other way to improve reception?
Also, just a question about cell phone reception. Is cell phone reception and data coming over the same network. A number of us were talking about what would happen if Apple does make a Verizon phone and lots of people (current ATT and current Verizon users) make the switch. Will the data (internet) network be overwhelmed, or the voice network be overwhelmed, or both.

Thanks

 

[DannyBoy]

Don't know what to tell you about the microcell... But as far a Verizon...they are both completely separate networks. So shouldn't be any problems...

 

[beezy]

It's all the same technology though. The reason you get bad reception may be something AT&T can't really control. For instance, my house is on the side of a hill and every phone I have had has not been good in the rooms that are closest to the hill. I have been working with 2 other guys this summer. One has Verizon, one T-Mobile and me with AT&T obviously. We work all over the region, I have found where I am having reception issues, they usually do too. Certain areas of the road we will all completely drop service simultaneously. My point is it's generally not the service but due to physical features of the land you are on. Maybe Verizon service will fix you right up I don't know but personally I would have someone come over with a verizon phone to do some tests before you change service.